VAGE FOUR i The Nittany Realm Meade Human Loop-O-Plane Ever ride a carnival loop-o-plane and try to watch the scenery go by? Billy Meade, State's star gymnast, explained tumbling that way. "All you see is flashes—the stands, the mat, and people . . . not much chance to look at anything very long." And that comes from a man who should know! Watching Bill execute double and triple full flips, with handsprings, cartwheels, and back somersaults mixed in for variety, gym fans at Rec Hall the last few years have got the idea that Bill has been tumbling all his life. They aren't far wrong. Just 24 now, he was a dark-haired, not-too-big freshman back in 1938, bouncing around at Warren, Pennsylvania, high school. His coach there, Homer Fleming, was blessed with three other gymnasts destined to go places in the athletic world. Ray Sorensen, last year's Penn State captain, was one of the mainstays, together with Harold Zimmerman, at the College in 1942, and Bud Matthews, now of Syracuse, whom Bill figures is one of the best gymnasts in the busi ness. Meade picked up experience from that trio his first three years, added the parallel t.rs to his repertoire in 1941, and was ready to make his own mark. He made a big one. In 1942 he won the PIAA championship in both tumbling and on the P-bars. Penn State's Gene Wettstone, coach then and now of the gym squad, took a long look and awarded him the Wettstone Award for Outstanding Gym nast to add to his trophies That Warren team won the PIAA team championship two years in a row, in both 1941 and '42. In fact, since 1938 not one team on which Bill worked had lost a dual meet until the Lions bowed to Syracuse this season. After high school graduation, Bill spent a semester here in 1942, then jumped to the Navy where he 'served a three-year hitch as radioman. He isn't enthusiastic about his gymnastic progress dur ing that time. "I set up parallel bars on Saipan one time," Le confessed, "but I didn't get much time off to work on them. We were pretty busy." Things began to look up in 1946. Discharged in the spring of the year, he hurried back to marry a hometown girl, then re- Continued on page five Lions' Gehrdes To Meet Nation's Best in Chicago Competition will be at its zenith this weekend when Jim Gehrdes rounds out his indoor season by aiming for the Cleveland Knights of Columbus and the Chicago Daily News Relays titles. The Altoona hurdler, after defeating the supposedly invincible Harrison Dillard two weeks ago, will have more than the former Baldwin-Wallace ace to contend with. Teb hurdlers from all over the nation will compete in tonight's and Saturday's races, and with names like Torn Smith and Lloyd Duff of Ohio State, Ed Dugger of Dayton and Bill Mitchell of Georgetown on the roster, Gehr des will have to be in top form to conquer his outstanding op ponents. WERNER COMMENTS "Jim and Dillard may not even get into the finals;" commented Coach Chick Werner. "There'll be hurdlers from Texas and U.C.L.A. in the meet tonight, and it's hard to predict the out come in such a large field." Gehrdes will compete in the 45-yard hurdle race at Cleveland and the 50-yard event at Chicago. A two-mile relay team com posed of Mitch Williams, John McCall, Paul Koch and Bob Au man or Bob Freebairn will make the Cleveland trip along with Horace Ashenfelter, listed for the two-mile run. Ash will go on to Chicago with Al Kawal Named Owl Grid Coach Albert P. (Al) Kawal, head football coach at Drake Universi ty the past two seasons and one Df Northwestern University's greats, is the new head gridiron mentor at Temple University, Lion foe. Signing of Kawal to a three year contract as the successor to Ray Morrison was announced yesterday by Dr. Earl Yeomans, Temple's director of athletics. Salary terms were not revealed. Morriso n resigned more than a month ago to accept the head coaching post at Austin (Texas) "allege after serving nine years as ss of Temple's gridmen. By Bob Kotzbauer PIAA CHAMP By Elliot Krane Gehrdes and the relay team will return to State College after to night's event. Strange Cage Thrills Mark Uneventful '4B-'49 Campaign The late, unmourned 1948-'49 basketball season at Penn State, in- addition to supplying a few more strands of white to ex-Coach John Lawther's greying thatch, produced some of the strangest concoctions of ups and downs yet seen by long-suffering Nittany Lion cage followers. Although the recently-completed campaign brought a final accrual of seven wins against ten losses (two triumphs less than last year), the schedule wound up on a concordant note with the Lions copping their last four home games consecutively. The opening chapter of Penn State's bizarre cage story began in Pittsburgh when the Lions battled the Pitt Panthers. Some three months later the schedule reached its close at Syracuse with State still searching for its first road win. LOSSES In the meantime the season had run out, leaving the State drib blers holding an empty bag of eight straight losses in foreign tilts. The record of defeats on the road was spanned to ten straight over the past two seasons. Contrarily, the stimulating at mosphere of Rec Hall appeared to have wrought wonders with the then Lawther-coached five, the Lions ringing up a seven and two record on the home boards. The two losses suffered in home filibustering came at the hands of Colgate and West Virginia. Be ginning with their arch rivals, Pittsburgh, in a revenge win on the State College floor, the Lions went on to rack up successive wins over American U., Temple and Georgetown. Dividing the seasons into two parts, Penn State won only two of its first eight games. But com ing back strongly and gaining THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA Nittany Boxers Select All-Opponent S quad Looking back on the recently-concluded State's varsity sluggers picked three boxers on their all-opponent first team. Syracuse landed two men on and Army each placed one comp nated the second team by placing three boxers Virginia's Cavaliers and the Orange of Syracuse each placed two on the all-opponent second team while Army placed one. Western Maryland failed to win a berth. Two EIBA champs, Grover Masterson, Virginia 135-pounder, and Chuck Rigoglioso, Syracuse 155-pounder, are first-team nomi nees, while three other Eastern champs could do no better than a second-team nost. SPARTANS DOMINATE Johnny Flynn, Michigan State, edged Al Hollingsworth, Vir ginia, in the 130-pound class. Outstanding boxer of the recent Rec Hall EIBA tourney, Jim Rol her, Syracuse's dancing 165- pounder, placed behind former NCAA-champion John Lenden ski of Wisconsin. Sonny Grandelius, hardened Spartan light-heavyweight, bare ly squeezed by Eastern champ Pete Monfore of Army. Chuck Davey, triple National champion, had little trouble in gaining a vote of confidence' at 145 pounds, while Wisconsin's hard-punching Dwaine Dickinson received the runnerup vote. LONE CADET Medon Bitzer, Army's only nominee on the first team, re ceived the nod over NCAA champ Steve Gremban of Wis consin in the 125 division. Mart y Crandell, Syracuse's highly publicized heavyweight, who after successful inaugural meets dropped three contests, was still considered a shade bet ter than tall Bob Ranck of Wis consin. Penn State's all-opponent box ing teams: FIRST TEAM 125 Pounds—Medon Bitz e r, Army 139 pounds—John Flynn, Mich igan State 135 pounds—G rover Master son, Virginia 145 pounds—C huck •D a v e y, Michigan State more poise with each game, State fought back to pick up five wins in its succeeding nine games to wind up the season with a .411 average. Although at various. times throughout the season, the team lacked much-needed unit coordi nation there was no lack of in dividual starring performances. Such names as Milt Simon, Lou Lamie, Marty Costa, Joe Tocci and Ken Weiss among others, gave the College rooters many exciting evenings. The 5-foot 9-inch Simon blast ed a new Penn State Rec Hall scoring niche, against Temple, breaking the former State high water mark by the margin of a single point. The Erie performer was never in better fettle as he tallied 24 points to dethrone Jack Biery, erstwhile Lion eager. However, the greatest all around scoring exhibition center ed around a quiet, 5-foot 7-inch forward, Ed Brett, from Colgate University who broke the Rec Hall individual record by tally ing 25 markers. "Little Joe" Tocci put on the finest foul-line show by convert- By George Vedas: By Ray Koehler STARS mitt campaign, from Michigan he first team; Wisconsin, Virginia titor. Wisconsin's Badgers domi- 155 pounds—C hu c k Rigogli oso, Syracuse 165 pounds—J o h n Lendenski, Wisconsin 175 pounds—Sonny Grandelius, Michigan State Heavyweight—Marty Crandall, Syracuse SECOND TEAM 125 pounds—S t e v e Gremban, Wisconsin 130 pounds—Al Hollingsworth, Virginia 135 pounds—Al Sauer w ine, Syracuse 145 pounds—Dwaine Dickinson, Wisconsin 155 pounds—J o e Miragliotta, Virginia 165 pounds—Jim Rollier. Syr- 175 pounds—Pete Monf or e, Army Heavyweight—B o b Ran c k, Wisconsin Court Group Seeks To Curb Slow Offense It's an old baseball cry, "You can't tell a player without a scorecard," but Nittany Lion basketball fans will probably think they're ,seeing double next season if the recently-proposed drastic measure to curb the `con trol' g3mes goes through The poll, being conducted by the National Basketball Commit tee of tor! United States and Can rda, bids to strike a mortal blow at the slow, deliberate offense typified by Penn State teams THAW FREEZE Just what this drastic step to thaw the freeze play ' (featurad by such coaches as Ozzi Cowles of Minnesota, Hank Iba of Okla homa and ex-Lion Coach John Lawther) means to the future of the hoop game at State will be known late this month. At that (Continued on wage eight) ing 10 out of 11 free throws against Syracuse. VANDEWEGHE In the same game which saw Brett score his 25 points, Nittany Lion fans witnessed a member of this year's all-American team in action. He was Ernie Vandeweghe who wound up the collegiate season in third place among lead ing scorers in the nation. Al though held to 15 counters in Rec Hall, the Canadian-born ace tallied 27 points at Colgate against the Lions. Top sniper among opponents was `lsh' Ishman of American U. who dunked 29 markers in the initial State-A. U. contest at Washington, D. C. The lowest-scoring game on State's schedule was placed against Pitt in the season opener, resulting in a 40-33 win for the Panthers. State's closest battles were waged against Wash-Jeff, West Virginia and Syracuse. The Lions took a 40-38 contest against the Presidents and dropped paradoxi cal scores of 49-47 to the Mount aineers and Orange. Colgate ran up the highest Continued on page jive FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1949 Between The 0•41%,„„. Lions ' "`" :•;!;:3 ''''°•% By Tom Morgan SPORTS EDITOR Brother Act Two Nittany Lion wrestling stars have brother counterparts in the high school mat ranks. Don Fasnacht of Hershey high, brother of Penn State's Al Fasnachk won a District 3 PIAA championship last week at 138 pounds. Jerry Maurey, Clearfield high's District 6-9 titlist at 127 pounds, is a brother of Nittany Lion Jim Maurey. Both the younger Fasnacht and Maurey have another year of high school wrestling before graduating. Note for Golfers ror wielders of the mashies and niblicks, Bob Rutherford, Jr., golf coach, informs us the College golf course will not open officially un til the latter part of April. de pending on the weather. He ex plains: "Some years we haven't got on the greens at all because of late snow." At any rate, for Nittany golfers it's a short concentrated season, caught in a vice of late winter weather and rapid close of schooL Diamond Problem In Rec Hall yesterday we queried Joe Bedenk on problems encountered in molding this year's baseball team. His answer was: "Well, the loss a two good hitters last year Hogan and Stark will hurt. Ther) there's pitching. I have Cy Miller, and I'm trying to groom Al Tkac as number-two hurler. If this doesn't work, I may use Tkac again in the outfield. Then an other problem is ..." We said we'd see him later when everything's ironed out. Then we spied Gene Wettstone, gymnastic coach; he's noted for dropping readable quotes which eager sports reporters can pick up. It's Arrived Here's what Wettstone said about the final home gym meet with Temple, when the crowd's estimation of some perform ances differed from that of the judges: "When the crowd reacts like they did (booing and cheering certain decisions), that means to me that the sport has arrived. A few years back, Penn Staters at a gym meet applauded politely and let it go at that. They didn't take an active interest because they feared they knew too little about the scoring. . "Now they know," he con tinued, "and it's wholesome for the sport. The crowd actually understands gymnastic values, which tends to put the judges on the ball,' Wettstone revealed that the crowd may know what it's talk ing about when it voices dis approval of the judges' decision. He said: "The surprising thing about it is that when you have 4000 people reacting the same, they► may be right, because spec tators see an exercise as a total unit. In the final analysis, it's the complete picture of the man's exercise—not the tech nical details that should be scored." —That from one of the top gym nastic coaches in the business. Spring Kick Soccer Coach Bill Jeffrey cornered us and gave forth with this: "In Spring a young man's thoughts turn to how to get a kick out of living. For a good kick, there's nothing better than Spring soccer." Explanation of thSt' k ick out the ball-kickskick out of Spring! ! !) In the Ref Business Jackie Tighe, former Nittany boxing captain and EISA champ who is now boxing coach and athletic trainer at the Univer sity of Illinois' Navy Pier in Chicago, entered the refereeing game this winter by official= the Wisconsin - Syracuse meet at Madison.
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