SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1956 'E will be repe, Jd twice on _ ay as the larger iry cap and gown in double commencement exercises in Recreation Hall. Penn State. Sports Lose Heavily Via Graduation Penn State will lose some of its brightest stars via _graduation Monday, among• them Charles (Chuck) Drazenovich of three-sport fame. Tlie Brownsville giant will be joined on the job-hunting line by his brother, Joe, who excelled in football and lacrosse, while Chuck was garnering hero's honoi's in football, boxing and track, Football, which' won 5 and lost 4 in one year under Joe Bedenk, will suffer the most crushing blow, losing stand-outs like the Drazenovichs,- Fran Rogel, Bob Hicks, Negley Norton, Don Mur ray, Ray Hedderick, Bill Luther, Chuck Beatty, Fred Felbaum, Paul Kelly and Jack Storer, In track, the most severe loss will be Jim Gehrdes, of Altoona, who won both hurdles events in his IC-4A valedictbry, while basketball's major losses will be Joe Tocci and Marty Costa. Toed, Dick Wertz and Al Tkac will be baseball's foremost degree-win ners. • • Dick Wertz Top Lion Hitter _ • As Team Captures 15 of 20 Dick Wertz, captain and first was named to the NCAA District baseman, led his teammates at 2 all-star team, amassed a .306 bat. and, in the field as Penn Stale runs-batted-in batting i t g er atatevdfge n as he topped the department with `won• 15' of: 20 gaMes in Joe Be- 18. Only other player to break in denk's 20th year at the baseball to the_ select circle was Bill Hop helm. Wertz batted a resounding per, sophomore outfielder with a .356 while fielding a highly re- .333 batting average. spectable .975. Jack Kurty, ve.':eran backstop Al Tkac, ace right-hander who who last year led the batting pa won 6 of 9 starts, was credited 'rade, showed the way to the long with a .364 batting average but hitters with three . doubles, two appeared at the plate only 33 triples and two home runs. Home times as compared with Wertz's run honors were 'shared by Wertz 73 ,appearances. Wertz poled out and Hopper with three each as 26 hits, four more than his near- the Lions smashed out 11 doubles, est competitor, 'and 14 'more than 11 triples and 12. round-trippers. Tkac. The team batting average was Second baseman Joe Tocci, who .259. '5O Class Valedictorian Twice Left the College "Fed up with college life," Robert Charles Gerhard, of Palm, twice left the campus, but Monday he'll be graduated by the Penn sylvania State College as valedictorian of a record class of nearly 2270. • In addition to attaining an . average of 2.93 out of a possible 3.00 in the curriculum of geology and mineralogy, Gerhard found time to wash dishes, tend furnaces, and numerous other extra-curricular activities •' "I learned I could get along very well on six hours of sleep daily," says Gerhard, "and that gave me ample time for study and, also the extra-curricular activities." That was after Gerhard return ed in 1948 from the second break in his college , career. Entering Penn State in 1945, Gerhard the following year missed a semester to roam • around the Southwest. 1n'1948, he again interrupted his college work to accept a position THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA Bill Jeffrey's soccer team, only unbeaten team of the 1949-50 sports year, also will lose heavi ly via graduatibn as all-Ameri cans Ralph Hosterman and Dick Hannah,' plus Ted Lieb, Spence Boyer, George Lawther"a n d Chuck Margolf, pick up thir di plomas. Eastern champion Jim Maurey, of Clearfield, will be the No. 1 loss in wrestling, while Drazeno vich, Paul Smith and John Hanby leave three vacancies in boxing. Of lacrosse's many losses, the most severe are Joe Drazenovich and the 1950 co-captains, Bob Louis and Eddie Belfield. with the Boyertown Burial Casket Company. On Dairy Farm Son of Mr. and Mrs. Owen Ger hard, the 22-year-old horior stu dent was reared on a dairy farm and attributes his choice of geo logy and mineralogy to his work with the soil and his attachment for a collection of minerals one of his high school friends possessed. In 1945, he was graduated from East Greenville high school, as valedictorian, .and he also was editor of the class , year book, was (Continued on page four) Lures For President Penn State's new president, Mil ton S. Eisenhower, won't want for trout lures when he fishes Penn sylvania streams. Fly tying stu dents in George Harvey's classes chose 100 of their best products for presentation to the incoming president, who'll assume office July 1. Draz Sets New Shotput Mark In '5O Season 2 Relay Standardi Broken by Trackmen Penn State's only three-letter athlete, Charles (Chuck) Drazeno vich, set a new shot put mark as the 100-yard dash record was equaled and two new relay stand ards established during the 1950 track and field season. Drazenovich, who finished his college career in a blaze of glory, heaved the 16-pound shot 50 feet, 1 inch in the IC-4A champion ships •to become the first Penn Stater ever to top 50 feet in this' event. A week previously, he had propelled the leaden ball 48 feet, 7 1 / 4 inches to crack a mark of 13- years standing. Wilbert Lancaster, Philadelphia sprinter, reeled off a 9.6 hundred in dual competition to equal the mark previpusly set by Hi Henry, Dick Bartholomew and Barney Ewell. Later in the season, Jim Gehrdes was clocked in 9.5 sec onds but the time was disallowed as a record because of a support ing wind. In • the relays, the quartet com posed of Gehrdes, Guy Kay, Bill Lockhart and Lancaster set two new marks for future Penn State generations to shoot at. Their time in the mile relay was 3:21.2, while they were clocked at 41.3 seconds in the quarter-mile relay. Adams Is Named To Commission Dr. Clifford R. Adams, profes sor of psychology at the College, has' • been named 'to the Inter- Profession Commission on Mar riage and the Family, authorized by the Legal Section of the White House National. Conference on Family Life. The Commission, composed of leaders from 10 professional fields, will study existing mar riage, divorce, and family laws, make suggestions on how they should be reformed and unified, and offer recommendations for the establishment, functions, and operation of family courts to handle matters and actions per taining to family life. Size of College Draws Hot Fire Of Class in Poll With a little space on his hands, James H. Coogan, sports publicity director at the College, asked in a questionaire sent to all mem bers of his Class of '3O whether they had "any other ideas." These are some of the answers he re ceived: - "I would like to get rid of my cold." "College is too big now." "If I had any good ideas, I wouldn't be teaching school." "Get rid of those trailers on East Campus." "Let's get that university rating for Penn State." "Too many students make the College a prime example of mass production in education." "I'm afraid the College is plac ing too much emphasis on 'big- - IPP ness. "Too old for that." 4 To Receive Special Honor From College Technical Degrees On Monday Agenda Four alumni of, the Pennsyl vania State College will be award ed technical degrees at Com mencement Exercises to be held at the College Monday. The technical degrees will be awarded to graduates of the Col lege who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields and who have completed a thesis. A Wayne Bitner, of 1833 S. 57th St:, Philadelphia, research asso ciate in mining engineering at Penn State, and Edgar Weichel, Jr., a native of Scranton, and superintendent o f operations, Phosphate Rock Division, Davison Chemical Corp., Bartow, Fla., will receive engineer of mines degrees. Bitner received his bachelor of science and master of science de grees at Penn State and Weichel holds a bachelor of science degree from Penn State. • Kenneth H. Mairs, of Offhand Manor, Middlebridge Rd., South Kingston, R. 1., who is assistant professor of chemical engineering at Rhode Island State College, will receive a metallurgical engi neer degree. He received his bach elor of science and master of science degrees at Penn State. He is a native of Norristown. James W. Eckerd, of the An thracite Institute, Wilkes-Barre, and a native of New Bloomfield, will receive the degree of fuels engineer. He is a graduate of Gettysburg College and received his master of science degree at Penn State. He served on the Penn State faculty from 1941 to 1946. Walker's Dry Cleaning expresses sincere thanks for your generous business this year ! MEMO Jim Gehrdes Seeks NCAA Track Toga Long, lean Jim Gehrdes, who scored a smashing double in his IC-4A valedictory, will carry the hopes of Penn State and the East into the national arena next Fri day and Saturday when he starts in both hurdles events at the NCAA championships in Minnea polis. The 25-year-old Altoona express also is entered in the 100- yard, dash, but expects to concen. trate on his timber-topping chores. Only collegian to defeat Har rison Dillard, once in 1949, and again in 1950, both times in doors, the 150-pound six-footer will write finis to his college career in the University of Min nesota's Memorial Stadium and already has set as his prime ob jective a victory over Southern Cal's illustrious. Dick Milesley. Last year, in his only previous NCAA appearance, the Penn State ace trailed Craig Dixon, of U.C.L.A., in both the highs and the lows, and was nipped by Attlesley for second place in the highs. Gehrdes has come a long way in the meantime, however, and currently is believed .at the top of his form. His coach, Chick Werner, believes he stands a good. chance of winning both events at Minneapolis. First Five Although he also competed in football and basketball as a schoolboy, Gehrdes concentrated on the track sport in college arid during the last two years was rated among the nation's first five hurdlers. Withal, he still counts his first victory, over Dil lard, in the 1949 Knights of Co lumbus Games in New. York, as. the top thrill of his career. His second victory over Dillard came this year, at the Philadelphia Inquirer Games. Gehrdes, who'll be graduated Monday as a physical educa tion major, owns both Penn State records in the hurdlei -14.2 in the highs and 22.9 in the lows—although he claims a timing of 14 seconds flat in the 'highs and 22.7 in the lows. He also owns the indoor IC-4A mark of 7.2 seconds in the 60- yard highs, and the Penn Relays record of 14.3 in the 120-yard high hurdles. This Spring, the Nittany Lion senior joined his teammates in the sprints, and just missed a new Penn State record of 9.5 in the hundred because of a supporting wind. His coach, who was a for mer Big Ten champion at the University of Illinois, attributes his success •in the hurdles to his speed, rather than to his hurdling form. PAGE THREE
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