Sport: Hlfbk Prfd

• Share

Wanted—football players who want to obtain an education in colorful Colorado at a fully accredited Junior College. Send qualifications to Tracy Borah, Coach, Northeastern Junior College, Sterling, Colorado.

An editorial writer of the Chicago Tribune spotted that ad under "Personal"' notices in the Tribune's classified ad section last week and seized upon it as the text for a bright little lecture:

"We do not exactly applaud Coach Tracy Borah* of Northeastern College, Sterling, Colo., but he is no hypocrite.'' said the Trib. "Mr. Borah has been using our want ad columns to advertise for football players, which old Northeastern badly needs, having lost four of nine games last year. He has scholarships for 33 football players, 12 wrestlers. 15 track athletes, 15 baseball players and 15 basketball players, which means that more than one-third of the Northeastern enrollment will be getting a free ride.

"Coach Borah says that more eminent institutions of learning shop for tramp athletes, but put up a pious front, whereas he comes right out in the open. There is something to that ... If his methods catch on, we should not be surprised if other institutions of higher learning follow suit. One can imagine Yale appealing in the following terms:

"'Personal—Have opening for trpl thrt hlfbk and T fmtn qutrbk, two tckls, a runng gd, and end. Hlfbk prefbly shld weigh 195 and can go 200. Pass ctchg ends will recv pfrc. Bright young men of proms can lk fwd to attractv life in Ivy League srdgs, nights at Mory's and possblty of being tapped for Skl & Bones. Albie Booth and many others have gone on to later success. Refrcs requrd.' ''

Nobody could say whether the editorial or the ad turned the trick, but at week's end Coach Borah, 30, an alumnus of Colorado A & M, was getting telegrams and phone calls by the hundreds. "All I hoped to get was one or two players at the most," said he. "Instead, I have received letters signed by kids from every state in the country. I guess they expected to get a free ride right down the line."