Football in a Heat Wave

The cool of night had descended on Ebbets Field; it was only 94DEG in the dusk. In a box on the 50-yard line sat old Branch Rickey, in his shirtsleeves, peering disconsolately at the half-empty house (16,411). His baseball Brooklyn Dodgers were packing in the fans; this was Rickey's first game as owner of a pro football team --also known as the Brooklyn Dodgers. All afternoon, ticket cancellations had poured in. Even three of Rickey's own guests begged off. Snorted Branch disgustedly: "Who ever heard of canceling a football game because of a heat wave?"

Who had ever heard of starting a football season so early, for that matter? The All-America Football Conference, two-year-old rival of the National Football League, was acting like merchants who urge people to do their Christmas shopping early--early in October. The club-owners were convinced that the only way to get pro football out of the red was longer seasons, more games and bigger crowds.

Aboriginal Ideas. "I'm just a rookie at football, I'm no expert," Rickey kept insisting to everyone within hearing. But when pressed he remembered coaching football 40 years ago at his alma mater, Ohio Wesleyan, and the "aboriginal ideas" he picked up there. To his coach, Carl Voyles, who is also in his first year at pro football, Rickey said: "Modern football is speed. Give me four players--a center, a good passing back and two tall, sprinting ends--and you can have the rest." Voyles outbid the National League's Pittsburgh Steelers for a "good passing back" named Bob Chappuis, Michigan's 1947 All-America (the price: about $17,000).

Well before last week's game, Chappuis had been primed on pro football by the Dodgers' Left Halfback Hunchy Hoernschemeyer and veteran Fullback Mickey Cornier. Said Mickey, who is 29 and balding: "There's spirit in pro football, but it's cold spirit. You produce, or you don't get your pay." At Ebbets Field, under the arc lights, the band played Michigan as the 900-man Michigan Club of New York gave Bob Chappuis a scroll wishing him "the best of luck." But Chappuis, the top Dodger name, saw little action: he had missed three weeks of practice to play in the All-Star game (TIME, Aug. 30), and didn't know his Dodger plays yet.

In the first half, the Dodgers surprised an apathetic crowd by holding the favored Yankees, last year's Eastern Division champs, and led 3-0 at half time. But in the Dodger locker room, Guard Tex Warrington passed out cold from the heat, Mickey Colmer fell on his face, and Hunchy Hoernschemeyer had to take smelling salts to get back on the field.

Yankee Dash. On the first play after the kickoff in the third quarter, Hunchy plunged off tackle, sprinted 60 yards before a Yankee nailed him. On the 27-yard line, the Yankees held. The Dodgers tried another field goal, but the Yankees blocked it. From then on, Rickey got the kind of speed he liked to see--but it was all done by the rival Yankees, in particular by Spec Sanders, Negro Buddy Young, and a Negro rookie named Tom Casey. Casey raced 94 yards to a touchdown, coolly pointing out to his blockers, a threatening Dodger safety man halfway down the field. Final score: Yankees 21, Dodgers 3.

In the locker room, the Dodgers tore off muddy, sweated uniforms, ripped off bloody bandages, replayed the ball game in the subjunctive, and joked uneasily about next week's salary checks. But Owner Rickey was not planning to fire the team just yet. Said he: "They tell me it takes longer to make a fine football team than a fine baseball team. Give us time."

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