Ring Out the Old

In the North Philadelphia railroad sta tion a few weeks ago, an autograph-hunting youngster asked George Preston Marshall : "Are you the coach?" Owner Marshall, whose Washington Redskins (once top-rankers in the National Professional Foot ball League) had just taken a 49-10-14 drubbing from the Philadelphia Eagles, brushed the kid .off with two cryptic words: "Not today." It was quite an admission for the volatile, self-styled genius who sometimes hired coaches to run his team, supercoaches to run the coaches--and then ran the whole thing himself.

Last week at half time of the Pittsburgh Steelers game, Owner Marshall was barred from the Redskins' dressing room in Washington's Griffith Stadium. The coach, Vice Admiral John E. Whelchel, U.S.N. (ret.), was giving his pros a pep talk, and it was for the ears of football players only. "Billick" Whelchel broke a big piece of news: it was his last game with the Redskins. He shook hands all around, then made his speech: "Now go out there and win that game for me." The Redskins did in a shifting, fast-moving finale that included passes by the aging master, 35-year-old Slingin' Sammy Baugh, and Understudy Harry Gilmer, a skittering, 74-yd. run down the sideline by Pete Stout. After coming from behind to win, 27-14, the Redskins carried Coach Whelchel off the field on their shoulders.

At 10 a.m. next day, 51-year-old Pacific Theater War Veteran Billick Whelchel, the man who coached Navy to its last victory over Army (in 1943), got his walking papers. One of his assistants, balding, 39-year-old Herman Ball, stepped up to become the Redskins' sixth coach in 13 years. Washington fans, who put the 'Skins ahead of the home-town university teams in their football favor, thought the change might cause at least one twinge of regret in George Preston Marshall, the ex-hoofer, ex-Hearst publisher (Washington Times) and millionaire laundryman who once exclaimed at a dinner party: "Congratulate me, folks, I've finally arrived socially--today I got the sheets of Mrs. Borden Harriman." Washington thought George would miss having a vice admiral to order around.

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