The Charlotte News

Monday, April 6, 1942

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: Well, as we said, it was an all-Spartan final and the Spartans, of course, won handily. Congratulations to you, and, we expect thanks for ordering those push-ups and laps back in the cold days of early January when things didn’t look so hot, starting with that wintry Sunday afternoon when we fell asleep and you lost the game. You need us—admit it. In any event, we said you would thank us come March and here it is April and, well, the results of hard work in the winter always show in the spring.

A few records were established tonight, most steals in a championship game, most points in the first half by one team, largest margin at halftime. But, in particular, we note that it was the first time the Spartans have won two national championships in the same decade and it was the first time since the U.C.L.A. run of the sixties and seventies that two separate teams from the same school have won the championship in as few as five seasons. Indiana, in 1976 and 1981, the latter coming against the Spartans, took six seasons to accomplish the feat, as did Connecticut, in 1999 and 2004; Indiana again in 1981 and 1987 took seven seasons, as did Louisville, in 1980 and 1986; before U.C.L.A.’s unmatchable run of 10 championships in 12 years, including 7 straight, no team had accomplished the task of two championships with two completely different squads within a period of only five seasons. Indeed, the closest was Kentucky, in 1951 and 1958.

Thus, the Spartans this year have managed a record of rarefied heights, both in terms of school history and in terms of the history of the college game. We do not take away anything from those few teams which have won either back to back championships or two in three years or three in four years, the latter accomplished by two different Kentucky teams, but the fact is that it is equally hard, especially in this day and age of depletion to the ranks of the pros, to win championships in back to back periods with two completely different teams.

Tonight’s game reminded us in mirror fashion of the 1968 championship game, so much so that we almost began to feel empathy for the Spartans, short-lived as it was. We remember that miserable night of March 23, 1968 all too well, one of the slowest games of basketball, at least since the ACC tournament of the same year, which we had ever witnessed--for one side anyway, as the other side cruised along on its way to a record margin which stood until Duke mercifully relieved the Spartans of the onus in 1990 against U.N.L.V.

The Spartans played extremely well tonight in the first half and beat the tar out of the Spartans. The second half was a little lacklustre but the Spartans nevertheless could not catch up. The Spartans’ final margin of 17 points was eclipsed only in 1940 by Indiana vs. Kansas (18); in 1960 by Ohio State vs. defending national champion California (20); that terrible game in 1968 which we won’t deign to mention again, (the opponent having played with too many men on the floor that night, we believe), the margin of victory being the same as the number of the Spartans’ most famous player; in 1969, U.C.L.A. vs. Purdue (20), (Purdue having somehow, with Rick Mount putting some sort of magical stuff on the ball, beaten the Spartans the night before); in 1973, U.C.L.A. vs. Memphis State (21); in 1976, Indiana vs. Michigan (18); in 1990, U.N.L.V. vs. Duke (30); and in 1992, Duke vs. Michigan (20). So, it was the largest margin of victory since 1992 and tied for ninth largest of all time in a championship game. The tie was in 1952 with Kansas beating St. John’s also by 17, (a Kansas team on which a future Spartans coach played).

In any event, we are glad we predicted the outcome correctly, and three weeks ago. That means that we are now correct in predicting the champion two of the last five seasons and four of the last 29. Not bad, all things considered. We are getting better at it, anyway.

So, in keeping with our tradition, we offer, again with apologies to Hoagy Carmichael, the following:

Tar Heels, Number 1,
Won all but four, played just for fun,
The Green they wilted at 31,
But played like heck into their run.
The All-American, Mr. Ty Hansbrough,
Hoops the ball every time he throw,
Play basketball like he invented the game
That brought Carolina so much fame;
Lawson with the Tar Heel team,
Helped knock Spartans off the beam,
Win the game with eight quick steals,
To set Ford Field back on its wheels;
Ellington hit many great long shots,
Passed to Green when his view was blocked,
Green drained the ring with skill and ease,
To give the Blue fans everything they pleased;
Thompson played the game real well,
Dished to Davis, then the shots they fell,
Frasor and Drew finished off the spell
Which showed 34 how to ring the bell;
Zeller scored and he’ll be back
To tie the games when defense goes slack,
To Ty and Ty, Ty, Number 5,
They won and won with few fumbler sighs.
The Spartan team though won’t be sacked
When luscious green summer's
Past the track:
See you next year, don’t be late
To see whose number attracts the fates.
Tar Heels, Number 1,
Won 34, played just for fun,
The Spartans wilted at 31,
But played not feckless into the sun;
(Even if it snowed on the night of the Game).

Don't worry, Spartans, you just have to study the weather omens and adjust accordingly next year. For instance, where we were on the evening of the semi-finals in 1998, it suddenly came an unusual and tremendous hailstorm just before the game, and sure enough... Next year, maybe the sun will shine for you. But we don't wish to give away too many of our secrets and so we'd better hush.

In any event, lest the cynic carp too much at the festivities surrounding basketball, we remind, with today’s front page and editorial page, what the world was like before basketball replaced war as the premier sport in the land. Better to be shooting baskets than bullets.

The front page tells of the Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 decision in Southern S.S. Co. v. N.L.R.B., 316 US 31, reversing an NLRB order to reinstate dismissed striking seamen, the Court holding that, even while in port, the right to engage in a sit-down strike onboard merchant ships does not co-exist with that permitted in law on land. The Court declared it, under Federal statute, to be mutiny to strike onboard The City of Fort Worth while docked in Houston. The Court cited the recent welding fire aboard the Normandie while in dry dock being retrofitted for transport service as example of why it is imperative for a ship's crew to follow orders, whether docked or on the high seas. The striking seamen could refuse to work and picket, but not aboard ship.

The Court also upheld the NLRB order in part, holding that the wide discretion of the NLRB permitted it to deny the presence of a company representative at a union election; thus the other contentions of the company were without merit: that the refusal to allow the company's presence at the election voided the results and thus permitted it not to recognize the National Maritime Union as the duly elected representative of the seamen, thus permitting it not to bargain with the union, and that the seamen in question were therefore never properly hired in the first place.

The case brings to mind, for contrast, the case of the sit-down protest at Woolworth's in Greensboro in February, 1960, in objection to segregated lunch counter facilities. Had the protest occurred onboard ship, say in protest of segregated mess facilities, and the strikers were merchant seamen, they might have been prosecuted for mutiny, mutiny on the bounty as it were. But, you see, this was land, not sea or even port onboard ship. Nor did the sit-down protesters in Greensboro demand their lunch and eat it, too, as did the merchant seamen striking onboard the City of Fort Worth while docked in Houston. The Court makes reference to the fact that, unlike an industrial strike where the employer only need replace the men not manning the machines, onboard ship, the master must continue to quarter and feed the seamen. So, there is no cogent analogy to be drawn between the sit-down protest in Greensboro in 1960 and that aboard the City of Fort Worth while docked in Houston. We stress this point for anyone making loose comparisons between apples and oranges, thus seeking revengeance for supposed inequitable treatment arising under completely different circumstances.

The decision was consistent with editorials written by Cash, for instance, "Sailors, Take Care", December 17, 1937.

Elsewhere on the front page, we find that the Japanese attacked India, causing little damage. They also attacked Ceylon, with as many as 57 planes lost in the operation, equivalent to about one-sixth of the entire squadron of planes attacking Pearl Harbor.

Nevertheless, Raymond Clapper tells on the editorial page of the great apathy strangling India at present, representative of which was the stance of many industrialists against a scorched earth policy in the event of Japanese invasion. Fixing it, Mr. Clapper believed, was possible only through favorable resolution of the question of independence from Great Britain, to restore in the country a sense of self-interest when the time came to fight for home turf.

In the Philippines, while the press was still reporting favorably the American-Filipino forces holding fast against the Japanese onslaught, it was only now another three days until Bataan would fall. Corregidor would, however, yet hold out awhile longer.

Paul Mallon’s piece on the editorial page stresses General Yamashita’s tactics in the Philippines, trying to avoid the pitfalls of General Homma which led to his "suicide" reported a month earlier.

Miraculously, though yet unreported, this day would find the resurrection of General Homma from the dead, a boost which obviously gave the Japanese renewed spiritual strength to meet the fight with death-defying resilience and zeal. It is not every day, after all, that a suicide returns from the grave to fight on in the flesh, even if in this case he was finally hung anyway in 1946 as a war criminal—but, it never hurts to try.

While he had his day in the sun, however, General Homma, no doubt, was echoing the Mark Twain caveat regarding the exaggeration.

Amy Bassett fixes on the yet to be realized sense in America of the reality of war, that the shore lights at night still blazed brightly despite their having the effect of creating silhouettes of ships on the horizon to facilitate their being spotted down by U-boats, that cars still rolled, that sugar still reached the palates of Americans regularly, that the tea still flowed, that tangerines and bananas remained plentiful. That, in stark contrast with England where meat was rationed at the rate of 20 cents worth per week, butter at three pats.

All of which reminds that, rounding the corner and heading back to the notion at hand in the present, for 64 teams, the song sung tonight may have been not that tired old "One Shining Moment", ("Little Deuce Coupe" would have been infinitely better, especially given the winner, for reasons which shall remain between us and the student bodies of long ago), but rather "Mama Told Me Not to Come". Yet, maybe not. It’s always the trying to get there that makes the spirit of the whole thing worthwhile. And it’s better to be among the other 64 who lost than to be on the outside looking in, we suppose.

But for this year, we say, with pride, and with just a glint of tears in our eyes, "There’s one more thing, I got the pink slip, daddy."

Oh—the rubber match. Well, since the Spartans won it, we can tell you why that is. In 1957 and in 2005, when the Spartans won it all, they played the Spartans in the Final Four, the Spartans, of course, winning. In the 1979 and 2000 seasons, when the Spartans won it all, they had played the Spartans in December of those years, splitting the games. This year, the Spartans had played each other previously in December, but it was the first time the Spartans had met the Spartans in the final game. Hence, the rubber match which the Spartans won.

It also helps to have the President on your side which the Spartans not only did but scrimmaged with him as well. We feel confident that he gave them some pointers which helped tonight. And so we shall now admit him as an honorary Pulpit Hillian, even if he did graduate from some small land grant college in the North.

Anyway, remember those push-ups and laps next year should the going get a little rough again. Good advice for the Spartans, maybe the President, too.

Tippecanoe. See you down river.

Framed Edition
[Return to Links-Page by Subject] [Return to Links-Page by Date] [Return to News<i>--</i>Framed Edition]
Links-Date -- Links-Subj.