The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-10-30
TODAY'S SPORT PARADE
BY HENRY McLEMORE


 Chicago, Oct. 3O-(UP)-For a man who doesn't have a false mus tache, pair of gumshoes or skel- eton key to his name, I do a pretty good job of snooping. Here I've been in Chicago fewer than 24 hours, yet already I've snooped enough to get a fairly good lowdown on why the Pacific Coast Conference is so an- Xious to make the Rose Bowl game a closed affair between one of its members and representative of the big ten.
 The coast schools see such a move as tremendous step toward clean ing up intercollegiate football. For some reason or another football out there in the golden west is going pure. Either the boys have had enough glory and made enough money, or else they have finally de- cided that cleanliness is next to Godliness. Their G-man investigator, Edwin Atherton, is peeking through every gridiron keyhole and seeing to it that things are kept in order.
 Not So Easy
 This sudden shift to the finer and higher things made the selection of Rose Bowl opponent a bit difficult. The coast boys couldn't get the Holy Ivy League schools or the Army or the Navy or Notre Dame. With the Big Ten Cor rather the Big Nine since Chicago took up drop the handkerchief opposed to post sea- son games the coast had to get a Rose Bowl rival from the Southeas- tern or Southwestern Conferences. This, it was decided, wouldn't do. Because the boys in Dixie and the Southwest openly admit subsidiza- tion and will tell you not only the name and numbers of the players, but the salaries.
 So the coast went to work on the midwestern powers. It argued, and with much sense, that if Northwes- tern, Illinois, Michigan and the others would agree to play in the Rose Bowl, the bad boys among the other schools of the nation would start cleaning house in order to be eligible for a shot at the $100,000 that goes along with the Rose Bowl bid.
 In my snooping I learned that if the Big Ten officials vote in favor of playing in the Rose Bowl at their meeting on Dec. 6 and 2, it doesn't necessarily mean that the Pasedena fiesta will always be a closed cor poration. At least one mid-western big wig has indicated that, if after a few years, all universities abided by the N. c. A. A. rules on behavior and ethics, it would be all right for the coast representative to choose any team it wanted to.
 The chances are right now, I gath cred with a bit of delicate caves dropping, that the western nabobs will vote in favor of making the trip to Pasedena. At the present time four favorable votes are pretty cer- tain, two are indefinite, three are against, and Chicago isn't going to cast a ballot. That's mighty close, but I learned that the indefinite cusses stand to be swayed toward a trip west for the footballers.
 May Lose Standing
 One thing is certain: If the Rose Bowl is made a closed, or anything near closed corporation between the midwest and farwest, 1t will lose its standing as the countrys greatest intersectional football game There are bound to be many years when the two conferences are below par and major attention will center on the combats between national leaders in the Sugar, Orange, and Cotton Bowl games.
 But this won't matter insofar as the financial take of the Rose Bowl is concerned. The operators could sell it out even if they matched Spearfish Normal and Slippery Rock.
 My guess is that the boys in this section will vote to go west starting New Years Day, 1942. There is a chance. though, that the coast will withhold its bid until after the western meeting in December, and the marriage will take place this coming New Years.