Show WHAT HAT is the ruling fa factor actor la in sport there can be only one answer it isn t the manager or the coach who too often picks up entirely too nuch credit it is al ways the material it is the fighter the football player the baseball player it is the fellow up front on the firing line during the recent winter season football went on a wild rampage in the shift of coaches the there re we were re shifts all over the map navy michigan harvard yale washing ton and kansas then in the middle of the base ball season there was another wild upheaval with durocher going tc ta the giants shotton back to the dod gers dusty cooke to the phillies the earlier rumors that joe mccarthy was through reports of a family trie fric tion with the ath fetics trouble in LEAHY gt st louis tu ble in chicago too many report reports to follow i a what too many people overlook Is this it is the material not the coach or the manager that has the final say certainly the manager and coach have roles to play often important roles but not even a frank leahy or a fritz crisler was ever as important as the material no leahy a great coach was ever up to a lujack a connor a fischer or a aza bobski of course a big part of a man ager s job Is to get the best materi al that is also a big part of the coach s job in football and oils this goes for the colleges as well wen as the pros A winning ba baseball ceball team needs that pitcher or that hitter more than one of them thern A winning winnin g college football team needs that passer ball ban carrier and blocker the coach gets tar far too much cred it for victory and far too much blame tor for defeat the same is true of a pennant race they pile e too many ohve olive blossoms on the winner and too many strands of poison ivy on the loser many a big league manager manag er has been made and many a one wrecked by the material he had don t forget this in the build up and the knock over start of passing the passing game in college reached its peak last fall the col leges had bobby layne of texas chuck conerly of mississippi harry gilmer of alabama johnny lujack of notre dame tony minis mini sl of penn ray evans of kansas bob chappius of michigan and many others these have all moved over into the ard pro group with paul governali Gov emall sammy baugh sid luckman otto graham glenn dobbs and others at work the passing game wil will reach another peak this fall who started the passing gamel game here s a contribution from black 0 nell neil a lusty old timer dear grant I 1 was interested in your column on Mer end at west point ir in the decades purpled by time YOI you spoke of chicago and michigan using the forward pass back in 1906 the year that the play was intro deuced into football chicago had a pretty fair sart of quarterback that year fellow named walter eckersall he ile was waw pounds of wildcat and he is the man I 1 believe who caught willie heston from behind in one game between chicago and michigan no matter about that but eckie eckle threw passes to fred walker a fine end of the maroon and beat the vaunted minnesota team through the air eckersall to walker was one of the great pass combinations of their day and time ahead of his time glenn warner had some great pass experts at carlisle and one of the earliest combinations was mt pleasant to exendine and gardner warner always ahead of his time in coaching developed the tech of sending linemen down the field with his ends to block out the e halfbacks the indians were ter rifle in the air and of course their skill was attributed to some roman tic bridge between the indian and the occult there was nothing mystic about the skill of the indians although guys like exendine and gardner and that great lineman of the era who played end and tackle with equal skill and aboriginal ferocity were really out of this world the foundation of carlisle s success was laid on block ing the halfback navy used the forward pass in 1913 but it was a haphazard thing harry blodgett a middle halfback told me that his orders were to fade five yards and throw the ball hard |