Notre Dame Scholastic, Vol. 89, No. 26 - Archives - University of ...

26
"HIT 'EM LOW. FELLOWS"
"KEEP YOUR HANDS UP"
TDBN TO PAGE 29 FOR TODAY'S LESSON"
Tiny Athletes Plus Friend
Equals Powerful Squads
By BILL LYMAN
Frank Leahy hatched one of those big, contagious smiles
of his when he heard the name Dick Friend.
"He's doing a great job out there at South Bend Catholic,
isn't he?" said Frank. "Dick Friend has all the qualities it
takes to be a good coach."
Dick is a 27-year-old junior in the Phy-Ed school. Last
fall when South Bend Catholic High School needed a coach,
Frank Leahy recommended him. Since then an amazingchange
has taken place in that school's athletic prestige.
The little school had never put out a winning ball club.
Of its enrollment of 120 boys, only 24 turned out for football.
Dick looked them over; they were tinj-—159 pounds
average. Last season they had only won one game and lost
seven. They knew very little about fundamentals.
When the season ended, thsee boys were rated the third
best Catholic school team in Indiana; had won a place on
the Big Fifty—the top teams in the state; had taken the
city Catholic championship by whipping Central Catholic,
their arch-rivals, 26-0; and had outrushed every team chey
played. A series of bad breaks gave them only three wins in
seven games, but they had gained plenty of respect from
their i-ivals who don't like to think about facing them next
year.
When basketball season came, Dick looked around for the
gym; there was none. The fellows who turned out for practice
in a small, made-over room again were tiny. They had
speed but very little style. When the season was over, they
had won six and lost six against much larger schools.
This spring twelve boys showed up for baseball, but Dick
says they'll make the best team in the history of the school
and one of the best in South Bend. He thinks they should
win at least three-fourths of their games.
"I like to win," says Dick, "but in doing it I aim at
building character rather than machinery."
Dick thinks that sports is a part of every young fellow's
proper development. Good conditioning means clean living—
no late hours, drinking or smoking.
"Also, in sports," he says, "you learn to get along with
the next fellow. You learn team work, unity . . . and that's
what we need in this country today; we have to learn to
work together."
And Dick stresses these principles in the classroom, too.
He teaches Safety, Health, Sociology and Civics besides his
coaching. Still more, he sold his ideas to the Father's Club
that he organized. The fathers have backed him by throwing
parties and dances to raise money for better athletic facilities.
They know Dick is doing them a service by building
character in their sons, and they have decided to do everything
they can to help him.
"The Phy-Ed training at Notre Dame has taught me a
lot about handling youngsters," says Dick. "Besides being
a good teacher, you have to be a good Christian, a good administrator
and a good diplomat. ... I think Notre Dame is
the greatest school in the country."
Dick is one of those fellows who always wanted to come
to Notre Dame. He always wanted to coach and always
idolized Knute Rockne. But he was always poor, had to
sell newspapers, work in steel mills or do something to