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Show Army and Navy Strength WITH SPRING FOOTBALL traln-" traln-" ing getting under way, western and southern football coaches have already selected their candidates for top honors next fall. The answer is Army and Navy. f 'V- I "I've kept fairly close track of the situation," situa-tion," one western west-ern coach said. "Every team in the Far West has already lost valuable material mate-rial for 1951. We have already Grantland Rice ,ost ' w 0 star freshmen from last fall and two very good sophomores. The others have lost about the same number. But Army and Navy will lose no men to the draft. Both finished the 1950 season with fine material mate-rial left for 1951.' Army has a lot of fine backs, including Blaik and Pollard. Navy ended her season with all the material any team needs. This was potentially po-tentially a good Navy squad all fall. It simply never got together to-gether until the Army game. On that day it was probably the strongest team In the country. It will be even stronger next fall. "Now take the draft situation. Full pressure hasn't even started yet. It is just beginning. It will land with a heavy thud by May and June. Many collegians won't be called before June. They will be given the chance to finish their year's work. At least many will. After that I'm afraid it will be just too bad for a lot of us. Unless we have war with Russia, we'll have football next fall. There will be good football men in the R.O.T.C. who may not be taken. But I doubt that we will have many 4-F's. "It will be a little rougher than it was in World War II. The call on those from 18 or 19 to 21, 22, or 23 will take many an athlete. How ' many, no one knows." Southern coaches we ran across had about the same slant. "In the Southwest," one coach said, "Texas A. and M. will have the best chance. Texas A. and M. Is practically a military college. These men will be given the chance to complete their military training. A fellow like Bob Smith, a great back, will have a terrific year. "Spring practice will go along just about the same. But the big gaps will open in May and June, on through the summer. By next September the draft losses and the enlistments will be heavy for everybody every-body except Army and Navy." What about the Future? In World War II it was the Navy that saved college football. The Navy and Captain Tom Hamilton's Preflight teams. Army made no move in football's direction, although al-though Army's West Point team led the pack. Any number of college stars moved into the two academies and more than a few moved out again before the war was over. Navy especially lost a big portion of her earlier talent. For a while such teams as Notre Dame and Michigan received big help from Navy allotments. allot-ments. But when it came to the stretch only Army and Navy had the talent. Army, for example, crushed Notre Dame by such scores as 59 to 0 and 48 to 0, if we happen to recall the correct figures. Anyway, Any-way, Notre Dame took a bad beating beat-ing from Army. Through this war period Duke, Georgia Tech, Alabama, Tulsa, Oregon, Southern California, Vil-lanova Vil-lanova and a few others had pretty fair squads. But the general average of 4-F's and kids didn't add up too strongly. strong-ly. Michigan had a good team, even after losing Bill Daley, a former Minnesota star back. Pennsylvania did well, especially after Minisi's return. Will Navy look after college football again? Will Army pitch In to help? Or will any such help be needed? For example, George Munger's Pennsylvania team had arranged a rugged schedule for 1951, including includ-ing Notre Dame and California-Pennsylvania California-Pennsylvania had a good-looking squad in action last fall with a better one all set for this next season. sea-son. No one knows what will happen hap-pen by next fall. Princeton and Cornell seemed to have the best Ivy League material for the 1951 campaign, but once again this will be a guess. Ray Robinson's Place Ray Robinson's victory over Jake LaMotta has already started a new debate on his place in ring ranking. This means the all-time spot the new middleweight champion should draw in fistic ratings. Wearing two crowns on his head at the same moment in two of the tougher divisions is only part of the story. Robinson has been forced to shed one title, the welterweight top piece, but he is still the best welterweight welter-weight there is. |
