Evening star., 1960-09-29
WIN, LOSE OR
DNAV By FRANCIS sTANN
Where Is the Magic Touch?

FOR GEORGE PRESTON MARSHALL, who brushes
OF false modeSty like man with dandruf on his blue
serge collar these must be embarrassing not troublesome
times His Washington Redskins aren't quite what they
were cracked up to be and Marshall himself is on
record as having built the team.
Il consider myself good Judge of football material
as anybody in the business Marshall is and has been say
ing from California to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay
The man certainly entitled to his opinion the record
tends to show that somewhere along the line somebody
lost the magic touch.
The statistical type might break down the Redskins
tenure in Washington into sxyear periods For instance
1887 through 1912 Those the first days Ray
Flaherty nce-guy, toughguy who had been end for
the New York Giants coaching His record AZ wins
10 losses and three ties for TAT percentage The Redskins
won two world" titles and three Eastern Division pennants
under Flaherty. -..s
IN THOSE YEARS Marshall promoted and Ray Flah-
erty coached Ray left the Jesse imperial box
to Marshall and he the team the field He also had
much to say about who going to play next year.
Those the first six seasons the ripe years.
F1aherty went into the Navy after 1912 and
vted back. Marshall than has suggested that
Ray wouldn't be up to coaching modern pro football
Now there are II SeaSons-and nine coaches
During the six campaigns after Flaherty-Dutch Bergman
Dud DeGroot and Turk Edwards coachng-the record is
somewhat less impressive. 1t specifically 37263 for
587 Bergman, however, the division championship
in 1943, his only season as head coach.
In the third six-year period-1949 through 1854
Marshall was paradng such Rear Admiral John E.
Whelchel Herman Ball. Dick Todd and Curly Lambeau
coaches, But George calling the shots by and
dctating-aS he didn't during the Flaherty regme-the
draft choices The Redskins this stretch 25452
for an al-tme low percentage of .357
AFTER FLAHERTY, BERGMAN, DeGroot Edwards
Whelche, Ball and Lambeau the Joe Kuharich era
followed by the Mike Nixon stand The last six
sons-countng the opener last week against Baltimore
haven't been outstanding Something like 26332 for
AL percentage, in you like morbid statistics.
The Redskins of 1860 won't this week. because they
don't play But in six exhibition games they couldn't win
and in the formal NFL opener they licked by the
Colts 300.
Perhaps realizing that his team can't Marshall
has been toutng the defensive qualities of his club which
is way Of illustrating that the opposition scored 189
points to 48 for the Redskins
THERE WAS AN OCCASION few days ago to ask
Herman Ball, solid in the Colts organization
if the Redskins could survive Indefinitely The Redskins
look bad Ball told that there's doubt to
whether they'll score much less win game"
ANY pro team has got to win a game" Ball said.
"Therel come Sunday when couple of passes will
be picked of and turned into touchdowns That will be
the same day tumble makes a AS for the Red
skins wish them luck"
But the Redskins have scored very little in recent
weeks After the Los Angeles exhibition they accumulated
only 27 points in five games
Such record should put Marshall into action
more He hasn't done very well Of late.