* aye

“Septenber 14, 1945.

Mre Harold Keith, ae

Direetor of Publicity,

Intercollegiate Athletics, : 7s oh ee ec 53 se EO Se
‘The University of Oklahoma, sh | ; fe in a BC
Norman, en. , |

Dear Haroléy

_-I-whll-ve glad to help you and Brave on-any article that you try to

land. I-rather agree with you that the basketball goon subject is a

bit trite and I warn that it is a little early for a basketball article,
but I am always happy to help you in any ondesvor you undertake. You

have my blessing.

2 ody ennals- Se toe Aha WA faut Wiskte wheei'tie had dex-ippienthé-te
Opposing team 7 feet tall. Harold, the rule that is now before the
Schbe Gnleek Ane gwehhWh Ming Ate -eomiiiike ot the bali Sahin Gena
flight by a goaletender is a discriminatory rule. Any rule that doesn't
work both ways is a poor rule. The offensive player ean tip the ball
inte the basket while it is still on the rim or he can jump up and dunk
his whole arm 4nd the ball into the basket, even touching tne inside
rim with his arm as he dunks it in, and the goal counts. Yet we have
got some asinine administrators of basketball who make these crazy
rules and expect people to accept thom. A rule like this wouldn't
stand in a court of law five minutes. I% would be thrown out of court
because it is discriminatory. I am sure you can see this without
elaborating further on it. The defense must have the sane right as

both sides and every pleyer on both teams an equal opportunity.

But I can tell you frankly why it meets such strenuous opposition.
All boys like the drive-in, lay-up. The goal is close to the floor
lixe that speedy drive-ic. Now understand, please, Harold,
a ee ee te We have
the lower hurdle for high school boys, a lighter shot, a lighter discus
fo: secant Why shouldn't we have e lower basket for high
sehool boys, say the 10 foot basket? ‘There are not enough mezszenine-
Oe ee ee es eee ee
college and in independent besketball playing days - thet is when you
get the Fortenberrys and other altitudinous players.

ae
alll

Some people will mention the 11 feot basket but there are players
now in the gume who can touch an 11 foot basket and knock the ball away.
Therefore, the 12 foot basket will forever remove the possibility of
: ee eee eee
or above it. ;

_ It might interest you to kmow that with all the argument on the back-

 
 

aan

board, the only reason a 6 ft. 4 in. backboard was put up was to keep

the spectators from kicking the ball away or knocking it away from the

basket when the player shot. And there are still a lot of

ive basketball coaches, like the coaches in the Big Ten, who still stick
to the 6 ft. 4 in. rectangular board. And it was used as a protecting

wall, not as a shooting space. Any fello who cannot shoot close enough
to the basket to hit the kidney shaped board should lose the ball out of
bounds, yet the Big Ten coaches will not agree to a smaller board. And

it was put up for no purpose of rebounding at all.

You may think I have digressed a bit in bringing gf prathone genera but
I em showing you that a parallel case is the basket in a
feet because Dr. Naismith tacked it on a ruming track and the track was
10 feet from the floor. low through all these years we have argued about
the player interfering with the ball at the basket, and all we would have
- to do to eliminate all difficulties of that nature, and delete many of
the rules that are now in the book would be to raise the basket. 4nd
yet there are many people who will not agree to this because either the
drive-in or some other of their pets would be slightly curtailed. The
drive-in calls for the awarding of an extra shot.

Statistics have been made to show that between 72 and 92 per sent of

all the fouls are made within a radius of 16 to 20 feet of the basket.

We say that there are too many free throws, yet the very people to ergue

that point will not agree to a rule that would eliminate most of those

fouls. They go way around the measure by asking for five and six

personal fouls on a player to disqualify rather than four. Yet, if you

would reise the basket there would be very few players go out of the

game because most of the fouls are made on driving in fer the besket,

or being right under the basket when a player jumps up to shoot and is fouled by a
player too closely guarding the offensive man. The most disadvantageous position
for ‘ax offensive man is directly under a 12 foot basket. He should be out a
piece to bank his shot or to shoot in for the goale

Harold, why don't you get Bruce to put up a 12 foot hak ea ist his
players shoot at it for a while? I have found thet most of the objections
to the 12 foot basket are from coaches who heve never shot at one. I an
just venturing a good-natured guess now that Bruce has never shot at one,
end of course the thing that causes Bruce to be extremely emphatic now is
this 7 foot boy gown at Stillwater.

Several years ago I wrote a short article and had it mimeographed on the
12 foot basket for college and independent teams. You will notice that I
stress college and independent teams, and if you do write the article I
-think you should set out definitely that it is not for high school players.
i am enclosing one of these mimeographed copies which answers most of your
questions. However, I will take your questionnaire in order and answer the
same so that you will get the stuff you desire in the way you ask it. But
I did want to bring some other points out in this epistle to you. If there
is anything else that you desire, please feel free to call upon me because
I am not unduly interested, as I told Bruce, in the Rules Comittee and ita
members, or the Coaches Association and its members. You can use any or all
of the quotations you desire. I am not particularly anxious to wet-nurse
any of the boys on the Rules Committee. I worked a good many years for what
I considered the best interests of basketball and I find that the majority
of these fellows are a group of basketball politicians who try to get some

 
 

a axles iy. emptiness iiss be os cscs
= si

~ ~ - «2 » ‘ Spe ane ee - . te — —

Sr I Sa rs oe a alld Pe
say straightforwardly and conscientiously to you that I have steadfastly
conta ‘fac She Hae’ tvarentix ‘of of basketball, regardless of whether that
rule helped me or not. I have felt that I knew enough basketball funda-
mentals that I could teach my boys to play the game so that any rule that
RE EY Sart SN Oe Bo aes 55a Ore, SN 2 orem

_ I eite the dribble. rule. In the second week of April, 1928, Knute Roolme
and I were speaking before the Wational fducation Association at Des Moines,
— at the Drake ficldhouse. Knute spoke on The Pedagogy ef Football and

I spoke onthe Pédagogy of Basketball. Two days prior to this meeting at
the fieldhouss, the Basketball Rules Committee hed abolished the dribble,
putting in the one bounce rule...In my speech on The Pedagogy of Basketball
I assailed.the National Baskethall Rules Committee as autocratic and high-
handed because they had not checked with any of the coaches to determine
their opinion, but because Dr. Walter Meanwell felt that the one bounce
rule. Si One, ee Nasa. Se eh AE, Se ee
mendation, .. - :

Ak controversial. storm broke over. the country with most of the coaches.
agreeing with.me. .1.received .160. telegrams from various coaches, sompli-
menting me upon my attacking the Rules Conmittee. I called for a meeting
of all the coaches eat the Drake Relays.in the next two weeks. We met and
set up a temporary committee and set a date for Chicago in June. At that
time I was elected president. We perfected an organization and called
upon the Rules Committee.to rescind the action, which they did. Out of
that turmoil was born the National Association of Basketball Coaches of
the United States. Many of Wa contins She Mae Seah, Sere ey, gem
oe Mey and it was quite the popular thing. os

i will now answer your ee question by questions.

(2) 1 disoussed the 12 foot rule in 1932, but first publicly proposed
it in an article in 1954. “In 1935 the Kansas Aggies end Kansas played at
Lawrence with 12 foot baskets, and Kansas State won the ball game. In
spite of this defeat, I consistently advocated the 12 foot basket. 2
proposed, Harold, that a field goal coimt 3 points and a free throw count
1. The mimeographed copy will Pe ete Se eee ee
it would help basketball. |

(2) i a a ea a il ats bien
would be that it would reduce 60 to 75 per cent of the fouls and keep
more players in the zamtee It would free the congestion aroumd the basket
and it would give the short man an opportunity to recapture a shot that
fell short of the 12 foct basket before it wont out of bounds. 1% wuld
definitely give the small, fast man ae great advantage. And too, a 12 foot
basket adds a. lot of visual pleasure to a high arehing shot that splits
the net, which is a decided advantage over the short tip-in, jamming and
‘batting the ball around the basket as obtains with the 10 foot basket.
The 12 foot basket will also move the guards further away from the basket
ee Se Cen eae ee
board and dowuia out from the, goal. AES isa

(3) x becktines Wk Meketielt, Accents, to. i 22 neee, tense wees the
fact that the drive-in and the lay-up would be taken away, and most every
player likes that; and the second reason is that I believe nobody would
gut SS Ae ees Pee ‘That is how strong they are an research. And

 
 

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(4) The ‘first goal-robber that i ever saw, as aa eall it,

_‘Bertke, of the Sioux Ci

played the 8
Me. were utter
imn to
og

Y.aM.CeAe back in 1904. He was 6 ft.
0.

— could not jump but he could stand near the basket and jum

y

oir NAL.
players

Kensas City Athletic Club and we

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ti

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ugh to deflect the ball awny from its course.

dees has consistently had the tallest men to contend with, Of course,

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foe ful jul
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Maball dailllt
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player, overt an retnn Fone throws, made both free throws because he
had developed this to the point that he could make more points on the free
throw route than he sould on the field goal route. ne EE ES seas SiGe:
(5) There were fewer of the tall boys in the early days” se the
junior high school coach did not have as many gymmasia to play in as he _

coach discovered this skyscraper oozing ethearally down the hall and he

nabhed him, not because he ‘was a basketball player, but because all he _
would have to do is stand near the basket, catch the ball, and lazily and
awkwardly spin the ball into the basket sbove the shorter end weaker high

school rere

=“{6) In thé old days they stopped it about the way they do now. Ifa
Sallae'enn mallee tan? placed ci vight sadée Wis feet. If hs tuk Ghod.p
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee

ee a eee ee

(7) Here is the set up. The Nationel ieaipiahdiek of Basketball Connties
dint ta wiaieiacs: and i might say that about 5 per eext of the mebers
actually work and are concerned with rules. The rest of them only ree
arrange their prejudices and howl over some rule that they think interferes
with them, Sut there are a few intelligent fellows in the Goaches Assoc-
iation who really want to do something about the rules. The other is a
tipplers’ convention, but: it is mot as bad as ‘the. football soaches conven-
tion.

The ‘Basketball Rules RE rl is comprised, as you know, of the college
and university coaches, the high sahool federation, the Y.M.C.A.'s, and
the Canadiation Association of Coaches and Y.M.CeA.'s. ‘The joint committee
gets out a questiomaire and Mr. Porter, the secretary of the High School
Federation, is a very. intelligent. and efficient fellow. The rules committee
hes a questionnaire committee. These ques tiaumas ree are sent to the high
By and large ‘most members soma from the High Sohool Federation. After these
questionnaires are returned the clearing house handles them, and these are
the things discussed by the rules body. The Coaches Association has the
right to. male its recommendation, but the rules body does not guarantee that
any of the recommendations will be followed. Generally some of them are.
But the rules body is purely'e political set-up. Major Griffith and L. W.
St. John are the boys behind the scenes, with L. W. St. Join the prime |
mover. Harold Olson iz their paid stooge. He is assistant to St. John
as athletic direotor at Ohio State. J. We St. Clair, of Southern Methodist
University, was for many years on the nominating committee of the rules
committee. He naturally ihomitated the man that Olson and St. John dictated
and for his reward in doing this he is now chairman of the rules committee.
George Edwards, a fine fellow, is a part of the machine. When the word
Se ee Se Polak ened Coen gemere ay, Jee

Sale: Weigle Shr Sui“ etait thet 3d. br tee Sie Se 7
arrive at. The year before the center jwsp was eliminated, Olson, St. John
and all the rules body were definitely against eliminating the center jump.
Then Olson and St. John made a trip to the Pacific Coast. They made srrange-
nents for Ohie State to play football and basketball out on the coast fora
number of games with the University of Southern California and other coast
teams. The next year, after these gentlowm returned from the Pasific Const,

 
 

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ee an Sat goss A » aN Seem . es - eh we . le oe ms — Se

St. “soli tisaiies Seu SEX bad. Suc “lunes Tebolaad AGK as mers ele ies "be
who wanted the tip off eliminated. It is my definite confiction that st.
John and Olson promised these Pacific Coast people that they would work for
the elimination of the center tip and in my judgment the price was games
with Ohio State on the coast. Now, I do not want you to quote me on this,
but I have made this statement confidentially to a mmber of people, and
eee See ae cs ee eee TE Rall cocld ba eiStont
Tk Scag wel Sink SLRS Oe “Win ‘vin wens Stlbe ik 28 tha eo
of these fellows can get out of it. That is why I am not much interested
eny more in such people's activities. Life isn't worth it, and why should
I worry about it. St. Clair is a fine fellow, but just another politician
when it comes to office ‘hope. Oswald Tower is an honest, square~shooting
fellow, the editor of the Rules Comittee, but St. John has always had June
Salmon as chairman, or some fellow that he could definitely handle, and
this fellow would go at the direstion of St. Jolm. The Canadian people do
not oppose much, They are fine people. The Y.M.C.A.'s for a while tried
to dictate: but siw they. were out of luck and they present little opposition.
St. John uses the high school people like Floyd Rowe of Cleveland, the
best of his advantage, but H. V. Porter is a tough nut to crack, and in my
eR Be 38 See evita. aC Sie _guetit DoS, be dose uot. ley =i% then sly.
in an administrative capacity. | ae =

- But hanes the thing, liarold, these fellows have the majority. They have
eight ‘votes and whatever they want to put through they do. Now don't mis-
understend me. They are intelligent fellows in a way, but the slate is

made in the N.C.AeA. set-up. It doesn't take long to have a rule passed.
You_can_ have it passed in one year or in one hour, but unless the powers —
thet be want it, you would have a tough time except where'it is over= —
whelmingly in favor, then of course er ‘would not fight ite

_ The reason, Bs r have’ told you, why this taller basket doesn't go over
is because all the high school players like to drive’ in for « lay-up and
they are afraid that will take too much out of the game. In fact, if you
see most high school players play when they have a good shot out 20 feet
from the basket they will start dribbling in for the shot, whereas if they
just stood end made their shot they would have a good shot ummolested. I
study these things and watch intramural games and high school teams play}.
and I gee it repeated so many times that ! can understand why they are
againat the 12 foot basket. But that is not for the high schools, you
understand.

ae ee

ashe

(ay ‘T hawe just dovered tho serter jap. ‘You stated it was wae seen ter
® year or so of expsrimentation. | No, they tried to put it over the first
year, but they were whipped on it. .Then_John Bunn, me es th the aid
of St. John and °lson and the rules committee, ‘naturally had the cards
stacked to the point that it went over but it was not a popular move, and
right now there is much opposition against the play without the center _
jump. But I do not think it will ever come back because the high school
pley over the nation manages, consciously and unconsciously, the doubtful-
ness of the return of the center jump, and the difficulty with the 12 foot
Duke re ee ee ee
ee ee SS oer ee ee ee a ee

(9) The ten second rule was Onke'd without first trying it out as an

 
 

ove

experiment. That was the matter of putting a division line across the

of the court and requiring the offensive team to bring. the: ball

in ten seconds. Then there was the three second rule which’ re-

quired te ee re
tha

© Veabetinkt peteuened no wig qualities af.
thrilling naturé as. it is played thet perhaps we could do without: the-
eee
ings

(10). i keen Bruce Drake that the experimentation idea won't work .
on this goalestealing controversy. Why should a coach give up the strongest
part of his play when he is not required te do so. I will bet if we were
playing Bruce and he had Ford under the basket he wouldn't take a chance of
_ being beaten -for iothing.. Yes, I*think he has something there, and if he
had this big-boy at Stillwater I'll bet he wouldn't give Hank Iba a chance,
end seul aprorseeneerees ee ee — Se ree

(12) ‘the ‘rules oumatttes. ‘aid pass ‘a juling; Harold, that no defensive man
could touch the ball: above the cylinder: ef the besket.- I haven't-even read.
the new rule, but do know that it is discriminatory. I don't see any differ-—
ence between the rule tiat you quote-and: the rule that we row have in effect...
a have never had enough tall fellows to bother, so they aren't going to worry
‘Can't you see what this 10 foot basket is doing for the searoh for tall
plérere by ‘coaches all over the couttry? Any coach realizes that with a 10
foot basket if he can get a 7 foot player it is worth ten to twenty points a
game offensively and defensively, whereas if they would raise this basket to
12 feet the search for this tall :player-would be-on the wane. There-are so
few tall players and when you.do get one the coach is practically asaqured
of a championship. Loek at this boy. Schulz on the Brooklyn Dodgers, 6 ft.
7 ine. He played with Hamline and won the championship in Kansas City.
Almost every time a fellow like Beisser, Boykoff, Kurlend, and in another
year, Komenivich, is on. a team the conch is assured of a championship.
Why wouldn't it be better to raise the basket to 12 feet and give everybody
an equal shot at the thing rather than have a fow tall players who dominate
the geme because the basket is really within their reach. 4dhen you ask me
what I think about the rules eamittes - well, I won't tell you what I
think, os oe ee ee ‘think. ee
Harolde :

(12) Sas ast sesh atthe vinlak: wnnGhtins = Std Wied Alas ila

wes discriminatory and I think the basketball coaches association had few
men who could write a rule without discrimination. I am asking you why should
Spies: selected Sha thn Aaaenda. Sak eeebiSaas Tron toning Soe tall Me The
downward flight when they allow the offense to do everything excépt to do a
giant swing on the rim before they dunk the ball in. Can't you see that dis-
 Grimination, Harold? As I told you, I haven't even looked at the new rule.
ee See ae er 6 ney oe Sie He ae ome phe aay eye ‘

ig tn t elt om. = aiaesie Sheeler Wile aietedatin, aaaoAtia Dar ines
ee ee ee in there to suit me.

(aa) ‘1 halve eaplaited GG you wn Cie GaeaClosdire Wan so’ Ua€ dose"t ef
mean much at the present. Ask Bruce to dig up ome of the questionnaires
ee ee He has them. ‘The coaches Association has a question-
—_— the rules body has a questionnaire, and if you agree with me about

 
 

niedictensthat Wt Tin’ Tedenth eesnd We ‘ath Bis indie “tf oats Gennady
put in there what he doesm*t like and somtimes the phrasing of the question
would not convey the intent of the committee which wrote that question. I
was on the questionnaire coumittes; in fact, have been on almost all of the
comaittees and if you would see some of the questionnaires filled out you
wieaie Gea ee oe for above normal ing
telligence. Don't think I am griping, Harold, I have just seen so much of
it ‘that you get very few unselfish coaches. The questionnaire committee
makes “survey of ali tie questicmaives and reports to the rules comd ttes
their findings. If you get 80 per eeht in favor of a thing it is almost sure
_o ee get 80 per ‘conte

(15) There is vory ‘ttle unc euniiitine an high school beaketball atidiei,
as I explained to you, the high school player is not agile and altitudinous,
and too, many principals would not stand for it, because it looks unsports-
menlike to many people. The principals still have mich:to do with athletics
in high school, while at the universities the administrators leave it to the
whins and caprices of the athletic people and sometimes there is very little
of a sporting quality considered.’ name beat the
ee eee ee re es er oe ) : ee

(16) No, ‘I ae not: ‘think that on -aecount of the ° Ma ihets 4 end thie Canadian
associatiounbeing members théy mitigate against the committee's adopting
changes made by the coaches association. As I told you, the dominent group |
is. the N.C.AA. group. Then the next most important is the High School .
Federation, with the Canadiana Association and a: ta —— ee ne
oe suall parte

(iT) 7 think I hawe explained — 17th question thoroughly in may other
oe previously. ro :

te . 2 Sind -

- (18). a, the 12, foot ee piped ia ht first erties, dea Waidiiaiine
fer as I know, for @qudlizing.the height of a tall player. Ever sinee 1900
I have beek closely associated with baskethell and with Dr. Naismith wmtil
he passed away in 1959. I have played with and against tall- players and
have seen especially versatile shorter men being crowded out and hipped
around by some taller fellow. It is the hipping out of tliese shorter players
under a-10 foot basket that adds to the congestion. Some time,-as a -
' Spectator, go dowm and watch Bruce play and watch the hipping that goee on
under a 10 foot basket. Then get Bruce to pit up a pair-of 12 foot baskets
and watch the absence of hippings Why?” Ses 1% te ee Meer
aro of dispersement when the ball falls out further and when-a goal-is
missed is greater witha 12 foot basket, ad there is a greater area that
is not congested.

* 5
4

.-All I-ask is.for these fellows to try it and’apply the rule and see if
they don't get a cleaner game. .Then. get officials and have them mm-a game
and seo how many fewer fouls are called. It is possible that. you will see
an entire game played without the referee awarding that extra free throw for
the foul. .lNow-go back in-your records. and see how many extra free throws
are awarded on fouls when goals ore attempted. It will startle you. And
ee a a ee ee ee

 
 

 

Aa

fe

+5

are purely accidental.
the ball .
k his
basket,
P.
the
ght.

a aly

sigaiaa® gas

With kindest regards, I am

Very sincerely yours,

Director of Physical Education,
Varsity Basketball Coach.

PCA:Aa

Ene.

 
INTERCOLLEGIATE
ATHLETICS

 

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

NORMAN : OKLAHOMA

Sept. 12, 19436

Dre F.C e"Phog" Allen,
Basketball coach,
University of Kansas,
Lawrence, Kanse

Dear Coach:-=

Bruce and I are going to try an article on
basketball goons. I know the subject is a bit
trite at this late date, but we will try to
approach it from a new angle.

Bruce is high on your 12-foot basket idea.

I kinda like the suggestion now before the
rules committee that big men who touch the ball
in its downward flight on a try-for-goal be
penalized a basket. However 1 can't shake him
on the 12-foot. basket. He thinks it superior
to the present proposal.

IT am submitting some questions about the 12-foot
bucket and other related points. I wonder if
you'd have. time to answer it? Pretty soon?

If you don't want any of your answers to go as
quotations, just designate which ones. I want
to get your part all straight,

Oh yes, be sure to send back the appended list of
questions. It's the only one I have,

at

~<

Sincerely,

Harold Keith.
(1) When did you first propose the 12-foot goal, and \_ how do you think it will
help basketball?

(2) What is your answer to the counter charge that 12-foot goals would reduce
scoring?

(3) Why do you think the rules committee did not adopt your 12-foot goal suggestion?
I mean by that, what do you think was really behind it?

(4) In your long career as a player and a coach, who was the first goal-robber you
ever saw(please give first name), what club did he play with, and what year did
he do his stuff?

(5) Why weren't there more of them in the old days?

(6) When one was encountered, how did teams in the old days go about stopping his
goal-stealing?

(7) What is the machinery one has to go through to get a new rule passed in basketball?
How long does it take, usually?

(8) I recall that when the center jump was outlawed, it was preceded by a year or so
of experimentation to see how it worked. Is it always the custom of the rules
committee, when considering major changes, to first order a year or so of experi-
mentation?

(9) What major changes has the rules committee ever okayed without first trying them
out as experiments?

(10) Bruce says the experimentation idea won't work on this goal-stealing controversy
because no coach with a big boy is going°to voluntarily agree mB | i not to let his
giant goal-robe Do you think he has got something?

(11) When the rules committee finally does do something about the tall player, do
you think it will simply okay the rule without first ordering coaches to experi-
ment with it a year in advance like the Pacific Coast waches did on the center jump
elimination?

(12) Bruce says the Sasketball Coaches Association since 1939 has recommended to the
rules committee that it kill goal-tending by forbidding the giants to touch the ball
in its downward flight and penalize them a goal if they do. Why, in your opinion,
hasn't the rules committee followed this suggestion?

(13) About what percentage of the suggestions made by the coaches’ association are
followed by the rules committee? I mean by this, does the rules committee make
it a practice of bgnoring the coaches’ suggestions? Do you recall any other
suggestions for changes by the coaches association that the rules committee has
not carried out?

(14) The new basketball guide says “among the proposals to be studied and covered in
next year's questionaire” will be awarding a field goal when a tall man touches a

try for goal coming dom. I don't understand what this questionaire is? Who
mails it out, who gets it, and what effect does it have om the-rutes~comittee?
1595

WESTERN UNION
PRESS MESSAGE

A. N. WILLIAMS NEWCOMB CARLTON J. CC. WILLEVER
PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD é FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT

 

 
wage a

(15) Have you ever heard of goal-tending in high school basketball?

(16) Does the fact that the basketball committee also represents the YMCA, the high
schools and the Canadian associations mitigate against the committee's adopting
suggested rules changes made by college coaches who, after all, are just one of
five groups the big committee represents? For example, Mim is there any way
the high schools can influence rules changes?

(17) What is your objection to the proposed change of fining giants a field goal
when they touch a try-for-goal on its downward arc before it hits the ring or
the backboard?

(18) Was your 12-foot goal proposal the first proposal ever made, that you know of,
for doing something about the tall player?
1595

WESTERN UNION
PRESS MESSAGE

A. N. WILLIAMS NEWCOMB CARLTON J. C. WILLEVER
PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT

 
TWELVE=FOOT BASKET FOR COLLEGE AND INDEPENDENT TEAMS

Of late years there has been a protest on the part of the basketball public
against these "mezzanine peeping goons" of the cage sport who actually come to
the level of the basket rim when they reach for tipein shots, or actually dunk
the ball into the hoop instead of shooting it upward, as originally intended by
Dre James Naismith, the originator of the gamoe No other sport puts such an oute
landish premium on height as basketball.

The only reason that the height of the basket today is 10 feet from the
gym floor is because the indoor rmming track at Springficld, Mass., College was
10 feet from the floor, and Dre Naismith attached his tasket to this running
tracke :

Twelveefoot baskets would be only for college players who have reached
their growth and maturity, and not for high school players. It is just as casy
to accommodate the muscles of the oyes, wrists, hands and digits to distance in
height as it is to accommodate them to distance on a horizontal plance

It is proposed that a ficld goal count 3 points and a free throw from the
20efoot line (now 15 feet) comt one point. This would equalize the scoring
ratio. It has long been a contention of Dr. Naismith that a fiold goal should
count more than twice as much as a free throws An argument might be advanced
that if the fiold goal is increased in value there would be a tendency to foul
an opponent to keep the field goal from boing madee The answer to that is that
4 personal fouls will disqualify a player from the gamee And again, there will
not be the desire to work the ball in wmder the goal for layeups on a 12<foot
basket because the most disadvantageous spot umder the new scheme is directly
under the basket. It is much easier to bank a shot 8 and 10 fect out from the
basket near the 12=foot goal than it is to work it under the goal, Research has
shown that nearly 90% of all tho fouls are made in close proximity to the baskete
This is on account of the desire of the players to work the ball in close to the
basket for a lay=up shote

Many adherents to the elimination of the center jump rule contended that
the no jump rule at center would drive the excoptionally tall player from the
games This certainly has not boon truco, nor should any rulo be made that would
be discriminatorye The higher basket would require all players to shoot for
goals, whereby now only the "second story peeping Toms" can bat the ball away
before it reaches the cylinder of the basket, thereby preventing the goale Nover
in the history of the game have there been so many excoptionally tall men under
very low baskets, canparatively speakinge Men 610" tall are getting to be quite
commonplace, The presonce of so many long fellows has reduced basketball to a
freakish demonstration and has put an almost wnbearable handicap on the finer
athletes of a normal 6-foot height. Certainly no discrimination is asked against
an exceptionally tall player. Rather uniformity is asked so that discrimination
against the little fellow will be removede

Practically all the rules that now exist against the single or double post
play, against touching the ball while it is on the rim or above the cylinder of
the basket, the 3-second rule, the leyard defensive rule, the player being
awarded two free throws when fouled under or near the basket «= all of these
rules will be umneeessary after a higher basket is put into effocte
moan

The higher goal will increase spectator enjoyment, and will decrease in-
juries under the goal from accidents by players when driving in hard for lay-inse

We have scen tall players in many team line-ups who were born without any
special gift in basketball, but who were on the team solely on the accident of
extreme heights Some junior high school coach discovered this altitudinous
Brobdingnagian, skyescraping stepper oozing ethereally dovm the hall and straight-
way the coach made for him with a pair of shorts, the stimulus being mainly his
altitude and not his abilitye Only a severe cardiac insufficiency will permit
that basketball monstrosity to escape the coach's tentaclese Therefore, it is wet
beyond reasonable doubt but what we can oxpect players of this 6'10" altitude to
become so numorous that they will bo the rulo rather than the oxception.

An eleven-foot basket would not be out of roach of the exceptionally tall
players. A twelve-foot basket would forever guarantee non-interference of the
basket rim by players. In addition to this; the twelve+foot basket would contri-
bute markedly in clearing up the congestion wdor the goal by increasing the arc
of disbursement of the rebound of the ball much further out on the court and
away from the baskets A111 modern symnasia and auditoria have high cciling clear-
ances, but in schools that do not have high cciling clearances ground rules could
be permitted which would allow the use of the lower baskets until conditions could
be corrected.

In 1934 Kansas State and Kansas played a homeeand=hae series using the
elevated 12<foot basket. Neither team had practiced previously with the 12=foot
goal, but the players seemed to have little difficulty in making goals and the
spectators enjoyed the game very muche The players’ only complaint was tha t they
couldn't drive in and make their lay-up shots. On the other hand, they reacted
quite favorably toward the clevated basket.

At the coaching school the following swmer conducted by Allen of Kansas
ond Eg Je Hickox of Springficld, Professor Hickox elevated the basket to 12 fect
and the boys in the coaching school, without ony practice whatsoever, played a
match game. We asked Professor Hickox to write his impressions of that gome.e
It scemed to be his opinion and that of the group who watched the game that the
players had little difficulty in finding the range of tho basket.

It scoms to be a fair conclusion that certainly no one should criticize
the clevated basket until he has at least tried it oute There are so many
benefits and so few drawbacks that this experiment should be indulged in by more
coaches than those who have tried it. It also seems roasonable that it might
be fair to all concerned that if the 12=foot basket is found to be practical to
advance the time of its possible adoption over a two year poriod so that none
of the tall players now in college would be injured, but those oncoming players
would have notice of it. This perhaps would romove an objection from coaches
who might have tall men nowe

The following are a number of reasons set forth in favor of the twelvce
foot basket:

le Arc of disbursement is greater, thus freeing congestion undor basket.

2- Guards are forced further away from baskets to get rebound.

5» Forwards are forced further out from baskets to obtain rebounde

4, Will encourage more shooting accowmt greater value of ficld goals.

5e Will definitely reduce foul shots because of no driveein necessitye

6. Shots are easier made 8 or 10 feet out fro basket instead of directly
undere
3

7.Will eliminate the player's effort to draw two shots by being foulede

8. The four foul disqualifying rulo will”still discourage too much fouling.

9e Will require all players to shoot upward for basket as originally in-«
tended by Dr: Naismith,

10.
lle

1l2e
136

146
15.
16.6
1L7e

18.

19
2le
ole
2Se
246
256

266
eT e
28 6

29 6
506

Sle
S26

Present congestion of tall men under basket works a hardship on short

men and makes the game roughs

Less handicap to a short man in shooting extra distance than by jump-
ing extra distances

Will diseccurage using a tall man who is not as active as a shorter mane
No other sport puts such an outlandish premium on height as docs
basketball.

A player accammodates muscles of eyes and hands to heisht the same as
to distance.

The only roason the height of the present basket is 10 feet is bocause
of the gymnasium running track at Springfield Colleges

A l2efoot basket is a blow to the zone defense account spreading
defensee

A convex board with 12-foot basket is another impediment to the zone
defense.

The specdicr players could recover the ball before it goes out of

bounds in the 4+foot zone, thereby reducing the number of out of

bounds plays ina gamee

Is a decided aid to officials - awarding 2 shots on foulse

Will do away with single and double post playse

Will do away with 3~second rule in the lane.

Will do away with ruie regarding interference of ball on or above rime
Will increase spectator enjoyment by high arch shots that hit.

Will increase visibilicy for spectators by raising basket 2 fect.
Will decrease number of accidents wider goals, driving in, not so
much hipping, nudginge

Will actually give more rebound playing space per player.

Foure-foot zone behind basket another fa ctor against zone defenses
Will make unnecessary a11 legisiation around basket, such as leyard
rule, cte e :

Twelve=foot basket is coming, as sure as doath and taxese

an eleven=foot basket would still be within reach of 6'9" or 6110"
players.

Twelve=foot basket would forever guarantco non-interference.

In Olympic participation 12-foot basket would equalize height of two
teams (desire of Olympic Committce); limited class 612" of under,
unlimited class, any height.
a

~_-

Coach ** Phog”’ Allen and his six-foot-seven center,
Al Wellhausen, experimenting with the ten and
twelve foot baskets.

beat a bitter rival in the final championship game by

suddenly producing an awesome giant—as I remember
he was an eight-footer—who did little else in the game
than stand under his own basket with his hands upraised
and batted the ball off the rim of the hoop every time the
enemy shot. It was very exciting, and the fact that such
a procedure has always been illegal under the rules did not

I ONCE read a short story in which a basketball coach

dismay the author at all. His facts, indeed, were stranger

than his fiction.

There wasn’t any fiction about his tall boy: we see some
pretty big ones here in the Midwest. I’ve had some of
them playing for me at the University of Kansas. One
year I kept my eye all season on the freshman team, watch-
ing the development of the center, Harry Kersenbrock,
who stood, barefooted, just a quarter of an inch under
seven feet. But we lost a fine lad when he was drowned
the summer before his sophomore year. One of the
Indiana universities a few years back had a player so tall
they couldn’t get him into a Pullman berth. The problem
was solved finally by taking out the end board of an upper
berth, permitting the player’s legs to extend into the
adjoining upper, and he was able to get a fair night’s rest.

Last_season Dick Wells, my center, was the midget of

the Big Six Conference, with his six feet one and a half
inches. He was topped by every other jumper in the
league. The rest of them ranged from six feet three and a
half up to six feet four and a half—and they were really
not big as big boys go. This season Kansas is back into the
skyscraper competition with a six-foot-seven center.

 

COUNTRY GENTLEMAN

Late last winter, on a basketball coach’s
vacation, I went to Kansas City to witness
the National A. A. U. basketball tournament,
which has been held there in Convention Hall
for several years, and I saw what looked like
a dream-come-true to a basketball coach—
whole droves of stretchy six-footers, and they
had power and speed to go with the height.
Five men in that tournament were over six feet
six; two of them ran up to six feet eight.

FIVE PROPOSED CHANGES |

ANY of those tournament players were

i ex-college stars, seasoned veterans who
knew how to handle the ball, and I expected to
get a great thrill watching them play, yet I
had a strong sense of disappointment in one
important phase of the games. Those tall fel-
lows were leaping at the ten-foot baskets and
were literally “‘dunking” the ball into the
hoop, just as a doughnut is inelegantly dipped
into the morning coffee. And I say that is not
basketball. My conception of the game is
that goals should be shot and not dunked.

I’m not picking on those fine tournament
players. Our big college boys are doing it, and
I’m teaching my beanpoles to tally that way,
as other coaches are doing. It is a fair way to
score under the present rules, and there is no
sense in trying a hard way when there is this
easier and surer short cut to the pay-off.

Yet I would like to ask coaches, officials,
players and spectators this question: Should
height, figured by itself, carry such a premium
as it does now? Isn’t the game penalizing the
fine players who fall below the six-foot mark?
I’ve thought for several years now that the
tall man has an unearned advantage and I had
that in mind when, not long back, I offered to
the rules committee the suggestion that bas-
kets be raised to twelve feet.

I want it understood that I am not trying
to eliminate the tall man from the game. Un-
der any conditions I’ll take a good big man
over a good little man, merely because he is
a bigger dish of a good thing. But I would
like to see a tall man forced to shoot his bas-
kets the same as a short man. The twelve-foot
basket would level them off.

We have experimented with the higher baskets here
at Kansas for two years, and the results have been inter-
esting to observers. But before discussing our findings I
want to list other changes I have offered for considera-
tion. Some of them, perhaps, will seem radical to stu-
dents of the game, but in my opinion they have merit.

I would move the backboards into the court to a dis-
tance of six feet. They are now two feet from the end lines.

I would permit an offended team to throw for the
basket in the half of the court where the foul was com-
mitted.

I would have all jump balls taken to one of three spots
on the playing floor—the two foul-shooting marks and
the center spot. Around two-foot circles at these points I
would have six-foot circles to hold other players away
from the jumpers until the ball is tapped.

I would change the scoring of field goals to three points,
the free throw remaining at one.

If it seems to some that a reformer wants to tamper

with a successful game, I want to say that I love the game

as only a person can who has played it and coached it for
more than twenty-seven years. To me it’s the greatest
game of them all. Knute Rockne loved to roast me about
basketball. He used to say: “‘Phog, there are two great
athletic games that I don’t care for, and basketball is both
of them.” But of course to ‘‘Rock”’ there always was but
one game.

In proposing these changes I am not seeking a vicarious
method of turning losers into winners, for we have at
Kansas won championships in our Conference twelve out

February, 1935

DUNKING ISN’T
BASKETBALL

by FORREST C. (PHOG) ALLEN

Director of Athletics and Basketball Coach, University of Kansas

of the past seventeen seasons, and we have won con-
sistently against outside big-time competition. There
isn’t an ‘Allen System”’ in basketball in the sense that
there is a Warner System and a Notre Dame System in
football; but if you will pardon the pride, I want to men-
tion that my players have gone out to high coaching posi-
tions—to Nebraska, Stanford, Kentucky, Northwestern,
Tulane, Iowa State, and to a host of smaller colleges and
high schools.

As a coach I may possibly lose my “‘curve,” as the
saying is, if the game is changed; maybe it will hurt us at
Kansas. I still favor one and all of the changes proposed.

If you think a game is inviolate, consider the one that
Gen. Abner Doubleday built, in 1839, on the flimsy
foundation of One Old Cat and some 4000 years of harum-
scarum hitting of some sort of ball with some sort of club.
There have been dozens of changes in baseball. In com-
parison, basketball has changed but little.

A baseball writer was kind enough to dig out for me a
list of changes that have been made in our national game,
some of them probably familiar to fans, but most of them
were new to me. In 1845, for instance, the pitching
distance was forty-five feet, as compared with sixty feet
and six inches today. When I read this my mind turned
to the dreadful predicament of a batsman today standing
at the plate, with fire-ball pitchers like Dizzy Dean and
Schoolboy Rowe throwing them up. I find that in those
days a batter could call for a high ball or a low one, but
even this would scarcely help him against fast balls
thrown from forty-five feet by these big-league aces.

At one time a team scoring twenty-one ‘‘aces”’ or runs
won the game, whether it took one inning or twenty. In
1858 a pitcher was restrained by a boundary line twelve
feet long, and he could take a short run before delivering
the ball. Previous to 1863 batsmen could use a bat of any
size, shape and material; at that time they were restricted
to wooden clubs, and thirteen years later the rules makers
placed the maximum length of bats at forty-two inches.
In 1864 the “out on first bounce”’ rule was abolished.

Those are only a few of the changes in the physical
aspects of baseball. It is a made game, the product of
years of trial and adjustment, although I think it has
now been perfected. And I maintain basketball is no
more inviolate than baseball. In some respects I feel we
have outgrown the original garments of basketball, just
as baseball outgrew the forty-five-feet pitching distance.

Athletics are an integral part of school and college
education, and our chief aim, of course, is the physical
development of our boys and to teach them to play hard,
to take punishment and come up smiling and still play
fair. Something is learned on athletic “‘battle”’ fields that
can’t be acquired in the classroom. But of importance,
too, is the spectator who pays the bill and lends zest to
inter-school contests. I’ve asked many of them about
their likes and dislikes in basketball and have found that
primarily they want action and scoring. I’ve watched
lots of hockey games and have loved the action, but I have
bemoaned the lack of scoring. Basketball fans dislike an
abundance of whistle blowing which checks the action
and breaks the interest. The perfect referee, to me, is the
one who is seen but never heard—well, hardly ever.

A PREMIUM ON SPEED AND AGILITY

EF YOU will check carefully on a game of basketball you
will find that a great many fouls are called as the play-
ers are scrambling under a basket for a ball coming down
from a rebound. It is inevitable with so many players
jammed into a small space. Many of these fouls are
purely accidental. And if there isn’t a foul committed in
the scramble for the ball the chances are great that the
player who gained possession of it has stuck his toe over
the end line, and the whistle blows anyway.

With the twelve-foot basket the players are spread over
a greater area, for the rebound from the high backboards
sends the ball farther out into the court; the area of dis-
persement of players is greater; the small man has quite
as good .a chance to recover it as a tall one. Thus the
premium is put on speed and agility instead of mere
height. I have been somewhat amused while watching
“T’ve been keeping an eye on that Disturbing Element
down there,’ he said. ‘‘He’s taking a nap himself now.

Has been all afternoon. Guess the excitement at Lac”

L’Outre kept him awake last night.” :

Joan looked around. ‘‘Where’s our canoe? And our
outfit?’’

“T sneaked ’em out to that torrent and down to the
river edge, a while ago. They’re hid in some buckbrush up
the shore. Figured I ought to do that while this Rip van
Winkle yonder was sawing wood. I didn’t take the kicker.
It’s cached right back of you—it and the drums. We won’t
dare use a motor any more. We'll have to travel silent
from now on.” fi

They ate the cold left-overs of their breakfast. After-
ward, at Joan’s insistence, Alan lay down, thinking to
doze a little. .-. .

A hand on his arm woke him, hours later.

“Alan,” Joan was whispering, “‘maybe we’d better be
starting.”

Night had come., It was dark in the little tangle, so dark
that Alan could barely see Joan beside him; and the chill
damp fog was sifting through the pines.

Down at the river bank the camp fire of the lone
watcher burned cheerily, as he cooked supper.

They dared cook none themselves, with him so close.
Hungry and shivering, they rolled up their blankets,
groped out to the torrent, slipped down the ravine to the
landwash, and hurried up the shore to the buckbrush
thicket.

A few minutes afterward they had set their canoe to
water, stepped in, and were paddling on up the gray
ghostly Sulteena, without benefit now of the friendly little
kicker.

T MIDNIGHT, three nights later, they reached Sul-

teena Forks, a hundred miles north of Lac L’Outre.-

To their left the Teluwaceet River led westward into
the snow-capped Teluwaceet Mountains. To: their right
the beautiful Lynette stretched eastward into a jumble of
lesser ranges. Straight ahead the Sulteena, master river
of all that country, led north-northwest toward the
Yukon height-of-land. ore

In midstream just below the Forks, where the clashing
currents of the three rivers shifted back and forth, Alan
stopped to reconnoiter, suspecting that this strategic
point was tightly guarded and patrolled.

So far, by holing up in the daytime and traveling only
during the dark hours, like two young river phantoms, he
and Joan had escaped detection. But Corporal Norman

Within the hour the three of them shoved off, in Luke’s fragile birchbark.

COUNTRY GENTLEMAN

had flung his whole hunt upstream, and it was boiling all
around them—a grim and determined man hunt. Twice
the Police launch had returned to Lac L’Outre and
brought up'more men, more canoes. Posses were combing
the river at night; lookouts had been posted at every
narrows and headland; and canoes on silent patrol passed
them in the foggy dark like hostile wraiths.

They knew that they had Norman guessing as to their
exact whereabouts and that they must keep him guessing.
If they were ever glimpsed, the scattered hunt would
draw together, bottle them up, end their flight.

Never knowing when he would run headlong into a rifle
battle, Alan had begged Joan repeatedly not to go on with

him. It would have been easy enough for her to get off on

an island and wait for some canoe to pick her up. But
Joan flatly refused to listen. Without telling him why, she
took the position that it was her duty to help him escape,
and that her duty would end only when he and Luke
Kaneewaugh were across the Teluwaceet watershed and
well on their way to the Alaska demarcation.

Alan hated to think of her returning to Lac L’Outre

and facing the music there. Though there was no legal

evidence against her, everyone would know that she had
gone with him on this wilderness hegira. The talk about
her in that little settlement would be vicious. And ‘Eric
Norman, to whom she owed so much—she would have to
face Norman too. But he could not deny that from the
standpoint of his safety Joan had been dead right in
coming along with him.

Despite their hunted existence and the hardships they
endured, those three days and nights had not been un-
happy. Theirs was an eager joyous partnership. Being
fellow fugitives gave them a sense of closest communion;
they had much in common; and they struck it off well to-
gether. In the daytime they talked for hours on end,
when they should have been sleeping; they quarreled over
nothing and laughed over less; and at nightfall they set
out on their dangerous travel with light hearts and
buoyant confidence.

But to Alan their swiftly unfolding companionship
brought uneasy pain-shot thoughts. The very happiness
of his hours with Joan Hastings carried a pang. He was
dreading the time when he would say Klahowya to his girl
partner, somewhere in the Western Teluwaceets.

What Joan felt toward him he did not know. She was
so silent, so unfathomable. He knew she liked him, found
his company enjoyable; but deeper than that he could not
read. . . . She had brought him a hundred miles safely;
and in a few miles more they would be through the worst.

17

If they could get past Sulteena Forks and a little dis-
tance up Teluwaceet River, the storm center of the hunt
would lie behind them. Most of Norman’s men were
searching and watching the Sulteena; and his head-
quarters camp, they felt sure, was located at this strategic
Forks just ahead.

There was no moon that night, and the river fog was
fairly heavy; but the stars were bright, and against the

_ light background of the water a canoe was distinguishable

at a hundred yards.

As they held their craft steady in the shifting currents,
Alan caught a whiff of smoke, camp-fire smoke. Noting
the direction of the slight wind, he peered at the headland
between the Teluwaceet and Sulteena; and through the
water-mist he made out a dull reddish glow, well back in
the timber. The big glow of a big camp.

““\UR guess was a bull’s-eye, partner,” he said, sotto
voce. “ Yonder’s their main hangout. I can smell’em!

What’re we going to do? D’you think it’s safe to angle on
into the mouth of the Teluwaceet? I’ll bet a leg, I’ll bet
both legs, that they’re patrolling all three of these river
mouths a

“Sh-h-h’”?—a sudden warning from Joan. She turned,
seized his hand. “‘Look!”’ She pointed through the mist
to their left. ‘Look there! What’s that? It’s too high out
of water for a drift log, and it’s moving across the cur-
rent!”

Alan glanced along her outstretched arm and saw a big:
shadowy mottle on the water, almost at the limit of vision.

“Canoe!” he breathed. “And headed in our direction!”
He dipped paddle and started backing away. “ Maybe
they haven’t seen us.”

A cautious voice, a half-breed’s voice, came across to
them. “Dat you, Battu?”

Alan’s heart missed a beat. For a second or two he was
stunned. Then:

“Ow’ ou’,” he replied, muffling his voice and grunting as
he imagined the huge Battu would grunt.

“Froid, hein?” the voice came again.

“Ow’ Oe”

Under his powerful backstroke the canoe shivered. The
shadowy mottle was almost lost to sight now.

“Les deux petits, Battu—les avez-vous vus?” the talka-
tive métis inquired.

Alan whispered to Joan: ‘‘That’s over my head. What
does it mean? Quick! What shall I tell him?”

“Say ‘Rien du tout.’”’

(Continued on Page 26)

 

 
experimental games with the twelve-foot baskets to see
the tall fellows who had been in the habit of camping
under baskets, using their height to steal the ball, and
then socking it in. They lost their toy with the tall baskets.

If the backboards are moved in six feet from the end
lines I am sure there will be less out-of-bounds plays,
which at best are slow and of little interest. And I can
see no outstanding argument against this change.

For a long time there has been a feeling that something
ought to be done in regard to free throws. If a team has
advanced the ball the full length of the floor only to be
stopped by the whistle of the referee fouling one of their
players, there is a slow parade of officials and players the
full length of the floor. It doesn’t look good, and there is
a growing feeling that a team is penalized too much under
the present rules. Remotely it is like penalizing a football
team the length of the field, and more nearly like the golf
penalty of loss of stroke and distance. Whether there is
merit in the proposal of allowing free throws to be made
by the offended team in the half of the court where the
foul is made only time and experiment can tell.

The six-foot circles mentioned would be a handy
method of restraining players from crowding in close to
jumpers on a held ball, which has sometimes been a bad
feature. |

Last spring, at the end of our practice period, we staged
at Lawrence an experimental game, incorporating all of
the changes I have mentioned. The twelve-foot baskets
were moved six feet in from the end lines. Field goals
counted three points and the foul throws one point.
Offended players shot for the basket in the half of the
court where the foul was committed. Jump-ball circles
were chalked on the floor.

CHECKING UP ON A CLINICAL GAME

LINED up my varsity against the freshman team in a

regulation length game, with two competent officials and
a crowd of almost a thousand persons, including visiting
coaches and sports writers from near-by papers. I had
an expert, with a chart of the court before him, mark the
spot from which field goals were attempted, and if the shot
was good he drew a circle around the player’s number.
There were blank spaces on the chart for out-of-bounds
plays, for free throws, jump balls, fouls and so forth.

The varsity was a bit too good for the frosh, winning
46 to 38. The winners took a total of eighty-one shots at
the basket, connecting for fourteen of them. The losers

COUNTRY GENTLEMAN

shot sixty-three times and scored eleven field goals. In
fairness to the players I want to say they had had little
or no experience with the high hoops and it wasn’t strange
that they would have some trouble adjusting their sights.

The varsity made good four free throws out of ten at-
tempts; the losers scored five free throws on eight at-
tempts. And there is a significant point—only eighteen
fouls were called in the game, less than two to a man on
the average. This is considerable under our average in
Conference games. The referee’s whistle, cutting in only
at long intervals, gave a marked impression of speed and
continuous action to the game.

I have before me the chart showing the spots from
which goals were shot. I find that only seven were scored
from points closer than the free-throw line—seven out of
twenty-four. Not one was made from directly under the
basket. The rest of the goals were not holy ghosters from
way out on the court; mostly they were tossed from a
distance approximating the foul line or slightly greater,
all of them beautiful, high arching shots that always thrill
a spectator. Strangely, perhaps, players were more
successful shooting from the sides, fairly well out.

Another significant fact was that in the second half,
after the teams got the feel of the court, the ball went out
of bounds at the ends only five times. Consequently our
clinical game was not stopped every minute or so with
the dragging out-of-bounds play. As is readily seen, the
new scoring had no effect on the outcome of the game.
Counting two points for field goals and one point for free
throws the scoring would be 32-27 Varsity; for comparison
I repeat the score as we recorded it—46-38.

Dr. James A. Naismith, with whom I have been asso-
ciated here at Kansas for many years, and who so ably
designed the game in 1891, was a spectator at this game
and gave his approval to the proposed changes. He told
me that his original intention was not to put any premium
on the tall player, and that he heartily approves of taking
away from such players any undue advantage.

A good friend of mine, who coaches a high school team,
came to me after this experimental game with a worried
look on his face. He said: “‘ Don’t give us this twelve-foot
basket now, Phog. Our ceilings are too low and it would
cripple our game.”’ And I assured him that I didn’t want
to see the high school baskets changed. There is no reason
why they should be changed. What might be evils in
college ball are not necessarily evils in high school. I
pointed out to him that high school boys use a twelve-
pound shot, shifting to a sixteen pounder when they get

19

to college, and in recent years high school athletic authori-
ties in several states have cut the height of the high
hurdles several inches. It has seemed to me that many
high school boys have been jumping the high sticks and
not hurdling. Some seniors in high school may be able to
use the high hurdles correctly, but most of the underclass
boys can’t. So I say, leave the high school baskets at ten
feet. More than that, I favor an eight-foot basket for
grade school games and possibly a nine-foot one for
junior highs.

This year I am starting on my twenty-eighth year as a
basketball coach, and I can recall my baptism into the
teaching of this sport. I was a student at Kansas, playing
on the basketball team, and since we had no paid coach I
did what teaching I could. One day I came into the gym-
nasium to find Doctor Naismith laughing heartily over a
letter he had in his hand.

BEATING THE WORLD CHAMPIONS

= ERE’S a good one,” he said. “‘ This letter asks if you

would be willing to go down to Baker as basketball
coach.” He stressed the word coach. Baker University
is at Baldwin, sixteen miles from Lawrence.

I didn’t see what was funny about it, and he explained:
“You can’t coach a game like basketball. You just play it.”

“Well,” I argued, “‘you can teach them to shoot free
throws and something about handling the ball. You can
teach them to pass at angles and run in curves. You can
show them how to arch their shots and how to pivot to-
ward the sidelines instead of into the court where a guard
can get at the ball.” I don’t think I changed Doctor
Naismith’s ideas on the point.

Just before coming to the University I had played
guard for the Kansas City Athletic Club team for two sea-
sons. In that day the great name in basketball was the
Buffalo Germans, a Y. M. C. A. team that had defended
its title of World Champions at the Pan American Exposi-
tion and later at the 1904 Olympic Games, defeating all
comers. The team had then toured the country, winning
something like 250 games and losing eight. They came to
Kansas City and we met them in a three-game series at
Convention Hall.

One of my prized mementos is an account of that series,
written by a rising young newspaper man named George
Creel, who was defeated last fall for the nomination for
governor of California by Upton Sinclair. Full of exultant

(Continued on Page 73)

 

A jam-up under the basket as Chicago and Ohio State teams tangle in an important Big Ten Conference game.
20

COUNTRY GENTLEMAN

February, 1935

 

PHILI

EDITORIALS

A FIRMER FOUNDATION

ITHOUT being much noticed some basic readjustments have

been taking place in agriculture. Among them are reduced. taxes,
a lower interest load and strengthened country banking conditions.
These mean the savings of considerable sums as well as the removal of
disadvantages that have weighed heavily upon farming.

Tax relief is of greater importance than is generally realized. Reach-
ing their peak in 1929, farm taxes came down only slowly until 1933,
when accumulated public demand forced a sharp drop. The total farm-
tax levy for that year, so far as it is calculable, was more than $110,-
000,000 below the 1929 top. With the adoption of replacement taxes,
such as sales and gross income taxes, and property-tax limitations in
a number of states, the lightening of the burden has been carried still
further. Indications are that the total is now close to $200,000,000
below the one-time peak.

The farm-tax cut is most pronounced in the Midcountry and Plains
areas, though it is effective in some degree in fully three-fourths of the
states. The figures tell the trend. In Nebraska the total tax bill for all
purposes is now some 35 per cent below the maximum of the ’20’s.
Here are the taxes paid in 1931 and in 1934 on four representative
160-acre farms in Dodge County: $227.13 in 1931, now $129.77;
$189.48, now $119.21; $201.79 and $113.12; $193.56 to $104.09. Farm
taxes for Oklahoma, as a whole, are more than 40 per cent below 1929.
Since that year taxes on farm lands and improvements in Kansas have
dropped from $31,099,920 to $19,192,770. An average 160-acre farm
in Doniphan County paid $256.76 in 1931 and $155.81 last year.

Widening the tax base is helping to reduce farm taxes in Iowa,
Illinois and Michigan. The sales tax enabled Illinois to eliminate the
state property tax of 50 cents on the $100 valuation. Along with this
came a general decrease in farm taxes through local economies. For
one example, the taxes on the 736-acre property of an outstanding
livestock farmer in Kane County fell from $1447.05 in 1931 to $820.02
last year. Michigan adopted a tax limitation of 114 per cent on the
assessed valuation of real property and followed it with a sales tax.
This permitted the state to lift almost $20,000,000 in taxes off property.

Property-tax levies for all purposes in Iowa have fallen from $107,-
966,592 in 1930 to around $80,000,000. They are expected to go still
lower as the state’s new three-point tax system becomes fully effective.
This includes a 2 per cent sales tax, a personal net income tax and a
corporation income tax. The state will be entirely out of the property-
tax field this year.

To reduce the burden on property, which in 1931 was bearing 80
per cent of the tax load, Indiana fixed a flat*$1.50 tax limit per $100
valuation. This cut property taxes $40,700,000, too severe a reduction
without other revenue to compensate, so the legislature then enacted a
gross income tax and improved intangibles and excise taxes. The new
tax system has provided funds for replacement purposes, especially
for schools.

Reliable estimates show about a 40 per cent lowering of Ohio’s farm
tax level. This has been achieved by several methods: Drastic cuts in
the personal-property or chattels taxes, reductions in appraised valua-
tions, and constitutional amendments now limiting the property tax to
1 per cent. Any taxing district has to get the approval of its voters to
exceed this limit, and 775 school districts sought such approval at the
fall election. Either they had a bonded indebtedness or wished serv-
ices beyond the revenue provided by the 10-mill limitation.

The varying financial condition of local communities makes the tax
reduction uneven in all states. The biggest single cut has come through
local economies, but communities with heavy fixed charges on bonded
indebtedness have been unable to effect such savings. They have had
also to get around reduced valuations and property-tax limitations by
higher rates and special levies.

The number of states levying general replacement taxes, to the re-
lief of real property, has multiplied rapidly in the past three years. As
none suffered more from the excessive dependence on property taxes,
farmers are the most directly benefited by a broadening of the tax base.

There are other benefits also. An Indiana farmer voiced the opinion
held by many when he said that high taxation was one of the causes of
recent overproduction. With prices falling, farmers simply had to pro-
duce more and more to meet fixed charges such as taxes. As this forced
an undue emphasis on products that could be readily turned into cash,
the fertility of the land was bound to suffer. The land should be one of
the biggest gainers from reduced taxes.

A general opinion is that lower farm taxation will further a more bal-
anced farming in the Corn Belt. ‘‘ Lower land values, reduced taxation
and the necessity of taking some of their land out of cultivation will
cause farmers to consider raising more of their own beef cattle,” is an
opinion expressed by a prominent livestock breeder. ‘‘ With lower taxes
they can afford to devote their rougher or more worn land to pasture
rather than cash crops.”

Going along with lower taxes is a very sizeable reduction in farm
interest charges. W. I. Myers, Governor of the Farm Credit Adminis-
tration, recently stated that ‘‘The annual interest saving to farmers
under the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act and the refinancing pro-
gram is over $31,000,000 a year, and most of this will be a permanent
saving.” This has been accomplished in several ways. On more than
500,000 mortgage loans made by the FCA farmers are paying 11% per
cent less interest than formerly.

In addition, an overhead indebtedness of more than $65,000,000 has
been written off through scale-downs of farmers’ debts to a point where
the FCA could refinance them. Further scale-downs have been made
through local conciliation committees. One can hear various com-
ments, favorable or otherwise, about these scale-downs. But they have
been made, they have reduced farm outgo appreciably and they have
removed some overhanging uncertainties.

Of the money advanced through the FCA more than $325,000,000
has gone to local banks to liquidate frozen farm assets. In this and
other ways the resources of country banks have increased generally
since the middle of 1938. It is not uncommon to find that deposits
have doubled in that time.

“Our problem now is not one of solvency but of finding profitable
uses for the funds of country banks,” is the way the president of one of
the largest state banking groups summarized the situation.

Country banking has definitely emerged from the period of impair-
ment caused by falling farm values which set in with 1920.

The readjustments in taxation, interest charges and banking facili-
ties have put a firmer foundation under agriculture. The elements that
make up the agricultural community are now in a stronger position.
Given a continuance of recovery farmers are better situated to realize
on it. More of the money they take in will be their own.

PRACTICE IN STRATEGY

MONTH or so ago when President Roosevelt personally con-

ducted negotiations for a couple of mules which were needed on
his farm at Warm Springs, the occurrence received only incidental
mention in the daily press. If the political commentators had under-
stood, even vaguely, the niceties of mule trading, profound inferences
might have been drawn.

Did the President come off best or second best in his dickering?
The newspaper correspondents, of course, should have investigated.
If he actually skinned the Georgia mule trader, even his enemies could
no longer deny him the title of America’s shrewdest politician.

And where was Mr. Farley? A good many of us naturally supposed
that he would seize the opportunity to announce that here was another

_ reason for the ascendancy of the Democratic Party. Stuffy Republi-

cans might content themselves with trading in bonds and shares, but
the foremost Democrat of all, the nation’s Chief Executive, sharpened
his wits in our greatest school of strategy. Among folks who know,
it is an accepted fact that diplomacy rises to its highest pinnacle, not
in Wall Street or Washington, but in the mule marts of this country.

Thoughtful prophets, had they been more alert, might have dis-
covered even deeper meaning in the Warm Springs trade. Although
the mule’s philosophy of life has never been fully fathomed, he has
long been suspected of leaning to the Left. At least, we know that he
disapproves of the established order. If the President is able success-
fully to appraise and evaluate this rebel of the animal kingdom, then
obviously there is hope that Senator Long and other recalcitrants of
his own party will not prove too much for him.

It is rather astonishing that our political interpreters—who hereto-
fore have been able to foretell the President’s drift to the Right or the
Left by analyzing his luncheon menus or the shade of his neckties—
should have passed up the Georgia episode. The only possible conclu-
sion is that they are better versed in social hypotheses than in mules.

THE GIRLS WILL GET IN

NE can’t help feeling a little surprised, perhaps even a bit wistful,
over the fresh young courage of the Future Farmers of America,
who recently slammed the door of their organization against feminine
membership. Clearly, these Spartan lads have a thing or two to learn
about the futility of opposing women’s rights.

At the annual convention of Future Farmers—a national associa-
tion of vocational agricultural students—the girls, who labor side by
side with the boys in the “‘ag”’ classes, sought and were denied entry
to the organization. The action of the conference is the more puzzling
when one recalls that the Future Farmers are chiefly high school upper-
classmen, who by all ordinary calculations should be just emerging into
that quivery period of life when a silken knee or a fetching little spit
curl shortens the respiration.

One explanation might be that the boys want no female competi-
tion. In that other national organization of farm youth, the 4-H Clubs,
an alarmingly large number of first prizes—awarded for superior lambs
and calves and fowls—have been carried off by the girls. The more
probable answer, however, is that the Future Farmers have been de-
luding themselves with the quaint and amusing theory that this is a
man’s world.

The only evidence of male capitulation at the F. F. A. convention
was a resolution to investigate the girl problem during the coming year.
But even this grudging concession, one fancies, will prove fatal. A year
is twelve months, and in the meantime there will be skating parties,
after-school skylarking six deep in stripped-down flivvers, palpitating
glances in the agricultural lab, hayrack rides under a melting moon.
Quite obviously the Future Farmers have underestimated the cosmic
wallop of the lipstick, the powder puff and the permanent wave. The
girls, we may be sure, will be sweet about it, but sooner or later they
will get in.

 

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DUNKING ISN’T BASKETBALL

(Continued from Page 19)

pride in the locals, he described how, after
losing the first game 40-36, the Blue Dia-
monds had come back to take the second
30-28, and to swamp the champions 45-14
in the final. Those were the roughest games
I ever witnessed or played in. The floor was
concrete and the knees and elbows of the
players were like beefsteak when the series
ended. Our success in the last game was
due to the quickly invented high, full-arm
hook pass, which hadn’t been seen before.

CHAMPIONSHIP YEARS

FTER that I felt competent to coach a
college team and I took the Baker of-
fer, despite Doctor Naismith’s amusement.
I not only coached Baker but I also took
over the basketball post at Haskell, the
Indian school at Lawrence, working with
the Baker boys in the afternoons and the
Indians in the evenings.

In 1908 I went to Kansas University as
basketball coach and we succeeded in win-
ning two straight Conference champion-
ships. The seven years following I coached
all sports at the State Teachers College,
at Warrensburg, Missouri, winning bas-
ketball titles all seven years. In 1919 I
came back to my first love, Kansas, as
director of athletics and basketball coach.
The gods of sports and Lady Luck have
smiled on us here. Starting in 1922, when
we tied Missouri for: the championship,
we won the title outright during the five
following years, running up a string of
thirty-four consecutive Conference vic-
tories before Oklahoma knocked us off in
1924. Our 1923 team was ever victorious.

That year Minnesota University invited
us to come to Minneapolis during the
holidays to practice with their team and it
was one of the most pleasant training
periods I have ever known. We appreci-
ated their invitation more, probably, than
it seemed when we defeated them 32-11 in
a game that wound up our stay. They
didn’t mind losing that game, for it didn’t
count, but they did go on from there,
winning five straight games when the
Western Conference season opened.

WHEN STAGG RAN THE BALL

HIS past season we won the flag in the

Bix Six circuit for the fourth consecu-
tive time. Strangely enough, when I think
back through the basketball wars I can’t
keep my mind off the 1928 season. It al-
ways pokes its head up to‘torment me.
That’s the year we lost Harry Kersen-
brock, and just before the season opened
our other center, Ramsey, broke his hand
boxing. We were battered from pillar to
post that year. We lost all but one of our
Conference games; Notre Dame walloped
us in both games we played them. We did
get a grain of comfort in our intersectional
play when we nosed out California by one
point after they had whipped us twice. All
the little schools around us had their day
by lacing us good.

The birth of basketball has been told
many times, but possibly some do not
know that Alonzo A. Stagg, who coached
football at Chicago University for many
years, and is now coaching at the College
of the Pacific, in California, was captain and
forward of one of the teams that played
the first game at Springfield Y. M. C. A.
College, in 1891. I mentioned CoachStagg’s
name to Doctor Naismith one time and he
shook his head with a smile.

“Lonny was a great athlete,’ he said,
“but he was a football player, and a grand
one, and at first he wasn’t much good to

a basketball team, for he would forget.

himself and start running with the ball. In
that day a foul put a man on the side-
line for a time, just like a hockey penalty
today, and a team had to play for a while
minus one man. Incidentally, those first
teams had nine men on a side.”

Basketball was a child of necessity.
When winter closed down and there were
no more outdoor sports the students be-
gan to chafe under inactivity. In an
effort to check this restlessness—and to
check downright mischief—the school
authorities gave an assignment to the class
to bring in some plan of a game that could
be played indoors, and the next day young
Naismith showed up with a soccer ball
and two peach baskets and a plan.

At first the baskets were nailed hori-
zontally to the end walls, moderately close
to the floor, but that didn’t work so well,
and almost immediately Naismith offered
the idea of nailing the baskets to the rim
of the running track. That rim happened
to be just ten feet from the floor. The
hoops have ‘always been that height; I’ve
wondered what would have happened if
the rim of that track had been different—
twelve feet, say.

18,000,000 PLAYERS

FTER the start at Springfield the game
caught on immediately and other
schools in the cold winter country took it up
with enthusiasm—Cornell with a little too
much, at first. Thinking that teams should
be big enough to accommodate everybody
who wanted to play, Cornell tried it out
with fifty men on a side. They were play-
ing in a large barnlike structure—it may
have been a barn. In a scrimmage some
player threw the ball to the opposite end
of the building and the hundred Cornel-
lians charged after it like a herd of bison—
and took out the end of the building. I do not
swear to the authenticity of this tall tale.
I have seen estimates that some 18,000,-
000 people are playing basketball all over
the world. Our baseball and football, with
few exceptions, have failed to excite the
Old World. Basketball is gaining here in
our country and abroad. Just this winter
it has been made an Olympic sport. Ernest
Quigley, the famous National League um-
pire, wrote me from Japan one year that
the game had taken an unusual hold upon
the Orientals, almost as much as baseball.
Quig is a basketball fan and an accom-

_ plished referee. I’ve seldom seen an official

equal him in keeping an exciting game
under control.
One year Quigley was working a game

at St. Louis between Washington Univer- |

sity and Nebraska. Ewald ‘‘Jumbo”’
Stiehm, the Nebraska football coach, also
handled basketball, and he was up against
a team coached by one of his former foot-
ball stars, Dick Rutherford. With the
teams tied and a fierce battle raging on the
court, Quigley called a foul on a Nebraska
man. Stiehm jumped from the bench and
started for the floor to protest—a violation
of the rules.

WARMING UP THE BATTLE SLOGAN

UIGLEY saw him start from the bench.
With his finger pointed like a pistol
the official halted Stiehm and said with
deadly calm: “Shoot one for every step
it takes you to get back to the bench.”
And Stiehm, his anger dissolved, grinned
and took two Brobdingnagian steps back
to his seat. The penalty was two shots,
anyway, so Jumbo didn’t harm his team’s
prospects; but he didn’t charge out onto
the floor again either.

It’s winter again and basketballs are
popping against backboards, and it’s sweet
music to my ears. The baskets are ten feet
high and two feet from the end lines.
Field goals still count two points—but
we’re not worrying about that. What we’re
worrying about are Nebraska, Missouri,
Oklahoma, Kansas State and Iowa State.
We’ve got some old scores to settle with
them. And while we are waiting for them
we are warming up our old battle slogan:
““Hold ’em in the ’teens.”’

73

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which add dollars to its value without increasing its cost. _

For example—

. balanced, non-wrap, wide-spread beater runs easier dena smoother;
does better work.

. hardened steel roller chain on main drive is more than twice as
strong as ordinary chain.

. . manure box is of selected quality wood, Fess creosoted and
painted to resist manure acids. Sturdily braced for years of service.

. front end rides on heavy cushion springs which absorb field shocks.

. . . shorter, easier turning and longer life for front wheels and axle—
steel pole and eveners will not break.

 

Remember, in the Model E, wood is hed where wood is best, and ‘steel
is used where steel is best. This construction insures a longer-lived
spreader that requires less upkeep cost down through the years.

LER See the new Model E—today’s out-

SEE YOUR JOHN DEERE DEA
standing spreader value—at your John

Deere dealer’s. Write John Deer Moline, Illinois, for free folder S45

   
  

Overhead detail of rear end of John Deere Model E Spreader
showing the beater-on-the-axle construction.

a eas andi mg ca

Easier to Load..... Easier to Pull
Does Better Work....Lasts Longer

 

 

February, 1935

CROPS

SEED DISINFECTION PAYS

REAT seed before planting. There
EP is no question in the minds of grow-

ers practicing seed disinfection but
that it repays them well.

The blackleg and the black rot disease
of cabbage and cauliflower is carried inside
the seed. Surface treatment of seed will
not kill this organism; therefore a hot-
water treatment must be given. The most
practical method of hot-water treating
this seed is to fill a wash boiler full of
water and heat to a temperature of 122
degrees Fahrenheit. A large volume of
water will not change temperatures as rap-
idly as will a smaller volume. A thoroughly
tested thermometer must be used to
determine this water temperature. Tie
the seeds loosely in cheesecloth bags, and
when the water has reached exactly 122
degrees, suspend the cabbage seed in this
hot water for twenty-five minutes and the
cauliflower seed for eighteen minutes.

Eggplant seed that is purchased should
be treated by soaking for ten minutes in a
solution of corrosive sublimate—bichloride
of mercury—1 to 1000, one tablet to a
pint of water. Then rinse in fresh running
water for fifteen minutes and plant as soon
as it is dry enough to handle.

Tomato seed should be treated with
corrosive sublimate, 1 to 3000—one tablet
to three pints of water—for five minutes,
rinsed in clean water for ten minutes and
planted when dry enough to handle. Mer-
cury materials are deadly poisons and
must not be left around promiscuously.
They should be destroyed immediately
after using. The temperature of these solu-
tions should be between 60 and 70 degrees.

Organic mercury dusts made especially
for seed-treatment purposes may be pur-
chased from seed stores and supply houses.
By following the recommendations on the
package, best results will be secured.

Seed treatment with red copper oxide
dust or monohydrated copper sulphate
has become popular in recent years. The
seeds themselves so treated will not only
be disinfected but when planted will dis-
infect the soil immediately around or
touching the seed piece, and will offer a
better protection from damping-off organ-
isms. These materials are used at the rate
of half an ounce of dust to each pound of
seed treated.

Spinach growers who have experienced
trouble in germinating the seed or in get-
ting the young plants started have nearly
overcome this difficulty by thoroughly
dusting with red copper oxide, using half
a pound for each bushel—28 pounds—of

_seed.

Seed teeatnienle surely pays big divi-
dends under many conditions. Every in-
terested grower should write to his own
state agricultural experiment station for
their latest recommendation.

—C. H. NISSLEY.

(Mr. Nissley is extension horticulturist, vegetable
growing, New Jersey Agricultural College and Experi-
ment Station.) :

A NEW SWEET CORN

NEW variety of sweet corn has to be
quite superior and outstanding before

it will be received in the markets and on

the public dining-room table. A Connecti-
cut grower has won the distinction of
producing a variety which meets all re-
quirements. It is claimed—and trial tests
support the contention—that the new
member of the corn family will, after the
public makes its acquaintance, attain great
popularity.

This new variety, Early Pearl, is neither
large nor yellow, being quite the opposite
from the present popular leading varieties.
As its name implies, the kernels have the

appearance of pearls. The ears are minia-
ture, probably the smallest of any corn
grown. But the cobs are very tiny, the
cut corn from the ears being surprisingly
large. The variety has a distinctive tender-
ness, milky succulence and delicate sugary
flavor quite apart from any other variety.
The growers throughout Connecticut, who
have given Harly Pearl a trial, predict
that it will become the leader of the sweet-
corn family.

The variety is a prolific bearer, as many
as twelve ears being picked from one hill.
And the ears are very uniform in growth.
The stalks are of small growth, permitting
very close planting. —B.§. JoHNSON.

NEW SOY BEANS FOR HAY

‘WO new varieties of black soy beans,

introduced by the Indiana Experiment
Station, are proving far superior to Dun-
field, Manchu and other varieties com-
monly used for hay in Southern and Cen-
tral Indiana, Illinois and other farms in
the same latitude. These varieties, Kingwa
and Pekwa, produce a very leafy, tall

‘plant with a slender stem. They are very

similar and their yield is much larger and
of better feeding quality because of the
fineness than the older kinds.

The first field of certified Kingwa seed
was raised in Indiana in 1931. Since that
time the variety has become the leader in
Southwestern Indiana and is gaining much
popularity in the rest of.the state. It has
been my experience in growing it in tests
with thirty other leading varieties on a
Northern Indiana farm that it outyields
all but a few of the extremely late beans
from the Southeastern States, but it is a
little too late to mature seed well every year
this far north.

The Pekwa is very similar, with a larger
seed, and it has yielded slightly more for
me. It was introduced in 1932 and has
not been tried out so thoroughly as the
Kingwa.

Less waste is experienced in feeding hay
from these varieties because of the fine-
ness of the stems. Their lateness makes a
good demand for seed for farmer growers.

Because of the black seed, Kingwa and
Pekwa are not grown for grain.

—ByrRon L. TROYER.

(Mr. Troyer is an Indiana farmer.)

CABBAGE PROSPECTS

HE 1934 cabbage crop was an excep-
tionally large one, totaling about 40
per cent larger than the 1933 crop.

Because of the bumper crop, prices were
very low during the past season. The
carryover of cabbage in Northern States
will be sufficiently large to be an important
competitor for the earlier sections in the
South. Early sections in the South have
indicated that they will plant a much
smaller acreage than a year ago.

After early March the old or:storage
cabbage is eliminated, and from then on
prices will depend on how large the early
and midseason production is. If acreages
are held within reasonable limits, cabbage
should prove a profitable spring and early
summer crop this coming season.

Inasmuch as cabbage was unprofitable
to most growers, beginning last spring and
running almost to the present time, the
tendency will be toward more conservative
acreages. It is seldom that two bumper
crops follow in succession, and there is a
strong possibility that the coming year
will be a much better one than the last so
far as cabbage prices are concerned. This
will be particularly true in the late states
where cabbage was most unprofitable this
past season. © _—COLONEL L. BROWN.
 

PROBABLE EFFECTS OF ELIMINATING THE CENTER JUMP

ball will still possess enough thrills to enthrall her followers. ‘The advocates of the elim-
ination of the center jump contend that the game will be further speeded up, that about 6 or
8 mins will be added to its actual playing time, and that, with sleepers laying back for long —
surprise shots after goals by opponents, the fast break will be enhanced. They further contend
that only a few teams ever possessed tall centers so that the game will now be more equmlized;
that scores will be higher; and that the center, who heretofore did most of the jumping, can
now reserve his strength for better tean and floor playe Fouls will be decreased, they say,
and the officials will be rid of much of that troublesome bugaboo of throwing the ball up high
enough and straight enough to allow both centers a fair jump and tap for the balle

The proponents of the retention ef the couter jump contend that the tip-off added
many additional thrills to the gamo.e Dre Jemes leiamith, the originator of the game, in
attendance at a meeting of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, asked a group
which of the following situations gave then the greater thrill: (1) then the ball was in the
air about 2 ft» above the baskets (2) when the ball went throughe

Most of then said, "When the ball went through the baskets” "You are wrong,” quoth
Dre Naienith, “Your highest pitch of expectancy or interest was when the ball was just above
the cylinder of the basket and you wondered, ‘Will it go through or not?™

“and so with the tip-off," says Dre Haiauithe “hon the ball is tossed up at center —
there is the cane intense interest ant the ame parallel question is ested, °Wiil it go to the
team controlling the tip-off or will the opponents get the tip-off from the controlling team?"

On the other hand, wider the new rules, when a field goal or free throw is scored one
knows just where the ball is goimg in se far as possession is concerned. It will go to the
opposite team. Heretofore, many have contended that wider the eliminated rule the tall
player won the game, not at the center tip-off but rather under the offensive or defensive
basket, and that the elimination of the tip-off will have no bearing on the tall player's
potencye
— |

ao

But the proponents of the center juup contend that the rule mikers have placed a
premium on medicerity rather than upon exvellences Wow the toan scored upm automntically
secures possession of the ball out of bounds, whereas heretofore both teams had to fight for
possession at center after each goal and free throwe The woaker team will now have a betteo —
chance to hold the score dom, for with the ball in its possession it will have the option of
either driving dow rapidly or delaying the offensive to suit its play situations

As a result of this new ruling, scores should be higher, now necessarily on account
of faster play, but because 6 or 8 min. of action will be added to the actual playing times
Previously, there wore letups in action on the center tip-off playse These additional
mimstes of playing time in this already strenuous game msy prove too great a physical strain on
the heart and the kidnogs of the players. Heretofore, the spectators had en opportunity to —
relax for a few seoanis while the ball was being brought beck to center for the tip-off after
an exciting field goale ‘ow, only strong hearts that can stand long~sustained excitenent ak
should venture out to the gaumose )

- There will still be held balls during the game because research has show that, in
games played with the tip-off in use, there were held-ball plays for every three tip-off
plays. In the future, the jumpers will be players of mequal heights, whereas the center jump
invariably brought together the tallest men and the best jumpers of each teane

the proponents of the elimination of the canter juap contend also thet the tean
having the shorter canter fought harder for the possession and control of the ball, and
thereby added fight to the whole tea, while the tea controlling the tip-off usally, be-
cause of a tall conter, courted too meh on its height advantage and moansolously loafed
on the jobe

"Just a lot more of outqof=bounds plays at the endline added to whet you had before,"
4s the analysis of ane coache The defense will soon learn to drop back fast enough to
thwart any so-called quick break. And as for that rapid~fire offense allowing sleepers to
work against them, there stil] will be a premium on good ball handling and on all-around
fundementalse Any time that a sleeper, amiting a pass from his temmates, tries to drop
out of the defensive picture, he will discover to his sorrow that the added man on offense
will be too strong for the weakened defensive tem to cope withs
ae

Gone perhaps is the thrilling last-minute finish of the game—wimming goal~rush, for
the defense will now have possession of the ball as scon as the offense scorese The elimination
of the cemter jump has denied this old thriller to the crowds of the futures Formerly with -
two or three minutes reuaining to be played, a team behind in the score would capture the
ball after each tip-off and sametimes shoot two or three field goals to wim and to send its
with the tean scored upon, And, too, there is now a rules provision which prohibits a tean
behind in the seore fron fouling intentianlly after a successful free throa, in order to
gain possession of the ball.

3
‘

=
a

 
Feb. 16, 1942 _
The Athletie Journal

 

Yhet a gelexy of events in the histery of basketball is this
yoer, 1941 A. D& The Golden Amiversary of Basketball! he Silver
anniversary ef the Joint Basketball Pules Comittee! ‘Two decades of
phenominal progress in basketball.

What has inspired the phonemens] growth and progress of this great
geome’ How heve the offense and the defense changed? Why the great
popularity of this sport? These are « fow questions for which we find the
BNSWOrS »

¥rom the inventor's peach besket to the present iron rim; from
@ soceer football to « fullesized regulation besketball; from the large
reotenguler 6’ x 4! backboords, that wore firet made of chicken wire, then
glass, then wood, te the present streamlined fan-shaped pressed~stee] back-
doarde, the game of basketball has steadily forged ahead te become one of the
most popular emateur sports. ‘the original purpese of the Jerge beekboards
wae to keep spectators end partisens of the game from kicking or batting the ball
away from the basket. Later the pleyers learned to bank tho ball from these
lerge boords, The Research Committee of the Rules Body, by cutting away the
dead wool, retained only the fertile area ef the board. The radical reduction
in size of the backboard hes sided spectator visibility, beok of the basket,
more than fifty percent.

from the small low-ceilinged gyunasdums to the massive field houses
of today; form the audiences of « few hundreds to crowds of from 12,000 te
20,000; from nine, thon seven to five players on © side unfolds the unprecendented
gromth of the fifty~year-old indoor game of besketball. |

‘Bweryone mows thet the distinguished Dr. James Naismith, former Pro-
fescor ef Physien] Eduestion at the University of Kenees, while a student et

2 He aS aa Ng a SIA Rae ete
5S es a ie Sec Seal aa sae oh Eat nk dS EES ete +3) ge :
the Internatione! YoM.C.A. College in Springfield, Massachusetts originated
the game in 1891. A photestatic copy of the original thirteen rules are

engaged in « frame in my office, ‘6 © wediwna of comparision the original rules
are given herewith.

le
Be

Be

de

Be

Te

%

105

The bell may be throw in any direction with one or both hendss
The ball may be batted in ony direction with one or both hands,

The ball must be held in or hetween the hands; the arms or body

must not be used fer holding ite

Wo shouldéring, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking in any
way the person of the opponent is to be allowed. The first
Seevenannane OF See Sane Sy Guy porate Shai Geunt ce 6 TSEDe
the second shall disquelify him wntil the next gosl is made, or
if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole
game; no substitute allowed.

4 foul-is striking the bell with the fist, violetion of Rules
& and 4, and euch as deseribed in Rule 6.

If either side makes three eonsoeutive foule it shell count for
@ goal for the opponents. (Consecutive means without the opponents
moking a foul.)

A goal shell be made when the be oe ee ee ee
the grounds into the ba mahot and steys there providing those
defending the goal do not ee ae lovers Gb geale If the

the edge and the opponent moves the basket, it shell

f bounds it shell be thrown into the field,

person first touching it. In ease of a dispute,
straight into the field. The thrower

4g allowed five seconds; if he holds it lenger, it shall go te the

If any side persists in delaying the game, the Umpire

11 be the judge of the men, and shall note the fouls,
Referee when three consecutive fouls heave been

He shall have the power to disqualify men egeording to

2s :
21s The Referee shall be judge of the ball, and shall decide when

12. The time shall be two lS~ninute halves, five minutes betweene
135. ‘The side mking the most goals shall be the winner. In onse of

a draw, the game may, by agreement ef captains, be continued

until another goal is made,

Important fundamentals of the game as played today are found in
the original thirteen rules. fhis fact is « remarkable tribute te the sound
judgment and foresight of their authors

How heye the Offense and the Defense Chenged? Due to Dr. Haismith's
uneenny vision in his first thirteen rules, the fundementgls of the game have
changed but little, if any. But the rules makers have legislated rules since
which have effected both the offense and the defense.

The three-second rule, the ten-second rule and the elimination of
the center jump heve e111 contributed to the present hurricane, heart-
splitting game thet we have at present. But the fundementals have remeined
about the sume, The accepted unified terminology of the game, the formation
of the National Association of Basketball Coaches snd the Peseerch Committee,
both of the Rules Body and Coaches Association have been a definite factor
in stabilising end improving the rules and administration of basketball.

Why the great populertty of the sport? Basketball has had truly
an amateur as well es e sound educational and a reel missionary background.

(1) The genuine amateur sports promoters of Amerios are the Boards
ef idueation of the high schools end the Boards of Regents of the universities
and collegese There are 27,474 high school buildings in the United States.

There are 9,159 junior high sehools, 9186 colleges and 600 junior colleges.
It 48 reasonable to suppose that most of these educational institutions heve
Gymnasiae These gymasia are built end maintained by public tex money.
the maintenanee of « besketbell court is small end the equipment is inox-
pensive. Due to the fact that no cancellations of basketball games occur
on secount of weather conditions, tho gomes can be pleyed in 011 climes at
reguler times. Besketbell oan be an individuel game as well ae a team games
Children of practically 011 ages, therefore ean play it without serious conse
quenses. |

in the words of the great inventer whe said, "Basketball is a gome
easy to play but difficult to masters" The bell is alweys out in the opens
it is not hidden from view as it is in football, when mass play is in the
order. Many midwestern university coaches have told me that they have checked —
every able~bodied boy entering the wiversity and heve failed te find « single
active bey who has not played basketball in high school. ,

(2) Perhaps by secident or by place of invention the come of basket~
ball has « real missionary significances, At the International Y.lisG.ie College,
Springfiold, sesachuetts, "the oradle of basketball", physical directors, medion!
missionaries and generel seoreterios wore trained. These emissaries of good
will plented the geome carly in our century in meny foreign countries end islands
of the gots The United States solaters, in 1900, introduced begsketbell in
the Philippine Islands. The Amerioon army of cecupation taught it to the
Ge-man populace in 1918. During the Inter-Allied games in Paris, Juno, 1919,
the United States, France, and Itely played for the championship, which the
United States won rether handily. After the Armistice wes signed, two American
teams, by invitetion from the British government, demonstrated basketbell in
the British ares of the wor cones the British took to it readily.

Prooticelly every foreign country hes fashioned ite besketbe1l rules
after our Amerdean game. They look to us as the mother country of the sport,
 

and expeét our guidence in formulating their rules end in shaping their
ideale of tho geome. |

In an official check-up with Dr» Neismith, we found that 49
netions end territories ere now playing basketballs Africa, Alasim,
Arabia, Argentine, Australia, Bolivis, Bresil, Bulgeria, canada, Ceylon,
chile, chins » Costa Ries, Cubs, Gzecheslovakia, Egypt, Englend, France,
Germeny, Greece, Guatemala, Hati, Hewaii, Hondures, Hungary, mAs Italy,
depan, ores, Lotvia, Madagesear, Mexico, lew vealand, Penema , Paraguay,
Persie, the Philippines, Polant, Porte Mise, Portugel, Rumania, San Selvedor,
Sfam, Spain, Switserland, Syria, Turkey, the United States, end Uregueye

Portugel, which introduced the game in 1927, went med over its In
less than twe yoars 24 basketball clubs were in existence and matches were
being played every Sunday and were well pertonised. Competition in the game
wes so keen thet a team immediately begen training for the Buropesn champion-
ship competition. This team was confident of victory because some of its
players had learned the game in the United States ond hed figured in sone
important contesta heres

In America, according to the Al) Sports Book for 1985, basketball -
outérew ell other sports with a total ef 60,000,000 paid attendances. Esee
ball xas noxt with 60,000,000; football third with 40,000,000.

the euthor of this article, working with Dr. Karl Diehm of Berlin,
Germany and Sehaku Pi of Heseda University, rexye, depen, hed the pleasure
of having besketbell pleged on the Olympic galender in Berlin in 1936. Prior
to this setion, The National Association of Basketball Coaches, through their
President, Y4illiem Chandler, sold to the Basketbell-conseious public of the
United States the ides of giving to Dre Neismith ond his family an honorerium,
go that they might go to Berlin to see besketball in its great demonstration
before the nations of the earth. Since Dr. Naismith had never made © penny from
this greet game that he had se gladly given te the youthful posterity he —
was deeply ereteful for the gratuity end affectionete contribution of his
friends teword the Olympic tripe Mis epie etetement at that time was, "De
not be afraid to serve humanity and wait for your reward." |
  

INTERCOLLEGIATE

 

 

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

NORMAN + OKLAHOMA

September 17, 1943

Dr. F. Ce Allen

Basketball Coach
University Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas

Dear Coach:

You can't imagine how grateful I was to reeeive
your nice long letter and alsothe telegram. I immed-
iately locked for the citations in your book. Found
a lot of meat there. We intend to give you a good
plug on the 12-foot goal. You eertainly have command
ofall phases of the history of basketball. With best
wishes, I am

Sincerely yours,

Harold Meith
Director Sports Publicity

 
 

' Day Letter
Sept. 15, 1943

Harold Keith,

Athletic Department,

University of Oklahoma,

Norman, Okla.

In my special delivery letter I meant to call attention
to 12 ft. basket section in Better Basketball, pages

25 to 26. Please refer to your copy.

F. ©. Allen.

 

 
SCHOLASTIC

 

 

Pictures of Percy Beard

: Mov

In th
seabonee ils
gE Be *

|

 

MARCH, 1935

 

EXHIBIT A
Dunking by Seward of Purdue

Dr. Forrest C. Allen in an arti-
cle in the February Country
Gentleman. Dr. Allen is the leader of
a movement to raise the baskets to a
height of twelve feet, to give the play-
er of average height a more equitable
share in the rewards of under-basket
play. As it is now, it is “shooting for
the little fellow and dunking for the
big boy,” as the Kansas coach puts it.
(See Exhibit A above.)

The chances that 12-ft. baskets will
be adopted by the National Basketball
Committee at its spring meeting are
not very great. Even if the change
were imminent, there is little likeli-
hood that it would apply to high
schools. Evidently, there are not
enough tall high school players to
make dunking the problem to high
school basketball that it is to the col-
lege game.

Dr. Allen would perhaps be less
active in promoting 12-ft. baskets
were it not for the strength of another
reform movement which favors the
elimination of the center jump. There
is a question of relative values bearing
on these two “tall-man” situations.
We asked Dr. Allen for some com-
ment on this question’ and he respond-
ed as follows:

“So long as coaches talk of eliminating
the center tipoff, then I use the 12-ft.
basket argument to show the real cause
of dissatisfaction over the tall man. I have

D) Be Fors isn’t basketball,” says

 

= pee ae 5

« 2
Cone OF,
e

When they talk of throwing out the center jump,
Dr. Allen suggests raising the baskets

always maintained that the tall man beats
you under the rebound at either the offen-
sive or defensive basket, and my argument
for raising the basket to twelve feet is
that the area of dispersion from the re-
bounds is much greater on a 12-ft. basket
than on a 10-ft. basket. Therefore, the
players must be further out on the court,
and not under the basket as many of them
are now, to play a rebound on a higher
basket. And, by having a 12-ft. basket, the
tall players could not dunk them in as
they are doing now.

“My added argument is that with 12-ft.
baskets the little fellow could easily arch
his shot two feet further, and the big fel-
low would have to shoot the ball instead of
dunking it. :

“Moreover, to eliminate the center jump
and retain held balls as we now have them,
is to disregard the real source of disad-
vantage arising from all toss-ups. Statis-
tics on our home games this season show
that held balls occurred two-thirds as of-
ten as center jumps. And for the center
tipoff the two jumpers are more evenly
matched than any other two jumpers are
apt to be on the court. Each coach gets
his best jumper for the center tipoff,
while on a held ball jump you may have
the shortest man on the team jumping
against the tallest. This would never ob-
tain on the center jump proposition.”

Complaint Dep't
| high school at Balaton, Minne-
sota, writes in to call a personal
foul on us for our interpretation of the
strip of continuous-action pictures on
page 23 of the February issue, which
showed a set out-of-bounds play un-
der the basket. Mr. Olson says we pre-
sented as a legitimate maneuver that
which is in reality face guarding,
for which a personal foul should have
been called. In case you do not re-
call the strip of pictures in question
we are reproducing one frame from
the strip herewith (see Exhibit B).
Players 1 and 8 are teammates, facing
their own basket. Player 1 has just
received a high pass from a teammate
out-of-bounds under the basket. Player
3 has taken a well-spread position be-
hind Defensive Player 2, with his
back to him. Player 3 stands with his
back to Player 1 and his guard be-
cause it is part of the deception of
the play for Player 3 to fake recep-
tion of an imaginary pass which his

E high E. OLSON, coach of the

 

out-of-bounds teammate fakes to him.

The mechanics of the play are appar-
ent: In moving to cover Player 1’s
diagonal dribble, Defensive Player 2
is screened off by Player 3, who, as

all the pictures showed, stood per-
fectly still. A player cannot commit
face-guarding as long as he stands
still, regardless of whether he disre-
gards the ball. And if personal con-
tact ensues between Player 3 and De-
fensive Player 2 when the latter moves
to cover Player 1, the foul, if any is
called, should certainly not be on
Player 3, who has stood still, but on
Defensive Player 2 who unwittingly
bumped into him. Now, this may not
be fair, but at the current writing it

_ is law.

So, as long as Player 3 does not
move there cannot justly be a foul
called on him. And even though he
moved and became a moving screen no
foul could justly be called on him for
face-guarding unless he was facing
an opponent and disregarding the ball.
No doubt it was something we wrote
in the caption to the pictures in which

 

EXHIBIT B
Is 3 Face-guarding?

Mr. Olson saw face-guarding. The
pertinent part of the caption said: “If
the screen player sees that a success-
ful defensive switch is about to occur,
he can become a moving screen to dis-
commode the switchers.” In event the
play took this turn (which it did not
in the pictures) Player 3 would, if he
were clever, protect himself against
a charge of face-guarding by turning
in such a way that he would not be
facing either defensive player, and at
the same time would avoid causing
personal contact by the move.

We are glad that Mr. Olson brought
up the point, because it gives us a
chance to show off our technical
knowledge of a game which is becom-
ing more and more like a game of
chess. Pretty soon it will be necessary
for a player to jump over an oppo-
nent if he wants to get around him.

a 4 *

Zi

és

é

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