DI4PsPAY. ?g,k s, Rq 4 7.5!54 sport 9011100 THIRD NCAA ATTEMPT FOR GROSS When Elmer Gross waded onto that French beachhead as an Army infantryman smack in the middle of the United States' European campaign in World War•ll, he probably wondered if he'd ever see a basketball again. A young college graduate, he had left his beloved basketball courts and marched off to war with the rest of the nation's youth.l Only a few months earlier he had been a star on the Penn State team which went to the school's first NCAA tournament. Gross, as forward arid co-captain, was the team's top-scorer. • His, fears were almost realized that day. Soon after his platoon hit the beach he was wounded. He made it throrigh the war, however, and returned to Penn State after his discharge and resumed relation• ships with his former coach John Lawther. Lawther was the boss in 1942 when Gross and his team mates went to New Orleans,for the opening round of the Eastern re gional playoffs in the NCAAs. The Lions weren't expected to do much that year. They had won 17 of 19 games but weren't rated very high in • the tourney pairings. Dartmouth dumped the Nittany squad, 44-39, in the opening game and then went on to win the national champion ship. However, the Lions came back in the consolation match, Whipping Illinois, 41-34. Sports writers covering the meet rated the Lions as the second best team in the playoffs. But that was all past when Gross returned to Penn State as assistant to Lawther. Then when Lawther retired in 1949 Gross took over the • coaching chores and called on John Egli, a teammate on the 1941-42 team, as his as sistant. In March of 1952, the NCAA tournament was upon them again. Led by a crew of freshmen and sophomores—the nucleus of his 1954 tournament entry—t h e Lions won 20 games while losing four, They went to Raleigh, N.C., and ran into powerhouse Ken tucky. Adolph Rupp had one of his greatest teams, that year and, they had little trouble handling the Lions, 82-54. This time the Nittanies dropped the consola tion game when North Carolina State whipped them, 69-60. But Gross brought back with him a group of seasoned tourna ment players and now they are faced again with another, NCAA Kentucky Tops AP Poll NEW YORK, March 2 (i?) Kentucky returned to the top of the college basketball rankings today on the strength of a double knockout. The Kentucky Wildcats com pleted a "knockout" season of 24 straight victories just after Du quesne, which had won 22 in a row, was belted out twice in suc cession. The result, reflected in the weekly Associated Press poll of sports writers and broadcast ers, sent the Wildcats back to the lead and .the Dukes clear down to fourth place. Kentucky, which topped the poll from the third week of the season through the ninth, com piled a point total of 964 to take the lead by the unusually large margin of 242 points. Indiana moved up to second place and Western Kentucky held third. Points were counted on' the usual basis of 10 for each first . Ask Her Now . . . TO THE FORESTRY BALL FRIDAY, MARCH 12 with Johnny Nicolosi and his . Band REC HALL SEMI-FORMAL DICK McDOWELL Assistant Sports Editor challenge. Gross has five mem bers of the 1952 players on his sqttad this year and has indi cated that they will start against Toledo at Fort Wayne, Ind., Tuesday, night. Led by towering Jesse Arnelle, four other Nittany cagers—Ed Haag, Jack Sherry, Jim Blocker, and Ron Weidenhammer—will be getting their second taste of NCAA competition. Only this time the competition doesn't ap pear to be as stiff. The Lions, with a 12-5 record and two games left to play, face a much easier team than Rupp's phenomenal Wildcats, of three winters ago. However, Gross and his ball players rea lize what kind of a test lies ahead of th e in. Tournamer4 play is rugged. Toledo is a con ference champion and will toss plenty of good material at the Lions. • However, a little experience is apt to go a long way in this game. Gross's Lions have played a lot of basketball since they en tered their last NCAA tourna ment. Toledo has lost nine games this season proving that they can be beaten. It was a very doubtful question when the Nittanies en gaged Kentucky in 1952. So Penn State will be making it's third try in the NCAA fight Tuesday a c _nd the.picture is prob ably brighter in the opener this year than in either of the 'past two attempts. But win or lose it's nice to, know that the Lions com mand enough respect to be asked to play in the collegiate classic. The rest of the story will have to wait until Tuesday. place vote, 9 for second, etc. Ken tucky collected the season-high number of 59 firsts while Du quesne, which had 38 firsts and 934 points a week ago, headed only 3 ballots after successive losses '.o Cincinnati and Dayton. Nine of the first 10 teams and most of the second 10 are sure, or almost sure, of seeing tourna ment action. Lion Grid Flavor Three former Penn Staters— Earle Edwards, Al Michaels and Bill Smaltz—spearhead the new football regime at North Carolina State. Lions to Defend Penn State's wrestlers and gym nasts will defend their National Collegiate team titles in the 1954 skirmishing. The All-University Dance Dancing 9 to 12 Rif C I Mt-' 1 COLLEQb e kN STATE COLI.EOE. EIMNISV/_VANIA $2.00 per Couple Werner— (Continued from • page six) given Penn State the title. Bill Youkers ran the best hur dles race of his life, but in the semi-final heat the judges could not determine whether he fin ished first, second, or third. Ac cording to a Bulova camera, which snapped a picture at the finish line, Youkers placed third, inches out of first. Werner was, not making ex cuses. These breaks are common to all sports and the LionS were not the only team which failed to get the advantage of them. "I am not complaining," Wer ner said, "because credit must be given to the teams which-beat us." Shotputter Charley "BloCkbust er" Blockson set a •Penn State record in this event. His heave of 51' 3 1 / 2 " eclipsed by two incheS the mark established last year by teammate Rosey Grier. Blockson finished ' third and Grier fourth. 011ie Sax' anchor leg on the mile relay was termed by Werner as, "the most exciting thing in the whole meet—it stole the show and had everyone cheering." Taking the baton about ten yards behind Manhattan's Vern Dixon on the -final quarter, the Clarks Summit flash ran one of the finest races of his life to finish first. This is more than a lob" opportunity. Graduate engineers can find good permanent CAREER positions at this great engineering center. While our basic concern is advanced aircraft propellers, our activities are much deeper and broader in scope. Here are continuous long term projects in machine design, stress analysis, aerodynamics, metallurgy, electronics, servomechan isms, instrumentation and controls. The division is also en gaged in rocket development for both military and peacetime applications. Here men are building sound, well paid futures. YOUR big opportunity may be here, too. • Barbell Club to Show Films Tonight The Penn State Barbell Club will show movies of the Mr. America Contest and the Paris weightlifting championships at their regular meeting at 7 tonight in 102 Willard. Slides on the Penn St ate weightlifting team at the Berks County Championships -held at Reading will also be shown. The public is invited to attend. Golf Candidates Coach Bob Rutherford has an nounced that candidates for the varsity golf team should report to the Caddy House at 5 p.m. tomor row. Choice Jobs Waiting for Representatives of CURTISS-WRIGHT PROPELLER Will be on the campus Wednesday, March 10 Arrange with your placement bureau for an interview ! . : • ,* 1 • • MECHANICAL ELECTRICAL AERONAUTICAL PROPELLER DIVISION CALDWELL, NEW JERSEY For the 2nd straight week! A WOMAN TAKES A MAN AWAY FOR ONE MONTH ON APPROVAL It's all in the hilarious farce-comedy at Center Stage SEE IT THIS WEEKEND FRIDAY & SAT. NIGHTS at 8:00 Get your tickets at the door or at Student Union Ted Williams Due To Return March 21 SARASOTA, Fla. (A") Ted Williams, whose fractured collar bone was the latest shot heard round the baseball world, under went further X-rays before leav ing for his Miami home where he will be under care of Dr. Herbert Virginia. Williams, who suffered the in jury in a tumble yesterday only a few minutes after arriving here to train with Boston's Red Sox, is due to return to camp March 21. Soph Tennis Managers Spohomore candidates for ten nis managers may still sign up today and tomorrow in the Stu dent Union office, Old Main. CORPORATION PAGE SEVER
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