Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 15

i CQHN-ING ttmmwmtm TOWER By Art Cohri Sports Editor VOL. CXXXV OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1941 15 NO. 140 ana Ever since Soup Shaughnessy moved to Palo Alto and won a couple ball games, I've been hearing and reading of nothing except the mysterious intricacies of the formation, a com Bitter StraderrRouted Gaels-HeadEast plex system so unfathomable that it would revolutionize foothall rL I have personally waded through two books, 27 magazine articles and 588 newspaper stones eulogizing the invincibility cf the formation, an ingenious stratagem so perplexing as to make Einstein's theory of relativity a kindergarden exercise by comparison. Certainly no mortal could solve it. It was something out of this world.

Stanford's 1940 record proved that. Indeed, the formation was to' football what the home-run play is to baseball. It was the nostrum for all ills, the answer to all problems. Jn short, it was the nuts! 1 They laughed when I sat down and wrote in the October 11 edition of the Cohn-ine Tower AFTER Soud had started the 1941 season'bv knocking off Oregon and murdering U.C.L.A., 33-0: "I am not convinced Stanford is the most solid club in the league The Indians WILL get dumped at least twice. Three hours after that issue of The Tribune hit the streets, Oregon State whipped Stanford, 10-0.

Last Saturday Washington State did it all over again, but good. And who are the supermen who destroyed the beautiful myth of the formation? Just a couple hayshakers from the Northwest, that' all Lon Stiner, the Oregon State coach, is the1 youngest character-builder in the Coast Conference. He's only, 38, makes $6600 a year and learned what little footba)Llieknows in the corn belt of Nebraska. Just a bush leaguer. But the formation didn't foolhim one minute.

Then Babe Hollingbery, who has ben building character at State for 16 years, proved Stiner's win was no fluke. Nobody has ever taken Hollingbery seriously, especially the Babe. He never wanted to set the world on fire bujt the formation was too easy, the Babe couldn't resist that temptation. And the irony of it all is that Hollingbery, the master-mind" who slopped the formation cold the genius who virtually kicked Stanford but of the Rose Bowl is a coarse fellow who never attended college. In fact, he frankly confesses he doesn't know how he ever managed to feC' PODESTO ivtrtm OODESTO if -l Oi i I ik Ill IROSKOSKYI hi- fHIIIIIlC fhsd 9l wrf i to fpz-uj I Halm I 1 4 if I m-mr If 4rH viP it GSSl 'if VY bM as far as hieh school.

So much for the advantages of higher education and the unfathom able complexities of the formation. Systems Don't Mean a Thing And so much, too, for all the phoney mummery peddled in the name of the formation Rockne System, Warner System or the Abbott-Costello System. The greatest system ever devised, like the most famous coach the game has -ever known, is no better than the worst player on the squad. Let football's promoters, its parasites and cheer leaders, rave about this coach or that one, their systems, formations and plays. They're selling a bill of goods.

Buy it if you wish, sucker. But I'm telling you that football is one of the most simple, perhaps the most stupid of all spectator sports. I've known it for years and Babe Hollingbery proved it all over again Saturday when he licked the vaunted formation and its streamlined plays with a moth-eaten offense, perhaps the most archaic of the game's most ancient systems. Stanford's apologists are whining that Washington State got all the breaks Saturday. That is a half-truth.

Since the beginning of the 1940 season1 Stanford has been the luckiest team in the United States. It has won game after game on luck. Which is all right, because I have long since been resigned to the fact that the element of chance is the greatest single factor in life. Washington State has lost two games this year by one-point margins. It had a break coming.

But even the Palo Alto cheer-leaders admit the Cougars won the game on their merits and deserved it. They won it because their players ran faster and hit harder. No system had anything to do with it. Battered Stanford men were limping off the field all afternoon Saturday. That was because they were not hitting as hard as they were being hit That's always the case.

It was all elementary though, no complex theories. Bab Hollingbery, a high school man, wouldn't understand anything ompUeatcd. Neither would his boys. They don't pretend to be in-taUactueL Hollingbery would never write a book or an article on strategy. Ha couldn't, even if he wanted to.

His conscience wouldn't let him. But the fakers will continue to use the same old plots, even the reliable old props, just a long as there are gulls left Who will pay to see the same old shows. What the hell, Uncle Tom's Cabin is still running. Why Stanford Will NOT Go to Pasadena i Tribune Magic Eye by Keith Dennison. core.

A conversion and the game was all tied up, 7-7. Santa Clara then got going and wound up with a. 35-13 win, a terrific "Litfle Game" licking. lcusky (68) on end around, but Rupe Thornton (26), Santa Clara guard, messed up the play, and Alyn Beals (3), Bronc end, snagged the ball in midair and rambled 36 yards to This wag the play which started Santa Clara off toward a 35 io 13 victory over St Mary's yesterday at Kezar Stadium. John Podesto was supposed to have reversed to Roy Rus- Bowl Cougars ame ose eman Today's $64 question: Who will get the Rose Bowl bid? Before answering that on, have a few angles, political and otherwise: 1 Stanford has played In EIGHT Hose Bowl games, four during the past eight years.

Oregon State has NEVER gone to the Rose Bowl. 2 Stanford plays NEITHER Montana nor Idaho this season. Oregon playsBOTH Montana and Idaho. 3 and Idahorpart-time members of the CoasT Conference, enjoy full voting each has one ballot in the election to determine which Conference team will receive the bid. AL DERiAN BACK IN SHAPE FOR CALIFORNIA PRACTICE 4 The Northwest Axis is scorched at Stanford for its threatened bolt from the Conference and is determined tr present a solid front against Stanford if it withdraws, particularly to boycott it in all-sports.

All BRONCOS WHALE THE TAR OUT OF ST. MARY'S, 35-13 Buck Shaw's Santa Clarans Have Easy Going in 'Little Big Next By BILL TOBlTT Someone ouehta warn, the folks in Los Angeles, that the else being even, Stanford will get nothing front the Axis. 8 The Northwest Axis Washington, Washington- State, Oregon Oregon State, Montana, Idaho now controls the' Conference because it Injured Left Halfback Again Ready As Bears Start Work for 'Big Game' By LEE DUNBAR Coach States W.S.C. Champs Should Have Beaten Stanford by Four Touchdowns, He Says PULLMAN, Nov. 17.

U.R) The Washington State College football team, which has punctured the Rose Bowl bubble for three Pacific Coast conference teams this Fall, arrived horte today from California and immediately set up a clamor for the Pasadena invitation with Coach "Babe" Hollingbery officiating as head drum-beater. The ever-excited Hollingbery was in a wrathful mood. His first act holds six of the ten votes. Oregon inougn lecnnicany uta wim omiuwu iui ference lead, each with two defeats, actually is the legitimate leader because (a) it defeated Stanford, 10-0, and (b) it has scored five Conference victories to Stanford's four, its 33-0 win over Idaho, a team Al Derian, best running back of the numerous youngsters who have a crack at the left halfback posjtion at California since. Jim Jurkovich's retirement, will be back in harness Stanford does not meet, being as bonafide as a victory over any other rumblings heard there yesterday wasn't another earthquake but merely the Santa Bronco's whaliftg the tar out of the St.

Mary's Gaels here at Kezar. The reason; the noise reached that far is because Santa Clara visits that city next Saturday Jo play U.C.L.A. Poor Conference member. when the Bears resume practice this evening. 7 Oregon State, by beating Montana Saturday and Oregon Most Derian suffered a slight concussion when he crashed with Ray Frankowski in the Washington game, and was U.C.L.A.

Provided, of course, Saturday's Broncos are a reason on the sidelines last Saturday when the Bears dropped a. able facsimile of yesterday tough 6 to 0 decision to Oregon Alyn Beals turned up as a fifth Theywhipped their old pals State. was to- dispatch a -telegram to San Francisco football writers who im columnist in -the St. Mary's- back- fro'm Moraga by 35 "to 13, the week, will end its Conference schedule with 7 victories and 2 defeats for a final percentage of .778 while Stanford, even if rthould win the Big Game, which is doubtful, can wind up with onlyrve Conference victories and two losses for a .704. 8 Those who ignore Montana and Idaho in the Conference standings seenvto forget- (a) Montana-and Jdaho are-legal and official members of the Conference, (b) the votes of Montana and Idaho in the Rose Bowl selection count as much as any other two members, even Stanford and California, (c) Montana and Idaho receive pro-rata shares of the Rose Bowl gate receipts.

How, then, can their games be ignored in the Con-fprenee standines? field, stole the ball and scored the There are many besides this writer who feel that Dorian's plied Washington State's 14-13 upset most touchdowns ever re leveling touchdown for the Broncos. win over Stanfords Hose Bowl Strader Raps Grid Official Mentor Says Rule Decision Cause of Sr. Mary's Collapse By ALAN WARD "I took a trip on a train and I thought about you." A year ago there was a popular song which went something like that, and maybe Norman (Red) Strader is humming the melody today. Not happily but bitterly. Norman the Red is taking a trip on a -train and mentioned in the first sentence is Leo Harris, field judge in yesterday's game between Strader's Galloping Gaels and the Santa Clara Broncos, won.

by latter 35-13. It was Harris who, after Head Linesman Jimmy Hole had signaled a mere incompleted pass, overruled the verdict and charged the Gaels with interference with a receiver, putting the Broncos directly In 8" scoring' position. AN IRKED GENT Strader, ifli the Gael dressing room late yesterday afternoon, just an'hour or two before, he-and his Gallopers and a flock of Vacationists entrained for New Yorl- r.nd next Saturday's game with Ford-ham, was an irked gentleman. His annoyance was not toward his own lads for the crushing defeat they had received. He wasn't sore Coach Buck Shaw or the Broncos as a unit.

He was, however, mightily displeased with Harris and Harris' fecision which, he claimed, so completely knocked the wind from the Moragans' sails they broke open at the seams thereafter. Strader admitted he. approached Harris between halves and askerl by what process of roasonine he had One reason the Gaels wished to corded by a victor in the 20 scrimmage the" Bears will be in top physical condition for the first time since the St. Mary's opener. Henry Zacharias, whcT was hurt on the first play Saturday when the- Beavers piled on him after he had been run out of the sidelines, will be in condition to take his turn against the bound Indians Saturday was a di presence on the playing field.

Saturday jnight have, beea tha dif games of football played between keep the affair on a more result of wet.4ieJd the two institutions in the modern Ktui whs uieu wiui was If It wasn't dry and if it wasn't Fordham in New York Saturday, era of their family relationships. hot, then I wasn't there," one of the telegrams read. They sneaked out of Kezar with Just why the Broncos poured it Tribe. their shirt tails dragging after yes on the way they did is difficult to "I had my coat off and my shirt ference between vjctory and defeat for California. There is no question that, since medical decree sent the great Jurkovich to the sidelines, Derian has been by far the best of the remaining left halfbacks.

With two weeks to prepare for terday's whipping, mortified at determine. It might have been the The injury he suffered Saturday was painful but not serious and it is believed he will be in shape thoughts of- facing Gotham with reaction to being suddenly freed 9 Oregon State would be penalized in all Rose Bowl consideration if it lost to Idaho or Montana. Why, then, should it not be credited for victories over them, considering the risk involved? 10 Coast Conference rules do not provide for any official league football which makes mine as good as any and those compiled by the Northwest Axis best of. all. J.

such a amirch on the escutcheon. from their starvation diet of three straight defeats. It might have been two weeks hence. Stanford there Is every reason the way the breaks fell. But they shouldn't feel so badly.

They were half of one of the dizziest, screwiest games of football 'HCalifornia came out of the Oregon Slate game in far better condition WEREN'T THAT BAD 1 than Stanford did in its losingtussle sleeves rolled up," said, "and guys' at my age just don't dp that in wet weather." "There was' a little dew on the field when the teams began warming up," Hollingbery told the 2000 boisterous students and townspeople who met the train. "But by game time, it had disappeared and only one ball was used. Does that sound wet?" "They. saywe got the breaks. I Continued Page 16, CoL 7 Who's going to the Rose Bowl? I say.

Oregon State though I believe, as I have since September 1, that the best team in the Conference is Washington. But it wasn't because St. Mary's with Washington State. Babe Hoi li-ngbery's Cougars put up a par these eyes have witnessed. PLENTY OF PASSES The game was crammed with in was that Gaels were fighting their darndest to keepjt within believe California will put up its best game against the team from Palo Alto.

In the opinion of Coach Stub Allison his charges played their Beet game of the season last Saturday and he expects an even better performance from them against the Indians, For one thing, barring injuries In ticularly rugged type of game and reason. They even started out hold while there was no suggestion of ing the upper hand and a 7 to 0 Jead dirtyVorlc, it was generally admit- cidents, to which St. Mary's contributed with its tactic of throwing the football around at every other opportunity Qfi4h 63 times 4he and then the celling fell in when Continued Page 17, Col. 7 Huskies Best in Conference Because That right, Washington has the best of a very poor lot of Conference teams. Actually, there is hardly no' difference between Washington and Stanford, Washington State, Oregon and Oregon State.

These five teams are of almost identical, ability or lack of it. v- There is not one standout on the Coast. That is shown by the con Gaels handled' the ball, 30 of them 15 Elevens were devoted to passes and all but two were thrown by- Johnny Po desto. The othes twor both completed SO WHAT? WE WON A GAME, SAY BR 0 CS 1 sistency of their inconsistency. All the clubs take turns beating each Still Unbeaten were chucked by Jim McPartland.

These figures don't include the four times Podesto tried to pass and was smeared for an accumulated loss of 44 yards. Those go into those 33 etier. The jumbled mess makes no sense at all, except that there is. not single, Conference team with any semblance of real class. 1 Just a bunch of selling platers, that's all.

There )s no rhyme or feason to the Conference race because there is no form. As you can see In Grid Race Casanega in Comeback but Shaw Is Still Afraid "running" But this maneuver paid dividends, for yourself decided witf re By BOB BLAKE- NEW YORK, 17. P) Fif Tfiere was good reason for terrific shouting and hefty back slapping Take U.S.C. It is the worst team in all Trojan history, Routed by Ohio State, 33 to 0. Trounced by Oregon, 20 to 6.

Drubbed by California, 14 to 0. Crushed by Stanford, 13 0. Four beatings in its last five games and yet, this miserable; U.S.C. team defeated BOTH Oregon State and Washington State, the only two teams that have been able to beat Stanford in 19 games since i -r a t. 4L.

rrt" teen elevens, including such widely-known outfits as Minnesota, A. end Duquesne, retain unblemished records as the football season heads into the final in the Santa Clara dressing room even though it contributed but one of the two St. Mary's touchdowns. It rolled up 228 yards on 13 completions to give the Gaels a bulge in statistics of 270 td 196 net. "The Moragans even out-downed the Broncos, 14 to 11.

But what of it? Santa Clara scored five touchdowns to two. Oh yes and a safetyr yesterday. ceivers and its subsequent yardage penalty, was the logical decision. WHAT TO SAY? "Harris told me: That's the way I saw so what could I reply to that?" Strader explained. It might be worthy of mention that observers in the press- box were almost unanimous in the opinion the play in question, in After all, the boys had snapped three game losing streak by But it must be remembered that the Bronco coaching staff dug deep, to inject little known players in the game.

A Second, third' and fourth string player will always try harder to score than a first team man. It's just because the kid wants to make good in the worst way. tVHY HE DID IT fortnight. But it wasn't the greatest game, in the opinion of Shaw. "Santa Clara," opir.ed Buck, "played the same as they have on any other preceding Saturday, Sunday or Armistice Day.

Only everything we tried worked." IT AIN'T A LIE That's no misstatement. St. Mary's in the opinion of Buck was not quite as, tough as he they might bo. Shaw r.d- trouncing St. Mary's 35- to 13, an by Stanford, 33, td 0.

Whacked by California, 27-to 7. Knocked for a unheard of score in the annual We- suppose it's necessary to de-i Little Big Game," But no, the Bronco locker room lifieate the scoring details. Its a ghastly task, but we'll make it as brief as possible. instead was comparatively quiet which Ray Ahlstrom. Gaol half- loop by Oregon State, 19 to 0.

Beaten by Washington and yet, this awful U.C.L.A. club whipped Washington State's Miracle Men and also defeated the Oregon team trat Hiked Santal Clara and is being picked to bowl over Oregon State! Stanford beats U.C.L.A, Washington and the Trojans. Those three teams beat Washington Staje so Washington State turns around and after the successful conquest. Buck Kenny Casanega. the former sought to down a Gaels began it less than Poihte C.

Tor Agn. 198 68 I 143 23- 204 13 367 10 8 2m 35 8 253 23 8 203 18 7 2:9 :5 7 150 13 7 145 32 7 157 45 7 171 32 147 7 108 11 144 Midland, Teachers Duqueane Kearney, Teachers MUlikin Duke A. M. Biadlcv Tech Rore Poly WeMem Michigan Minnesota Cae Pacific Lutheran Thiel Shaw, Al Ruffo and Lennie Casa did not constitute Castlcmont Higfi School star, only! Bronco throw, interferdnce. nova moved lilentlv aroind the mitted he was worried in the first "hTJ, nova moved suenuy arouna me two quarters of football but rnnm fnnorai nlnf ntf th kiH on quarter out irom men on II four minutes after the start.

'A beautiful quick kick 'by McPartland from his own 13 on St. Mary's first However, verdicts of they pay off on the officials, not the the he stole the show. Shaw thought he was the best bade oh the field what this casual observer thought Sxamins the records tlosely and you will find that Washington is play following the kick-off shoved comparatively easy sailing. There are those who will insist that Santa Clara "poured it on." was the greatest gam Santa Clara Continued J3 Col I Continued fax 18, CoL played this Masoa. Vf CL ft Colanda CoUm to-.