Evening star., 1939-12-12
Dun King Eliminated From Evening Tourney Obscure Roller Shines
From the
Press Box
Pro Grid Droft of 200
Lists Many Unknowns
BY JOHN LARDNER.


ball League held its annual draft
meeting just before the Giant
Packer game and calmly cut up the
200 young players whom the pros
believe to be the best of the college
seniors of 1899.
The pros assume that all but a
few of these 200 cultured chaps
will be willing to do business, and
the astonishing thing is that the
pros are correct in so assuming.
Their industry, shabby outlaw not
50 long ago, now has become the
logical choice among professions,
for a few years at least, of the
young college man who plays foot
ball.
He still can sell bonds or insur-
ance, as he used to do, but pro foot
ball will command most of his pro-
fessional interest - unless he is
studying law or medicine on the
side. And even in that case, for a
genuinely earnest student, pro foot
ball not only is respectable means
OF turning a dollar but practical
and helpful as well.
Fortmonn Is BriIIiont
Medical Student
Danny Fortmann Of Colgate and
the Chicago Bears, one of the best
guards in the business. is bril-
liant medical student who promises
to 60 far in surgery and who makes
pro football pay his way over the
tough years.
There's no doubt, on the other
hand, that some of the boys in the
draft will turn out to be football
"bums." Football is all they know
or care about, and they won't all
find coaching jobs. But these fell
lows were professionals in college,
too, for the most part. and they
constitute such an infinitesimal per-
centage of the total of college grad
yates each year that the Republic
won't miss their services.
This years draft is interesting. 1t
shows a general breakdown OF the
disparitieS between one pro club and
another. The New York Giants and
Brooklyn Dodgers still tend to re-
cruit their material in the East and
such clubs as Detroit and Green
Bay still specialized in Middle West
ern material. but there's not single
draft list which fails to cover the
whole country, from coast to coast
and corner to corner, in its college
selections.
Many Of Beers Obtoined
From Small Schools
In past years the Chicago Bears
have been known for signing big
name players, stars with some in
stant value at the box Office. The
game now is substantial and solid
and popular enough so that the
Bears can afford to dispense with
this racket and choose the team
players who will help them on the
field, rather than the stars who wilt
draw.
At least, that seems to be the
trend, for Chicago's first choice in
the draft is center from Hardin
Simmons, name of Clyde Turner
Ever hear of him? The Bears have
drawn further material from Den
yer, Utah, Western Reserve, Knox,
Bradley Tech, st. Anselm, Miami
and Cincinnati. 1t looks as if the
star-spangled days are over.
This always has been policy OF
the New York Giants, who dispense
with fuss, feathers and big names.
They scout the smaller schools very
thoroughly, and pay very little, and
build good teams with great sue
cess. This year the Giants are
taking two men from Scranton and
recruiting also from Texas Tech,
Tulsa, Drake, Centenary, Clemson,
Whittier and San Francisco. And
they know what they're doing. Re-
member, their coach, Carbarn Owen,
came from place where they don't
even play football any more, Wen
dell Phillips College.
Majority Of Big Names
Found in First Ten
You do find some big names in
the first 10" of the draft-the
first callover for each of the 10 pro
clubs. GeoNss Cafego, celebrated
Tennesseean, is the opening choice
OF the tail-end Chicago Cardinals.
Knowing the condition OF Cafego's
knee, you get the impression that
the Cardinals took him partly to
get him out OF the way OF the
other clubs.
Back of the first 10" come scores
of fellows you never heard OF, but
it's cinch you'll hear a lot OF them
soon, for the pros are by all odds
the best football scouts in the world.
It gratifies your correspondent to
have his Judgment vindicated by
the selection of Eddie Boell N. Y. u,
in the first 10 Che goes to WASH
ington) and of George Stirnweiss,
North Carolina, at the top of the
second 10 the eleventh man OF 200
to be chosen. StirnweiSs, one of the
faStest-breaking and most danger
Gus backs I've looked at, should do
the Cardinals some good If he signs.
incidentally, they can move that
Southern California team to Detroit
IN body after the Rose Bowl game.
Four of Detroit's first five choices
were Southern Californians. Maybe
they know something. It's a pos
sible tip on the Rose Bowl contest.