TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1951
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE FIVE
Along the JAYHAWKER trail
Football fans won't be disappointed next year when Head Coach Jules V. Sikes' version of the Kansas football team opens on Sept. 22 against Texas Christian at Fort Worth. The Jayhawks should stack up as a rock 'em sock 'em squad that combines durability with aggressiveness in a most effective way.
Although many of last season's standouts are missing, various newcomers are determined to make the spectators forget such favorites as Mike McCormack, Wade Stinson, John Amberg, and the host of other notables who were lost through graduation.
This year's crew really acts like a football team. You can tell they're out there because they want to be—and such an attitude will go a long way toward replacing any finesse they may lack during the first few games.
By ALAN MARSHALL
Daily Kansas Sports Editor
Sikes himself will tell you, "I like the way they make a little noise." He remains non-committal on individuals, an attitude typical of most successful coaches, but you can tell he isn't too unhappy over the whole situation.
Judging from the first three weeks of spring drills, he thinks the offense is rounding into shape; but he's still bothered by the defensive platoon. With continued good weather, a rather scarce quantity so far this season, Sikes and his bevy of assistants could work wonders in teaching the athletes the intricacies of defensive tactics.
K. U. figures to have a strong running attack, a feature of the 1950 eleven, and you can't count Coach Sikes out when it comes to designing a passing attack. Remember Dick Gilman, a third string quarterback who suddenly found himself an all-Big Seven choice due mainly to his long-range aerials?
Jerry Bogue, varsity quarterback two seasons ago who was out last season with a knee injury, was on hand Monday night to give a demonstration of his passing accuracy. And he really demonstrated. He hasn't lost the bull's eye tosses that won him all-sophomore honors in 1949. This Wichita ace could prove to be an important factor in presenting a diversified attack.
Thus far the receivers have been lacking. A few of them, Orbin Tice, Bill Schaake and Duane Unruh, have made some pretty fain retrieves but they haven't been consistent. Should they sharpen up to the point where they can handle Bogue's bullets, the Jayhawker passing attack should come into its own.
Gotto Schnellbacher, former K.U. all-Big Seven grid star and an all-pro defensive halfback with the New York Giants, is working on the pass defense. A definite weakness last season, it is still lacking. Several newcomers, though, are moving into this specialty and by next fall they should be at least sufficient.
A Successful Ewell Blackwell Comeback Would Make Reds A Definite Contender
New York (U.P.)—They're not talking pennant in the camp of the Cincinnati Reds but they're thinking it and the reason is a slim, slatty man with a buggy-whip arm who is expected this spring to complete baseball's comeback of the decade.
That would be lean Ewell Blackwell, a towering pitcher hailed in 1947 as the new Carl Hubbell—and two years ago mourned as a man who was through good.
It looked for a while as if the man they call "The Whip" would have a tragic ending. In 1947, his sophomore year in the majors, he rocketed across the baseball skies with a 22-8 record. Unwinding his six feet, five inches with breathtaking power, he led the National League in victories and strikeouts, fired a no-hit, no-run game against the Braves and posted a modern record of 16 victories in a row
Then he ran into trouble which threatened to end his career.
Blackwell developed arm trouble. A meagre seven victories was regarded as the price he paid for growing and going too far too fast. But on top of that he developed kidney trouble and, in a post-season operation, had a kidney removed.
As the spring of 1949 rolled around. Blackwell was just another would-be pitcher. It looked hopeless. A shoulder muscle kept jumping out of place, a payoff on abnormal development. When he was a high school freshman, Blackie was only five feet, six. As a sophomore he was six feet, five.
He grew a foot in a year and the shoulders didn't grow with him. There simply wasn't enough padding to keep that muscle in place. So as the spring of 1949 aged into summer Blackie rode the bench with black despair in his heart.
And last season the big fellow came charging back. Shrugging off a sore heel which shackled him in the spring, he wheeled that ball in from the general direction of third base to look like the Blackwell of old. His record was a pleasing 17 wins against 15 defeats.
But those 17 wins proved that Blackie—the man they had thought was through—was just about back.
This spring they say he's made the full round trip, Luke Sewell, the Reds' manager, has asserted that Blackwell is "a cinch" to win 20 games. With a better ball club, that would indicate, he's a 30-game winner—something which baseball hasn't had since Dizzy Dean turned the trick in 1934.
But he didn't quit. Not even after a season in which he won but five games.
It was a triumph for perserverance. He hadn't reached top condition until June and, at the tail end of the season, he was bothered by an inflamed appendix.
Tin cans are not tin at all but sheet metal coated with a thin film of tin. This coating is only about $11\%$ per cent of the total weight of the can.
Wilt No Great Prep Miler, But Now—
K. U. Sports Publicity Director
Don't be discouraged if you can't break 4:40 as a high school miler. That's the best Fred Wilt could manage during his prep days. Now the G-man from Indiana via New York is listed as one of America's two top men at that distance.
By DON PIERCE
Wilt, a graduate of Indiana U., will renew his running read wint Wisconsin's great Don Gehrmann here Saturday when the two go to the post in the Glenn Cunningham Mile, an annual feature of the Kansas Relays.
This means the spotlight will swing back to the post-collegians in this event for the first time in more than a decade. For years soon after the event was added as a hub to the overall Relays program, Kansas' own Glenn Cunningham, Gene Venzke, formerly of Penn, and Archie San Romani, Emporia State-ex, made the affair an annual stop in their post-graduate whirl.
Gehrmann won eight out of ten starts against Wilt during the Indoor season, including his fourth consecutive Bankers Mile baule in the Chicago Dnily News meet, but that lop-sided score will detract none of the aura from the event. In most cases the races have been tight with the 128-pound former Badger wheeling from behind in the final lap to overtake his foe. In nearly every case also, the winner's time has exceeded the current Reelay record of 4:10.1 shared by Gehrmann and Rideout.
Since '39, however, the year of Cunningham's last triumph, only one non-collegian. Tarver Perkins of the Illinois A.C., has copped the event. And he won over the 1500 meter distance which is substituted on Olympic years. Beginning in 1940, collegians have bagged the crown every spring except '48 with Blaine Rideout, North Texas State; John Munski, Missouri; Bill Mack, Drake, winning singles, and Gehrmann capturing the last two.
Wilt was born in 1920 on a farm at Pendleton, Ind. At Pendleton high he participated in baseball, basketball and track. He van his 4:40 mile as a senior there in 1938.
New York (U.P.)—Ted Williams led the Boston Red Sox to the American League firing line against the mighty New York Yankees today with the determined prophecy that "today we can win the pennant and this has got to be our year"
Ted Williams Aims For Flag
To Williams—and to his Red Sox mates—it was more than the first game of a new season. Behind them were four frantic years, years of disappointment and frustration.
By OSCAR FRALEY
And it was the slender slugger who pointed to today's opener as the big game, the one they'd all like to win as a symbol for those long days stretching toward the payoff future in October. As proof, Williams pointed back to last year's onener against these same Yankees.
Just one year ago, in the season's inaugural, the Red Sox were rolling along toward almost certain triumph. They were leading the "lucky" Yankees, 9 to 0, going into the sixth inning. Mel Parnell had allowed only one hit in the first five innings, and the Red Sox still were in front by a good five-run margin when the Yanks got four runs in the sixth.
In a bombardment which produced a parade of six Red Sox pitchers, the Yankees scored nine runs in the eighth inning and capped the opener 15 to 10.
"That was the pennant." Williams insisted today as he paced his restless, almost savage, anticipation. "Don't misunderstand me. I don't mean to infer that the team quit or anything at all like that. We all tried, maybe too hard.
Then the roof fell in.
"But every game, all season, is a crucial one," he added, gripping his hands until the sinews stood out in his wrists. "And that first one, to us, anyhow, would have been a great one to win. That's why I feel so strongly about winning this first one this season. This has just got to be our year."
He moved up first to Indiana Central college at Indianaapolis, where he played basketball and ran on the track and cross country teams. He moved on to Indiana U. in 1940, graduating in '43.
As a junior with the Hoosiers he bagged the N.C.A.A. two-mile and cross-country titles, as well as winning Big Ten crowns at those distances.
He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. navy for three years, joining
the F.B.I. in February, 1947. Despite an absence of the five years from the track, Wilt, who is better over longer hauls though more publicized in the mile, went into training for the Olympics. He made the U.S. team in the 10,000 meters.
Since the Olympics he has whittled his time more sharply than ever. In 1949 he reached 8:55.7 in the Two-Mile, 4:10.4 in the mile, and 13:58 for three miles. He won the National A.A.U. 5000 and 10,000 meters, setting a new record of 31:05 in the latter event.
Last year he won the Sullivan Award by pounding the 3000 meters in 8:12.2 and the 5000 in 14:26.8, the swiftest time ever recorded by an American in these events.
His high water mark this winter was a triumph in the National A.A.U. mile, plus two wins over Gehrmann. Three other runners will complete the Relavs field.
The Manhattan Shirt Company, makers of Manhattan shirts, neckwear, underwear, pajamas, sportshirts, beachwear and handkerchiefs.