O.U.'S BEST-PAYING GAMEView of the huge crowd that saw the Sooner-Texas game in the Cotton Bowl

It's Easy to Criticize CollegeFootball Schedules, But Don'tForget the Headaches FacedBy the Men Who Book Games

ARRANGING football schedulesin the big-time intercollegiate circuits is agood deal like planting a flower garden .You plan it a long time in advance, but

the results are frequently disappointingwhen they finally appear . No matter howhard you work on it, the products are never100 percent satisfactory . Your best friendswill view the garden politely and then tellyou about better looking flowers they haveseen somewhere else . Sometimes a goodfriend will give you a cutting, and you haveto plant it and look after it for at least awhile in order to keep from hurting hisfeelings . And nobody ever knows all thespade work that has to be done all duringthe year to bring the garden into bloom.

Before straining the analogy too far, wewill go on to explain that Jap Haskell, Soon-er director of athletics, and his co-workershave agreed with a special committee fromthe Executive Board of the University ofOklahoma Alumni Association that O.U.fans ought to know something about howfootball schedules get that way.The subject is shrouded in considerable

secrecy, not because of any desire to coverup anything, but because it is a long andcomplicated business to try to explain thewhole story . The athletic director is like acook who has prepared an extra big and

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difficult meal-he's sick of the whole busi-ness by the time it's finished .But athletic officials agree that answers

ought to be supplied to some of the ques-tions that fans are asking-and have beenasking for years.At the Homecoming meeting of the

alumni executive board a committee wasappointed to investigate alumni sentimenton the proposal for a home-and-home sched-ule with Texas, and to see what could bedone about it, if any. The committee investi-gated and concluded that nothing could bedone about it, except to explain the wholesituation to alumni .

All right, let's make this a quiz session,and try to supply the answers.

Question : Why not play a home-and-home schedule with Texas instead of play-ing at Dallas every year?

Contrary to general opinion, the Univer-sity of Oklahoma and the University ofTexas do not have a contract requiring thattheir games be played in the Cotton Bowlat Dallas . The determining factor in thesituation is that the University of Texashas a formal five-year contract directly withthe Texas State Fair Association, callingfor Texas to play a game in the Cotton Bowlevery year-opponent not specified-andthe fair board has indicated that it has nodesire to change that contract. That is onlynatural, with Texas one of the nation's bestfootball attractions.

Texas, then, is going to play a CottonBowl game every year, and if Oklahomawon't play there, Texas would be free toschedule some other opponent for that par-ticular spot on the Texas schedule . Thereis just a gentlemen's agreement between

Texas and Oklahoma that the Sooners willhave this spot .Another important factor is that the Tex-

as game, played at Dallas, is the Sooners'best-paying game. The Sooners' received$31,000 for the Dallas appearance last sea-son, which was $10,000 more than the com-bined returns from the Kansas State gameat Manhattan and the Nebraska game atLincoln. The Iowa State Game, KansasState and Kansas games have all been poorrevenue producers, and nothing can be doneabout it as the Big Six rule requires a 50percent split on receipts of conferencegames. The money game at Dallas there-fore helps offset poor returns from some ofthe conference games.The plain, hard fact seems to be that if

Oklahoma wants to play Texas at all, itwill have to play at Dallas . So much pres-tige and money are involved, that few alum-ni probably would advocate giving up thegame entirely .So it appears likely that O.U . will go on

playing Texas at Dallas in spite of threemajor criticisms of the Dallas game : (1)Many alumni who would be able to see thegame in Norman in alternate years on ahome-and-home basis, can't go as far asDallas to see the game ; (2) The annual mi-gration of Oklahomans to Dallas takes aconsiderable amount of money out of Okla-homa business channels-some estimate itat over $100,000 ; (3) The student migrationto Dallas with its loss of sleep and the con-siderable drinking noticeable before, afterand during the game is hardly a wholesomeinfluence on student life .So much for the Texas game. Got another

query ready?

Why not have a set date for the Home-coming game so it can be the same eachyear?

Schedule making is just such a compli-cated business that it seems inevitable forthe Homecoming date to fluctuate. The bestthat Athletic Director Haskell will prom-ise is to try to keep it in the last week ofOctober or the first two weeks in Novem-ber. The complete round-robin of Big Sixconference games has to be figured out,and horse-trading done to get the best pos-sible non-conference games before muchthought can be devoted to a choice of aHomecoming date . It's not practical to se-lect an ideal Homecoming attraction andtry to build the rest of the schedule aroundthat .Why not designate a game with some

major opponent for the Homecominggame, instead of a team that doesn't drawso well?Without going into the complex story of

how such things happened in recent years,we can say that prospects are good for do-ing something constructive along this line .Beginning in 1944, the Texas Aggies willplay the Sooners in Norman for five yearsstraight, and beginning in 1945 the Soonersare tentatively scheduled to play Rice for

PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 30)

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r,

t,

OUR OWN

O.U . ROLL CALL

FIRSO

HAZEL JOLLY PAUL(Class of '41)

Hazel graduated from South Den-ver High School, Denver, Colorado,in 1936. In the fall of that year sheentered Denver University, taking aLiberal Arts course . She attendedD. U. for two years, and was a mem-ber of Alpha Gamma Delta Sororitythere .

In the summer of 1938 Hazel'sfamily moved to Oklahoma City, andshe enrolled in O. U. that fall, in theSchool of Education. She received aB. S. Degree in Education at mid-term of the 1940-41 school year .

After receiving her degree, Hazel did graduate work in the Schoolof Business, for one semester. In September, 1941, she started withthe bank. At first she enrolled in the special training course forInternational Business Machine operators. This is a very specializedmachine that does work formerly requiring several operations andseveral employes, and requires a complete knowledge of most ofthe operating departments of the bank . Hazel is now a full-fledged1 . B. M. operator in the Transit Department .Many of Hazel's 0. U. friends will be surprised to learn that on

December 4, 1941, she was married to Glenn Paul, of Troy, Alabama.Mr. Paul, who graduated from O. U. in 1940, is now a juniorengineer at Midwest Air Depot, Oklahoma City .

Hazel's hobbies are reading-all kinds-and music. She playsboth the piano and accordion, but confesses that the latter instru-ment has been neglected lately . Hazel is a member of the FirstPresbyterian Church of Oklahoma City.

-ATIONAL BANK

ITY .. _

C

Your "Campus Clubhouse"

More and more, O. U. alumni are getting in thehabit of dropping into the Union whenever theyvisit Norman . It's the natural thing to do, be-cause one of the basic functions of the Union isto provide a "clubhouse" for visiting alumni .You'll enjoy using the lounge and cafeteria andother facilities, and you'll enjoying seeing manyfaculty members and Sooner friends .

Oklahoma Memorial UnionUniversity of Oklahoma, Norman

Geraldine Rollins Schaefer, Martha C. Downing,David K. Spradling, Edwin S. Arnold, H. De-Witt Kelley, Phyllis McCoy, S. Morton Ruther-ford, 111, Junior K. Knee, Rolland A. Nash,Thurman J . White, Mrs. Corrine H. White,George F. Saunders .

UNDERGRADUATESHarold Reedy, Ned O'Reilly, Charles Stephens .

HONORARY(Non-Alumni)

S. W. Reaves, William Schriever, Ben G.Owen, Paul V. Keen, Robert Waters .

Football Futurities(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10)

four years, on a home-and-home basis . Soit is possible that Rice or the Texas Aggiesmight be the Homecoming Day opponenton years in which neither Nebraska norMissouri is scheduled in Norman .Why not play more Western Conference

teams?Because they don't want to schedule

Oklahoma on a home-and-home basis . TheSooners could book plenty of "Big Ten"games if they were willing to play themall away from home, but O.U. alumni andother fans wouldn't be very enthusiasticabout that . Western Conference teams don'twant to come to Norman because they ex-pect larger financial cuts than O.U . canafford to guarantee. Also, they are unwill-ing to give O.U . an option of 50 percenton gate receipts, and instead offer a smallguarantee.Why not play Arkansas?This is not a question to be answered

lightly, gentlemen. Breathes there a formerArkansawyer anywhere who doesn't thinkthe Arkansas football team good enoughfor anybody's schedule? As a matter of fact,there has been some correspondence alongthis line, but the scheduling of any suchgame appears difficult as the Sooners arebooked up with nine games every yearthrough 1948, and a tenth game cannot bescheduled without permission of the BigSix conference . Ten games were authorizedfor 1942 in order to permit the specialSemicentennial game, but the nine-gamerule still stands for succeeding years.Why play Tulsa University?Let's be philosophical for two years and

pass on to the next question .Why schedule games six years ahead?

Maybe we'll change our mind about some-thing in all that time.

As in the case of a good many vices, theanswer is that "they all do it ." If you don'tbook all your games far ahead, you findpretty lean pickings when you try to fillin the open dates.What effect will war have on football?It's too soon to make any predictions, as

this is written. England and Russia bothhave kept their principal sports activitiesgoing on a somewhat restricted scale. Theybelieve that some entertainment is good forcivilian morale . Whether college coacheswill have any players on hand next fall isanother problem. Many will undoubtedlybe in training or on active military duty .

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