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Show YOU learn a little as the years pass by. Not much. Just a little. One of the few things I've learned this season, meaning 1945, is that the word "ereatest" Granlland Rice doesn't belong in sport. There is no such word. There never was and never will be a "greatest" football or baseball team a "greatest" golfer or "greatest" pitcher pitch-er or "greatest" anything. The word is simply too big for the human race to handle. The word "good" is different. Even the word "great" in sport has been overused. Look over the list Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth in baseball Jim Thorpe, Pudge Heffelflnger, Bronko Nagur-ski. Nagur-ski. Red Grange, and 20 others in football. Among the pitchers Cy Young, Mathewson, Johnson, Alexander, on and on. Among the golfers Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson, Harry Vardon.; Among the fighters or boxers Dempsey, Jeffries, Louis. I can give you 10 more. Among the greatest college football foot-ball teams Army 1945, Notre Dame 1943, Notre Dame 1930, Minnesota, Southern California, Pittsburgh, Alabama Al-abama 1935, Michigan and Yale in the old days. All good, maybe great. But none of them the greatest. Baseball teams The Cubs of 1906-1 1906-1 1910, the Athletics of 1910-1913. The Yankees at various stages. All good few great none the greatest. Who Is Football's Greatest? Is Doc Blanchard greater than Bronko Nagurski? Certainly not. Not yet. In fact Minnesota and Michigan camp followers will tell you that fast 230-pound Bill Daly is a greater offensive back than either Nagurski or Blanchard. And 'they can be1 right. I can name you more than a few backs that might be more valuable to a team than either Nagurski or Blanchard. The greatest passer or the greatest great-est pass receiver? Sammy Baugh or Don Hutson. Maybe.- But Greasy Neale says he would rather have Sid Luckman than Baugh and Hut-son Hut-son combined. Maybe Greasy is wrong. Maybe he isn't. Who is doing to, know? Greasy would rather rath-er have Van Buren than any back he ever saw. Bert Bell of the Steel-ers Steel-ers would rather have Bill Dudley for all-around value. I think Clint Frank of Yale is more valuable than either. I put this complicated problem up to Greasy Neale. "Maybe I'd rather rath-er have Clint Frank," he said. "I mean taken every way." As fine as Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis are, I don't think either can do, all the things that Clint Frank could do. We can move Into other fields to prove there is no such word as "greatest." Man o' War or Exterminator? Man o' ; War quit as a 3-year-old. Man o' 'War is the symbol of racing rac-ing greatness. But Exterminator ran and won for many years from six furlongs to two miles from 120 pounds to 140 pounds. As we move along I still say there is no greatest. There is neither an individual star, a team or a horse that any one can put above all others oth-ers in competition. Although Pudge Heffelfinger had one unchallenged football record at least. He was an All-America in 18S9 and just as good 30 years later when he was 53. Who can say whether Bobby Jones, Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen or Byron Nelson was the greater golfer? Hagen beat Jones 12 and 11 in a 72-hole match. But Jones beat Hagen 10 straight years in the U. S. Open, where the blue chips were down. Modern Advantages Only yesterday I ran across an old-timer who had run the 100-yard dash against Arthur Duffy and Ber-nie Ber-nie Wefers, In the fast time of 9.0. "Don't forget," he said, "this time was over a slow track with bad running shoes. Under modern conditions con-ditions either Duffy or Wefers could have beaten Jesse Owen, Paddock or any other modern sprinter. So, again, who is the greatest sprinter? The answer is nobody. Games are played under different conditions, where the modern bunch have all the better of the breaks in every way. They get the faster tracks, the better equipment, the better groomed and easier golf courses, the better coaching and training in every form of sport, the better chance to improve. There isn't a man connected with sport for the last 50 years, or a team, that could be called "the greatest." There- has never been a greatest football player, a greatest .baseball player, or a greatest anything else. In other words, sport has known no superman, and neither has the human hu-man race in any other form of existence. exist-ence. Unknown thousands with the same break could have surpassed famous names. This outburst is a part answer to those who keep writing writ-ing in asking about "the greatest" In various lines. It is still worth while just to be good. |
