1932 The Sooner Magazine 263 Here we have the new Oklahoma football coaches, John -Bo- Rowland on the left, assistant coach, shaking hands with Lewie Hardage of Vanderbilt, new head coach . Mr Hardage, a bache- lor, has proved thoroughly ac- ceptable to everyone and promises to be a solution to the troubled athletic problem of recent years. Both coaches are Vanderbilt men, Mr Hardage having been assistant Vanderbilt coach for ten years and Mr Rowland coming to Norman from Ouachita college, where he was head coach Hail and Farewell HEFFNER SOONERLAND hails a new shape with one hand ; and making friends who can pull out and swing into the inter- football coach-Lewie Hardage of Van- with estranged alumni with the other. ference or drop back and block for the derbilt university, and his assistant, John The new coach, and his assistant set- passer, indicative of an open style. "Bo" Rowland, the Arkansas rapid-vic- tled right down to work Thursday, April Coach Hardage announces that he will tory coach. 14, and began to do their stuff with forty- use a combination of the style of play em- Weeks of suspense ended April 11 when four Sooner football players who reported ployed by Wade and that used at Vander- the special committee appointed by Ben for spring practice . bilt. "I hope to combine the best features Owen, athletic director, to select a new All thoughts of Vanderbilt and Ark- of both styles of play, shaping up a team coach after the voluntary resignations of ansas, old stomping grounds of the two that can show well on the field without Adrian Lindsey, head coach, and Dewey new Sooner mentors, were left behind, as sacrificing effectiveness," he says. "Snorter" Luster, '21 arts-sc., assistant the coaches, quickly acclimated them- The new coach is full of enthusiasm . He coach, came to a decision in naming selves and pooled expert resources into a radiates optimism, and this spirit seems to Hardage as Lindsey's successor. new type of coaching which is designed to be caught up by the boys. And he has a Sorting and eliminating masses of the put the 1933 football season over with a word for alumni : applications received for the athletic jobs bang. "I hope to see many students and alum- was no easy job for the secret committee. It is believed that Mr Hardage will ni out warming up the benches this spring After nights of sleepless deliberation, stress open play from the start. He will and next fall. The boys on the field are as members of the committee can sit back in coach the backfield, while Mr Rowland much their boys as mine. Nothing en- their chairs and twaddle their thumbs, will handle the line. courages us so much as to see alumni and feeling satisfied that they have picked a After the scramble for enough suits was students showing a real, personal interest good man in the "Southerner," who has a finished Thursday, Coach Hardage put in our work. We want support, co-oper- splendid record back of him. Mr Rowland, the boys through catching passes and ation, cheers, and prayers." recommended by Mr Hardage, was se- reaching up for the ball with one hand. Soonerland has every appearance of be- lected April 14. His instructions to the candidates to ing well pleased with Coach Hardage, Mr Hardage began spring scrimmage "learn to handle the ball with one hand" who displays indications of being able to the afternoon after his assistant was named indicates that he will go in for forward handle athletics with the same fire and and is plunging right into the difficult job and lateral passing in a big way. It is strength that resulted in the sensational of whipping the Sooner material into known that he likes medium-sized guards success of the Vanderbilt team during the 264 The Sooner Magazine May ten years Mr Hardage served there as as- sistant coach. While in college, Mr Hardage was put on the 1912 all-American team as half- back by Walter Camp, and Grantland Rice placed him in 1911 and 1912. Play- ing two years at Auburn and two at Vanderbilt, Hardage made the all-South- ern conference team four years. Mr Rowland, who has won five Ark- ansas collegiate championships in the last five years, comes here after a year's stay at Ouachita college, Arkadelphia, Ark- ansas. He has coached two years at Hen- derson-Brown college and two at Hender- son state college. He graduated from Vanderbilt in 1925, and is a former pupil of Coach Hardage. Dan McGugin, director of athletics at Vanderbilt, gives Coach Hardage a big sendoff : "From a standpoint of running, Hardage ex- celled any other back I have ever seen and he has the happy faculty of handing his knowledge of how to carry the ball down to his pupils." The ability to teach his backs to "get up and go," has been attributed to Hard- age, and is said to be one reason Vander- bilt has had remarkable success in foot- ball. The names of Ray Morrison, coach of the Southern Methodist university Mus- tangs, and Wallace Wade, former Ala- bama coach, now Duke university head, are linked with Hardage's . Bennie Owen said in announcing the The two upper selection of Hardage : photographs, from left to right, are "He and Wade have been running mates for years. For the last few weeks, Hardage has been Dewey -Snorter- Luster, '21 arts- at Duke university coaching Wade's backs and sc., assistant coach, and Adrian they have exchanged ideas for years. When Wade Lindsey, head coach, both of whom left Alabama to go to Duke, Wade recommended have resigned, Below Mr Lindsey's Hardage for the 'I3ama position but McGugin and Vanderbilt were reluctant to let him go. Only photograph is that of Lewie Hard- by convincing McGugin of the excellent oppor- age, new head coach, while the tunities at Oklahoma, would the Vanderbilt direc- lowest photograph is that of John tor agree to release him." -Bo- Rowland, new assistant coach Coach Hardage coached the play of the air force team at Barron Field, Texas, dur- ing the World war and won the south- west championship. During the ten years he has been assistant coach at Vanderbilt, teams of that university have never fin- tions from the state press poured in, and ished lower than fifth in a twenty-one the melee became a minor whirlwind un- team league . He is a bachelor and is forty til Regent Raymond A. Tolbert, '12 arts- years old. sc., '13 law, former president of the Uni- Years of agitation over the athletic sit- versity of Oklahoma Association, asked uation of the university came into the newspapers to co-operate rather than to open this spring and resulted in the resig- dictate, in the appointment of a coach. nation of Mr Lindsey, all Missouri Valley Mr Lindsey in the meantime was being football player of the University of Kan- considered by several universities as foot- sas and former coach of Bethany college, ball coach. One of these was Denver uni- Lindsborg, Kansas, as football coach of versity. Belatedly, a number of athletes the university . Previously, Mr Luster, cap- came to his defense and when the record tain of the undefeated Sooners of 1920, of Mr Lindsey was examined, it was dis- resigned as assistant coach. covered that he had averaged in the Big Despite these resignations, the situation Six Conference . was not much clearer. They followed the The general confusion increased on the insistent demands of certain state sport day Mr Lindsey dramatically announced writers for a new coach. As soon as Mr his resignation . The men's council pro- Lindsey resigned, certain capital city agi- posed a vote of students on whether Ben tators made it known that they wanted G. Owen, for twenty-six years athletic di- favorite high school coaches appointed . rector of the university, should be retained. An avalanche of applications descended President Bizzell intervened to state that on the athletic association, recommenda- this was not a proper matter for the. stu- HEFFNER The Sooner Magazine May At first free or very cheap lands seemed and at the same time stock the streams Here's what makes me mad about the Lindsey to offer such an opportunity. Once they and lakes with fish and seek to preserve deal : were gone it was a natural step to transfer the They fired him because he lost ball games. wild life once so abundant, but now And they said they wouldn't . his interest to cheap stocks . Here lie the so fast disappearing . They wouldn't go out and do the subsidization roots of much of our economic distress . The old time West as a region is gone that's necessary to turn out Notre Dame teams. The frontier spirit is a restless spirit. and it has gone forever, but this flaming They told him everything was all right. It We own more automobiles than all the wasn't our policy to subsidize athletes and over- spirit of the West is still with us to give emphasize victories . rest of the world. Moreover we drive shape and color to our national life. For They wouldn't schedule important intersectional them-"and how!" We are a nation on if it is true that : games because it was only good clean fun we wheels . We drive three hours to reach a were playing for. "You may break you may shatter town exactly like any other town and This was a noble policy, but the powers that The vase if you will be didn't have the guts to stick then turn about and drive madly home with it when the But the scent of the rose wolves howled .