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Egg in Your Beer

Gridiron Huckster

By James M. Storey

Yale has beaten us to the bacon again. The Elis have found a legal way to answer the oft-repeated question. "How'll we get a good football team?" and the Harvard sporting hierarchy might well consider their example.

Herman Hickman is not alone responsible for Yale's good football fortunes. Another man with a sharp eye and a lot of enthusiasm is the key to Yale's success. Sixty-seven-year-old Fred M. Walker, who has combined coaching with a Chicago brokerage business for the last 35 years has "sent" more than 40 varsity athletes from the Chicago area to New Haven since 1941. Walker, 1905 blocking back for the University of Chicago, told the CRIMSON yesterday, "I wouldn't recruit. The thing you have to do in the West is to persuade men that Yale is a man's school." He has been a singularly successful salesman, especially with his sons. Blake Walker, Yale '43, was first-string quarterback, and All-American end Paul Walker captained the '44 eleven.

Other stars that Walker "persuaded" to go to Yale included Jim Fuchs world champion shot-putter, 1950 football captain Brad Quackenbush and lettermen Jack Lohnes, Jim Rowe, and Bob Parcella. "I've sent boys there from all over the country," Walker says, "and I don't get a nickel for it, either."

No Money

"You don't need money, if a boy wants to go to a good school, I'll talk to him, but if he wants a soft berth and money, I won't have anything to do with him," Walker declared. He pays for his expenses himself, sometimes running up as much as $200 worth of phone bills a month. He surveys over 1000 high and prep school players annually, giving dinners and talks. Last year he supplemented his persuasive program with a booklet about Yale.

"I've told the Harvard alumni to go around to the schools the way I do," Walker says. "It's a shame that Harvard hasn't got the manpower for two or three men to work the West. Good kids like that shouldn't be allowed to get into commercialized football."

Harvard alumni have got the manpower. They realize the need for help in the football picture. The quality lacking is enthusiasm for a Walker-type persuasive program.

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