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Show A RE football players today larger or smaller than old-time lineups? line-ups? A firm of experts, that deals in such vital statistics for a matter d of record, sends in this query. We have no accurate figures at hand, but we doubt that modern football carries any more weight than the old-time parade once offered. One reason is that very year the game demands greater speed and quickness, which GrantlandRlce isn't found any too often among the behemoths and mastodons. You might think the modern game had the bulge in weight when you recall such men as Cal Hubbard, Musso, Joe Stydahar, Al Blozis Wee Willie Wilkin, Turk Edwards and others from the pro ranks. But these were the pick of a lot that was both massive and active, 1 two elements needed in any professional profes-sional line. These can be listed as the gamboling gam-boling mammoths, picked from the entire football map. But when it comes to average college weights, there were more than enough big men from 30 or 40 years ago many of them too big for the modern passing game. Looking Back Looking back a few decades, I can't recall any heavier squad than Hurry-up Yost once had beneath Michigan's banner of Maize and Blue. They were on hand nearly 40 years ago. In this list, at various times. I recall re-call the following fairly husky specimensfrom speci-mensfrom 1901 to 1906 Germany Schulz Center 6 feet 4 Inches 240 pounds. Curtis Tackle 250 pounds. Octy Graham guard 230 pounds. Rheinschild tackle 215 pounds. Neil Snow at end weighed 200 and Willie Heston was around 190. Schulz, who backed up the line and tackled at either end and all over the field, was the most active big man I ever saw. His closest rival was Cal Hubbard. The old days, also, were full of giants Glass of Yale, Edwards of Princeton, Fats Henry of W. and J., Gordon Brown of Yale, Babe White of Syracuse, Heffelflnger of Yale In addition to Michigan's crushing , man power. And no one has ever accused Minnesota Min-nesota of playing lightweights, year after year. Rocknes Favorites Knute Rockne'g two favorite No-' No-' tre Dame teams included no giants. These were the Four Horsemen outfit and the 1930 squad. I've always thought his Four Horsemen and his Seven Mules were closest to his football soul, for the reason they happened to be one of the lightest big-time teams football foot-ball ever knew. The average weight of the Four Horsemen in the backfleld was Li, a J around 160 pounds. Elmer Layden at fullback was 162. Harry Stuhldreher was 155, Crowley and Miller around 160. Adam Walsh, one of the best of centers, cen-ters, was in the general neighborhood neighbor-hood of 180 maybe less. Rip Miller, Navy's Na-vy's brilliant line Elmer Layden coach, was a 180-pound tackle. Pounds and Speed The 1930 Notre Dame team was probably a stronger outfit. It packed many extra pounds and still had speed. Joe Savoldi was its biggest back, but after losing Savoldi around mid-season mid-season Rock still had Marchy Schwartz, Marty Brill and a few others left enough to crush a fine Southern California outfit. On that team Rock had a midget guard by the name of Metzger, who ranged somewhere from 157 to 165 pounds. Rockne rarely had men in action above 200. He wanted speed, quickness, quick-ness, agility. My guess is there would be no great weight change in football over a long period of years. But this is still a guess. Boston college had one of the heaviest teams in the country through 1942, with a massive line, but it couldn't handle the greater speed of Holy Cross and Alabama. Weight in football, is still unimportant unim-portant compared with speed and quickness. But that doesn't mean football still can't use a flock of big fellows fel-lows who know how to move around Mel Hein, Bulldog Turner, Musso, ' Wilkins, Stydahar, Henry, Blozis, or Hubbard. Big, fast men always will be the answer to a coach's prayer. And that is true of more sports than football. foot-ball. Speed and size are essential to modern basketball. But here speed is necessary, it's usually the smaller man who fills the bill. i |