Evening star., 1949-08-28
Georgetown Taking
First Drill Tomorrow
Under New Coach
By George Huber

Under New Coach
By George Huber
Although there's hardly a touch
of fall weather in the air, football
practice for most major colleges
throughout the country starts this
week. Georgetown leads the parade
of Washington and nearby schools
by starting tomorrow with the
new Hoya coach, Bob Margarita,
calling out a squad Of about IS
candidates.
Maryland and George Washing
ton get in their first licks on
Thursday. the first day on which
Southern Conference schools can
don uniforms. Catholic u, which
too will have a new coach this
fall, Jan Jankowski. has issued its
first practice call for Monday. Sep
tember IL, and Gallaudet doesn't
come out until after school opens
on September IA.
The three major colleges have
less than a month to get ready for
their opening assignments. All
play their first games on Septem-
Der "a, Georgetown at Holy Cross,
George Washington at Virginia
and Maryland at Virginia Tech.
Catholic U. has a trip to Patuxent
Naval on October / as its opener.
while Gallaudet doesn't see action
until October IS at Bridegwater.
Some Georgetown gudders have
been getting in preliminary licks
for the last week. An early unof-
fetal turnout has been working
lightly under Margarita. This
group of about Is players included
the centers and quarterbacks and
q few who missed spring practice.
Margarita has a whole new staff
of assistant coaches at George
town. Bill Battles, who played at
Brown and with the Chicago
Bears, has the line assignment;
Jack Prendergast. Colgate, has the
ends. and Joe Sullivan, Dartmouth,
has the backs. Sullivan will miss a
few days later this week. as he's
due to play in the All-Star game In
New York on Thursday. Just as
he did. and excellently. recently in
Chicago.
Margarita is installing the
standard T formation at George
town this year as a change from
the single wing and spread seen
there for the previous IA years un-
der Jack Hagerty, now director OF
athletics. Margarita has outlined
a stiff twice e-a-day practice sche-
dule to get the boys used to this
new stuff, and expects to have
contact work by the end of this
week.
Georgetown, like. the other
schools, has a fair group OF vet
erans back, along with several
promising sophomores up from
freshman team Of last year. The
soph getting the most attention at
Georgetown likely will be Bob Dea-
con, a passing quarterback from
New Jersey who seems ideal for
the T formation. But as a sopho-
more and still green, he probably
viii not see a whole lot of playing
early in the season.
Returning backs who may
handle most Of the passing are
Billy Conn, now a junior after
showing flashes of brilliance in his
first varsity season, and Babe
Baranowski. the little pepper guy
who missed lot of last season
with an injured shoulder. A couple
of other backfield men from last
year, Connie O'Doherty and Billy
Rose, will find themselves in the
line this year as guards. They
were blocking backs last season,
and Margarita has shifted them
to fill some bad holes in his line.
With these and several other
shifts, it is possible that George
town may have a better line than
was expected earlier.
Maryland's most promising
prospect up from the frosh is Full
back Moe Modzelewski, a real bull
of a player, but Coach Jim Tatum
still has a fair smattering Of ex-
perienced players who will do the
brunt Of the work. Among the sc
candidates falling out on Thurs
day will be such talented returnees
as Tackle Ray Krouse, End Fred
Davis, Center Jim Brasher, Tackle
Chet Gierula, and Backs Joe
Tucker, Jim LaRue, Johnny Idzik
and Vern Seibert.
George Washington, which was
terribly undermined last year
and needs plenty of new man
power. may get some help from
such sophs as Bob Cilento, a
passer; Joe Kennedy, a 6-foot-1
fullback, and Bernie Nathan, a
good guard prospect. Also helping
is that Don Druckenmiller will be
back at center after missing all of
last year with a head injury. The
Docs have okayed him to play this
year.