Salt Lake Telegram | 1933-12-15 | Page 19 | Pop's 1922 Promise Fulfilled When Thornhill Becomes Coach

Nevers Gives Hints to Tiny S i S rr 1 4 Ii j i iI I I I S S S S 5 2 4 r S S S v t i 4 ii Tiny Thornhill Stanford coach right and his first de aide camp the great Ernie Nevers mapping out a plan of attack designed de- de de designed signed to run Columbia into the ground in the Rose Bowl battle battIe New Years Year's day Pops Pop's 1922 Promise Fulfilled S When Thornhill Becomes Coach Tiny Labors as Understudy to Warner at Stanford Revises Rc System After Becoming Head Coach Editors Editor's Note This is the last of three articles on the career of Claude E. E Tiny Thornhill Stanford crach c whose football playing and coaching days have been recounted in preceding preceding ing lag stories By BILL BRAUCHER NEA Service Sports Editor This year a promise that Pop Warner made back in 1922 was fulfilled ful tul- filled when Warner came back east to coach at Temple university and his job at Stanford went to Claude ETiny ETiny ETiny E. E Tiny Thornhill When Pop was Invited to leave Pittsburgh in 1922 he called upon Thornhill who had been one of his brightest Panther stars If you want the job at Pitt said Pop you can have it but Id I'd rather have you on the coast with me When I retire you will vili be the man to succeed me Thornhill took his old coach's advice advice ad ad- vice and ever since has labored as a aline aline line coach under the Old Fox When it was announced that Warner had resigned team and students of ot Stanford Stan ford declared in favor of the big fellow fellow fel fel- fel low they had learned to respect and admire Revises System Tiny at once set about revising the Warner system Having played it himself and against it he had very definite Ideas about its strong po points and weaknesses In his own days on the gridiron indeed he had played under and against almost all systems known to man and had learned the trick of beating the best of or them including in in- eluding the rigmarole of Rockne wh which ch he offset by his Invention of the butterfly shift This shift he devised in the old pro days when he played directly against Rockne It was his idea that the Notre Dame style of play requires that the end handle the defensive tackle alone Tiny at tackle decided decided decided de de- de- de that if li he were not on the scrimmage line he could not be blocked by the end Accordingly he played back a few yards and rushed up to meet the Notre Dame shift as asit asit asit it started moving Rockne had bad days with Thorn- Thorn hill He Hc could not block out r. r man he couldn't f find And Thornhill's de tense against Notre Dame Dam became a pattern for coaches who found the South Benders on their schedules Nevers Helps This year Tiny started work with about 75 candidates The only men among them in whom Pop Warner h had d held any hope were Bill Corbus the guard who made America all anc and Bobby Grayson a sophomore Thornhill Thornhill Thorn Thorn- hill had as assistants Ernie Nevers who rates along with Thorpe as S one of the greatest football players of all aU time and Jim Lawson end coach Fourteen lettermen had been en lost los from 1932 including seven regulars Tiny had 11 winners of numerals with which to start tart These he molded into a swift and powerful machine which reached its goal when Bill BUl Corbus Cor bus stepped back out of the line anc and the two field goals that tha brought the Trojans low He used a triple wingback and an optional pass contrasting with old spot pa pass pans that had been in vogue for ten years He changed such details de de- de tails as the pass from center making it Jt a spiral instead of the old over end end pass that Warner liked Old formation formation formation for mation A A with an unbalanced line and two wingbacks was kept in the repertory Thornhill did not clutter up hL his team with the vast variety of ot plays that Warner taught In the first game against San Jose he directed his players play ers to use ten plays six of which vere were vere running plays and four passes Much of Pops folderol was for lor gotten