Show OY I 1 excitement S CO 0 FAR as excite excitement men thrills bit 1 ter disappointments surging hopes and hopeless odds might go no coach in the country even ap pro preaches aches the record of capt tom hamilton who bandies handles the navy squad captain tom a rugged individual with unusual charm found bis his first thrills on the air craft carrier enter prise in the late war where his ship was bombed tor and other wise assaulted in it the pacific both hamilton and his ship had a brilliant record he was bro brought aught back to handle a sadly de plated eted navy nav squad a hamilton year ago navy won its first game in 1946 against villanova and lost all the others finishing with a great stand against an army team that had da vis blanchard and tucker enrolled hamilton s team needed only one final play for victory this season undermanned navy drew this schedule california col cal embla duke cornell pennsylvania notre dame georgia tech penn state and army this was a terrific schedule for any team michigan pennsylvania notre dame southern california or texas it was far beyond 4 the reach of 0 a young navy team with its limited football personnel yet as navy was bowled over week after week it always came back fighting giving all it had left there e nere no breathing spots in navy 5 schedule A record for courage both hamilton and navy have have given all they had both have set a record tor for courage of battling against odds since the season opened but there isn t too muc much h fun especially for navy in being knocked down week after week struggling desperately to win one game each year everyone seems to realize this except those handling the destinies of navy football who don t z have nave to to take the weekly beatings just as the war broke out navy called swede hagberg a br brilliant illiana submarine commander to handle an all star squad hagberg Is high on anyone s list as a submarine corn com mander he was completely beail dered at annapolis with such men as jenkins kelly er scott whitmire demaree three stars from texas and too many others to mention hagberg was one of the ablest of all submarine commanders he was not a football coach wallace wade a it great coach for 15 years lost two or three coaching years as an artillery major I 1 m 0 a far behind I 1 be he told me that it will take at least three years to catch up other veteran coaches have told me the same thing you can drop out two years in this mod ern coaching pace and come back 1 lost in a fog I 1 hagberg never had a chance then hamilton was brought in hamilton had been away from foot ball bail action tor for many years he never had a chance against such men as frank leahy fritz crisler lou lit tie tle red blaik george hunger and many more I 1 could mention As smart and as able as harrill ton is he will need at least two more years to have his chance to get his feet on the ground and match the leaphys and the Cris lers and even then he won t have their mate rial three years then out the five admirals I 1 talked with at the last army navy game told me they were going to stick to io their present system for coaches three y years ears and then back 0 to o navy ice with a new man in this may look ook to be a happy plan but it won t work not a chance in the world I 1 would vote per cent to keep Hd hamilton milton on the job he will be bet ter in m 1948 and much better in 1949 but to yank him out and bring in an I 1 ither ther navy man means navy suicide e it may be hamilton wants navy service in place of coaching later on II 11 I 1 wouldn t know about that but hamilton now Is just beginning to get his grip red blaik at army has been coaching for more than 20 years arav dartmouth ind and back to army again red Is a high class professional fess ressi ional coach with long experience navy is the only football squad that keeps changing coaches they are out of the job just as they are finding anding what it is all about they tell me from annapolis that navy won t have a professional coach or keep such a man as hamilton in after his three years of football service this is all right it if the admirals and the leading navy officials get a kick out of seeing young midshipmen knocked down and hammered aro around arond nd week after week I 1 don t think they do foot foort ball coaching today is just as much a science a matter of experience as handling a battleship or any form at f navy craft |