URSDAY.. DECEMBER 2.. 717154
From
This
Angle..
By DICK_ McDOWEL4
Collegian Sport; Editor
CAGE DEBUT SATURDAY • • -
Penn State sports fans mode indoors this Saturday night for
the first event of another extensive winter sports program. John
Egli's basketball team' leads _off the indoor season against Dickinson
—the first of 25 scheduled games in line for the ,cagers.
Egli will be getting his first crack as a head coach at Penn
State and he is probably in as tough a spot as any coach in the
country right now.
He will be putting a team on the floor that grabbed a lot of
headlines last season with an astounding surge from an unknown
to the nation's hottest team in the National Collegiate basketball
playoffs.
Under Elmer Gross, the Nittanies swept to four whirlwind
victories in the tournament after, finishing the season with a 14-5
record. They whipped Toledo, Louisiana State, and Notre Dame
on the road to the semi-finals at Kansas City and finally bowed to
the eventual champion—powerful LaSalle College. Then they
bounced back to whip Southern California in the consolation match.
It was a team that almost cracked at mid-season after beating
some pretty good teams' in early season play. But in.the end the
Lions thoroughly proved that it was going to take a darn good
team to beat them.
That will undoubtedly be in the . minds of the four or five
thousand fans who turn out for the opener Saturday night.
Everybody is expecting a ,repeat performance and Egli knows
it as well as anybody. But he also knows that three of the 1953
team's finest players are gone. Ed Haag, who scored 204 points
last season, and Jim Brewer, a swift guard who tallied 147 markers
and played a major role in the NCAA climb, have been graduated.
_ Then there's Jack Sherry, one of the most dependable basket
ball players that ever put on a Penn State uniform. Ruled ineligible
last week, because he played two freshman games in the spring
semester of 1951, he'll be forced to sit this one out. Sherry is
scheduled to graduate in February, but he would have been avail
able 17 games. His loss might make the difference.
Of course the big guy—Jesse Ainelle—is still in harness and
he is certain to make his presence known. And Ron Weidenham
. mei and Jim Blocker will join tiim to form a solid trio of veterans.
That leaves two vacancies to be' filled. It might not s be a hard
job at all. Rutted Bob Rohland, 6-2 forward, who developed rapidly
at the tail end of the 1953 campaign, is back, along with Earl
Fields, Rudy Marisa, Dave Edwards, and - Bob Hoffman. They're
all good ball players and any one Of them: could get the starting
berth.
• Egli is also looking hard at 6-7 Bob Ramsey and 6-3 Joe Hart
nett, a pair of'.sophomores whb have worked themselves into serious
contention during the last month of practice. They could be the key
•
to success or failure.
Gross' success story last year *as told .on his bench where he
had a-solid line of reserve strength. Should Hartnett and Ramsey
prove capable, then the bench could be there again.
The schedule, however,' cannot be ignored. In most cases it's
going to be tougher than last year. North Carolina State—perennial
southern power—comes about two weeks earlier and the Wolfpack
is always tough at home. Michigan State has been added; and the
Motor City tournament will be a real test.
Navy and Penn come to State College this year and that should
be a help, especially against the Middies—as tough at home as any
team can get. •
Traditional, opponents Syracuse, Colgate, Pitt, and West Virginia
return,, along with the) usual assortment of good teams from around
th state.
Gym Ticket Sale
To Begin Tuesday
Tickets for the Swedish gym
nastic exhibition Jan. 15 at
Recreation Hall will go on sale
at the Rec Hall ticket office
Tuesday, instead of Monday,
as was erroneously stated in
Tuesday's Collegian.
Prices are $1 for unreserved
bleacher seats, and $2 for re
served balcony seats.
r
1•
Wide selection of sterling and gold
filled gifts in stock, designed for col
legiate giving.
Why not a well-tailored sterling crest
ed bracelet? She'll wear it as prOudly
as you'll give it.
E oNLY cpt..LFp!ms;. STATE COLLEGE. PENN§yLV,NIA
Wrestler's Prep for 1954m55 Card
Grid Conference
May Be Discussed
The attitude of Penn State,
Pitt, and Colgate, three institu
tions which previouSly have
shown little interest in joining
a confeience, will have a great
bearino on whether the Eastern
College Conference discussions
will come to life again.
According, to an Associated
Press release last night, plans for
the much-talked-about confer
ence will be a part of the ap
proaching winter meetings at
which most of the work of organ
ization will have to be done.
But Jack Coffey, athletic direc
tor at Fordham, one of the. "key"
institutions, said yesterday he
"isn't sure" it will be formed.
A great deal depends on the at
titudes of the three aforemen
tioned schools.
Definitely interested are Ford
ham, Boston College, Boston Uni
versity, Holy Cross,'and Syracuse.
It is possible that if Penn State,
Pitt, and Colgate fail to come in,
the other five will band together
and hope to pick up other mem
bers later.
Livestock Team
Ties for 4th Place
The University livestock judg
ing team tied for fourth place out
of 37 teams competing at the In
teinational Livestock Exposition
at Chicago last weekend, Dr. Wil
liam L. Henning, head of the ani
mal husbandry department, has
announced.
Henning also said this was the
best; over-all judging record ever
made by a University team. Okla
homa A&M won the intercolle
giate meet, with Missouri and Il
linois ahead of the University in
that order.
<~~~~~' ~.~9:~:~ .:_{ . "-~".ice{i~:_=;: is ~:~ i"~ ~:~: r,lr.-~::~:
Give
University Crested
Jewelry
For. Christmas
A Complete Stock At
Balfour's
IN "A" STORE
eidel's,29th Season
Remnants of Penn State's
wrestling team which posted a
6-2 record, and surprise second
place showing, in the EIWA
tourney, plus placing third in
the NCAA tournament last
year, are fast preparing to open
their 1954-55 card.
The Lions, always at home
on any mat and equally at ease
against the large majority of
wrestling squads of the nation,
will again be piloted by Coach
Charlie Speidel.
Speidel, in opening his 29th
season at the Helm of the Nit
tanies, has long been respected
as one of the masterminds of
the mats. He owns — a — sparkling
spot in :the coaching ranks of
collegiate wrestling.
The Lions' four-game home
card, included in their seven
game schedule, will give local
fans an opportunity to see four
of the East's top mat squads.
The 1954-55 wrestling card
'shows Cornell (away) Jan. 8;
Syracuse (away) Jan. 12; Mary
land (home) Jan. 18; Navy
(home) Jan. 29; Army (home)
Feb. 19; Lehigh (home) Feb. 26;
and Pitt (away) March 5.
Also included on the wrest
ling activities at Rec Hall is
the annual EIWA (Eastern In
tercollegiate Wrestling Associa
tion) tourney March 11 and 12.
, The National . Collegiate Ath
letic Association competitions
will be March 25 and 26 at Itha
ca, New York, home of the Big
Red of Cornell.
Last fall Penn State breezed
through its first five opponents
by scoring three times as many
points as their opponents.
The Lions drubbed Cornell,
20-6, Lehigh, 19-7, Army, 21-9,
Maryland, 22-6, and Syracuse,
23-6. Then Navy sharpened its
razor when the Lions stormed
Football Bowl Odds Set
NEW YORK, Dec. 1 (JP)—Foot
ball bowl odds quotations made
their first appearance along
Broadway today with Navy and
Georgia Tech listed as three-point
favorites over Mississippi and Ar
kansas respectively.
The Middies and Mississippi are
booked for New Orleans' Sugar
Bo 1 on Jan..l while Tech and
Arkansas play the same day in
Dallas' Cotton Bowl.
Ohio State is a 13-point favorite
over Southern California in the
Rose Bowl. Duke is 131:?. over Ne
braska in the Orange Bowl.
A 25% pound salmon ,ron a
fishing derby in Eureka, Calif. It
was caught by J. E. II ish.
SEE : . . Buy . . .
ARROW SHIRTS
at
.s• 11,
STATE COLLEGE
into Annapolis, Md., for their
sixth match.
Navy ' handily stopped the
Lions 19-9 to snap a 34-match
victory streak to slap- the Lions
with their first mat defeat in
four years.
Pitt, which finally went on
to nail first plaCe honors in the
EIWA tourney at Ithaca, N.Y.,
by edging the second-place
Lions. 37-25. visited Rec Hall
after the Navy loss and
dropped the slipping inatmen,
22-8. In the final contest against
Penn, who is not on the Lions'
card this year, the Quakers
were humbled, 28-0.
During the past two years
Speidel has lost several out
standing wrestlers, including
Don Frey, Joe Lemyre, and Hud.
Samson from the 1952-53 squad
and Dick, Lemyre, Jerry Mau
rey, and Doug Frey from his
1953-54 team.
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