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Nailing ’em DownBy NAILS FLORIONalls Fiona1*% jm -m ‘mThe passing last week of George Ring, 70, long time Publicleague football coach, brings back to your columnist memories ofhis first exposure to Austin high school football.WhJe tiie bulk o his coaching career wns rLane Tech, where he carried on for 30 years.Ring spent several years at the Tiger helmbefore moving on to the North side. While hedid not experience phenomenal success at Aus-tin, such as did Bill Heiland in his three decades of coaching there, Ring put together some pretty spunky teams and developed some darned good players.With the passage of time, one’s memory becomes dimmed and the names of many ex-Ma-roons (as they were known as in those days) escape us. Rut we can think of some. Probably sver developed at Austin under Ring was Ben Sohn, a great all round player.' course, Ihere was l*eorge wuson, long lime Chicago Bears great who is still in the professional ranks, coaching the Miami Dolphins. Wilson did not stay at Austin but, if memory serves me correctly, went on St. John’s Military Academy in Wisconsin, then to Northwestern and then of course with the Rears where he was one of the best pro ends in Bruin history.While at Austin, either in 1932 or 1933, it was Wilson who smeared an Oak Park tackier in the end zone that gave Austin a 2 to 0 victorv, which was the first Austin win over Oak Park in•/ 7about 20 \ ears, or possibly ever. Austin alumni of yesteryear will remember that Austin and Oak Park were traditional opening season foes, with the neighboring suburbanites getting the best of it most of the time.Vs set back to a few more names of players who played under the Ring banner when he was at Austin. How about Gil Callies. Heinie Tenzer, Augie Siniscalchi, Clare Finu-cane, Lou Trakas, Frank Kmet, Ed Kowalski, George Moore, Aldo Gratifiori, George Boles, Carl Armstrong, Gene Joyce, Jim Norton, John Zepp, Carl Manning, Phil Peiler, Arnie Braverman, Whitey Elsener, George Haussman, George Koch, Chuck Stotz and Dick Frede. And of course one of the popular cheer leaders in the days when Ring was coaching was Howard Miller of disc jockey fame.Another incident of note that occurred during Ring’s tenure atAustin just occurred to your columnist. It was back in 1929 and the Maroons were battling a tough Marshal! team in Malls stadium, the Commandos of these days being under the tutelage of Ernie Wills. On receiving the kickoff the entire Austin team went into a huddle around the ball carrier, after which each player ran downfield with head and back bowed as though he were concealing the football. The baffled Marshall gridders were unable to determine who actually was carrying the ball, with the** * P3 t.illled without a hand being laid on the ball earner. The Maroons won the game, 8 to 6.
Newspaper Details
Humboldt Journal
Chicago, Illinois, US
Wed, Nov 20, 1968
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
IL, USA 03 May 2020
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