The Question: The President of the New York Touchdown Club says that the higher the scholastic standing of a college, the poorer the football team. Do you agree?
TED STANDISH, Wantagh, N.Y.
Advertising Manager
"Yes. Columbia is an example. The emphasis is on education. If that were not true, Lou Little would have been fired long ago. He does wonders with limited material. A most constructive move was the banding of the Ivy League colleges to play each other under comparable conditions."
ROBERT B. MEYNER, Governor
New Jersey
"It's apt to be so. But it doesn't mean that a university with a high scholastic standing can't have great teams. Princeton, under Caldwell, has had several top teams. But even if a team isn't tops, isn't it wonderful to see a coach like Lou Little occasionally pull one out of the bag?"
BILL STEIN, Captain
Georgia Tech, 1943
"No. The players who can't make the grade scholastically can't get into Georgia Tech. I do some volunteer scouting for my own school. I won't consider a man unless he has a B-plus average or better. We have many football players who are Tau Beta Pi, the engineering equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa."
ROYCE FLIPPIN, Tailback
Princeton University
"Colleges with high standards occasionally produce great teams, such as the Princeton squads of 1950-51. But they would find it impossible to meet football-conscious colleges on a year-after-year basis. However, games between colleges with similar high standards produce good football."
BILL ANDERSON, Lafayette College
Director of Athletics
"Certainly. We used to have great football teams at Lafayette. In those days Army was just another game. That was when we had our own entrance requirements. Things are different now. Our students have to take the college boards. We're having a tough time getting football stars."
ARLIE SCHARDT JR., Milwaukee, Wis.
Public Relations
"No. Big Ten colleges are rated high scholastically. Yet they come up with some of the best teams, year after year. Last year several academic departments at Wisconsin were ranked best among state universities in the U.S. Yet the Badger eleven had no reason to hide its face in shame."
GARRY TODD, San Mateo, Cal.
Sales Representative
"Yes. The tougher the school is scholastically, the less time the players have for practice. A tough school is lucky to have a good team once every four years. That was true in both schools I attended, Stanford and UCLA. But under Red Sanders at UCLA, football has rocketed. This puzzles me."
ART FRENCH, Captain
Harvard, 1928
"Definitely not. West Point and Annapolis usually have very fine teams. Their scholastic standing is high. This year Army beat Michigan and Duke. The one-platoon system has been the great leveler. However, teams should play in their own class. Witness the close and exciting Ivy games."
ILLUSTRATION
EIGHT PHOTOS