Pete has proved himself an excellent coach: Reed
Thursday January 2, 1964
"I think Pete Elliott has proved himself an excellent coach with this season," Commissioner Bill Reed decided after thinking over the 1964 Rose Bowl football game.
"Not just because he won the championship and the bowl game," the commissioner of the Big Ten said. "And not just because he has recruited some fine material.
"This is the point. Not every coach can handle good material. The thing that Pete has done this year is prove he doesn't spoil good material.
"From my desk it is very interesting to watch the football race. Through the years, I have seen some coaches stay home on New Year's Day even though they had the best material."
Reed wasn't worried.
Did Washington's swift early thrusts worry Reed Wednesday?
"You know, honestly," Reed said, "I was never worried. Especially when they came out all charged up and Illinois was a little flat at the start."
This is one the Illini coaches can't figure. Their team didn't storm out, tear off a few Huskies' heads (although they did get a couple of legs) at the very start. The attack moved the ball in the first half, however, but not with the decisive power of the last two periods.
Scribe wonders how people keep jobs.
There are times when I wonder how some people keep their jobs. In my business, for instance. A Los Angeles writer commenting on the bowl game made a great point of the fact Washington ran "straight over" Dick Butkus in the first half.
Darned if I saw it. In fact, it appeared the Huskies went to great pains with their pitches and wide passes to stay out of the same county Butkus was occupying.
Even so, with Butkus playing as a mere mortal on most occasions, Washington's only touchdown was a gift and Dick almost stacked that one up.
He came over to fill on the play from 7, but as he set for the stop on the 3 his feet went out from under him as fast as though the carpet had been pulled.
Butkus saved the first touchdown with a recovery on the 3, intercepted a pass and played a game most players would accept. But to him it was an off day.
Check badge to see if it is pasteup.
If you were at the Rose Bowl and bought an Illinois badge with ribbons from a concessionaire, look to see if it is a pasteup job.
One fan showed Pete Elliot what happens when you scratch the Illini orange strip between the blue top and bottom.
The "Illinois" comes off and under it is the original paint job, which says, "Michigan."
Wheatland displays courage.
Al Wheatland gets a tip of the hat for his courage in the Rose Bowl. He separated his shoulder in the first quarter of the game after a couple of good runs.
He was still feeling pain Thursday.
But when linebacker Don Hansen got hurt for the secong time — the first was a jammed neck early in the game — Wheatland knew that Jim Grabowski was carrying a heavy two-way load.
He told Coach Elliott, "I'd better get back in there to give Jim some rest." And he did, too, gritting his teeth all the way.
Hansen's second injury was a re-spraining of his ankle.
"I'm afraid I wasn't as much help as I would have liked," he said. "The ankle wasn't normal. It seemed I just couldn't react as normal."
He gets another shot in the 1966 bowl and so do many of these Illini.
But it's like Elliott says, "We should be pretty good next season. Good is just average in our league. There are nine other guys, with teams behind them, who want to get here as badly as we do."
Honestly, boss, we'll have to start with a campaign against the no-return clause. As soon as we recover from wearing out the wires, we'd like to try this trip again.
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