All-Stars Indeed

Nobody really expected the College All-Stars to beat the mighty Green Bay Packers in last week's game at Chicago's Soldier Field. Certainly not the All-Stars themselves, who had only three weeks of practice before taking on pro football's perennial world champions. Morale in the All-Star camp was so low--most of the rookies would rather have been off training with their own pro clubs--that Coach Norm Van Brocklin delivered a sermon. "I told them it was an honor to be picked among the top 50 college players of last season," said Van Brocklin. "And I told them that playing in this game was part of being a man."

The sermon apparently sank in. The Packers won, but it took a superlative performance by Quarterback Bart Starr, who completed 17 out of 23 passes for 288 yds. and three touchdowns, before Green Bay could retire with a 34-17 victory over the strongest, stubbornest batch of All-Stars in years.

What the rookies lacked in team play they almost made up in individual talent. Wyoming's Jerry DePoyster punted 55 yds., out of bounds on the Green Bay three; later, he split the uprights with a 22-yd. field goal. U.C.L.A.'s Heisman Trophy winner, Gary Beban, was something of a passing disappointment (three for six, two interceptions), but Massachusetts' Greg Landry hit seven out of 14 and scrambled 29 yds. on a bootleg when he found his receivers covered. In the offensive line, Southern Cal's huge tackle Ron Yary earned at least a draw in a head-to-head battle with Green Bay's All-Pro defensive end, Willie Davis. On defense, Oregon's cornerback Jim Smith seemed to have a hand--or an arm or a shoulder--in every other tackle.

For U.S.C.'s Earl McCullouch, who gave up a chance at an Olympic gold medal (he is the world co-recordholder in the 110-meter high hurdles) to play pro football, the game was especially rewarding. McCullouch caught two TD passes. For Larry Csonka, Syracuse's 236-lb. fullback, playing against the Packers was "like being in a dream." To Green Bay he was strictly a nightmare. Trampling out 95 yds. on 18 carries, Csonka was the key man in an astonishingly successful All-Star ground attack that gained a total of 206 yds. against the toughest defensive line in the game. The Packers, by contrast, gained only 89 yds. on the ground.

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