BIG SCHOOL GETS A PEEK-IN
Nebraska Has Applied for Western
Conference Membership.
NO VOTE TAKEN ON QUESTION
Leak, Stiehm Says, Only Thing that
Kept Cornhuskers from Getting
Into Big Company This
Spring at Madison.
By JAMES E. LAWRENCE.
LINCOLN, June 14. - (Special) - Walter
Eckersall, famous gridiron hero of
the University of Chicago, will officiate
the Iowa-Nebraska foot ball game to
be played in this city next fall, according
to announcement made here today by
Coach Jumbo Stiehm.
While in the east attending a meeting
of those promoting the American Olympic
games Stiehm saw Eckersall and the
latter consented to act as an official
the lowa-Nebraska contest. Stiehm will
early dispose of the official problem,
profiting by past experience that it does
not pay to allow the matter to drag along
until a short time before each game.
The lengthy mentor frankly discussed
the report given out from Chicago that
Nebraska had made application for membership
in the Big Eight conference.
"It is true that Nebraska made application
for membership," said Stiehm,
"notwithstanding that a later report was
sent out denying the first story to that
effect. All of the colleges were pledged
secrecy, but evidently somebody leaked
and the story was out.
Leaked Too Soon.
"Had it not been that the members
wanted to take the application up with
their local boards before final action on
the application, we would have been
elected to membership right then. The
members were going to vote on it at
once, and then some one suggested that
it had been referred back to the local
boards to see what they thought about
the question of expansion.
"Provided the members definitely decide
upon enlarging the league, there will
no question as to Nebraska's admission.
The representatives at the meeting declared
that the Cornhusker school was
entitled to the greatest consideration in
its application, and the only question was
one of expansion. We did not make application
because we feel that we have
outgrown the Missouri Valley conference.
Quite to the contrary, we recognize always
formidable rivals in the Missouri
Valley schools and our only purpose in
applying for membership in the bigger
league was to better ourselves. It would
mean much to Nebraska to be a member
of the big conference.
"The application was left with a committee
including representatives from
three schools - Illinois, Wisconsin and
Iowa. If any school is to be admitted
next fall, you can bet pretty safely that
it will be Nebraska, but it is extremely
unlikely that any action will be taken
until then, as the term is already over."
Saw Fielding Yost
Stiehm, while in Chicago, met "Hurry-Up"
Yost, who formerly coached at Nebraska
and who has mode Michigan a power
in the western collegiate foot
ball world. Yost declared that Michigan
would never make application to return
to the conference.
Four Cornhuskers will leave the last
of the month to enter the Olympic games
at Chicago. In the delegation are the
two Reavis brothers, Dave and R. F.,
Charley Myers and "Cubb" Wiley. The
Reavis are pole vaulters and hurdlers;
Myers is an all around athlete with a
formidable record as such an entry, while
Wiley is a brood jumper of considerable
ability. He has also hung up an excellent
record in the high jump. These four
will train carefully until the end of the
month in preparation for the games.
Guy Reed, assistant coach at the
university, who had also planned on
entering the games, was forced to give it
up as he is now in the isolation hospital
with a bad case of smallpox. It will be
some time before Reed is released and much
too late for him to take any part in the
meet.
Omaha Sunday Bee, June 15, 1913, page 3-S
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