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Show Ball Made to Throw Ken Strong is quite close to being 100 per cent right about the modern football. It was arranged for the passer. It is long, thin easy enough to throw but harder to kick than a hot dog or a pretzel. I've asked at least 20 leading college col-lege coaches why they used so many varieties of action on the kickoff such as placing the ball sideways. "We have no .one who can kick off," is the usual answer. I've asked them why they had no first-class punters. "There's no one who can kick this ball," they tell you. Then we began looking back to the old days of football with its great kickers George Brooke of Pennsylvania, Sweeley of Michigan, Herschberger of Chicago, Brink Thome and Bull of Yale and one of the greatest Kercheval of Kentucky. Ken-tucky. "He was the best of all," Shipwreck Kelly tells me, "80 or 70 yards on a dime." Not bad kicking. The old game was packed with fine kickers, and one of these was Spud Chandler of Georgia, long with the N. Y. Yankees as a brilliant pitcher. Among the half-modern group I'd name Frank Reagan of Pennsylvania, Pennsyl-vania, now with the Giants, and Harry Kipke of Michigan. Hurry-up Yost was a great believer be-liever in the kicking game, both as a form of attack and defense. It was here his slogan came along "A punt, a pass and a prayer." |