Don't Fire the Coach

As a backfield star for the University of Washington in the early '30s, "Cowboy" Johnny Cherberg was a big man on campus, but after he became the Huskies' football coach in 1953, he seemed hard put to find a friend. Downtown alumni carped and criticized and horned in on his job. finally got him fired (TIME, Feb. 13), after stirring up a scandal that splattered all over the Pacific Coast Conference. But they had not got rid of Johnny. The stubborn Cowboy stayed in Washington, and last week his loudest enemies suddenly sounded like soft-spoken friends. John Cherberg. Democrat, had been elected lieutenant governor of the State of Washington.

As if to prove the popularity of the university's former coaches. Johnny's predecessor, Democrat Howie Odell (who also took his lumps from local football boosters), won the post of a King County (which includes Seattle) commissioner. Smart alecks saw the political victories as a U. of W. bargaining point. What other university could promise its discarded football coaches high public office? Somewhat more sober citizens remembered Cowboy's campaign promise to make the lieutenant-governorship more than a political sinecure, to interest himself particularly in Washington's educational problems. And they had a few words of warning for U. of W. administrators: "Don't fire the coach: he may wind up governor and fire you."

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