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Show QN A GRAY faU day, back in the long-forgotten year of 1895, a young kid sat in the stands watching watch-ing Vanderbilt and Georgia meet. The coach of the Georgia team was another young fellow out of Cornell Cor-nell by the name of Glenn Scoby Warner, later known as Pop. Here, 52 years ago, was the real beginning of one of the great coaches of all time, Cornell Georgia jr""T the Carlisle In- dians Pittsburgh L V S Stanford ind if t Temple. Pop has L"f 1 been a friend of ! i ' 3 mine for too many If $ years to mention f 1 V -k t , 30 - 40 - what dif- ' 1 ference doea it V s make? The years F V!; ' roll by faster than Man 0' War could Warner ever run. Pop Warner War-ner has been football's greatest inventor in-ventor of plays, including the single and double wing on offense, still Just as popular as the T. Pop had a fine team at Georgia record-breaking teams at Car-lisle, Car-lisle, Pittsburgh and Stanford where his football knowledge and his iron personality dominated the scene. He was the only coach who had not exactly the fear but the complete respect of Jim Thorpe, a football genius no one else could handle. This is easy to understand, for Pop discovered Jim Thorpe when he was an Indian stripling at Carlisle, Car-lisle, just 15 years old. Thorpe then weighed 141 pounds. Pop still Isn't quite aure whether his best team was at Carlisle, Pittsburgh or Stanford. The answer Is, be had great teams at all three places. Look over the men he has coached: Thorpe, Galae, Guyon, Me-toxen, Me-toxen, Hauser, Little Bear, Mt. Pleasant, Hudson, Peck, Ernie Nev-ers, Nev-ers, entirely too many to mention here ... at least 50 in the upper brackets of the game. His two greatest great-est were Thorpe and Nevers Thorpe the genius Nevers the 60-minute 60-minute man Thorpe the greatest Nevers the most valuable. Carlisle Was Tops "The Indians," Pop wrote me SO years ago, "are the only true amateurs. ama-teurs. They play football for fun. They are no good in the rain for it isn't any fun. At different hotels they are more popular than any white team for they are quiet, well-behaved, never any trouble. No silver or towels ever missing. They are the gentlemen of our profession. But they play only when they feel like playing only when it is fun." I still think Pop's all-Carlisle team, with Thorpe, Galao, Guy-n Guy-n and Mt. Pleasant in the back-field back-field would beat the pick from Pittsburgh or Stanford, Harvard, Har-vard, Notre Dame, Yale, Michigan, Michi-gan, Army or anywhere else. Pop Warner belonged to the old iron-man school of coaching. There was never anything soft about Pop. To him, football was something more than a matter of plays where he is still one of the masters. It was a game of condition of discipline of concentration of giving all you have. He was no easy task master. He gave the country a lesson that it needed. The primrose trail had no part In his philosophy. It would be difficult to say what coach has had the greatest Influence Influ-ence on college football Pop Warner War-ner or Knute Rockne. Not so far back are Hurry-Up Yost and Percy Haughton, or Walter Camp. Originator of Plays Pop undoubtedly was the Inventive Invent-ive genius. His single and double wing attack still have a big place in any football offensive. It is a much stronger attack than the T for many teams, which many coaches have overlooked. Pop's word was a double bond. Some 25 years ago we left on a trip to Syracuse with Walter Camp. Pop waa coaching Pittsburgh. Chick Meehan was coaching Syracuse. We all had breakfast together. "I'm eorry, pop," Meehan said, "but I haven't had the chance to scout you this season. What are you using today?" "I'm asing only five plays, Chick," Pop aald. "Here they are." Pop diagrammed each play. "If we use another play call a penalty and l'U back you up." Pop only used the five plays throughout the game. Football was simpler then and to my mind more the way college football should be. There waa trust and faith between coaches and teams where today there Is too much suspicion, distrust and lack of faith. Too many coaches and teams are breaking rules in regard to their playing personnel and everybody knows it. In the way of gate receipts, public pub-lic excitement, thrills and the rest of it the modern game is supreme. It Is now a better game to watch despite its unlimited substitutions, where from S3 to 43 men make team on the field. But through all the changes, variations vari-ations and shifts. Pop Warner'a single sin-gle and double wing still remain among the most effective offensive football knows. |