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Show I SPORT LIGHT , West Losses Threaten Rose Bowl ' By GRANTLAND RICE TF YOU TAKE enough punches, 1 especially around the head, you are more than likely to get dizzy. This, apparently, is what has hap- pened to Pacific Coast Conference football. Those five Big Nine victories s i x if you care to Include In-clude Alabama have jolted the west coast off balance. The first suggestion sug-gestion from Grantland Rice Groom, Notre Dame's star center for the last three years. Jerry has been one of the best defensive centers cen-ters in football since 1948 and Notre Dame is certain to miss his effective effec-tive play next fall. "We lose a good many men from our 1950 squad," Groom said, "and our replacements for this next fall will be uncertain. There will be at least six or seven regulars missing possibly more and our freshman squad this season wasn't any too strong. The freshmen had several pretty good men, but no outstanding stars. Our substitute or reserve list was pretty thin this last season. This was one of the reasons for our bad year." It might be mentioned here that Groom will be one of the missing stars who will be hard to replace. "Fortunately we have an extremely ex-tremely able coaching staff," Jerry continued. "But again this staff has no idea how many men we lose before next fall. And Notre Dame right now is not in a position to lose many more. We are not as well fixed for material . as many others are." There is a question as to whether wheth-er the platoon system can survive the lack of material in a war year. It has been proved that teams with two platoons have a big advantage over the single platoon, although Michigan had five men who played on both offense and defense. "Notre Dame had to work this way most of the season," Groom said. "We had to meet too many fresh troops." It is more than possible that football foot-ball won't be important enough next fall to bother about. ... Size of the Draft Football and baseball, our two major sports, lined up with basketball, basket-ball, the biggest drawing sport, face heavy cuts in their playing strength for 1951. Just how heavy these cuts will be is still a matter of "uncertainty. "uncer-tainty. But since a big part of the draft strikes at ages ranging from 19 to 23 or 24, you can see what the impact im-pact will be. I asked Bert Bell, pro football's commissioner, how hard his game would be hit. "We were facing the finest crop in pro football history," Bert said "Up to the draft. I am afraid there won't be many left. I would say that at least 75 per cent of col lege stars graduating this spring will be taken. At least that many The student who has just graduated will be called before those still in coDege. A great many colleges have ROTC courses and those enrolled in these will be given a chance to finish their training. In any event they must leave college to enter the armed forces " the west coast presidents was to abolish the Rose Bowl game. Hooked with this startling idea were other suggestions such as playing the game soon after the regular season ended or having all-star teams from each conference play. The latter suggestion doesn't make any sense at all. It would be merely an exhibition and would also conflict with the San Francisco Fran-cisco Shrine Bowl, the finest charity that football knows. The west coast presidents are in a tough spot. College presidents all over the map have been partly blamed for football's overemphasis, proselyting, payment of cash, alumni uprisings, coaching troubles trou-bles and various other ills and ailments ail-ments that have attacked the game. The stew over the choaching system at Southern California and Stanford, the heavy panning pan-ning Lynn Waldorf took after his third straight defeat, all helped to stir np the presidents. They wanted to do something about the situation, bpt they could think up no way of punishing punish-ing or curbing the alumni, where a big part of the trouble starts. It is all well enough to say a college president should take a hand in handling the disturbance. But he can't very well be coach, athletic ath-letic director, commissioner, alumni director and president at the same time. It was a heavy shock to the west to discover that its famous Rose Bowl was in real danger. This would also include the midwest, since the Big Nine or Big Ten wouldn't work with the south or southwest, and the east is out of the picture. This situation would leave future bowl games to the Cotton, Sugar, Orange, Gator, etc., unless the Pasadena committee arranged an outlaw affair, apart from any conference. con-ference. That could happen. . What with the sanity code leaping leap-ing back into the picture, this promises to be the busiest winter football has known, far away from the actual gridiron. ... More about Notre Dame We ran recently into Jerry |