OCR Text |
Show vaAmAva g f ACE Jl .1 OOLLEGE football plans and aims seem to be obscured in a num-oer num-oer of fogs and mists so far as the public is concerned. But I can give you one that isn't This is Maryland university, where Clark shaujihnessy, late of Stanford and the T-formation, is the man on the job. We have known Shaughnessy for a brief matter of 27 years, since be started coaching back around 1915. Outside of Lonnie Stage, now with the College of the Pacific, this makes Clark either the dean of present-day coaches, or close to the mark. And I doubt that football has known any better all-around coach, or any coach with a finer influence on his football pupils. The main point is that Shaugh-nessy Shaugh-nessy and Maryland, with the full support of President Curly Bird, has set up a 1942 plan that is well worth looking at The Maryland System "In this last spring practice," Shaughnessy said, "we had 87 men out who were divided into four ' 'T V Vtf - rir -fmmrnruiTii iir 'f M frtrnninn ----- CLARK SHAUGHNESSY teams, and matched together In games. "But this is only a starter. Next fall I expect to have at least 500 Maryland students playing football. And I might say I've been spending more time on fellows who never have played the game than on those who have. And it's surprising how many of these like the game and want to play it, once they get the general Idea. "All together in this country we should have over 200,000 young fellows fel-lows playing football this fall, even though most of them will never make any first or second team." A Few Arguments In the course of an evening's conversation con-versation it is only natural that a few arguments should develop. One was the matter of the greatest fullback full-back and the greatest running halfback. half-back. Clark's selections were Norman Standlee of Stanford and the Chicago Chi-cago Bears for the fullback job, with George McAfee of Duke and the Bears on the running side. Our two nominations were Bronko Nagurski at fullback with Cliff Battles Bat-tles as the top ball carrier. The Maryland mentor was willing to admit that Nagurski was the best all-around football player he ever saw. But he refused to concede the point that any line-battering back could wreck an entire defense the way Standlee could. McAfee was a Sreat ball-carrying back, but I'll string along with Battles. About the T Coach Shaughnessy offered three solid reasons in support of football's T-formation. "First," he said, "it is the type of game the players all want, since it depends more on speed and smartness than mere crushing bulk and power. "Second, it is the type of play that appeals to the public since it is much more in the open. "Third, it is the best type of play with which to win games. It is the most effective winning formation iooiuau nas ever kiiuwu. u is utmost ut-most an unlimited threat against any form of defense. You will find the T-formation used more and more, wherever the material is in an;' way adapted." Answering a Complaint One of the main complaints against college football from many outsiders is this: That football is largely a game in which some 25 or 30 trained athletes perform for the benefit of some 30,000 to 50,000 spectators, who get no physical ' benefit at all He may not have the best 30 football foot-ball players In the country he doesn't look for anything like this. But he'd like to have the best 500 players, a much more important idea for the general good of all concerned, con-cerned, including the country al large. And to this football arrangement arrange-ment Shaughnessy also has added an all-around conditioning program for the entire student body, which is even more important Shaughnessy's Idea ia to Gil all open fields full of football players, to bring them out by the hundreds. |