The Lieutenant Speaks His Piece

Lt. T, E. Brady, USNR, and based in New York, drops us a line in
which he writes: “Got quite a kick out of your article, building up the
morale of Ohio State. One need go back only briefly to the era when
prosperity was ‘in O. S. U.’s corner, but one is inclined to smile a bit
now that the big baron of Ohio college football is confronted with the
same problems our smaller mueneye schools have faced annually the
last 10 years.

“The problems of the little fellow were brought about in no small
way through the depredations of the larger institutions who raided .the
high schools for talent to the extent that boys who normally might
have gone to the smaller colleges, played a lot of football and had
great fun out of it, wasted away on the player benches of bigger
universities.

_ “T happened to be in Otterbein during lean years when we were
lucky to have a squad, let alone talent in either respectable numbers
or quality. Yet we played through a schedule against stronger foes
such as’ Case, Muskingum, Denison, Wooster, Mt. Union and the like,
taking our shellackings, bumps and bruises in stride. And we were
but one of many in the same boat. Yet no one sought to glorify the
,|losing ways of such smaller schools or give passing thought to their

problems or h survived them ll.

: But we did the best we could. Got the very most enjayment out

of traditional rivalries and carried on, come what may. Defeats may
have overshadowed victories, but if we had to lose we got the very
most out of being on the short end.”

Little Fellows Had Tough Going

We appreciate Lt. Brady taking time out to write us and expressing| ;
his views on a subject that we feel sure he does not share alone, .The|--}
_|football problems of the smaller college were rapidly approaching a| {
crisis when the war came along. The going was getting tougher and
tougher because the lack of material, lack of gate receipts, lack of
most of the things needed to continue functioning.

Time was when schools like Oberlin, Case, Denison and Western
Reserve were on par with Ohio State in football; but*that era has long) 3
since passed, State left the ranks of the Ohio conference for that of} ;
the Western conference in 1913, It wasn’t but a few yeors later that
the immortal Chic Harley sparked the Buckeyes to the Big Ten
championship. It was about this time that Henry Ford improved on
the old G. O. P. slogan of “a chicken in every pot,” to “an automobile
liin every garage.” Interest in Ohio State football no longer was con-
fined to Columbus alone. It became statewide. Then it was that a
brand new concrete ‘stadium blossomed out on the Ohio State campus,
one with an actual seating capacity of 62,110. Henceforth Columbus
not alone was to be known as the capital of the state, but the mecca
for Ohio football as well,

Big-time football is big business and is conducted as such through
-smoothly-knit organizations that operate with the same precision as
its well-drilled grid elevens on a Saturday afternoon, But of course
the piece de resistance of the show window is the football team, plus
the 100-strong maneuvering band that takes over between halves. The
‘|result is a football extravaganza that draws from near and _ far,
especially if the football team is in the thick of the championship race.

It is no longer a secret that excellent grid material just doesn’t
wander onto the practice fields of the major football universities. It
-|is on hand because the necessary contacts and inducements were made
to bring it there.

' The smaller schools have no way to combat such methods. Jobs
are scarce in the towns and villages that house most secondary colleges.
So they take whatever material happens to be available and do the
“|best they can while living in the shadow of the big feliows.

|| Some May Not Be Back At All

As Lt. Brady pointed out in his letter, the manpower shortage that
fell to the lot of Ohio State this year, long has been an old story with

_| the smaller schools even if such a state of affairs didn’t create a ripple|

on the surface of public interest at large.

It also will be the same story after the war. In fact some of the
“|smaller fry who had to suspend for the duration may not be back at
all. Most of those who are still struggling to field some kind of a
‘Iteam, despite the inroads of war and age-old problems, are doing so
_|because they fear if they abandon the game it will not be for thejo
duration but for keeps.

What prompted Lt. Brady’s missive was a recent column we wrote
in which we commented on the unusualness of the football situation
at Ohio State that found the Bucks short of both material and victories.
We can assure the lieutenant, that in doing so we were not trying to
build up the morale of Ohio State. That is the task of Coach Paul
Brown and it must be said for him that he has done nobly in this
respect. It just so happens the football that Lt. Brady champions and
- |with every justification, is a victim of the times, or was when the war

:| leveled the ‘college game for both the big and the small.

We wish we could see a brighter future for it when things get
back to normalcy, but there is nelnins in the wind to-indicate the
; picture bite be much different.