Show SPEAKING PEAKING OF SPORTS LR by ROBERT T T mcshane ladd by poper urn union ALLEN university of kan 1 sas basketball coach and formerly mer ay a well known football mentor predicted recently that college football will die a suicide in 10 years the kansan in an interview stated that its a sad commentary on sur dur present setup that a boy has to prepare for four years to be a professional fess ional football player instead of starting out in professional profession al football as a rookie and working up the hard way educators want a boy to get an education in college not to learn to play pro football allen alien emphasized that he has no personal prejudice against the game but the te handwriting is plain already such schools as yale tale princeton harvard cornell and chicago have emphasized de football or are preparing to do so he further stated that the big time starts when any athlete in college gets more than he works for when a player demands and gets room board tuition books and expenses or wont play in some schools under present renditions conditions football is more professional than it is on the straight out and out pro teams of the national league certainly there is less hypocrisy among the professionals hypocrisy admittedly the esteemed mr bir allen alien is correct in at least one of his utterances hypocrisy does exist in certain intercollegiate football circles however it fair to indict the whole setup because of a few localized sore spots A wholesale condemnation justified on the basis of vague and unproved charges usually directed against the athletic departments of schools represented by consistently victorious elevens the thought that allen alien seems to convey at least to this observer is that the average college grid star is burning with the desire to leap on the professional band wagon he reaches first for his diploma the then f for or his pro contract we are inclined to doubt this it is is no great secret that the moguls of the national professional football league the major circuit of professional fess ess ional gridiron artists are complaining pla ining bitterly over the failure 0 of f many of the most publicized collegiate stars to join the play for pay ranks the moneybags of the professional league have failed to lure several of the brightest 3 college colleg stars during the past hau half dozen years and the powers of the national beag league ue are more than a little disturbed over that fact they look back and mom moan the fate that kept jay ber jay of chi berwanger cago 8 out of the fold then too the gold of professionalism failed to attract larry kelly and clint frank of yale or nile kinnick of iowa and these four men were winners of the heisman trophy since 1935 this years winner was tom harmon of michigan who has declared that he will not play pro football if he can help it the lone entry if harmon carries through with his plans it will leave davey obrien thi the only heisman winner of six six years to go into pro football small wonder that the national league owners and coaches are worried over the loss of big name players like any other form of entertainment tain ment a pro football team depends largely upon well known talent to draw crowds men like harmon kelly berwanger etc keep the turnstiles turn stiles clicking and that is the sweetest of all music to the trained ear of club owners the pro people be either amazed or dismayed however there are several good sound reasons why many of the best players dont forfeit their amateur standing upon graduation first of all topnotch top notch college players are bright young men and being bright young men often are offered good jobs when they graduate the depression is lessening and they have a better chance of getting a start in industry then too the college grad graduate aate who has made a name for himself in football is smart enough to know the fat profitable contracts last only until a new group of players with fresher publicity appears on the gridiron scene sport shorts In dianas basketball squad is an all hoosier affair ft wayne and are in the lead each having contributed three men to the team north carolina and the university of virginia have met on the gridiron 45 times and the series as a result of north carolinas 10 to 7 victory this year is a stalemate each has scored 21 triumphs and there were three ties hank deberry the former brooklyn catcher was elected to the tennessee assembly last november |