Evening star., 1962-11-16

Hardin Charges
Are III-Advised
By MORRIS sIEGEE


AT ANNAPOLIS. WHERE the towns leading industry
is Governmentowned plant which produces several thou
sand officers and gentlemen yearly they bnked
hard the other day when civilian employe of the Naval
Academy insinuated Saturdays football opponent
cheating
Coach Wayne Hardin didn't the word cheat but
ne might well have because what he accused Southern
California of doing nothing but cheating regardless
of how he phrased it.
Hardin himself accused of foul tactics only couple
of weeks ago. charged use guilty of variety of rule
fractions with illegal line shifts designed to draw the
opponent offsde Hardin discovered It, he added viewing
films of use games They have illegal sets, illegal
tons not waiting for the snap and similar procedures
Hardin said.
THE NAVY COACH MUST have gotten hold of film
hoked up in Hollywood If use has been doing anything
wrong it has gone undetected by game officials and also
by several use opponents whose presumed to
be just attuned to what is right and what isn't as
Hardin
Hardn's remarks were unfortunate for many reasons
isn't pretty to read of the coach of institution with
the stature of the United States Naval Academy acting
crybabsh under any circumstances Hardin himself just
got off the hot seat with the sleeper" play against Pitts
burgh, considered unethical If not illegal by many
1t also wasn't smart of him to air his gripes publicly
he actually thinks Southern California has been foung
and he obviously does the proper place to lodge the
plant would be with officials before the game not in the
public This not only aroused the favored Tojans
but 1t precpitaed coasttocoaSt ud-slngng contest
WHEN HE HEARD OF Hardin's indictments Of his
team use Coach John Mckay naturally lowered the boom
on the Navy coach. "We would be unethcal
Navy to use the sneak play" Mckay commented.
This is fine kind of spirit for the coaches of two
highly respectable institutions to be fostering publicly
Mckay in his reply denied by implication that his team
was guilty of anything not kosher. He also reminded
Hardin there had been complaints from the coaches of
his seven previous opponents
Another rap against Hardin is that he always has
been an exponent of rckedup fancy, wideopen football
stuff himself and therefore should be the last to complain
Mckay has made the Trojan attack interesting that
even frankie Albert the onetime 49er quarterback and
COACH found time praise it recently They're as exciting
the pros" said Albert, who knows.
WHEN HARDIN WAS ON the pan for the fake injury
play he ordered in the Pittsburgh game weeks ago.
he issued half apology and half defense His defense
interesting
"The game is supposed to be fun" he said "but if
you're going to be limited in your thinking you might just
as well go back to $780, line IL against ii other
men and tell the other team Were going to up the
middle"
This apparently isn't the kind Of football McKays
TrojanS have been playing From all accounts it's wide
open stuff with Spreads ankers razze dazzle and enough
gimmcks to make Rube Goldberg jealous
In the strictest sense of the movements might
be trifle illegal The rules say lnemen must come to
complete stop assuming the set position, Just
pitchers pause before the delivery after they have
taken the stretch look at base They hair
breadth situations for officials to miss in awhile
THE CHARGES HARDIN made against Southern Cal
serious He wouldn't back down yesterday He may be
right-maybe Southern Cal has been getting away with
questionable tactics but what does Hardin hope to
complish by public complaints?
Certainly use, unbeaten isn't going to make any
radical changes just to appease Hardin The Trojans don't
think they have been illegal unehcal and the evidence
to be their side They've played games
ruled 40 K by different sets of officials coming
fsom all parts of the country.
Hardin is fine football coach He has led Navy to
many brilliant victories particularly Army Until this
year they all with not single instance of
calling and other attentongrabbing devices Why break
up winning combnation2