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Show mongw Scrub to Coaching Star DRACTICALLY every one of tha 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 Touchdown club of New York. Today he is Georgia Tech's graduate manager, having turned over . the coaching reins at Tech to Bobby Dodd after direct- t ing the destinies of ! the Yellow Jackets for 25 years. ! But the important I point is this Alex- Grantland Rice ander was never a college star. He was on the scrub team at Georgia ! Tech in 1907, 1908 and 1909 before j he became John Heisman's assist- i ant in 1912. Bill Alexander, physically, was never quite equipped to be a college star. But, mentally and psychologically and 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. 1 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 i won seven conference champion- i ships he was named the coach of 1 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 t known the game from the front j 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 i': and explains Alex: i ' Georgia Tech was playing its final game of the season against Notra 1 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 grads. Say, who're we playing?" ' The Four Horsemen ' There have been many stories j 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 Prince- v i ton to Stanford at Palo Alto. I. 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 1 the blocking? Who did the ball-carrying? ball-carrying? Who did the kicking? Who did the tackling?" ' This was undoubtedly the great- ; est pony backfield, pound for pound, t in football history. -The average weight was around 160 pounds. : There wasn't a man 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 back 1 "I never blocked a guy in my hie," Miller said with much indig- ' nation. , I told this to Elmer Layden, recently. Layden laughed. "I'll t tell you the truth," he said. "We all had to block. We all had our blocking assignments, even bowling over the two ends, helping help-ing take out a tackle, or nan- die the secondary. , "Stuhldreher was probably the lest of our blockers, but we had to ' jlock. Miller, Crowley and I han- ' died most of the running Stuhldreher Stuhl-dreher did the passing, but we were ' more of a running team than a passing team We ail had 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 i against Ernie Nevers and others, Layden Intercepted four or five passes, running two interceptions back for touchdowns |
