Show t YEARS EARS ago the brilliant alexander pope wrote they had no poet and they died he was referring to the dead and decadent empires of the world in vain they schemed in vain they bled they had no poet and are dead yale this season has pounds lot of poet if pope was right yale football won t die the this fall we can astill I 1 still lose all our games and look good herman told me not to the old blue I 1 said the old blue neither dies nor surrenders what i does he doa do herman asked he expects you to win a lot of toot foot ball games with the spirit of hinkey shevlin kilpatrick pudge clint frank widdy 1 neale and a few others HICKMAN bilut I 1 invent haven t any I 1 of these fellows on my team this sea son herman the poet said this was a big occasion at yale and new haven it was the first time yale had ever had a poet coaching the team since my old and departed friend B lly phelps tried to help it s no use grant billy phelps told me once they don t appreciate mockers blockers and passers down here they are so much more important than poets and philosophers I 1 only wish they knew mr herman hickman the greatest guard football ever knew according to gen bob neyland and this writer the poet laureate of the smoky moun bains the man who helped to make five great army lines now faces aprily one kink in his happy existence the game s greatest line coach has no line to coach has good backfield he has a fine backfield headed by bull a scrappy hard bit hit ting back a fine football player he has levi jackson who so far has never lived up to his newspaper headlines but who is about due he has other good backs he has a high class center in yale a scrappy captain billy conway but where are all those polish names howie odell had plus big davidson a fine tackle and others don t get me wrong grant herman said this line mate rial I 1 have Is game smart and willing to give its all I 1 mean that well we 11 make tern em respect us even if we lose every game we 11 II win some games and lose some games that s my philosophy of life I 1 said to herman take a little leave a little but don t ever take it all notre dame and one or two others can tell you about that don t ever take it all life doesn doean t work that way vay herman hickman drew at least one lucky break he came to yale at a time when ell eli was at its lowest ebb it must have been at a low ebb since howie odell its coach left for washington university where lar far western coaches don t believe he Is headed anywhere yale this season plays this sched ule brown connecticut columbia wisconsin vanderbilt dartmouth kings po nt tit princeton and harvard yale rate I 1 don t believe that yale rates with wisconsin vanderbilt or princeton yale should be outclassed by columbia wisconsin vander bilt and princeton I 1 under stand brown dartmouth and harvard are far better than a year ago I 1 know columbia should be a far better team I 1 know princeton will be this leaves herman hickman of tennessee army and yale in m a tough spot the best teams in the ivy league should be pennsylvania princeton and columbia at least they have much the best material columbia has the best backfield material and a pretty good line princeton and pennsylvania have the best all around stuff perm penn state and army should have two of the best teams in the east with rutgers and villanova chal benging don t sell either short but herman hickman honestly faces the toughest challenge of the lot lie ile chasn t two men who could make columbia or princeton and yale doesn doean t like to lose my suggestion Is that yale give herman hickman a chance and that doesn doean t mean 1948 1949 any way I 1 don t believe yale has ever had a finer coach or a human be i ing who could mean more to yale football than herman hickman can winning is a good big part of it but winning isn t everything her man hickman can do more good for a college losing than most coaches can winning I 1 mean in the way that counts it if only winning counts then notre dame and michigan are the only two major colleges left |