Judge, 1923-10-20 · page 16 of 36
Judge — October 20, 1923 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This article satirizes the pompous pre-game rhetoric of college football coaches. Edward Anthony mocks the clichéd interviews coaches give before "big games" between rival colleges—the predictable claims about team fitness, fighting spirit, and modest predictions of victory despite being well-prepared. The sketches by Oscar Howard illustrate the absurdist humor: they depict football players executing increasingly ridiculous, dance-like movements (including "Russian dancing" and "chiffon shifts"), suggesting coaches have abandoned actual football training for theatrical posturing. The satire targets the gap between coaches' grandiose language and the reality of their preparations. References to unnamed rivals like "Whatzistown" and generic college names emphasize how interchangeable these pre-game narratives are. The piece pokes fun at both the coaches' self-important pronouncements and sportswriters who dutifully record them, treating clichéd boilerplate as newsworthy content.
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GRIDIRON AESTHETICS by Edward Anthony — Sketches by Oscar Howard 3 put the men “through their paces in the final workout.” This done, Buckitt and arem would tell the interviewers, he boys look fit. I'm not predicting a victory but you can tell ‘em for me that we'll be out there trying till the last whistle blows. The team that repre sents old (insert name of speaker's college this year is worthy of : beside any of its historic prede They're full of the old fighting spirit and if they lose it will be because they've met a better te They may be beaten but they won't be disgraced. . But I look for a victory. Coach Blootzen has drilled his men till they’re masters of the over- head game and I look for them to win via a route,” ete. It begins to look as if all this is going to pass out. Look this fall for dispatehes Goal from place- ment. On the eve of its big game with its pink- jerseyed rivals from Whatzistown, the Green and Yellow looks for a smashing victory Coach Bi ais Pavlowa got through drilling the boys in Russian danc- ing there wasn't a team in the country that could outstep day before a game— ‘those ancient ri u ard and the pigskin navauire of winning 1 story to the effect that Bill Buckitt, Moffmans on the team. | We'll rac acer: who sacred back in rate’ clog:dancers. aleh and N THE OLD DAYS you would read the I that is, an “annual classic” —between the gridiron warriors of old Prince chasers from pect end : ‘em look like a bunel h of second- T hole orf Of course, we may be wrong. Perhaps there will be no such (Continued on page 30) Teac oop asp fied an’ The old coach watches his full-back lead the chiffon shift. comicbooks.com