[Jiggs McGee]

OCTOBER 2, 1944

CANNONS CLINCH CONTINENTAL CROWN

In what may go down as the greatest turnarounds in FABL history the Cincinnati Cannons clinched their second straight Continental Association pennant on Thursday with a 1-0 shutout victory over the Brooklyn Kings. The final margin over second place Toronto would be 4 games with the third place Chicago Cougars finishing 5 off the pace. It was an outcome that few in the Queen City -or anywhere else in baseball- would have dreamed possible back on the morning of June 25 when the Cannons sat 19.5 games behind the Cougars after an amazing 50-18 start for the Chicago nine. While some early day records are spotty, it is believed that no FABL club has ever overcome such a deficit to rebound and win a pennant.

The turnaround came in a whirlwind summer that saw the Cannons as sellers in June, sending third baseman Billy Dalton to the Boston Minutemen, become buyers at the end of July when they added future Hall of Famer Rabbit Day and veteran catcher Tom Bird from the Chicago Chiefs just a couple of weeks after also bringing Al Wheeler in from the Windy City. All three would play key roles down the stretch as the Cannons fielded a roster heavily dominated by players over the age of thirty. One of the biggest surprises and another key cog in the second half tear was Tom Barrell. The 36 year old former 3-time Allen Award winner was considered almost washed up and was 3-6 in late June after being brought in by the Cannons merely to help eat some innings up after the March injury that cost his nephew, and two-time Allen Award winner, Deuce Barell the entire season. When the Cannons got hot so did Tom, finding the form that nearly a decade ago made him one of the most feared pitchers in the game. Barrell went 8-2 in the second half and punctuated his impact with a pair of dominant wins over the Wolves and one over the Cougars down the stretch before capping his season with a 3-hit shutout of Brooklyn on Saturday.

For the Toronto Wolves it was nearly as impressive a run but ultimately fell just a little short as the Wolves offense was not quite up to the task of keeping pace with the Cannons. Toronto's 42-34 post all-star game mark allowed them to overcome a 10-game deficit behind the Cougars, who were on a record-setting pace in late June but followed a 50-18 start with 35-51 finish. There is nothing to explain the turnaround. No key injury. It just happened. Everyone who was so good early in the season -to the point where there was talk of the Cougars posting perhaps the highest win total the Continental had ever seen- suddenly balanced out. The breaks stopped coming and the losses mounted up. How do you explain it? The same way you explain why the Cannons struggled so much in the first half of the season before everything came together in the second half. You don't. You simply say 'That's baseball.' There is no rational explanation beyond that.

TRIPLE CROWN FOR BOBBY BARRELL

Bobby Barrell became just the fourth different player to win the Triple Crown in the Federal Association after doing so by the narrowest margins. The homerun crown and rbi lead where never in doubt but it went down to the final game of the season for the Philadelphia Keystones star to edge out Washington's Mel Carrol by .00014 to claim the first batting crown of his 14 year career. Barrell joins fellow Keystones Fred Roby (1894) and Rankin Kellogg (3-times 1927,1931,1933) and the legendary Max Morris (also 3-times 1921,1922,1925) as the only players to lead the Federal Association in batting average, homeruns and rbi's in the same season. It has been done just twice in the Continental Association: by Al Wheeler of Brooklyn in 1935 and Fred McCormick with Toronto four years later.

KEYSTONES, CANNONS TO MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME

For the first time since the birth of the World Championship Series in 1893 the Philadelphia Keystones will meet the Cincinnati Cannons. The Cannons have been based in the Queen City only five years now after their transfer from Baltimore but the two franchises have never met in a game. Philadelphia has appeared in the WCS just 3 times, beating Brooklyn in 1927 and the Chicago Cougars in 1933 sandwiched around suffering a sweep at the hands of the New York Stars in 1932. The Cannons will play in their 6th WCS with wins in five of them including last year when Cincinnati topped Boston in a thrilling seven game series. The franchise was based in Baltimore and known as the Clippers for their other WCS wins which came in 1907 over Pittsburgh, 1908 over Detroit and 1914 over Washington. The lone Series loss for the franchise was in 1913 when they fell to the Washington Eagles.

The Keystones franchise has a rich history stretching back to the very dawn of the sport. In fact the club, known as the Centennials at the time, can lay claim to the very first major league baseball title when they prevailed in the first season of what was then called the Century League way back in 1876. Century League pennants would come again in 1880 and 1882 and the club, now using it's present day 'Keystones' moniker, also won the very first Federal Association title. That was in 1892 and predates the World Championship Series by a single year. The Cannons franchise also can lay claim to debuting with a title when the Baltimore Clippers won in the first of what would only be two seasons the Peerless League was around, back in 1890, two years prior to joining FABL and the newly formed Continental Association. All this time later the two will finally appear on the same field for the first time Wednesday when the Series opens in Cincinnati.

EXPERIENCE FAVORS CANNONS

If we are going by World Championship Series experience alone this one will be no contest. The Cannons have 7 pitchers with a combined 185 1/3 innings of post-season work and a 15-8 career WCS record led by Rabbit Day (6-3 in 10 starts). Cincinnati position players have a combined 98 games of WCS experience with 10 of them having appeared in at least one WCS game. So 17 of the 24 players on the Cannons post-season roster have played in a WCS before and they own 27 WCS rings.

What aboutPhiladelphia you ask? That list is very short. One. Only Bobby Barrell has appeared in a WCS game with Barrell winning a WCS (and an MVP award in the '33 Series). Barrell has played in 11 series games and made the most of them with 3 homers and a .488 batting average.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES PREDICTIONS

Brett Bing, Toronto Mail & Empire: Cincinnati in 5. Cannons have been a juggernaut since June.

Fast Freddie Farhat, Detroit World: Too much Bobby Barrell spells doom for Cincinnati. Bobby B will carry the Keystones to a 5 game series win as the most dominate player in baseball.

Ernie Herr, Cincinnati Post: I know that the last team to repeat as WCS champs was nearly two decades ago when the New York Stars won three straight from 1924-26 but I feel the Cannons are set to win again this year. Bobby Barrell is the kind of player who could win a WCS all by himself but the Cannons are playing their best stretch of baseball since coming to the Queen City and they are on a roll. Cincinnati in six games.

Archie Irwin, Chicago Daily News: I'm going Philly in 7. This is Bobby Barrell's year, he'll find a way to win.

Percy Sutherland, Chicago Herald-Examiner: I think the experience will serve the Cannons well, and I too say the Cannons in 6.

As for the regular season four of the eight columnists who submitted predictions correctly called the Philadelphia Keystones as the Federal Association champ. The four were Jiggs McGee, John Brinker of the NY Daily Mirror, Doc Shaw of the Boston Globe and Johnny Bologna of the Philadelphia Inquistor. None of those four correctly called Detroit for second in the Fed, nor did any of the four get Cincinnati correct as the Continental champs. In fact, the only writer who called the Cannons correctly was Artie Mortimer of the New York Daily Mirror. Mortimer had the Keystones third on his Fed list behind the Chiefs and Boston.

WCS HERE WE COME - AGAIN!

Big Roster Decisions Loom for Manager Ad Doria

The dream second half became a reality for the Cincinnati Cannons as the local nine punched it's ticket for a second straight trip to the World Championship Series. A 17-12 September/October record put the cherry on top of an outstanding second half with the results of their efforts being a date with the Philadelphia Keystones and triple crown winner Bobby Barrell.

A familiar name of course to Cannons fans as he is the uncle of injured Cannons ace Deuce Barrell and the younger brother of current Cannons hurler Tom Barrell. Tom is also the subject of what is likely great internal debate in the office of Cannons skipper Ad Doria right now as Doria and Hall of Fame pitching coach Big George Johnson are faced with a difficult decision. Do they give the ball to Two-pitch Tommy or Rabbit Day for game three in Philadelphia?

Butch Smith (19-10, 2.19) goes in the opener. Of tht there is no doubt and it is a near certainty that Chris Clarke (12-10, 2.44) gets the ball in game two. That duo played a key role in last year's series and will be heavily counted upon again this time around. But game three is the one that will be the subject of debate. Tom Barrell (11-8, 2.92) has had an outtanding second half and won some very big games down the stretch. Day (18-10, 3.35 overall and 6-2, 2.46 with Cannons) was a very key piece down the stretch after coming over with Tom Bird in the deal with the Chiefs at the deadline. Both own 3 Allen Awards. Both have pitched in and won WCS games. Day is 6-3 with a 3.36 WCS era while Barrell is 4-2, 3.86. It will be a tough choice for Doria to make but he does have a couple of days to decide.

The other big decision needs to be made immediately and revolves around another of the many veteran players on the Cannons roster. Jack Cleaves is nursing a sore knee, something that first bothered him in May and flared up again a month later. It is not bad enough to need a trip to the injured list but it is a nagging injury that may hang around for a week. Doria has already said that Tony White will get the start at second base for at least the first two games but the question is does Cleaves make the active roster or is it better to carry light-hitting Billy Winfrey for his glove. Doria has not made his choice known yet but it is expected Cleaves will get the nod as despite the nagging knee the 37 year old says he can certainly pinch-hit now and hopes to be back to full health by game four.

CANNON FODDER- A decade from now when there is a great chance that Dick Blaszak is hammering Federal Association pitching and Frank Sears is a dependable rotation piece with the Chicago Chiefs, fans should remember the pennant clinching day in Brooklyn last week. It was, or rather likely will be a heavy price to pay but without the deal that send long-awaited superprospect Blaszak and fellow 22 year old Sears to the Windy City for Tom Bird and Rabbit Day there likely would have been no repeat in Cincinnati.

TALES FROM THE WOLVES DEN

Wolves Weekly Roundup:

• Wolves start the week on a high note with Wirtz in control from the start twirling a 5-hit 4-0 shutout. Wolves bang out 13 hits, including 2 two-baggers by Artuso, as their bats show signs of awakening, Toronto remains two games back as Cannons win 7-3 in New York.
• Wolves fielding woes come back to haunt them with 2 errors leading to 3 unearned runs going down to defeat 6-3 to the Cougars. A critical error by Hal Wood in the second leads to 2 unearned runs after Walls surrenders a run in the first. Toronto again has 13 hits but after closing the gap to 3-2 in the third Chicago plates single runs in the fifth, seventh, eighth to salt the game away for the home team. Scoreboard watchers see that Wolves blow an opportunity as the Stars down Cincinnati 2-1. Toronto remains two games back.
• On Wednesday Toronto's bat cool again, Jimmy Gibbs struggles allowing 11 hits, 3 BB in 6 innings. Chicago builds an 8-0 lead through seven, Wolves score 3 late after the outcome has already been decided in favour of the Cougars. Toronto also gets news of the Cannons' 4-3 win in 11 innings meaning the Wolves are now on life support, down 3 with 4 to play.
• In what can only be described a fiasco, 28 Sept 44 becomes the day the Wolves are eliminated from the CA title chase. Saints are holding on to a 6-3 lead as the 8th inning begins when Toronto explodes for 5 runs, on 4 hits, 3 walks, leaving the bases loaded, to take a 8-6 lead. Normally reliable reliever Billy Crosby cannot find the plate giving up 6 walks, two hits over an inning and two-thirds allowing the Saints to walk off with a 9-8 win. This coupled with Butch Smith's 19th victory. 1-0 in Brooklyn, puts the final nail in the Wolves coffin.
• Toronto plays out the string losing 8-6 on Friday after giving up 5 in the first, 4 unearned on a wild pitch plus another critical error by Hal Wood. Wolves close out the season with two victories 3-2, 5-2 to finish the season 86-68 in second place 4 games behind the Cannons.

Brett's prediction to actual -6 wins

This column will now take a day off then perform a post mortem on the Wolves season. Brett's preseason prediction of 80 victories being a successful year was exceeded but to be so close yet so far away leaves the Wolves fans with a sour taste in their mouths.

The New York Stars win just enough to pull in 1 game up of Brooklyn for 5th place. All in all not bad for not expecting to crack 65 wins this season. Management is now looking at the clubs future, plotting which prospects can be traded for better picks in the coming draft and who will be prime time for the '46-'47 seasons.

The front office is extremely happy with the firing of the biggest of "Jerrys", Jerry "Cant" Kant. We should have known he was a German plant plotting to take down the team by the name alone. The promotion of long time bench coach Ken Tannen to manager was the right call all along and the second half of the season showed vast improvements

Art White had a valiant effort this week, throwing 389 pitches and a pair of complete games, but he lost all three starts. In 26.1 innings he didn't strike out a single hitter and allowed 28 hits, 12 runs (11 earned), and 10 walks.

CA Pitcher of the Month Harry Parker did his best to earn the Allen Award, going a perfect 5-0 with a 0.72 ERA (476 ERA+) and WHIP with 4 walks and 31 strikeouts. A season removed from a torn flexor tendon in his elbow, Parker finished the season 16-10 in 250.1 innings pitched with a 2.19 ERA (156 ERA+), 0.99 WHIP, 44 walks, and 128 strikeouts. The Cougar ace led the FABL in WHIP and FIP (2.56) while falling a few percentage points short of the ERA lead. He also led the CA in WAR (6.7), strikeouts, and K/BB (2.9).

*** HAS LYONS ROARED FOR THE LAST TIME ***

No official retirement yet, but this might be the end of Dick Lyons. The now 44-year-old finished slow, going 7-10 with a 3.35 ERA (102 ERA+) and 1.24 WHIP in 155.2 innings pitched. After four months with a sub 2.50 ERA to start the season, Lyons hit a rough patch in August and went 0-3 in September with a 9.35 ERA (37 ERA+) and 1.73 WHIP with 6 walks and 2 strikeouts. If 1944 is the end of the line for Lyons, he will finish with a 235-186 FABL record through 3,939.1 innings pitched. The 5-Time All Star and 1938 Allen Winner owns a respectable 3.80 ERA (107 ERA+) and 1.36 WHIP with 840 walks and 967 strikeouts while being worth 67.3 wins above replacement. Most impressively, however, may be that his only career injury was a cold back in 1930 that cost him a single day.

***IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON ***

With a disappointing second half for both Chicago ballclubs the attention can be fully focused on the gridiron. The defending AFA champion Wildcats stumbled in their opener in Detroit a little over a week ago but that is not a big concern as the Cats have come up on the short-end of early season meetings with the Motor City Eleven on numerous occasions and all worked out well in the end. What is a concern is Gus Brown and his 5 interceptions in the opener. The normally reliable Brown completed just 4 passes to Chicago receivers compared to the 5 that fell into enemy hands prompting more than one person in the press box to question if perhaps the reason Brown is not in the Army is because he code be color-blind. "Certainly don't want him tossing hand grenades with that sort of accuracy," cracked another.

The next game for the Wildcats will be a chance for Chicago to get some revenge on the Queen City as the Wildcats face the expansion Cincinnati Tigers in an all-feline battle on Sunday. The Tigers beat the combined Cleveland-St Louis side 21-0 in their debut.

Speaking of Whitney, the College Engineers got off to a nice start with a 26-7 win over Wisconsin Catholic. The Cavaliers are now 0-2 after an opening loss to Detroit City College and are clearly nothing like the National Champion squad they were last year after a perfect 9-0 season. Next up for the Engineers is a showdown in Springfield with their Great Lakes Alliance rivals from Lincoln College.

• SP Red Ross who was waived in Detroit during the 1940 season is in the running for the 1944 FA Allen winner with a 23 win campaign for the Philadelphia Keystones. Ross was originally property of the St Louis Pioneers but was waived in the 38 season. He’s had quite the ride the last 3 seasons.
• It's not quite a slam dunk for Ross. You can make a good case for any of the 20 game winners. Lonardo was 3rd in IP and first in shut outs for the Gothams. In St Louis, Long was 2nd in IP and first in WAR. While Boston's Wells was 4th in IP and 3rd in ERA. And finally 18 game winning Gothams hurler Bowman was 1st in IP, 2nd in WAR, and 1st in strikeouts.
• Another waived player had quite the showing in September. Dan Hallam was claimed in June by the Gothams from Detroit and was September's player of the month in the Fed after the 33 year old 3rd sacker hit .429 with 5 homers and 13 RBI. He had only 1 homer before the month began. It was a sweep of the month for the Gothams as Ed Bowman won the pitcher award with a 5-2 record and 2.04 ERA. Big Ed finished the season with 18 wins and leading the FA in Starts, IP and K's.
• Buddy Long backed up Pioneers management's claim that he should be considered for the FED Allen by going 0-5 with a 4.71 ERA to end the season. Another fun fact from St Louis, in the Pioneers shut out loss to Philly on the 29th the Pioneers had more errors(8) than hits(7)...and that sums up our disappointing season.
• Jim Lonardo wins both starts last week to finish 20-10 with his career 2nd best 2.87 ERA. The 40 year old is now 281-201 for his career.
• Dealing top prospect Dick Blaszak to the Chicago Chiefs paid off for the Cincinnati Cannons. Tom Bird hit .324 with 5 homers and 25 rbi's in 48 games after the trade while Rabbit Day went 6-2, 2.46 in his 10 starts after his return to the organization he began his career with. Cannons fans will do well to remember this pennant when Blaszak and fellow 22 year old Frank Sears, who was also part of the deal, are in their prime with the Chiefs.
• If there was such a thing as comeback player of the year there were several very good candidates this season. Toronto's Chuck Wirtz, Tom Barrell of Cincinnati and Cougars pitcher Harry Parker all would be in the running as would Don Miller of the Eagles.
• The ageless wonder 3B/1B Frank Vance (42) missed the first 1/3 of the season in Detroit due to injury. He came back and played 102 games starting 101. Vance led the team in RBI's with 67 and was on pace to hit 100 in a full season. He hit 294/374/776 with 6 home runs and scored 50 runs. So far he hasn't indicated that he will hang up his spikes but hasn't made a final decision on it as of yet.
• Staying with the Dynamos, 2B Gil London has gone from a solid glove SS who couldn't hit consistently and was on the trade market to a 2B who was good for 5.9 WAR hitting 281/339/680. He has to be getting a lot of that "value" based on his glove work as he excelled as a defensive cog in the middle infield.
• After a few teams hit 2 million fans in '43, only the Cougars (1,037,550) cracked the million mark. The pennant winners, Cincinnati (818,157) and Philadelphia (802,166) finished second and third.

DRAFT LOTTERY CHANCES

Here are the unofficial results (pending league verification) of the entries each club will have for the 1945 Draft Lottery. The Continental Association will pick first this year meaning the best chances of landing the number one overall selection will go to the Cleveland Foresters and the New York Stars.

      PROJECTED BASED ON CURRENT STANDINGS
  CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION (picks 1,3,5,7,9,11 &13)
TEAM        44W 43W   	+-   Odds to Win CA Lottery
Cincinnati 90   94      -4    Draft 15th (pennant winner)
Cleveland  68   55      13     23.1%
Stars      72   68       4     23.1%
Brooklyn   71   69       2     15.3%
Cougars    85   86      -1     15.3%
Sailors    80   82      -2      7.7%
Toronto    86   90      -4      7.7%
Montreal   64   72      -8      7.7%

   FEDERAL ASSOCIATION (picks 2,4,6,8,10,12 & 14)
TEAM      44PRO 43W  +-   Odds to Win FA Lottery
Keystones  91   81    10    draft 16th (pennant winner)
Detroit    82   69    13      23.1%
Gothams    70   58    12      23.1%
Pittsburgh 81   74     7      15.3%
Washington 78   81    -3      15.3%
Chiefs     71   79    -8       7.7%
*-Boston   76   90   -14       7.7%
St Louis   67   84   -17       7.7%
*Boston pick in round one owned by Cincinnati

MAROONS CONTINUE HOT AFA START

The Detroit Maroons are making the most of an early start to the 1944 AFA season. While two of the league's 10 teams have yet to play their season opener the Maroons have already played 3 games and won all three in very convincing fashion with the latest being a 28-0 blanking of Pittsburgh at Detroit City College Field on Sunday. The Maroons, who will move to their usual Thompson Field location next Sunday now that the Detroit Dynamos are done with the place for the season, have a very unusual schedule this season with each of their first 5 games being in the Motor City before they head out on the road for the entire second half of the season.

Yesterday's contest featured the usual strong game from Stan Vaught. The Detroit end, making up for a less involved performance a week ago in a win over Chicago, caught 6 passes for 103 yards including a 44 yard touchdown grab while also contributing on defense with 5 tackles and an interception to pace the Maroons. The Detroit ground game made plenty of noise with 227 yards rushing led by 81 from Dave Bickner and 44 from Joe Scharfenberg. In contrast, the visiting Paladins managed just 39 yards on the ground with former Christian Trophy winning back Billy Bockhorst leading the way with only 15 yards on 12 carries. Bockhorst also threw for 108 yards but was picked off 4 times.

The other game this week was played last Tuesday in Washington with the visiting Philadelphia Frigates easily winning by a 42-13 score in the return for both teams. The Wasps took last season off because of player shortages due to the war while the Frigates were just half a team a season ago as they fielded a combined outfit partnering with the St Louis Ramblers. Greg LePage led the way for the winners with a pair of touchdowns, one on a 14 yard run from scrimmage and the other on a 94-yard return of the game's opening kick-off.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
EAST DIVISION   W  L  T  PCT
Philadelphia	1  0  0  1.000
Boston		0  0  0   .000
New York	0  0  0   .000
Washington	0  1  0   .000
Brooklyn	0  1  0   .000

WEST DIVISION   W  L  T  PCT
Detroit		3  0  0  1.000
Cincinnati	1  0  0  1.000
Chicago		0  1  0   .000
Clev/StLouis	0  1  0   .000
Pittsburgh	0  1  0   .000

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
Philadelphia 42 Washington 13
Detroit 28 Pittsburgh 0

UPCOMING GAMES
SUNDAY OCTOBER 8
Brooklyn at Pittsburgh
Clev/StL at Detroit
Chicago at Cincinnati
New York at Washington
Boston at Philadelphia

AFA LEADERS
SCORING		PTS
Vaught, Det	36
Owen, Det	24
Renton, Det	12
LePage, Phi	12

PASSING		COMP-ATT  YDS   TD INT
Coleman, Det      18-49   297    5  4
Richards, Was      9-22   138    0  6
Schepis, ClSL      6-13   128    0  2
Clauss, Cin        4-8    112    1  0        

RUSHING		  YDS  TD
Scharfenberg, Det 177  0
Buckner, Det	  160  0
Renton, Det	  147  2
Owen, Det	  112  3
Schepis, ClSL     105  0

RECEIVING	CAT  TD
Vaught, Det	 18   4
Douglas, Was      8   0
Hooper, Bkn	  6   0

INERCEPTIONS	 #
Coleman, Det	  2
Renton, Det	  2
Chipman, Det	  2
Fykes, Cin	  2
Hensley, Cin	  2
Carey, Phi	  2

SERVICE ACADEMIES BOTH OFF TO BIG START

Rome State and Annapolis Maritime wasted no time in making a statement that their 1944 entries will be much improved upon last seasons squads. The Centurions suffered through an awful 1-8 campaign last season but vowed that the focus would be much more on the sport this time around. With the war seemingly in it's final quarter, the Rome State grid eleven are much more focused on the sport and it showed in a dominating 54-3 victory over a very solid North Carolina Tech team that was coming off an impressive 8-2 campaign and a top ten ranking a year ago.

The Techsters simply had no answer for the pounding Rome State ground game in which a pair of sophomores came up with astounding efforts in their college debuts. Gus Thompson is a 19 year old Californian who plays halfback and ran for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns in the opener. Fullback Chet Donelson just turned 20 and the South Carolina native also topped the 100 yard mark on the day and found the end zone twice himself feeding a steady diet of punishing inside runs that the Techsters defense could not digest.

Annapolis Maritime also had rout in it's opener, blanking North Carolina Pre-Flight 51-0. The Navigators lack a single dominating offensive star but have a deep balanced attack that easily handled the Pre-Flight eleven. In other action St Blane got off to a strong start with a 47-7 win over Patsy O'Callaghan's Pittsburgh State Finches. A last second field goal lifted Grafton past St Patrick's 13-10. The Pride of Parma, Ohio led the way as quarterback Jimmy Rhodes and his Central Ohio teammates were too much for Daniel Boone College in a 31-7 Aviators win. Minnesota Tech got back on track after a loss last week to Iowa Pre-Flight as the Lakers rebounded with a 63-6 drubbing of College of Omaha. Defending National Champion Wisconsin Catholic dropped to 0-2 with a 26-7 loss to Whitney College.

COLLEGE WEEKEND SCOREBOARD
Rome State 54 North Carolina Tech 3
Annapolis Maritime 51 North Carolina Pre-Flight 0
St. Blane 47 Pittsburgh State 7
Grafton 13 St. Patrick's 10
Central Ohio 31 Daniel Boone College 7
Great Lakes Navy 38 Lincoln 20
Detroit City College 20 Indiana A&M 7
St. Magnus 13 Wisconsin State 0
Carolina Poly 21 Pierpont 20
Whitney College 26 Wisconsin Catholic 7
Minnesota Tech 63 College of Omaha 6
Mississippi A&M 27 Western Florida 7
Noble Jones College 24 Cowpens State 7
Bayou State 21 Alabama Baptist 21
Alabama A&T 21 Opelika State 20
Georgia Baptist 51 Coastal State 0
Cumberland 24 Central Kentucky 10
Northern California 13 CC Los Angeles 7
Maryland State 27 Hampden-Sydney 3
Iowa A&M 44 College of St. Peter (MN) 0
Mile High State 24 Lawrence State 7
Eastern Oklahoma 16 Arkansas A&T 6
Conwell College 7 Meade 6
Kit Carson University 14 Alameda Coast Guard 10
Lubbock Field 38 Amarillo Field 13
Ellery 19 Miller College 10
Alexandria 24 Salisbury Christian 21
Mountainview State 31 South Valley State 3
Henry Hudson 34 West Corners (NY) 10
Brunswick 21 Frankford State 10
Lambert College 23 Bryant-Bowman 0
Columbia Military Academy 14 Georgia Pre-Flight 3
Iowa Pre-Flight 50 Olathe Navy 7
St. Ignatius 38 Scranton State 0
Northern Mississippi 27 Jackson Field 0
Norman Naval Air Station 28 Oklahoma City State 3
Charleston Tech 16 Eastern State 13
Liberty College 34 Trescott College 10
Randolph Field 33 Red River State 7
Petersburg 30 Richmond Field 27
Second Air Force 24 Boulder State 14
Coastal California 27 College of San Diego 0
Texas Gulf Coast 37 Travis-Fort Worth 9
Travis College 31 Killeen State 0
Darnell State 21 College of Waco 13
Amarillo Methodist 41 South Plains Field 0
Provo Tech 23 Snake River State 7
Hancock & Pitt 17 Penn Catholic 16
Rainier College 53 Whitman 0
Huntington State 47 Lakeview (OH) 6
Eastern Kansas 17 Topeka State 14
Richmond State 37 Fort Monroe 0
George Fox 7 Coast Guard 7
Fleet City 24 Golden Gate University Pre-Flight 10
Lincoln Field 37 Fort Warren 16

WEST COAST PRO LOOP MAKES DEBUT

Looks like the football magnates in California trying to usurp the American Football Association are off to a decent start, although attendance was perhaps less than expected. A pair of California teams in the San Francisco Football Sailors and San Jose Mustangs hooked up in the debut of the West Coast Pro loop. According to Buddy Leach of the San Jose News the fans that did attend loved the game, although it was no where near as wide-open as they had hoped a pro grid contest might be. The issue was that San Jose Stadium, which has room for over 9,000 onlookers, was only about a third full. Leach penned that "the brand of football served was good, bad and indifferent. But on the whole it wasn't at all bad to look at, especially in view of the fact that both teams were playing as units for the first time. Neither club looked organized but it takes time to set up an offense and it must be remembered that the gents in this league haven't a great deal of time in which to practice."

Leach's last comment is in reference to the fact that all players on both teams are working full-time jobs during the day and practicing at night. I am not sure if Jack Kristich needs to give this loop even a second thought, at least not until the AFA boys decided to spread their wings and expand to the Pacific coast.

*** BOON SAYS ONLY AFA WILL BE LEFT STANDING ***

Carl Boon may not be front and center in the pro game these days as he answers to the Navy as a Lt-Commander instead of the Chicago Wildcats but the coaching legend still finds time to follow the game closely and he predicts that despite plans for post-war operations by several new pro circuits and the start of the west coast league, the American Football Association will be the only major play-for-pay loop "for seasons to come."

The West Coast Football League kicked off this past weekend and the United States Pro Football League as well as at least one other as of yet unnamed loop have announced organization plans within recent months but Boon, the legendary Chicago coach who joined the Navy, decalred the new organizations "will have to suffer growing pains just as we did for many years."

Although admitting there was room for another "high class" league, Boon asserted American Football Association teams will be "three deep" in every positon after the war. "Now, just how is any rival, starting from scratch, going to match such a setup?" he argued. "It's impossible. That's why it's going to be a long haul for any new league, with a lot of heartaches along the way."

BOXING ROUND-UP

A pair of Heavyweight pugilists clashed at the Philadelphia Armory on Saturday with Ron Wilson scoring a unanimous decision over Mike Davis. Wilson, a Binghamton, NY native who was released from the Army last spring improves to 16-8-1 for his career while Davis, who calls Stockton, CA home drops to 15-13-1. It was the first pro bout for each of them since 1941 although Wilson had fought on a number of service cards over the past three years.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 10/01/1944

• Prime Minister Churchill implied today for the first time that the war stretch well into 1945 but added that "enormous additional" American forces will be thrown into the battle if Nazi resistance does not collapse soon.
• Allied headquarters say the Nazi losses since D-Day top 800,000
• A thinning band of British paratroopers still hold grimly to the Rhine Gate at Arnhem, surrounded and under muderous cross-fire.
  trappedParatroopers
• Berlin radio says Warsaw has been "blotted from the face of the earth as never a town was before" - a propoganda line which often has been used to build an explaination for the evacuation of a city.
• A broadcast from Allied Supreme Headquartrs on behalf of General Eisenhower is telling foregin labor in Germany the "hour for action has come" and calls for the organized cells of foreign workers within the Reich to take action now.
• Allied invasion forces struck across the Adriatic by air and sea into Albania and the islands off Yugoslavia.
• There is a report that Hitler survived a second attempt on his life recently when his private astrologer stopped him as he lifted a poisoned cup of coffee.
• American invasion forces in the Pacific extended their conquests to eight of the Palau Islands as bombers intensify their offensive on shipping in the Philippines and East Indies by sinking dozens more Japanese vessels this week.
• GOP Presidential candidate Dewey raps President Roosevelt's use of "epithets and mud-slinging" in his opening campaign speech over the weekend. Dewey is continuing his coast-to-coast campaign trip with stops in the Southwest this week.
• A look at the Allied progress as the week comes to an end.