Specialists' Corner

For the first time in ten years football will have to do without the services of Leo Brennan.

The burly, red-headed, pink-faced mass of a man from Marlboro, Mass, is probably the only professional athlete in the heterogenious group that makes up the psychology specialists in McKinlock Hall. A former Holy Cross star, he played his first season of professional ball last year with Alexis Thompson's Philadelphia Eagles.

"Red" is becomingly reticent about his gridiron successes and it took about an hour of insistent questioning before your correspondent managed to get at the vital statistics. He's an easy man to interview, though, if you like cribbage. The encounter went something like this:

"I understand you played a little football, Red."

"Fifteen two, fifteen four and a pair is six. Yeah."

And so it went. In spite of such a handicap, the story pieced together some thing like this:

Started Early

Brennan came out for football during his freshman year at Marlbore high school and hasn't missed a season since. He made the all-league team three years in a row before pushing on to prop school. At Bridgton Academy, Bridgton, Me., he starred on an undefeated State championship team in 1937.

Then he was drafted for service in the famous Holy Cross line, first playing a year of freshman ball before turning in three years of steady performance at tackle. In fact he started every game Holy Cross played for three years and averaged 58 minutes in every game during his senior year. These services were partially recognized when he was elected a co-captain during his final season.

The professional scouts had had an eye on him for some time when he finally played his last game at Worcester and the Eagles made the beat offer. Leo had after all, made the Sophomore All America picked by Who's Who in Football and had played consistently good football ever since.

Red played in 11 league games and three exhibitions while with the Philadelphia club and insists he couldn't help it that the Eagles would up in last place in the league. The club liked his style of play and voted him its outstanding freshman lineman.

One of the high spots of his professional career came when he started the big game against the Washington Red skins and found himself playing opposite Joe Zeno, the same Joe Zeno whom he had played beside during three years at Holy Cross. Joe, a guard at H. C., was playing that position with the championship-bound Redskins, while Leo had been switched from his old tackle spot to fill a weakness at guard. The two former teammates battled it out all day as if each thought the other was a Boston College man. It looked like a 30 to 30 tie until the last three seconds, when a field goal sewed up victory for the Redskins.

Oh, Yes, Football

He hasn't many opinions about the game except these: that he'd rather play tackle than guard "because getting hit by two big guys is just twice as tough as getting hit by only one"; he thinks the Chicago Bears were tops despite the fact that the Redskins won the title; and he doesn't like the game to begin with.

Thus began a promising career in the professional game. And thus (last December) it ended when Red held up his hand and said "I solemnly swear." He found his niche in the M. P.'s and served with the 756th at Springfield until the Army decided it needed his brain even more than it needed his brawn. This also meant his elevation to the rank of Private First Class, a distinction which might be regarded lightly in some circles, but for Leo it means he can now pull his rank on his erstwhile boss, "Lex" Thompson, who recently made Private.