$800,000,000 Show
At the Polo Grounds last week, a three-ring baseball circus sponsored by the New York Journal-American climaxed a three-month War Bond drive and pitched a whopping $800,000,000 into the U.S. Treasury. From Broadway and Hollywood came Irving Berlin, Jimmy Cagney, Ethel Merman, Cab Galloway, Carole Landis to entertain the bond-buying fans; later a crack Army team played a combination of Dodger-Giant-Yankee favorites (chosen by a summer-long tabulation of individual "performance points" and popularity votes cast by fans, as part-of the war's most elaborate bond-raising scheme).
Between these main events, a group of greying, balding, potbellied oldtimers--stumped out to the positions at which they wrere once unrivaled--and promptly stole the show. Before Babe Ruth parked one of Walter Johnson's pitches in the stands, he popped three easy fly balls; once-peerless Right Fielder Murray muffed the first one; once-infallible Second Baseman Collins and Center Fielder Speaker followed suit. Said Speaker: "When you're away from baseball 13 years, they sure jump at you." The oldtimers were terrible but the galleries loved them.
Prettiest football coach in the U.S. is 22-year-old Pauline Rugh. When Bell Township High School, in the soft-coal mining community of Salina (20 miles east of Pittsburgh), lost its football coach, the school's comely physical-education teacher persuaded officials to let her take the job. Then she nearly lost it before she started.
Bell's principal had pledged her not to cooperate in any publicity. Photographers and funsters had other ideas. The blonde, 5-ft.-7-in. coach was besieged by photographers loaded down with helmets, shoulder pads, other props, begging her to pose for horseplay photos. The only picture they got was a conservative Pauline in sweater and pearls. They tackled her with such obvious questions as: How does a petticoat coach throw a body block? Coach Pauline disarmingly straight-armed them: an assistant (male) will demonstrate all body contact plays.
Last week, with only two weeks to go before the opening game and only three returning letter men on her squad, Bell's coach cut straight through center. Toting a brand-new notebook, she rushed up to Penn State for a three-day cram session with Coach Bob Higgins (system: the Warner modified -- single wing back and unbalanced line).
Farm-raised Pauline, who majored in physical education at Penn State ('42) and was badminton champion of the college, is no tomboy. Softspoken, modest, Pauline was prompted to step into her mannish role because she likes kids and knew what a letdown a football-less fall would be for them. Salina's grownups were pleased enough at being put on the map, but were somewhat skeptical of Pauline's prospects.
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