PAGE FOUR
Homer Barr. left, and Jack Dreibelbis finished the wrestling
season with undefeated records and will be part of the Penn State
contingent in next week's intercollegiates at Cornell. Barr ranks
as the only Penn State sophomore heavyweight in modern times
to win seven dual-season bouts without defeat. Dreibelbis, who
copped four mat wins without a setback, is one of a number of
State College products who have starred in Nittany wrestling, as
well as soccer, ranks in recent years.
The Nittany Realm
When an athlete performs his task, his name becomes lost in the
dusty files of a newspaper office, but when he makes just one mis
take, he becomes a legend.
What does one remember about Mickey Owen?—that he was one
of the scrappiest catchers in the Dodgers' roster of stars—or that he
dropped a third strike in the 1939 World Series and lost a game that
could have been won.
Or how about Fred Merkle?—a great slugger for the New York
Giants—or the guy who missed second base in 1908 and cost the
Giants a game and a pennant.
Roy "wrong way" Reigels is another good example of an athlete
whose first name has almost been obliterated by the title he was
given for just one mistake in a football game. His merits will be
forgotten but his , e toward the opponent's goal in a Rose Bowl
game will go down as a classic in grid history.
Now, let's change the scene to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas Jan
uary 1, 1948. Southern)Vlethodist is striving desperately to stave off
a last-minute attack by the Eastern football champ, Penn State.
The score is 13-13 and the crowd is tense as Elwood Petchel
calls the signals, fades back, and hurls a pass into the end zone. Five
men go up into the air in an effort to snag or knock down the pig
skin as it spins toward the end zone.
But the ball eludes the outstretched arms of the defenders and
drops almost at the feet of a Nittany end. He lunges for it but it hits
the ground. The final gun goes off and the game is over, but that
game and that play will continue to live in the memory of Dennie
Hoggard, Penn State end.
"That S.M.U. game is one I'll never forget," said the Nittany
terminal. "I was standing right about here,' he said, pointing to a
chair in his room," and Doak Walker was standing about over there
where those books are. When everyone jumped up for that pass, he
and I stayed on the ground since we figured it would be knocked
down.
' Well, it sailed right through
and came at me about knee-high.
I made a grab for it, but too late.
The ball hit the ground and the
game was over.
- "Right after the game Doak
shook my hand and congratulated
me on playing a fine game. The
entire S.M.U. team played a good,
clean game—in fact, that game
was more sportsmanship like
than any other game I played in
—in my three years of varsity
competition."
Dennie's hardest-fought and
most gratifying was last season's
13-0 win over Penn. "My home is
in Philadelphia and I wanted to
make a good showing for my
friends watching the game. But
as far as that goes, I think that
everyone on the team played his
best game of the year against
Penn. We were really 'up' for
that game."
Hoggard accounts for the poor
showing at Pittsburgh by saying
that the fight the team usually saves for the bitter rivalry was just
burned up at Penn
"My vote for the best men I've opposed since I started playing
for Penn State in 1946 goes to Ed Kolokowski from West Virginia
in the line and Bernie Custis from Syracuse, in the backfield. Custis
was a hard man to catch when he started to race back and forth
in the backfield, and Kolokowski was a hard man to take out of
the West Virginia line "
Switching - to the future tense, Dennie judged that the 1949 team
should be more powerful than last year's squad.
"But what a schedule," he exclaimed. "Last year we had a
breather against Bucknell for the first game, but this year Villanova,
the first team on the schedule, will be tough—and then Army! We
can't let up for any of the first five games.
"Our line should be very strong with Norton, Hicks and Beatty
just to mention a few of the returning men. I know the team will
miss the defensive work of Sam Tamburo, but John Smidansky
should be just as good as Sam was on the offense."
Dennie started his grid career at the College in 1942 when he
played freshman ball. After almost four years in the service, he re
turned to the Nittany Valley and after a good start, broke his thumb
in the Michigan State game and was sidelined until the final game
of the season.
He played on the 1947 and 1948 squads and also earned three
letters in track for the broad jump in 1943-46 and 1947.
Dennie will graduate in June and the first thing on his agenda
is a wedding, scheduled for August, and law school at Temple or
Penn.
But when the down-town gang gathers around the cracker
barrel next winter and the talk turns to football, they'll remember
By Elliot Krane
LUNGES
TOP FOES
Continued on page six
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA
Revived Cagers
Host Georgetown
If Penn State cage fans entertained any doubts as to the ability
of the current under-rated Nittany Lion squad, those thoughts were
somewhat discarded Wednesday night as, paced by Milt Simon's
to cagers continued their winning
chipping Temple, 52-41.
1. well-balanced Georgetown U.
osition in the State gym, Coach
record-breaking 24 points, the Sta
ways on the Rec Hall boards by
Tomorrow night when a to
basketball team provides the op.
John Lawther's comeback aggre
gation will close the 1948-'49 rim
session by shooting for its fourth
straight home win.
Along with State's conquest of
Philly's Owls, the Lawthermen
picked up their sixth win against
ten defeats of the season. Pitt,
American U. and Temple have
now consecutively felt the Lion's
power.
If it is height that G.U. will
need to win, the capital-city boys
have plenty of it, as the Hoyas
bring a starting lineup from
Washington, D.C. that averages 6
feet, 11 inches. Of the 16-man
troupe making the trek, only
three cagers stand below the six
foot level.
Star of Coach Elmer Ripley's
Hoyas is Tommy O'Keefe who
was recently honored by being
named on the all-East team be
cause of scrimmage against the
West's all-star lineup.
O'Keefe's ability to hit the pub
lic eye while cavorting for as
small a school like Georgetown
is a credit to his stellar court per
formances. Tabbed "Flash" by his
teammates, O'Keefe will spell
such players on the East team as
Yale's Tony Lavelli, Ernie Van
deweghe, Colgate, Ralph Beard,
Wally Jones and Alex Groza, of
Kentucky.
The Hoyas' penchant for floor
ing high-scoring teams has prov
en no exception this year, as the
Catholic team shot its way into
the high 60's several times this
season. Last year Georgetown
averaged 52 points per contest
while winning 13 and losing 15.
Both O'Keefe, who leads the
team in scoring with 270 points
last season, and "Chief" Ray Cor
ley, act as the big guns from the
scoring point of view.
Corley, captain of G.U.'s squad,
and Joe Tocci are expected to
supply the ball-handling thrills.
Opposing State's Marty Costa
will be Georgetown's outstanding
end during the grid season and
center on the cage squad, George
Benigni. Out of place among the
Irish O'Keefe's, Finn's, Kelly's
and Culhane's, George is never-
Swimmers End Campaign
InMeetat Virginia
The curtain falls tomorrow on the 1948-49 swimming season
when the Nittany Lion tankmen travel to Virginia.
The season that will be history after the last man of the 440-
yard relay team climbs out of the water has been one crammed with
thrills, upsets, and ne,w speed marks.
No matter what the outcome of the Virginia meet, Bill Gutteron's
natators can boast a winning season. The slate now shows four
victories against two early sea
son defeats, by Cornell and Syra
cuse. The Staters won over Tem
ple, Dickinson, Franklin and Mar
shall and Pitt. The latter two
came here as heavy favorites but
were humbled before a determin
ed Lion team
That Virginia is on a par with
Temple and Pitt is the only ad
vance information that Coach
Gutteron has. This indicates that
his swimmers will have to go hard
throughout the meet to add win
number five to the season and run
their current winning streak to
four. The last loss was dealt by
Syracuse February 5.
Though tomorrow's meet is the
last dual meet of the season, Gut
teron will take a select squad to
compete in the Eastern Inter
collegiates at Rutgers next Sat
urday.
Once again there will be a
switch in the Penn State lineup.
Captain Bill Schildmacher will
perform in his old specialty, the
100-yard free style. When the sea
son opened he swam in the 50-
and 100-yard dashes. Later he
was moved to the 220-yard free
style in surprise strategy that
paid off in an upset, victory over
By Ray Koehler
LION'S SIXTH
ALL-STAR
DRIBBLING
the-less Ripley's first choice at the
pivot.
Joe Culhane, regarded by Ro
chester sports writers as one of
the better cagers to come out of
that city in some time, will work
with Corley at the other guard
spot, while Dick Falvey will act
as O'Keefe's running mate at for
ward.
In Danny Supkis, giant 6-foot
7-inch third string center, Bee
Hall patrons will see one of the
tallest hoopsters to perform here
this year. At the other extreme,
Al Naples will probably see re
serve duty at a guard spot.
Lions Exhibit
'Foul' Average
Dunking three out of every five
foul attempts, Penn State's bas
ketball team in 16 games holds
a .620 percentage of goals from
the foul line.
The Nittany Lions have con
verted 215 out of a possible 347
attempts.
.Compared with its opponents'
foul average, the Lions hold a
considerable edge. In 354 tries
the opposition has countered 205
times for a .579 percentage.
Up to the final g a me with
Georgetown tomorrow, Colgate
has been most successful against
the Nittanies, utilizing 12 out of
17 and 19 of 24 free throws. Navy
wears the dunce cap so far, drop
ping only 18 out of 54 attempts at
Annapolis earlier this year.
State's best record was chalked
up at Syracuse's expense as the
Lions tallied 31 out of 40 fouls
in a Rec Hall encounter.
Nationally, Davidson College
holds top rank in collegiate foul
circle quarters with a .716 av
erage. The Davids have count
ered 293 out of 409 free throws.
Seven Top Boxers
Only seven boxers have ever
won three titles in 25 years of
Intercollegiate Boxing Associa
tion tournament competition.
previously undefeated Pitt.
The spectacular improvement
of Vic Lynch in the dashes made
it unnecessary for Gutteron to
move Schildmacher back into
these events. However, Bill will
see action in the 100 while Lynch
will continue to compete in the
50-yard dash with Cass Borowy,
against Virginia. All three have
either broken or tied the Penn
State record for these events this
year.
With a record of five wins and
only one loss, ace diver Call
Folmsbee will be seeking his
sixth triumph.
This year Folmsbee has stuck
to a regular diving routine more
difficult than that of any of his
opponents. According to Gutter
on, only a performance of the
wrong dive against Pitt cost him
an undefeated slate.
With Rudy Valentino cavort
ing with the gym team tomorrow,
Cal's diving mate will be the
improving Dick Hannah. The All-
American soccer star lacked ex
perience in his first appearance,
against Pitt. With more confi
dence Dick should be a big help
in augmenting Folmsbee's score.
FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1949
etymon •
The • tc.,, 1
A I
• D 1 444 44 .1 ;,
I
By Tom Morgan
SPORTS EDITOR
Luck, He Says
"I just had a lucky night. It
could happen to anybody."
—'That's how Milt Simon, a
basketball Tom. Thumb at 5 feet
9, modestly explained his record
shattering performance Wednes
day night in Rec Hall.
That Milt broke the all-time
Penn State scoring mark in his
next-to-last collegiate basket
ball game climaxes a four-year
Lion car ee r deserving of
tribute.
Like some other Nittany court
men, Milt never played high
school basketball before matric
ulating at Penn State as a fresh
man in '45. At Erie East high,
scaling 102 pounds, he tried out
for both football and basketball,
but emerged not as an athlete
but a head basketball manager.
Returning to Wednesday's
game with Temple: Milt lacked
four points of breaking the 23-
point Lion floor mark with a
full eight minutes to play. Al
though he wasn't aware of it,
the crowd was. As Milt de
scribes it:
"I didn't know how many
points I had till the game was
over. Eve r y one was, hollerin'
'shoot, shoot,' so I did."
Simon feels next year's Nit
tany hardwood team will, • "go
places" with the return of several
of this season's first-stringers.
Wit Speaks Mind
Witty Wilbert, our admiring
fraternity brother, grabbed us
by the scruff of the , neck last
night and observed:
"Now, you gotta admit, this
fella Lawther (Coach John Law
ther) has done wonders this year
with the material he has on his
team."
We agreed with Wil and
pointed out that Penn State
fans, however begrudgingly,
have reached the same conclu
sion. An indication of this, we
said, is the early-season boos
and catcalls which have t4ow
evolved into cheers for Mar
tin Costa, 6-foot-6 center who
never played basketball until
last year.
Then Wil opined: "'Seems to
me that it takes a different type
o' ball player to play the Law
ther system as 'pposed to fast
break, man-to-man."
We admitted he probably
had a point, and mentioned the
case of John Chaippy which
seems to substantiate it.
Chaippy tried out for the Lion
cage team last year, saw one or
two minutes' action in a few
games, but didn't seem to fit
well. Consequently, he trans
ferred to Wake Forest and this
season was hailed by the Phil
adelphia Inquirer as "the find
of the year in the Southern
Conference."
Said the Inquirer: "Chaippy
. . . has been brilliant all year,
even when the Wolfpack was
having its troubles."
Before leaving us, Witty Wil
suggested that Milt Simon could
be termed "the nucleus of this
year's basketball team" and that
Joe Tocci, 5-foot-7 guard, "is the
spark." With that, Wil left.
Row to Hoe
Charlie Ridenour, assistant
wrestling coa c h, dubs Bill
"Rusty" Santel "something to
watch" in the next two Lion
mat seasons. Says Charlie:
"He's a definite comer and real
fighter. In his first intercollegiate
season this year, he had rough
going, but only because of the
exceptionally high caliber of ex
perienced opponents."
What Ridenour refers to is
Syracuse's Ken Hunts, Navy's
Barton Downes and Lehigh's
Erik Ericson. Santel tied the
last-named and lost to the
others. In Eastern title compe
tition March 11-12 at Cornell.
the 155-pound diadem is al
most a toss-up among Hunts,
Downes and Ericson. What a
row for Sophomore Santel to
hoe in dual meets!