A. M. KLEINHOFFER LAWRENCE E. SMITH, JR.

SMITH-GRIEVES COMPANY, PRINTERS

SEVENTEENTH AND WASHINGTON : KANSAS CITY. MO.
December 29th, 1928

Dr. Forrest C. Allen,
801 Louisiana,
Lawrence, Kansas.

Dear Dr. Allen:-

I was greatly pleased with the copy of "Sport"
containing article by Sol Metzger.

You may be interested to know that I have be-
come an orange eater after reading your article
on diet.

I like Metzger's writings.- always look for them
in the papers. He has @ knack of making sports
interesting. I am sure he is widely read and

the story in "Sport™ should help our book, besides

pleasing both of us.

I hope you had a pleasant Christmas and will have
a Happy New Year, and lots of success in 1929.

Pe Ue i oath

A.M.Kleinhoffer,
SMITH=GRIEVES COMPANY

AMK/B

I am enclosing, herewith, the article from "Sport"

 
\ = ces Councit: E. K. Hall, Chairman =
Football Rules Committee; Julian W. Curtiss, — :
rowing authority and referee; Dr. James E.
\ Naismith, inventor of basketball: Watson

\ Washburn, former Davis Cup tennis player;
EDITED, UNDER DIRECTION OF OUR\SPORT ADVISORY COUNCIL, Robert C. Zuppke, football coach, Illinois; Jobn

By Sot METZGER T. Doyle, American Sports Publishing Co.
: 2 Ww
January Die for the Athlete

\X JERE you to talk with Forrest{C. Allen, the
experienced and successful basketball coach
at the University of Kansas, you would learn a
lot about the question of what is best to eat
and drink when training during the winter. In
his fine book, ‘‘My Basketball Bible,’’ published
by Smith-Grieves Co., Kansas City, Mo., the
author speaks of the advantages to be gained
by a free drinking of water. He says the athlete
should drink a glass of water every hour during
the day, as it helps greatly to eliminate constipa-
tion and to stimulate the gastric flow. He ad-
: vises, however, that on
game days the amount
’ should be reduced to four

glasses.

What a fine interior
cleanser water is! It also
has other benefits. Some
boys seem always to be
hungry. The athlete who
finds himself in this con-
dition cannot too freely
indulge his appetite
without slowing himself
both mentally and physi-
cally. Mr. Allen advises
such a player to drink a
glass of water every time
he feels hungry between
meals.

The more one studies
the matter of diet the
more one finds that
[CONTINUED ON PAGE 41]
JANUARY, 1929

 

SPORT

[CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27]

 

January Diet for the Athlete

[CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27]

thorough mastication of the food eaten at meal
times is of the utmost importance. One basket-
ball coach at a college where the players eat at
a training-table compels his men to remain at
the table three-quarters of an hour. I asked
him the reason.

‘Merely because,” he replied, ‘‘it prevents the
men from overeating, which is most harmful.
At first they think it fine. But, as the average
boy eats a meal in fifteen to twenty minutes, they
soon tire of sitting around doing nothing. The
result within a week is astonishing. After that
period of time has elapsed every player eats very
slowly, thoroughly chewing each bit of food.
He figures that he’s going to be able to eat the
full three-quarters of an hour by doing this. But
to his surprise this thorough mastication of
food quickly appeases his hunger, and he is
satisfied with less food than when he bolts his
meal. There is no question but that this benefits
him. Most of us eat too much.”’

Coach Forrest C. Allen is a great believer in :

oranges. His players eat one each a half-hour
before breakfast, immediately after practice, and
just before retiring. “‘It is my conviction,”’ he
writes, ‘‘that the mineral salts in the oranges
will do more to ward off staleness than any other
single thing.”’

What should one eat before a basketball game?
Here’s the meal that is prepared for the Kansas
Varsity and served two and one-half hours before
a home game:

Sliced oranges, sprinkled with sugar; two
slices of hot dry toast and butter; half a baked
potato; one cup of weak tea with sugar and no
cream; sliced peaches, no cream.

f the game is away from home and a hard
trip to be taken, a small piece of T-bone steak
(two inches square) is added to the above for
each man.

 

CALIFORNIAS PASSING ANDO
WIND DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE

 

 

   

YY = tteigs

Passing and Wind Exercises

N exercise common to most well-trained and
well-coached basketball squads is the one
shown in the accompanying illustration. A
group of six or more players form in a circle and
keep jogging about at a fair rate of speed, pass-
ing a ball back and forth from one to another.
Coach ‘‘Nibs’’ Price, of the California five that
has reigned supreme on the Pacific Coast for
the past several years, uses this exercise through-
out the season.
As none of the players know which is to re-

ceive a pass from the one last catching the ball,
all must be on the alert for it. The coach also
compels the players to pass as rapidly as possible
during this exercise. As a result every player
gets valuable practice in receiving and passing
rapidly—a most valuable point in fast play—
and is also trained in the art of handling a pass
that comes to him unexpectedly. Naturally,
such drill develops a team’s wind.

It is highly important in passing to feed
the ball belt-high to a receiver. Balls thrown
face-high often interfere with the vision of the
player passed to, and a fumble results. Also,
though one-hand passes are common in the
game, it is better to use two hands when one is
able to do so, as greater accuracy is insured.

S.

 

  

 

 

=f Helis — °

The Climax of All By ketball |
Attack

NY time you happen to watch a college
basketball team practice you will hear the
coach continually yelling at the top of his lungs
to his players: ‘Follow in, follow in!’ Regard-
less of the attack used, no team can be a high-
scoring one if it fails to follow up each shot.
In the accompanying illustration this point is
cleared for you.

No. 1 in the diagram, which represents the
figure just shooting in the drawing, must not
be the last word in the attack. Most of his at-
tempts at a basket will fail to register. For that
reason some of his team-mates drive in for the
basket as he shoots, the purpose being for one
of them to regain the ball, in case of a miss, and
take another shot from closer up.

There has to be some sort 2 system to such
aplan. There is with all well-drilled fives. Usu-
ally, if the shot is from in front, two other
players drive in, one to the right of the basket, |
the other to its left. As the shooter lets go of
the ball he also drives straight for the basket.
In this way, the basket is covered from all three
points—front and two sides—in case of a miss,
and a team-mate is ready to take the rebound
and try to convert it into a basket.

No part of basketball attack is more im-
portant than this. Even if the men following in
fail to get a chance for the basket, in case ofa
miss, they can strive to regain the ball and relay
it back to a team-mate to their rear, so that the
attack may function all over again. The five
that shoots from the floor and does not follow
in is bound to have hard going, as the oppo-
nents will regain the ball and soon have it under
their basket. S. M.

 
Common Sense In.
By Handley Cross Basket Ball

Ed McNichol, Famous University of Pennsylvania Player and
Coach, Talks About the Popular Court Game

course—every college, almost, has

pee: systems? Of

its basket-ball system,” said Ed

McNichol, University of Pennsylvania

varsity basket-ball coach, settling him-

self comfortably for a talk in the Red
and Blue’s athletic general headquarters
at Franklin Field, in Philadelphia. “But
there is something far more important
in basket ball than systems of play, no
matter how good those systems may be.
That something is common sense! And
common sense in basket ball means mak-
ing the best of your material—getting
the most out of your players. .

— “Take our 1928-1929 team as an ex-
ample. It wasn’t a really great team,
although it won the championship of the
Eastern Intercollegiate League. A
good team, yes—but not a great team.
If we hadn’t used our common sense,

_-and had tried to play the same brand of

basket ball that we used to play here at
Pennsylvania back in the years between
1918 and.1921, when we did have really
great teams, we would have finished
third or fourth in the league race. But
we did use our common sense, and that
meant using to the limit our most effec-
tive offensive weapon—‘Sharpshooter’
Joey Schaaf. Circumstances made it
‘_necessary that our strategy have just one
object—to work Joey Schaaf into posi-
tion to shoot for a basket, and then to
give him the ball. It wasn’t a one-man
team, because it took good teamwork by
the other players to get Schaaf into po-
sition to shoot, but it was a team built

around the scoring ghitty of one great
offensive player. And it was a team
good enough to win the league title.”

A BASKET-BALL FAMILY.

Ed McNichol is a member of a fam-
ily famous in the annals of University
of Pennsylvania basket ball. Seven

- McNichol brothers—Harry, Dan, Jim,

Joe, John, Frank and Ed—have helped
to make basket-ball history at Old Penn,
and between 1905, when Harry entered
college, and 1917, when Ed was gradu-
ated, almost every Pennsylvania team
that took the court had a McNichol play-
ing on it. In 1925 the. McNichol clan
gathered under its family banner and
defeated the Penn varsity team, 23 to
18. All of the brothers played in that
game, the starting line-up being Harry,
Dan, Jim, John and Ed, and Joe and
Frank acting as substitutes.

Ed McNichol played on his freshman
basket-ball team, and on the varsity for
three years, and also played varsity
baseball. He started coaching at Penn-
sylvania shortly after being graduated,

_and has been varsity coach for the past

ten years. He has been an outstanding
success. In those ten years Pennsyl-
vania has won the championship of the
Eastern Intercollegiate League four
times—in 1920, 1921, 1928 and 1929;
has finished second once; fourth, three
times; fifth, once; and last, once.
Penn’s victory in 1920 gave the uni-

_versity permanent possession of the

 
Gridiron Magic

responsible for more young men going
to Yale than perhaps any other influ-
ence. The same is true of Stagg of
Chicago and Yost of Michigan, and
Warner, now of Stanford. One reason
why so many youngsters are now pick-
ing New York University is on account
of Chick Meehan, the football coach.
He is a little fellow about five feet four
but commands the same respect that
little Miller Huggins used to get out
of the giant Yankees.

It is because Chick Meehan under-
stands his boys that he has made a
success. You must be a. student of
human nature to be a successful foot-
ball coach. The players are as tem-
peramental as movie stars, and you
must know how to handle them in order
to get the best out of them. Though I

75

was a pretty good player in college, I
was never free from getting the call-
downs from Chick Meehan. I got them
as often as the poorest player on the
team. Why? Because Chick knew that
I would go out the next day and try to
murder the scrubs! That is how he
got me to work.

Chick was one of the greatest quar-
ters in the game when he played with
Syracuse. I once asked him how. he
remembered his signals and he said,
“Well, I used to write them on the cen-
ter’s pants so they could be right be-
fore me.”

» “But suppose the center was put out
of the game what would you do?” I in-
quired.

. “Every center had pants with writing
on them,” he said with a smile.

 
Common Sense In Basket Ball

Heppe Cup, and its victory last. season
added the Alexander Memorial Cup to
the_already large collection in the uni-
versity trophy room. Now Coach Mc-
Nichol has good hopes of winning the

‘first leg on the new Ralph Morgan Cup.

this winter, for although the brilliant
Joe Schaaf has been lost by graduation,
Ed McNichol has three sophomores of
whom he expects great things. -

- “Joe Schaaf,”-said Mr. McNichol, “is
what might be called a self-made basket-
ball player. He has been interested in
the game ever since he was’a very young
kid, and when he was eight or nine years
old he had a basket rigged up in his
back yard, and started to practice shoot-
ing. He practiced for hours a day, day
in and day out, and that faithful prac-
tice developed his natural ability until
he became the best shot in the league.
He was the high individual scorer in
1928, and again in 1929. In the former
year he established a new modern league
record by scoring 125 points. Last sea-
son he shot 44 field.goals, breaking the
record,of 43 established by Orson Kin-
ney, of Yale, in 1917. Schaaf scored
nine field goals in a game against Co-
lumbia last winter.

“An ambitious young player may de-
velop his shooting skill by individual
practice, but there is one serious danger
that he must guard against. That is the
danger of copying too closely the style
of some prominent player. For exam-

ple, Nat Holman, the professional star, |

is a remarkable goal shooter, but he has
a most peculiar style—a style that gets
good results when used by him, but that
would result in the ruin of nine out of
ten young players who attempted to
copy it.

_ “Style really is unimportant in shoot-
ing. The big idea is to get the ball into

the basket, and to do that consistently.

the young player must use a natural toss
—do things in the easiest and most nat-’
ural way. I’ve noticed in the games of
our University of Pennsylvania Inter-

7

scholastic. Tournament that. at least half.
of the players are in unnatural positions
when they shoot. That’s all wrong.
The boy who wants to make the grade
in college basket ball must learn to do
things in an easy, natural way. And
here is something that every basket-ball
player should remember—good shooting
is mostly a matter of good control of
the arm muscles. I’ve watched players
shoot basket after basket in practice, and
then miss basket after basket in a game.
Why? Because, while they were prac-
ticing, they had their arm nmscles under
good control, but in their eagerness to
score in an actual game they lost that
control. Basket-ball players must learn
not to ‘tie up.’ _

“The best advice I can give the boy
who wants to become a good basket-ball
player is to go to some one who really
knows the game, and get some compe-
tent coaching. A really good coach can
do wonders in the way of developing
natural ability, and even a few minutes
of personal attention from such a coach
may keep the young player from form-
ing bad habits, and start him on his way
along the right road. The ambitious
youngster also will do well to attend as
many college and professional games as

he can—intelligent observation of actual

play will teach any one a great deal
about the game. And you must prac-
tice, practice, practice! You can’t get
too much practice! And, if you expect
it to do you any real good, it mustn’t be
half-hearted practice. You must work
every bit as hard while you are practic-

ing as you would work in an actual

game.
“One thing more about individual
practice. The boy who has to practice
his basket shooting in his back yard
shouldn’t feel that he is handicapped be-
cause he can’t do it ina gymnasium. It’s
much better for him to practice out-
doors. Basket ball is a hard game, and
it is made harder by the fact that it is
played indoors, and too often on poorly

 
a
78

ventilated courts. I advise every bas-
ket-ball player to stay outdoors as much
as is possible.

BIG MEN ARE WANTED.

“T haven’t the slightest desire to dis-
courage boys of average height and
weight, but I like big men for every po-
sition on a basket-ball team. Small men
often make competent players, but—
everything else being equal—a big man
is more valuable as a basket-ball player
than is a small man. ~ That’s where the
West holds an advantage over the East
in this game. I don’t think that the
Western colleges play better basket ball
than we do in the East, but they cer-
tainly get bigger men. I’ve been handi-
capped for the past five -years because
I’ve been unable to find-a good, tall cen-
ter. Out West, big, fast men are com-
mon—fellows who stand up six feet
three or four inches in their socks, and
who are really fast on their feet. That’s
the type of candidate that I would like
to see coming out for our squads—but
I don’t get them, so I have to do the best
that I can with the boys I do get.

“A basket-ball team is very seriously
handicapped when it is without the serv-
ices of a tall center—a player who can
be depended on to outjump his opponent
when the ball is thrown up between
them. If the center can do that, four

men at once can enter into offensive
play. If you have a short center, no
matter how good he may be, he is
likely to be outjumped by a taller op-
ponent, and in that case you must de-
pend upon your forwards to get the ball.

“Forwards should be good shots from
under the basket, and good long shots.
They also must be good ball handlers—
good, accurate passers, and sure re-
ceivers. If they have these qualifica-
tions, the bigger they are, the better.

“The qualifications for guards are the
same as for forwards, and in addition
the good guard has an instinctive ability
to follow his-man when he is playing on

Sport Story Magazine

defense. We use one guard as a safety

‘man on many plays, but there really is

no such thing as a purely defensive
player in modern basket ball. Every
player on the team should be equally
good on offense and defense.

SOME OFFENSIVE FORMATIONS.

“Offensive basket-ball formations
were introduced in the Middle West
several years ago, and now are used in
varying degrees by all basket-ball-play-
ing colleges and schools. When you use
formations, each man has a definite as-
signment to carry out, just as each man
has a definite assignment to carry out in
a football play. When you don’t use
formations, the play is allowed to de-
velop naturally, each player using his
Own initiative in working the ball and
a player into a scoring position. Each

ws

 
Common Sense In Basket Ball

O

‘
‘
A
4
a
‘
\

 

G------a><

4
A

2

method has its advantages, but I think
that formation play has more advantages
than the other style.

“Last season. I think that we used
more formation plays than did any of
our Eastern Intercollegiate League ri-
vals. There was a good reason for that.
When you use formations you use a
passing game—and, generally speaking,
a passing game is a winning game in
basket ball. Opposed to the passing
game is the dribbling game, which some-
times is effective and sometimes isn’t
effective. It happened that we had too

many dribblers on our squad, so we went _

in strong for formations to cut down
the dribbling.
“When you have a tall center, you

design your formations with the as- |

sumption that your center will be able
to outjump his opponent at least half the

time, and so your play starts with the

79

center tapping the ball to one of the
other players. But with our short cen-
ter we couldn’t do that, for usually his
opponent outjumped him. So, after the
signal for a formation was given, the
play started when one of our players
obtained possession of the ball, and that
signal meant that the formation play it
called for was to be gotten under way as
soon as possible, and at any time before
the next jump. 2

“Here are a few of the plays that we

have found to be successful:

“In Play No, 1, Player X1 passes to
Player X5, and cuts by him, near the
side line, for a faked return pass.
Player X4 cuts over toward the opposite.
side line, and blocks Player X3’s defense
man. Player X3 cuts to the basket for
a pass from Player X5.

“In Play No. 2, Player X1 passes to
Player X5, at ‘A.’ Player X5 passes to
Player X1, blocking his man from fol-

=

 
80

Jowing—or, Player X5 fakes a pass to
Player XI and then passes to Player X4—

at “B,’ and cuts by to take a return pass,
his defense man being blocked by Player
X4. This is a pivot play.

“In Play Ne. 3, Player XI passes to
Player X5, at ‘A,” and euts on inside.
Player X5 dribbles behind X1, as he
passes. If he is free he goes on to the
basket, but if he is taken off he pivots
at ‘B,’ and makes the play with Player
X3, as shown in the diagram. .

“These are just a few of the many
formations that may be worked out by
any basket-ball coach. But in designing
formations, the coach should show his
common sense by making them simple
enough for his players to understand

them and perfect them.

' “Ag in football, a basket-ball team is
just as strong as its players are strong
in the fundamentals of the game. The
best-designed play won't result im a
score if your players aren’t able to pass
accurately and receive passes surely,
shoot the ball into the basket when the

right moment comes, and help each ~

~ other—which means that they must be
team players rather than individual
players. Practice, practice, practice—
that’s what makes a ‘basket-ball team
good. Individual practice in the funda-
mentals of passing, catching and shoaet-
ing the ball. Team practice in team
plays.
ABOUT DEFENSIVE PLAY.

“The ideal of every good basket-ball
player is to play offensive basket ball all
the time—even while the other team has
possession of the ball. When you have
the ball, try every fair method to keep
possession of it. When the other team
has the ball, try every fair method of
getting it away from them.

“But, no matter how hard your play-
ers try to get and keep the ball, there are

Sport Story Magazine

times in every game when the other fel-
lows have it. When that happens, your
players must know how to meet and
stop their attack.

“There are two methods of doing that.
In the past many teams used the zone
system of defense, but the large mod-
ern courts killed that system. It still is
useful on small courts. But the modern
system is the man-for-man defense—a
defense in which each man is responsible
for a certain opponent.

“Basket ball is a hard, fast game,
and training is essential to play it well.

‘I advise all boys to practice as much as

possible on outdoor courts. Some boys
think that this slows them up, but I
don’t agree with that theory. One of
the things that makes basket ball a hard
game is that it is played indoors, and
boys should build up as much health as
possible by staying outdoors as much as
they cam. Before a game, of course,
they should practice a few times on an
indoor court.

“No preliminary training is necessary
for basket ball. Running will slow a

boy up, rather than make him faster.

During the first two weeks of the season

we have practice sessions two nights a

week. After that we have practice
three nights a week until the season is
well under way. Then, with the team
playing two or three-games a week, one
practice session is quite sufficient.

“We have.a training table here at
Pennsylvania for our basket-ball play-

‘ers, but I think that its greatest value is

that it gets and keeps the players to-
gether. Strict dieting is mot necessary
—plain, wholesome food is all that a
basket-ball player needs. He should get
plenty of sleep, especially during the
playing season, and he shouldn’t. smoke.

Getting and keeping in condition, like

most. other things in basket ball, is
mostly a matter of common sense.”

ae

SPO—5B