Allen's Idea

The tall boys had run away with basketball. When they could simply dunk the ball into a 10-ft.-high basket, what chance did a little fellow have, who had to shoot? Basketball's No. 1 thinker, Coach Forrest C. ("Phog") Allen of the University of Kansas, who had been turning the matter over in his mind for ten years, last week had a chance to try his remedy. The remedy: raise the baskets to 12 ft.

The skyscraping (average: 6 ft. 5 in.) New Mexico School of Mines team played against a team of comparative shorties (average: 5 ft. 11 in.), Drury College from Missouri. The higher hoops didn't work out quite the way Phog Allen expected. Sure enough, the big boys could dunk no more and had to shoot--but the little fellows had to shoot even higher. The biggies won easily. Chief troublemaker was basketball's tallest player, New Mexico's 7 ft. 1 in. Elmore Morgenthaler, who calmly tossed 41 points.

Morgenthaler thought that the higher baskets gave beanpoles like himself more of a break than ever. Said he: "There is more space under the goals . . . I didn't have to contend with little guys running under my legs and grabbing the ball. I sure hope Allen's idea goes over." The smaller Drury squad was unanimous in hoping that it didn't.

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Another tall boy, 6 ft. 9 in. George ("Scaffold") Mikan, last week reached a new height: he became basketball's highest paid player. After scoring an impressive 1,870 points for De Paul University as an amateur, Mikan signed up with the Chicago American Gears, an industrial team, to play for pay. Mikan will continue to study law at De Paul, will grind for the Gears twice a week, and hopes to collect $60,000 in five years for it.

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