a delegation from Dallas will appear and ask the league's consent to the Packers' appearance...PROS ALWAYS BEATEN: The Dallas All Star game has been conducted for four years, and the professionals have yet to snare a victory. The first two years the Chicago Bears did the league honors, and last year the Washington Redskins fought the Southwestern All Stars, but unsuccessfully. Dallas expects to have 34 of the players drawn on National league draft lists signed up for the Sept. 4 struggle, guaranteeing the northern visitors all varieties of trouble. Lambeau predicts a brisk four-day session at Chicago, with the selection of the 1939 schedule one of the highlights. It is probable that Green Bay's game at City stadium will be against the Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, Chicago Cardinals and Cleveland Rams. The Milwaukee games are likely to be against Washington and the Cardinals, while the road games will take the Packers to Chicago (Bears), Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia and Brooklyn...WON'T PLAY GIANTS: According to the league rotating schedule, the Packers will not play the New York Giants in 1939. As soon as the league meeting ends, the Packer coach will start another and shorter swing to contact players. He wants to interview Buhler, fullback; Elmer, center; Schultz, tackle, and Twedell, guard, all of the University of Minnesota; Brennan, Michigan guard; Kell, Notre Dame tackle; and five others not on the Green Bay draft list, but highly recommended as professional prospects. Frank Balazs, Iowa university fullback who agreed to terms yesterday, drew the highest praise of the Packer chief, who interviewed him at Iowa City yesterday. Balazs (the name is pronounced to rhyme with Palace) stands six feet two inches and weighs 210 pounds. He is a great ball carrier and a flawless blocker. During a long run against U.C.L.A., he knocked out three would-be tacklers merely by the method of traveling from one side of them to the other without observing the formality of going around. Extremely rugged looking, he saw little service last season because of an injury, from which he now is recovered, and he is anxious to play pro football.
LOOKING UP IN THE REALM OF SPORTS
FEB 3 (Green Bay) - There's a lot more to selecting professional football players than merely drawing them in the draft, according to Coach Curly Lambeau of the Packers, who today is back in Green Bay following an extensive motor trip to the Pacific coast. "Not a day went by but that I had an opportunity to talk with and visit some college or university football player, who either was anxious to cast his lot with the Packers, or who had been recommended as an outstanding pro possibility," Curly said. "I found out that some of the men we drafted at New York last fall do not appear good enough to make the grade with the Packers. I also found out that some of the men drafted by other professional clubs don't, either. The contacts we were able to make are certain to bear fruit later on. For one thing, the team will save preseason expenses by not asking a lot of useless material to report. The men who work out with us late in the summer, for the most part, will be sure-fire material. Incidentally, we're in a position to do a little trading." Curly also was able to pick up a wealth of material concerning prospects for 1940. He is very enthusiastic about the men he has signed to date, including a few whose names aren't ready to be announced, for reasons involving further amateur competition. One of the toughest, Curly believes, will be 210-pound Frank Balazs, University of Iowa fullback, who shows prospects of bringing considerable durability to his pro football career. In Iowa City, where the Packer coach signed Balazs, the town was buzzing over that individual's most recent exploit, which involved the saving of an eight-year-old boy's life in a nearby river. The kid popped through the loose ice under a railroad bridge and his pals started sliding planks along the ice for the youngster to grab pending the arrival of further aid. Up skated Balazs, observed the boy's plight, and without further delay he ripped off his jacket, kicked off his shoes and plunged into the icy water, hauling out the victim by the back of his neck. Then Balazs seized a plank, wriggled onto safe ice, and supervised the planting of the chattering kid into an ambulance.The ambulance driver wanted to take to the football player, too, but Frank waved him away, walked to his car and drove home. He didn't get so much as a sniffle from his experience. Lambeau was introduced to Balazs by Joe Laws, veteran Packer halfback, who was picked up by the coach at Colfax, Iowa, his hometown.
LOOKING UP IN THE REALM OF SPORTS
FEB 4 (Green Bay) - Jim Farley will not be czar of professional football, and nobody will pay him $75,000 for the job, despite the rumors flying around the country under the impetus of George Marshall, owner of the Washington Redskins, and George Richards, ditto of the Detroit Lions. While it is a possibility that eventually a nationally known figure (Grantland Rice's name has been mentioned frequently) may be drafted to serve as commissioner of pro football, in a capacity which will not interfere with the activities of League President Joe F. Carr, the league will not take any wildcat steps calculated to disturb its balance. Pro football, under the National league standard, aims to improve itself steadily, but soundly, and the idea of hauling in a publicity figure at $75,000 comes as close to the ridiculous as you may venture safely. The attitude of Packer Coach Curly Lambeau is that both Richards and Marshall are not maintaining the proper relationship between the three most important elements of pro football - business, showmanship and sport. "Marshall, a former actor, has displayed a keen sense of showmanship, but has not followed through with the business end," Curly remarked. "He still is at a loss financially with his Redskins. Richards has business ability, and certainly has been a showman, but both of the men have lost sight of the fact that football is a sport. Neither was an athlete himself. Richards said in his United Press interview with Henry McLemore that three years was all a man should play pro football - that he should quit and look for another job. Well, I'd like to have most of the men who have played three years with the Detroit Lions, if Richards is through with them. He forgets that a great many men love to play football, and would appear in pro uniforms even if they were independent financially. You can't buy spirit, and the players have to have it if they are to be champions. Of course pro football is growing, but we want to keep it on a sound basis. We don't want to make those jumps too large. I don't know how much good Jim Farley would do us as 'czar' of the game, but the figure mentioned is absurd anyway." Richards and Marshall, incidentally, both have mentioned in National league circles that they favor the idea of the Green Bay Packers becoming exclusively a traveling team, playing none of its games at home...Ask Curly how many of last year's Packers will report for practice next summer, and he'll tell you that right now there appear to be only three who definitely won't play, and he isn't certain about one of those. Herman Schneidman, blocking quarterback, decided to quit football and enter business but lately he told Joe Laws that he is reconsidering. Bernard Scherer, end, will receive his physical education degree at the University of Nebraska in June, and plans to go directly into coaching. Eddie Jankowski, fullback, may not be back. Badly injured two season ago, Eddie told Lambeau on the Pacific coast recently that he was not satisfied with his play during th4e 1938 season, and planned to retire.
PRO FOOTBALL LEAGUE MEETS
FEB 7 (New York) - The officers of the newly-formed American Professional Football league announced yesterday that franchises had been issued to New York, Rochester, N.Y.; Frankford, Pa.; Baltimore, Newark, Buffalo, Kansas City and Pittsburgh. Bids for franchises from Cincinnati, Nashville, Memphis, St. Louis, Boston and Los Angeles are being held in reserve until it is decided whether the league will be split into an Eastern and Western division...PLAYERS FREE AGENTS: The league adopted a ruling to prohibit tampering with any player under contract to a National league club, but will regard players drafted by such teams as free agents and will feel free to negotiate with them. The 1939 schedule will not be drawn up until that of the National league has been released, in order to avoid any conflicts in dates. The league appointed a temporary executive committee with John McBride of the New York Yankees as chairman.
LAMBEAU OUTLINES CODE ON OFFICIATING FOR MEETING
FEB 8 (Green Bay) - Pity the poor sports officials. "We wuz robbed...Moider the referee" and "Kill the ump" are familiar cries from the prize ring to the baseball diamond. The gridirons of the NFL are not an exception. In fact officiating in football's greatest circuit has come under so much censure, both from club managements and the fans, that Coach E.L. Lambeau of the Green Bay Packers started for the league meeting in Chicago determined to something about it. The meeting opens Thursday at the Congress hotel, but Curly left today, and with him went a resolution that, if it is adopted, should go far toward remedying many of the existing evils...SET PHYSICAL STANDARD: Higher and uniform pay, a physical standard to be met, and a complete understanding on all rules by the officials and club and league representatives all are proposed in the Lambeau resolution which, he stated, will receive support from several other coaches. "Such rapid strides have been made in professional football in the past few years that the game has passed the officials," the Packer coach pointed out. "It is partly the league's fault...Officials were not given a chance to keep up with the speedy progress of the game." Curly explained that while officials are paid and assigned by the league, remuneration for their services has a wide variance, and many get as little as $30 or $40 per game. He proposes that referees in all games receive $100, and that the head linesman, umpire and fields judges should receive $75 each...MEET IN SUMMER: To pave the way for competent officiating, Lambeau suggests that sometime in June or July, at a time designated by the president of the league, all officials employed by the league and applicants for jobs as officials should meet in some centrally located city such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh or Columbus. The rules committee of the league, and a delegate from each club which is not represented on the committee would be present. The meeting would serve the double purpose of proving the qualifications of the officials and new candidates, and ironing out any points of controversy in the rule book. Carl Stork, highly regarded league treasurer, would preside. Principal points in the physical examination under Lambeau's plan would be a thorough test of eyesight, and a speed trial. Curly believes that to keep up with the play, all National league officials should be able to run 60 yards in 10 seconds or less...UNDERSTAND ALL RULES: To avoid conflicting interpretations Curly would keep the group in session until mutual understanding was reached on all rules. He urges that as much as possible the officials should work in teams, and that all assignments should be made prior to Aug. 15 of each year. Decisions on who should work during the season, and where, would be left to Stork and President Joe Carr. The resolution stipulates all complaints by coaches and club owners should be made to Stork, and that officials should answer to him in writing. His decision would be final. Lambeau's draft of the resolution was rough. He had just drawn it up, and some changes may be made, probably in the way of additions, before final presentation at the meeting. But the general idea will remain the same, and it represents a constructive step - one of the first in several seasons - toward cleaning up a situation that is beginning to threaten the prestige of the game...MEET WITH APPROVAL: Lambeau's choice of Stork as chairman of the proposed summer meeting should meet with approval all around the league. "His heart is in the league," Curly said in telling why he believed the man was better fitted than anyone else for the job. "He is honest, capable and has the respect of coaches, club owners and players." Stork was owner of the old Dayton Triangles in the league,. His team played the Packers in 1925, 1926, 1928 and 1929. He has been associated with the league ever since.
PACKER COACH PLANS TRIP TO EUROPE, COMMENTS ON SIGNING OF GREENFIELD, ARIZONA CENTER
FEB 8 (Green Bay) - The approach of the NFL meeting in Chicago, the signing of Tom Greenfield, veteran University of Arizona center, and a prospective European trip occupied the time of E.L. Lambeau, Green Bay Packer coach today. The league session opens at the Congress hotel in Chicago tomorrow, when leaders of all clubs will gather for what is expected to be an epochal conclave...SIGNED AT TUCSON: Greenfield, who signed his contract at Tucson late yesterday, is a 212-pound center, standing two and a half inches above six feet, who Lambeau hopes will be a further addition to the Green Bay pivot corps. "He looks like a man who has a lot of football in him," the coach commented. Greenfield is only 21 years old and is unmarried. He was drafted by the Packers, and was contacted by Lambeau as the latter drove through Arizona recently en route to Green Bay from the Pacific coast. He is a teammate of Nielson, a fullback who No. 1 on the New York Giants' draft list...SET ON CENTERS: "We are beginning to get fairly well set on our center strength," Lambeau added. "The group will be headed by Greenfield and Charlie Brock of Nebraska for certain. We hope to sign Dan Elmer of Minnesota next week, and I believe Bud Svendsen will be back permanently next fall. Bunny Schoemann also will be ready for service, as his leg injury has healed completely." Lambeau wasn't sure about the availability of Frank Butler, Lee Mulleneaux and Ookie Miller, all of whom performed withe Packers last fall. The Packer coach will sail for Europe in March, and plans to visit England, France, German and Italy.
PRO FOOTBALL LEADERS MEET
FEB 9 (Chicago) - Football's ivory mart opens today as officials of the NFL clubs begin four days of rules discussions which may wind up the briskest trading session in years. All the rule changes scheduled to come up could be settled in a half hour, leaving nearly four full days to bicker over prices and trading material. Every club in the league reportedly has a player deal in mind. The two new collegiate rules involving ineligible pass receivers likely will be adopted, but the pros have an even more important problem of their own to iron out...HALAS IS MAD: Stalling hit a new high last year and became so bad in one game the man who first tried it became disgusted. George Halas, owner-coach of the Chicago Bears, admitted he first had his players claim fake injuries in final minutes of a game two years ago so the officials would grant him extra time out periods after his own allotted number had expired. "We tried it in a few games last year and once we almost beat Cleveland in those extra seconds. But that sort of football should be legislated again. Either we can increase the number of legal time out periods or put teeth in the present rule which allows the referee to determine whether a player is able to continue." Halas is chairman of the rules committee...GIVEN THIRD OPTION: One other proposal was advanced by Earl (Dutch) Clark, new coach of the Cleveland Rams, who suggested the team scored upon be given the third option of changing goals. Coach Earl (Curly) Lambeau of the Green Bay Packers, one of the four delegates who have been present at each of the 19 previous sessions, brought with him a demand for better officiating. Joe F. Carr, veteran president of the league who missed last year's business sessions because of illness, called the first meeting to order at noon today. Only routine business was scheduled in the opening meeting, although officials of the Los Angeles Bulldogs may present an application for membership...MAY EXTEND SEASON: In two other meetings, a proposal to pick a league commissioner and a move to extend the season until late December may come up. Sentiment apparently is against both. Most schedule makers, who will complete their 1939 cards sometime before Sunday, indicated they preferred to end their season by Dec. 1. Every club in the league could use one or more players and there may be plenty of trading. Sid Luckman, Columbia's great forward passer, is the current "Whizzer" White. He says he won't play professional football, but Halas, who secured his services in the draft, hopes he will. Both the World Champion New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers want Luckman to play in New York. Halas needs his passing arm, but he needs linemen, too, and expects to talk trade...DRAKE SOUGHT AFTER: Of the veterans, Cleveland's John Drake may be the most sought after. Drake for two years has been the hardest running back in the league. For two years Cleveland has turned down offer after offer but Clark is in charge now and may use Drake to more new players for rebuilding purposes. Pittsburgh also was said to be after three former Pitt stars now the property of the Chicago Cardinals. Marshall Goldberg and Bill Daddio came to the Cards in the draft and Frank Patrick, former Pitt fullback, made good in the National league last year.
PACKERS OWE RISE TO LAMBEAU
FEB 9 (Chicago) - There is one thing you can be sure the coach of the Green Bay Packers will be doing in his spare moments - plotting new forward pass plays. And that's just the way Curly Lambeau occupied himself while he waited for the opening of the annual National Professional Football league meeting. Lambeau is the man who created the Green Bay Packers 20 years ago. They call Green Bay the biggest little city in professional football - a city of 44,000 souls. And, athletically speaking, it was Lambeau and his revolutionary theories of forward passing that made Green Bay what it is today. Fresh out of Notre Dame where he was a star passer under Knute Rockne, Lambeau went home to work for a meat packing concern in 1919. Football was in his blood, and he soon convinced his employers that they should sponsor a football team. That's how the Green Bay Packers were born. Formation of the team marked the start of a new era in football, an era that was to witness the evolution of the forward pass from something that was used only in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to score into an offensive weapon. Lambeau didn't adopt the passing game because he wanted to; he did it because he had no choice. "We had to use passes," he said, "because all our opponents were bigger and heavier. We always favored a passing game and we've done pretty well." Pretty well? So well that passing brought the Packers world championships in 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1936. It almost brought them a fifth league title last fall when they lost the playoff to the New York Giants because a last-minute pass fell incomplete by a fingertip. Passing succeeded so well at Green Bay that college and high school teams have copied the serial offense. Passing made Green Bay the nation's professional football capital. Lambeau was the first of a succession of great Packer passers. From 1919 through 1927, he served as player-coach and was the team's No. 1 marksman. Then, when Curly retired from the field to do his coaching from the bench, his passing tradition was kept alive by the likes of Red Dunn, Bobby Monnett, Arnie Herber and Cecil Isbell. And the best of these, according to Lambeau, is Herber. "That Herber is the greatest forward passer I've ever seen on any football field anywhere," he said. "There never was a long passer like him. He throws them pretty accurately up to 35 yards, but he has no equal when it comes to heaving 'em from 35 to 60 yards. His accuracy is uncanny. He throws perfect strikes and on the dead run, too, mind you." If Lambeau decided to advertise for a passer, he would write an ad like this: PASSER WANTED - Prefer tall man who doesn't throw sidearm, but raises the ball well over his head and throws overhand. Must be cool-headed, quick thinking and have a good wrist action so he can put snap into his throw. Those whose records show frequent interceptions need not apply." So if you want a nice job in a nice town, those are the standards you must meet.
REELECT CARR FOR 10 YEARS
FEB 10 (Chicago) - Club officials of the National Professional Football league indicated today that they don't want a governing commissioner at any price. In the first session of their four day conference, they shelved talk of player trades and re-elected President Joe F. Carr of Columbus, Ohio, for a 10-year period. The long appointment was said to be their answer to talk of a high commissioner. Carr and Carl Storck of Dayton, Ohio, the vice-president and treasurer of the league, both were reelected in the only piece of official business ground out on the first of four days the professional officials are scheduled to meet...HOLD ROUTINE BUSINESS: There was so much routine business was at hand, the traders had little chance of reaching anything more than the sounding out stage. One major player trade between Gus Henderson, new coach of the Detroit Lions, and Earl (Dutch) Clark, who resigned at Detroit to take over the Cleveland Rams, appeared and quickly dissolved. Clark tried to land Jack Johnson, Detroit tackle and an assistant coach under his regime. Both the resolution and schedules committees were expected to meet for the first time today, as well as representatives of the various all-star game in New York, Chicago and Dallas. No major rule changes were expected. The schedule makers may have considerable trouble, however, since there is some opposition to an early ending of the league season. Most coaches have agreed to schedule several night games in order to end the regular playing season by December 1...PLAY PRO STARS: The resolutions committee was expected today to approve a proposal to send the National league champion against an all-Star professional team at Los Angeles in January. Sentiment on other similar resolutions was not reported. Ernie Nevers and Dutch Clark both were the chief target of the traders. Nevers, new coach of the Chicago Cardinals, has three expert passers - Pat Coffee, Jack Robbins and Dwight Sloan - and no climax runner in his backfield. Clark, new coach at Cleveland, reportedly wants tackle Jack Johnson from Detroit and refuses to part with either Corby Davis or John Drake.
LAKE FOREST STAR SIGNED
FEB 10 (Lake Forest, IL) - E.L. (Curly) Lambeau has signed up a guard developed by a former rival mentor, Ralph Jones, who coached the Chicago Bears to their 1932 professional championship. John Biolo, star guard and 195 pound captain of the 1938 Lake Forest (Ill.) college undefeated and untied grid team, is the new Packer who will play for Green Bay next season. Biolo, whose name is in Iron Mountain, Mich., was a big factor in gaining the 1938 Illinois college conference title for Lake Forest last season, just as he was a big factor in Iron Mountain high school's Northern Nine championship in 1933. At the close of last year's collegiate schedule, he was chosen for the Collier's Eye Little All-American team and named to an Associated Press all-conference squad...LAKE FOREST PRODUCT: His two high school coaches, Frosty Ferzacca and Lars Thune, both now are at Green Bay West high school. Ferzacca also is a Lake Forest product, having graduated in 1931. Another Lake Forest football captain, Ferzecca also was a basketball and baseball star, and in his sophomore year was chosen the most valuable man on the grid team. It is reported that Lambeau is depending on the new man for a regular berth, in view of his consistency for three years of varsity ball at Lake Forest as a powerful offensive blocker and excellent defensive player...HAS FAST START: After watching him in a year of freshman competition and coaching him in three years of varsity play, Coach Jones says that "John Biolo is the best guard Lake Forest college has ever seen, and one of the fines undergraduate linemen I have ever seen anywhere." Lambeau's new charge was one of the fastest starters in the line which Jones calls his "greatest small college line." The new Packers was one of the principal reasons for Lake Forest's victory over Carroll, which snapped a 20-game winning streak for the Pioneers. It was the first time in 13 years that the Foresters had beaten Carroll, and although Biolo suffered a twisted knee in the game, he played the full 60 minutes and was just as tough when the curtain went down as he was at the opening whistle. In defeating James Millikin university, Biolo was partially responsible for setting back the opposition for a total yardage for the game of minus 26.
RETAIN SETUP IN GRID LOOP
FEB 11 (Chicago) - The barnstorming days of big leaguers in professional football are over. The National league, in annual session here Friday, sanctioned one postseason game for pro football. For the next five years it will be a contest between the current league champion and a collection of pro all-stars, picked in a newspaper poll, in Los Angeles...NOT GIVEN PERMISSION: Heretofore, players could engage in games here and there if given permission by League President Joe F. Carr. It is reported several played without permission in a game in San Francisco last month. Carr said if his investigation of that game revealed league men participated without permission, the penalty would be automatic suspension for a year. The pro champions each year will continue to appear in the annual preseason game at Chicago against the college senior all-stars. A Dallas committee composed of Matty Bell and Jimmy Stewart of Southern Methodist university, have asked the league to allow each year's runnerup to compete in a similar game against southwestern all-stars. Ken Strong, former New York Giant star, is back in the good graces of the pro game. He was reinstated Friday, four years after he repudiated a contract with the Giants to join another pro circuit. He will be eligible to play this fall with New York. The league voted unanimously to hold the membership to 10 teams, ignoring recurrent reports that some of the cities in the league may be represented in proposed rival organizations. Cincinnati, St. Louis, Buffalo and Los Angeles have been among the cities reported anxious to join the league, but Carr said he had received no formal applications for franchises.