Evening star., 1953-11-10
On the Air

It probably would not be fair
to chastiSe the football COM
mentators unduly. It's a rough
job, what with the T formation
and its deceptive quarterbacks,
among other things. If tackle
within two feet of him doesn't
know what Eddie LeBaron did
with that football. it is unjust to
castigate Mel Allen for being
confused at the same moment.
OF course it would be nice if
Harry Wismer could be a shade
more accurate, especially since
he is describing films of a game
played the day before. But
that's Wismer. He delighted at
least one living room football
audience a Sunday or two back
by stating with his usual convic-
tion that Notre Dame was being
penalized Is yards for clipping.
While he was saying it, the
camera was focused on an Off
cial giving the signal that often
sive holding had. been detected.
If Mr.. Wismer will pick up a
discarded program some day
after a football game he will
probably find a set of drawings
showing what these signals from
the field mean. We sort of hope
he doesn't, though, because he
will take a lot of joy out of life
if he ever manages complete
ly to avoid unintentional COM
edy.
Anyhow, that is his problem
and we are concerned today with
some of the other boys. Some of
them-who will be unnamed this
time-occasionally sound as If
football had just been sprung
on them that day. 1t might as
we'll be cricket.
4 **
None of them on television
can get away with anything like
that completely fictitious lateral
pass Ted HuSing called on the
radio once, of course. HuSing
wrongly identified the runner on
a long touchdown play, but was
equal to the occasion when the
spotter pointed out the error.
Without pausing for breath he
blithelv described a lateral pass
that was never passed and let
the right man score.
This was a moderately legiti-
mate error, of course, and it
lives in broadcasting annals only
because of Husing's extraordi-
nary ingenuity in covering it up.
What has proved irksome on
some recent week ends is SYM
tomato of something more fun
damental.
In football, as all fans know
and some, sportscasters must
have heard, the team in possess
sion of the ball is given four
opportunities, or downs, to ad-
vance it 10 yards. Accurate
measurement of this distance is
kept by a "chain gang" on one
sideline with two poles attached
to a 10-yard chain.
Occasionally during almost any
game a team is so close to max
ing those 10 yards and a first
down. that the chain must be
brought in for measurement. On
these occasions, the linesman
grasps the chain at one of the
chalk yard-line stripes. brings it
in and holds it at the same
stripe so accurate measurement
can be made. This is fairly
simple and seldom loses sports
casters up to this point.
Here, however, the referee
sometimes throws curve. If the
ball is too close to either sideline.
the referee picks it up and moves
it to line it up with the hash
marks" Is yards in. To spot it
in the proper place, he brings
that chain gang with him.
Now, the next sportScaster who
leaves his common sense at home
and says. at this point, "It's close,
they're going to take it in and
measure again." is going to be
publicly denounced as a bubble
head. Once that football is
picked up. nobody can accurately
measure where it was by putting
it down someplace else. Think,
fellows.
X f.
PROGRAMS AND PEOPLE
"History'S Middle Ages" the pc
riOd hetween tho 9th opd 1Sth