The Bismarck Tribune

South Imported Grid Coaches to Increase Victories and Receipts
By HARRY MEHRE Football Coach, University of Georgia
Athens, Ga., Oct. 17.-Invasion of football coaches from prominent schools in other sections probably is the foremost reason for the meteoric rise of football in Dixie.

From east and midwest came grid professors well versed in football tactics and soon thereafter the teams began to perk up and show real class.

Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech are the two schools that long have been known for powerful football teams, and about the only two southern teams that haven't imported coaches within the last decade. Dan McGugin has been at Vanderbilt almost since the turn of the century after leaving Michigan as a player. Bill Alexander started his fourteenth year at Georgia Tech this fall.

Tulane brought in Bernie Bierman who since has gone to Minnesota, after developing many fine teams. Tennessee ended the victory famine in 1925 by bringing in Bob Neyland from the Army. The next year he was made head coach and proceeded to complete his staff with Bill Britton and Paul Parker, also Army men.

North Carolina drew on Notre Dame for "Chuck" Collins, "Clipper" Smith, from the same school, went to North Carolina State and I am from Notre Dame, too. Wallace Wade didn't come directly from Brown to Alabama, but that is where he played. Now he's at Duke, and Alabama has Frank Thomas, another pupil of Knute Rockne. Kentucky got Harry Gamage from Illinois. L. S. U. only recently brought Biff Jones and Bert Ingwersen from the Army and Iowa, respectively, to bring them football fame. Notre Dame furnished Chet Wynne to Auburn.

And so on down the line. It wasn't long before the high-powered principles of football taught by these men brought results, and with them came bigger squads and bigger crowds and bigger gates.

With the increased prestige, many scintillating prep school stars came south, and southern boys who had been going north and east for expert instruction stayed at home. Hence, better records and reputations.

About all needed for a successful football season is a coach who knows his stuff and a squad of sufficient size and ability to scamper through a tough schedule. Southern schools have both now and therein lies the reasons they can play the topnotchers in other sections with assurance of a nip-and-tuck battle.

It is my sincere belief that you can pick the five outstanding teams in the south and the five outstanding teams in any other section and the lads below the Mason-Dixon boundary will take the majority of decisions.