Gert | Whyte a

— SPORTLIGHT

RACING fan told me this

story and swears it’s true.
seems he was at Church Downs
some years back and noticed
a fellow who had absorbed too
many mint juleps stagger up
to the ticket window to bet
on Fightihg Fox. At that mo-
- ment the bell rang, signalling
the horses were at the post,
and the ticket man stopped
selling tickets. The irate cus-
tomer argued, but to no avail.
Holding his rejected $2 bill,
he slowly weaved his way to-
ward the grandstand. The
crowd was yelling and the
horses crossed the finish line.

“Who won?” asked the
drunk.

-“Lawrin,” someone told
him.

“And Fighting Fox?”

“Out of the money — away
back.”

The julep-sodden patron re-
flected a moment. Then he

solemnly tore up his $2 bill
and tossed away the pieces.

es at %

This comment on the cur-
rent soccer situation comes
from a reader in North Van-
couver:

What is behind the peren-
nial feuding between the coast
league soccer teams and the
league management? Will top
_ bureaucracy kill this fine in-

my : € ie dna s
yr Visit of Moscow soccer
team drew 20,000 fans to
Empire Stadium last sum-
mer. Photo shows Soviet
team captain Vitali Arte-
miey modelling a totem tie.

ternational game in B.C.?

One begins to wonder what
would happen to the game iif it
were not for the help of the
old country teams coming“here
to play a few exhibitions once
a year.

To my knowledge, over the ~

past 40 years in B.C. we have
produced most of the best
teams: and players in Canada,
yet our coast league games to-
day can only draw up to 1,000
paying customers.

Year after year the clubs, the
league management and the
B.C. Soccer Commission have
been at loggerheads in respect
to how to promote association
football into the popular game
it should be.

Don’t these top executives
realize that this continuous
haggling is placing one of our
best outdoor games into the
position of a third rate sport?
Or do they care?

Perhaps they should take
time out to study how the
game was promoted in Hun-
gary, Poland and the Soviet
Union or in the South Ameri-
can countries.

Soccer football is one of the
truly international games,
played in nearly every country
in the world. In B.C. it is de-
teriorating into a minor sport,
and were it not for the patri-
otic devotion of those who play
the game, it would have been
pushed out of existence in re-
cent years by its competitor,
American football.

I believe it is imperative that
club management try to equal-
ize the coast teams with the
playing talent available, so
that the teams become better
balanced to give club support-
ers the desire to boost the
game.

Top competition in any sport
will increase the gate. How
about introducing rookies into
the teams? This could be done
by the team managements
sponsoring reserve teams.

It is the duty of the team
and league managements, with
the assistance of the B.C. Soc-
cer Commission, to build the
teams and give fans tops in
soccer competition.

Do that, and public sup-
port for soccer will grow.

That it

Shaggy horse story from
News of the North.

A horse walked into a res-
taurant, sat down, and when
the waiter came, said: “I want
a steak, two inches thick, with
fat on one side only. On top
I want a little bit of whipped
cream, 16 caraway seeds and
some peaches. As a side order
give me sliced tomatoes, an
artichoke and a cherry.”

The waiter gave the horse
his food. Said the horse: “Say
don’t you think it’s a little
queer — I mean a horse com-
ing in here and ordering a
steak with all the trimmings
like that? ” :

Not at all,” said the waiter,
‘JT like it that way myself.”

Ballyhoo plays a big part in filling Empire Stadium with football fans.

Bitter debate at football meet
over gang-up against ORFU-

By GEORGE BARR

This coming Saturday, March 2, the Canadian Rugby Union annual confer-
ence will convene. Most years, the meetings are routine and: rather dull except for
the odd rule change or Grey Cup game discussion. (Or how high can we raise the

ticket prices this year?)

But not this time. All hell will probably break loose when the executive opens
the proceedings. And for a good reason.

The Canadian Football
Council, representing the
Western Interprovincial Foot-
ball Union, and the Big Four
will try to “do a job” on the
Ontario Rugby Football
Union, the oldest senior league
in the country.

Specifically, the western
and eastern unions, who con-
trol six of the ten CRU votes,
have each submitted a resolu-
tion to amend the constitution
—»so that, only the “small-
minded-nine” can challenge
for Lord Grey’s Cup. For or-
dinary business, only a simple
majority is required to pass
a motion. (That’s why so
many U.S. rules creep into
our game).

A constitutional amendment
however, needs a two-thirds
majority. That means either
the Intercollegiate or Quebec

Unions (one vote each) will.
be pressured to support the,

railroading.

Despite the odds against
them, the ORFU (two votes)
is making a last-ditch stand.
At their annual meeting last
month, the “Senior Service”
decided they wouldn’t take
this high-handed attack lying
down.

But the Orfuns need all the
friends they ever had and
some new ones, too, who are
concerned about the future of
Canadian football. If the pro-
posed amendment becomes
part of the constitution, the
development of senior-calibre
players will be set-back con-
siderably.

’ The stated reasons for this
attempt to remove the last

4

stronghold of Canadian foot-
ball from the scene is that the
“public” won’t pay to see a
mis-match. It wouldn’t be
fair to the fan to force him
to watch, say, the Kitchener-
Waterloo Dutchmen being
swamped by the Eskimos.
Well, the Big Four Alouettes
didn’t fare very well last year
themselves.

This alleged reason is a lot
of nonsense. Especially since
the ORFU, reluctantly, an-
nounced it would raise its im-
port quota from five to 12 and
thus be on a par with the
“Big-Nine” teams.

No, the real reason for this
assault against the Overlooked
Football Union is that a semi-
final might detract from the
Grey Cup Game and maybe,
horrors, the ORFU representa-
tive would win the title. That
would be too much!

Forgetting for a moment
the 82-14 and 56-12 scores of
the last Big-Four season
(Montreal and Hamilton ‘split
on successive Saturdays, but
that’s “in the family’ and
doesn’t count), let’s look at
how our British cousins
handle the question of play-
offs.

The football (soccer) pic-
ture in the U.K. is similar, but
on a larger scale. The dif-
ferent leagues (rated as to
ability) have their regular
schedules to decide league
champions, both pro and
amateur. But, when it comes
to the Cup competition, the
playoffs are approached in a
mature and sensible manner.

All league teams in England

and Scotland (they have
separate Cup ties) are eligible
for the playdowns. And any
other team — amateur, semi-
pro or what have you — can
enter the competition. Our
football brass would probably
throw a fit if, say, the Mon-
treal Alouettes or Regina
Roughriders had to play a
a team in the Intercollegiate
Union.

Well, that’s about what hap-
pened in England in the
fourth and fifth rounds for
this season’s Football Associa-

tion Cup — Wolverhampton ~

Wanderers and Tottenham
Hotspurs (two of the three
or four crack teams in the
country) played Bourne-
mouth, a third division @lub
—and lost.

No one screamed — “Let’s
ban Bournemouth”. On the
contrary, everyone connected
with the sport realizes that

this annual all-in competition

actualy stimulates the game
and attracts more young
players.

We humbly suggest that the
Canadian Football Council
stop, look and think about this
matter before they do any-
thing rash. It will be to the
credit of the Big-Nine, if they
withdraw their resolutions to

“liquidate” the ORFU and in- —

stead come to the conference
prepared to encourage the
development of Canadian
players, who are (12 imports
per team notwithstanding)
the backbone of the game. .In
the long run, the box-office
won’t suffer either, gentle-
men,

MARCH 1, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 15