Night School

Football's College All-Stars bounced into Chicago's Soldier Field last week with a herd of the swiftest, smartest players in years. Almost all were high on the professional league's draft lists. All were razor-keen after three hard weeks training under old Pro Coach Curley Lambeau. Their high hope: to pass the champion New York Giants silly and wow their new pro employers. Then it began to rain, rain, rain down through the stadium lights, and 75,000 spectators saw the rookies' annual blooding work toward a familiar ending.

Last season's amateurs were brilliant in the first quarter. Stanford's Quarterback John Brodie, already signed by the San Francisco Forty-Niners, made the most of a Giant fumble with the slippery ball, swiftly passed his collegians 55 yds. toward the pros' goal, sent Illinois' Abe Woodson scampering downfield and shot Wake Forest Fullback Billy Ray Barnes across to score. But when Notre Dame's Paul Hornung (Green Bay Packers) missed the extra point, the All-Stars had to settle for a 6-0 lead. The Giants settled for something more: crack performances by two of their oldest, saltiest veterans. Ben Agajanian, 38, Giant kicking master for seven years, stepped delicately onto the muddy field to score a three-point field goal. In the second quarter, Quarterback Charley Conerly, 33, master of the wet ball, passed the pros into a 10-6 lead.

Though All-Star Fullback Paige Cothren of Mississippi (Los Angeles Rams) produced two surprisingly professional field goals of 12 and 25 yds., the boys' passing attack never again threatened the men's defense. While the Giants' backfield deployed far to the rear to bat down long passes, beefy Giant linesmen crashed through to rush Quarterbacks Brodie and Paul Hornung. In marked difference between pro experience and college eagerness, the college quarterbacks tried to run and were smeared, while the Giants' Charley Conerly refused to budge when rushed, coolly ate the ball and waited for the next play.

Conerly's pinpoint passing and Agajanian's accurate kicking pushed the Giants into a steadily widening lead. Final score: 22-12. For the Giants, it was just as well. They had to win. Not since 1938 had a Giant team won the pro championship, been privileged to play against the college boys.

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