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Show VCMmAND SI I Vftgr,! I TT IS a pleasant moment in this "winter of discontent" to recall the first time I happened to see three pretty (air country football players. This means In their college days They were Mel Hein of Washington State and the Gi-S5?- ants Sammy Baugh X of T.C.U. and the Redskins-Don Hut-it Hut-it son of Alabama and V the Green Bay Pack- S-Y ers- " fif Long before they C were famous, you ' JM them In action once tvw" I rec8nize class. Immt ImI They reminded IGranUandSlce me ,,ter fashion of some sort, of the first time I ever saw Ty Cobb, Joe i Jackson and Tris Speaker, when they were also unknowns along the border of the bosh. And that wasn't yesterday, or the day before. Hein Baugh Hutson. Not too bad. The first one that I saw was a big, smart, fast-moving center from Washington State by the name of Mel Hein. A fine athlete a scholar a gentle-man. gentle-man. As I recall the dim details, this was in 1930 when Washington State was playing Villanova in Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. Pop Warner was sitting alongside. I We agreed that this fellow Hein j wasn't a bad center. He was picked I on the All-American and recom-j recom-j mended to Tim Mara of the Giants. ! For something like 12 years Mel f '.. Kj!? : Hein has been the UjtJ : greatest center pro H football has ever , known. sltSV' -In later years ', such star centers as tJ tk, j Bulldog Turner and jf 'v ; other younger men y ' have come along to ; r ' give him a battle. N ' But I am thinking L,.??rj in terms of a long- p wrner er span. Before Hein Before Mel Hein came along, looking look-ing to the college game, my all-time all-time top had been a fellow by the name of Germany Schulz of Michigan. Michi-gan. Germany was 8 feet 4, weighed 245 pounds and was faster than most backs. Germany held a great Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania team, led by Big BiU Hollen-back, Hollen-back, in check for 50 minutes. The score was 0- when Schuls left the field, a battered wreck. The final score was Pennsylvania 29, Michigan Michi-gan , or something like that when the game was over. Germany Schulz was the greatest college center that ever played. Ask Hurry-up Yost or any of the old-timers. He was a fast-moving giant, with hands that hung almost to his knees. He tackled at both ends with crushing force and he cut them down through the line. Schulz of Michigan and Stein Stone of Vander-bilt, Vander-bilt, 6 feet 3, 210 and extremely fast, were the two best centers I ever saw in college play. Yost rates them 1-2, and Yost goes back to 1895. More About Hein Schulz and Stone came along be-tor be-tor pro football was important Mel Hein came along just as pro football was steaming up. Mel had to meet the toughest opposition op-position that football can give you the Chicago Bears the Washington Redskins the Green Bay Packers and all the others. I have always had the feeling that one of sport's greatest tests was time and the quality of oppositioa To my mind Mel Hein has met this test on a par with Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney or anyone else. On the record he has gone by most of these men, barring Cobb and Speaker. When you can star in pro football for 11 or 12 years, when through that time you can carry the admiration of your teammates and the full respect re-spect of all opponents, you have turned In a full job. Through most of this time Mel Hein had a family, wife and children, chil-dren, to look after. There came the Inevitable time where hla feet could no longer take him to the right spot, directed by hla brain. But he was never far away. His reflexes were still working where physical speed was lacking down the long stretch. Mel Hein has played hla last football foot-ball game. I doubt that any other athlete hat ever given more te his team or to the game than llela has given through the many years he haa been such an Inspirational force In the longhrsl ( all competition competi-tion college and professional football. foot-ball. Hein met the two above mentioned tests time and the quality of oppositionand op-positionand came out on top. If you'd like to argue this-I'U turn you over to Steve Owen of the Giants. George Halas of the Bears or Curly Lambeau of the Packers. |