Show o. iJ Iti j r FRANK K K BAKER BAKE R. R l TELEGRAM SPORTS EDITOR C i V Uninteresting as as Utah's 26 0 f football victory was over ver Western State in in the Ute stadium here last Saturday v it proved two things First that football fans cant can't be befooled fooled into turning out in huge droves for a game that does n not t promise to be worth while and second that small schools like 7 Western estern State have no business in the Rocky Mountain conference Saturday was a perfect day for football at least from the spectator standpoint The weather er was ideal for open football And had the Utes been playing a rival of distinction distinction-a a team like Oregon Colorado university Idaho or some similarly high ranking rank- rank il fring ing club club club-a a capacity crowd of fans w would uld probably r resulted S 'S Instead only people p passed through the gate and most of them were ready to go home long before the game came to its weary conclusion Utah got a break so far as building I U up interest in the fray was concerned when Western State beat Colorado Mines 13 0 but even that did not excite the fans into a ticket buying rush V If there was any reaction to Western Vestern States State's victory over i. i Mines it has been a n sympathetic sort of sorrow for the Mines t because they must be mighty might weak this year if the MounT Moun- Moun tJ T can whip them so soundly t St KM Now this department has no p personal animosity for V Western estern State In fact we have a high regard for the f courage and willingness of the Mountaineers to keep plugging away in the face of tremendous odds We Wc dont don't feel that the tiny institution at Gunnison with its limited football resources should try to compete with the larger powers like Denver C. C U. U and Utah in this conference It would be just as preposterous to put one of our local sandlot ball teams in the same league e with the New York Yankees The fact that Vest West cm State has won but one game in four years tends top to p prove ove our contention f I Utah has been severely censored ever since Saturdays Saturday's game Came was booked There is scar scarcely ely any need to g go into all that again It might be however that from Utah's viewpoint this policy of scheduling on one one or two percentage games is a common practice in the conference If Western State is to sta stay in the league it has to play it somebody somebody and and of DC course whenever the 1 play I LJ one of oC the larger schools it affords the big school a chance of oC putting an easy a y vi victory tory in the percentage column s. s It is our belief however that a team does not alwa always s pr profit fit as much by these easy games as it sometimes fig- fig 11 lures ires res it does Coach Ike Armstrong for example faces faces' a abig a gig big task this we week k of inspiring ing and gearing his charges up upi to the proper pitch for this weeks week's invasion of the D. D DU V U i at Denver FJ One cannot escape the fact that Utah played miser- miser able abI football S Saturday tu da True Truc the Utes took tok only fo four fourd r d plays to get their first touchdown True also that Sterling Ster- Ster ling Jensen took the kicko kickoff f to start start the second half and galloped 88 yards to a touchdown f f But ut i it is a also so true that after th the first minute touchdown down the Redskins didn't score again ngam until the second half balf Moreover Moreover More More- over they dropped three passes passes all all easy catches catches' right in thc the i receivers receiver's hands hands for for what probably would have p produced three more touchdowns t In III general the team experienced a n tremendous letdown The boys knew they had a soft touch and they played around listless listlessly like a group of workers waiting for the quitting y whistle to blow In other words they were just putting in inV inthe V the time And while that worked against Western Western State it 7 wont won't work this week at D. D U or ora a week later at L Logan gan J against Utah That means the Utes m may h have to top tor p r break a n lot of bad habits formed in Saturdays Saturday's game I t v Armstrong used every everyone one of his rus players not on the injury list He saved the regulars regula s a great deal in in- in anticipation of this weeks week's trip to Denver and in the latter precaution was edly wise v Its It's mighty easy for or a player to co court t injury injury-in an tin n easy game ff because when the men ease up as any club is apt to with such uch a soft oft game they're more mor apt to ta be hurt than if they're ru running ing Y t and tackling hard in art ari important skirmish A former star at Utah who was in the thc press box box- for the first 1 f f two quarters left at the half and didn't appear again until the last few minutes of the game He said he had been with some in the east stands And it looks as bad from that side as it t does from over heI here hee he growled k f And that leads us right back t to the original premise F Rock Rocky Mountain athletics will vill become far more interesting c it be more equitable and gain a n lot higher recognition nationally nation- nation p- p aU ally when the top six seven or eight ight members of the conference cont con- con t ference band together in a more compact organization t t. t The They could play each other then every season in football t create a more interesting basketball program and give the fans a bigger run for their support Yes I know this is an anold ant t old c cr cry but it seems to me that it shouldn't ta take e many mo more e J sad incidents like Saturdays Saturday's game to get some action toward towardS S answering the cry |