OCR Text |
Show Scrub to Coaching Star PRACTICALLY every one of the 1 long parade of great football coaches has come from good or better football players Camp. Haughton, Rockne, Little. Crisler, Bierman, Neyland, Thomas, Hickman, Hick-man, Voigts. Yost, Heisman, on and on indefinitely. I can recall but one exception. His name is Bill Alexander of Georgia Geor-gia Tech. one of the top coaches of all time. Alexander headed north from the red clay hills of Georgia to accept the accolade of the k 1 Touchdown club of MTrVi New York-' Today ISStSSI he, Georgia Tech'i rr1' graduate manager, i P having turned over -f I the coaching reins ls; at Tech to Bobby f:Sw:l.l Dodd after direct-;Sr direct-;Sr fv ing the destinies of l.-.V.-Al-J- j the Yellow Jackets for 25 years. Grantland Rice But the Important point Is this Alexander Alex-ander was never a college star. He was on the scrub team at Georgia Tech in 1007, 1908 and 1909 before he became John Heisman's assistant assist-ant in 1912. Bill Alexander, physically, was never quite equipped to be a college star. But, mentally and psychologically and emotionally emo-tionally he was far beyond most of the greatest players the game has ever known. He knew football. He knew the physical side of football. But. better bet-ter than most, he knew the value of deception, of using speed to match weight and power When John Heisman left Georgia Tech In 1920 to go to Pennsylvania, Alexander took over and set up a brilliant record for the next 25 years until he turned over the Job to Bob- by Dodd in 1945. In that time, Old Man Alex had won seven conference championships champion-ships he was named the coach of the year in 1942 and he had baffled and bewildered more rival coaches than anyone I know, with lighter, faster, smarter working material. It was lack of weight and power that bowled Tech over this year. Bill Alexander Is football's leading philosopher. He has known the game from the front line for over 40 years. He has a marvelous sense of humor an amazing understanding of values. Here's an Alexander story that goes back exactly 20 years to 1928 and explains Alex: Georgia Tech was playing its final game of the season against Notre Dame. This game meant staying home or going to the Rose BowL "How are things?" I asked. "How would I know," Alexander said, "I haven't seen the team in three days. I've had 122 tickets to collect and deliver to old gradi Say, who're we playing?" The Four Horsemen There have been many stories told about the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame since they rode to victory vic-tory over 20 years ago, sweeping the plains from Army and Princeton Prince-ton to Stanford at Palo Alto. You may remember their names Harry Stuhldreher at quarterback, weight 154; Don Miller and Jimmy Crowley at the two .halves, around 162 and 164; Elmer Layden at fullback, full-back, 162. Some of the main arguments that always break out when their names come up are: "What did they all do? Who did the blocking? Who did the ball-carrying? ball-carrying? Who did the kicking? Who did the tackling?" This was undoubtedly the greatest great-est pony backfleld, pound for pound. In football history. The average weight was around 160 pounds. There wasn't a mm on the Job at 165 pounds or higher. Yet it ripped, ran and passed its way from coast to coast with a series of victorious thrusts. One of the main arguments started start-ed when Don Miller, now a high-toned high-toned Cleveland Judge, stopped me before the Army-Navy game a year ago and berated me soundly for picking him as a blocking buck "I never blocked a guy in my life," Miller said with much indignation. indig-nation. I told this to Elmer Laydrn. recently. Laydrn Uughvd "I'll toll you the truth," be said. "We all had to block. We all had our blocking algnmrnl, even bowling over the two entlv helping help-ing lake out a tackle, or handle han-dle the secondary. "Stuhldreher was probably the test of our blockers, but we had to lock. Miller, Crowley and I handled han-dled most of the running Stuhldreher Stuhl-dreher did the passing, but we were more of a running team than a passing team We all hud speed I could Just shade 10 seconds- say 9 for the 100, and the others were about the same I did the kicking " Also the pass Interference I suggested. sug-gested. In the Stanford game against Ernie Nevers and others. Layden Intercepted four or five passes, running two interceptions back tor touchdowns |