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Show TAOES a winning horse make a star trainer, or does the trainer make the winning horse? Does a winning baseball team make the leading manager, or does the manag- ,. er make the win- j. r,vv.. ning baseball team? J"' Does a winning r ' football team make , " the winning coach, or does the coach , make the winning ' ' football team? ' '" This ancient ar- ' ' i gument keeps pop- ' y ping up from time " ' ..-i to time, but the an- Connie Mack ' swer is as simple as adding two and three. The material ma-terial nearly always is about 80 per cent of it often more than that. As a result coaches, trainers and managers are given far too much credit for winning results, and have to shoulder far too much blame for failures they couldn't help. They have Important work to handle and their superior skill is needed at times to beat an opponent just a bit better but they can't close the gap between class and mediocrity. In something more than 40 seasons sea-sons Connie Mack has won nine pennants. He also has had as many or more tail enders. Frank Chance won four pennants In five years with the old Cubs, but Chance couldn't get the Yankees, or Highlanders as they were known then, within V-rocket range of the first division. The same thing applies to football coaches who are bedecked with laurel and olive when they have a big, hard-charging line and fast-moving fast-moving backs but who are panned to a pulp when they can't win with a poor line and slow-moving ball carriers. Football coaches, realizing realiz-ing this, with the help of willing alumni have outclassed all other fields in locating promising talent and bringing the same to the campus cam-pus they must guard especially when they have enough money with which to work and the scholastic requirements are softened up. No one can blame the coaches for this action, the same being for seU-protection. seU-protection. As far as material vs. management manage-ment goes, what manager could lift the Athletics or the Phillies out of last place? In your summary you can Include Stalin, Truman and John L. Lewis. The winning answer is the materiaL Best College Outfit In the midst of the tumult and the shouting from baseball, racing, boxing box-ing and golf, there Is a clear note from college sports that sings its own song. This note comes from Oklahoma A. and M. to this effect: Dear Mr. Rice: Please allow me to introduce myself. my-self. My name is Weldon B. Boyles of Oklahoma City. I am attending Oklahoma A. & M. for the first time under the G.I. Bill. When X first enrolled, in January of this year, I realized that Oklahoma Okla-homa A. & M. was turning out a basketball team of national importance impor-tance and, in view of the fact that A. & M. had a national ranking football foot-ball team last fall, I began to wonder won-der if the Aggies were not setting a new American mark in that: (1) No school, two years in a row, ever ranked so high in both of our major ma-jor sports (basketball, football); (2) No school has ever accomplished the feat of winning THREE top sports in ONE school year. Here is part of what the Aggies have done so farr In FOOTBALL, the Aggies ranked 11th in 1944, plus a Cotton Bowl win. In BASKETBALL, the Ags placed 1st in 1944, beating DePaul. j But look what they've done this school year of 1945-1946: i 1. FOOTBALL They ranked 2nd (tied with Alabama) and won the Sugar Bowl game. 2. BASKETBALL They ranked 1st. Kentucky did not meet them because I don't think Adolph Rupp cared to take the chance. 3. Wrestling they won 1st place in the NCAA tournament, beating Iowa Teachers. Is It possible, when you compare the Aggies against some of the other oth-er schools, that you might print some of the findings In your daily column? There probably are many sports lovers in our land who would enjoy the reading of such information, informa-tion, although you would be laying yourself wide open to a blast of controversy from many loyal alumni alum-ni of other schools. Weklon B. Boyles. We have no set of vital statistics at hand to clear up this point, but for the moment we can't recall another an-other college outfit with a better all-around all-around record against the competition competi-tion of present years. Career of Jake Jones The new White Sox first baseman, Jake Jones, stands 6 feet 3 inches and comes from Monroe, La. He left college to play ia the Texas league and in 1941 was called to the White Sox but the arrival of war ended Jones' career as a ballplayer when he enlisted in naval aviation. Here is what one of the flying mates says: "A great guy and one of the best fliers I ever saw," he said. "Jake was on the Fighting Lady, one of the flghtingest carriers in the war. |
