University, Brownsville, Texas. On the seventh round, he picked a quarterback, 6-3, 200-pound Doug Maison from Hillsdale, Mich., College, and on the eighth, Mike Bill, 6-3, 225-pound Syracuse University handyman who operated at four different positions last season – center, guard, linebacker and defensive end. In the tenth round, the Packer selected Carl Johnson, Illinois tackle. The Packers picked a pair of ends in the 11th and 12th rounds nailing Harry Horton, Wichita, in the 11th, and Earl Miller, Baylor, in the 12th. The Packers added a third end on the 13th round, Gene Cook of Toledo, and grabbed a tackle, Harry Hoffe of South Dakota, on the 14th. McLean, who lost the coin flip for first choice to the Cardinals’ Walter Wolfner, who promptly picked Mississippi quarterback Ray Brown, called Francis “the best available football player.” Scooter, in line with his plan to develop two-way players, had versatility in mind – and the word fits Francis well. A triple-threat fullback in Oregon State’s single wing, Joe is a 60-minute player who punts, passes and runs well and also is a defensive regular at halfback. Though most of his experience has been in the single wing, the 6-1, 195-pound Francis is considered a prime quarterback prospect for pro football off his performance in the East-West classic when he stepped in at the signal-calling post to lead the West to a 27-13 upset triumph over the favored East. He is, incidentally, the second member of that West squad to be tabled for 1958 by the Packers. The other is Jerry Kramer, College of Idaho guard selected in November. On New Year’s Day in 1957, Francis led all offensive performers in the Rose Bowl with 203 yards, 130 passing and 73 rushing, as he and his Beaver mates fell before Iowa, 42-19. Earl Klapstein, a Packer assistant coach in 1956, recommended him highly to McLean, calling the Oregon State star “the best back on the West Coast.” Red Sanders, UCLA coach, also is high on Francis, rating him a better tailback than his own Paul Cameron, a Uclan star several years ago. A native of Honolulu, Francis is 22 and married. He could become the first Hawaiian in history to make the Packer grade. Babe Webb, another Honolulu product, was signed by the Packers in 1944 but never reported to training camp. Jarock, the fifth St. Norbert College product to be drafted by a pro club and the first to go below No. 10 in the NFL picking, led the nation in both rushing and total offense. Surpassing the entire rushing production of the Knights’ eight opponents, he rolled up 1,306 yards on the ground and added 252 passing for a grand total of 1,558 in leading St. Norbert to a perfect (8-0) season. Norm, a 6-foot, 195-pounder who runs the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat and averaged better than eight yards per carry, twice scored four touchdowns in a game during the season. Finishing like a champion, he wheeled for 268 yards in St. Norbert’s final game and added 22 in the air for a whopping total of 290. He is the third Knight to be drafted by the Packers. A year ago, they picked tackle Jerry Johnson, who recently entered service, and in 1952 chose tackle Jerry Dufek, present Preble High coach, who was forced to give up football because of a knee injury…COMPLETED 85 OF 104: Maison, rated an excellent passer, compiled a spectacular record at Hillsdale, the same school that produced the Washington Redskins’ Jim Podoley, a rookie star in the NFL last fall. Maison completed 85 of 104 passes for 1,297 yards. He also can hold forth at safety on defense. Gray, rated the only outstanding player in his collegiate area, led his Howard Payne eleven in all departments. Picked because of his “mean” reputation, Gray played both ways in college but McLean expects to employ him at defensive tackle. Scooter is confident Gray, still growing, will put on weight and perhaps play at 245 or 250 as a pro. Bill, a hard-nosed performer, was rated the only pro prospect on the Syracuse team by his coaches. Though he has been used at four different positions, McLean feels that he probably will wind up as a guard, or offensive end with the Packers…The Eagles won’t announce their new coach until after the meetings, and General Manager Vince McNally said Monday that Liz Blackbourn is still among those under consideration. McNally and Bucko Kilroy, lone Eagle coaching holdover, will do the drafting today and then go out and sign the players. The coachless Eagles are the toast of the league, as it were, for having gone Ivy League – or rather obtaining the use of holy Franklin Field, home of Penn. Eagle publicitor Eddie Hogan said: “We has 20 obstacles and each had to be handled separately in the last three years. Bert Bell was the final big factor in making us collegiate.”…Bill Howton, as the new president of the players’ association, said the pro gridders want a pension plan similar to baseball. The players’ views were expressed in a meeting with Commissioner Bert Bell Monday afternoon. Player lawyer Creighton Miller and players Howton, Kyle Rote of the Giants and Bill Pellington of the Colts huddled with Bell. Howton said baseball players contribute $2 a day during the season and the rest of the money comes from television cuts of the All Star games and World Series. He felt that “football could do the game, with most of the money coming from the Chicago All Star, the all-pro and championship games.” Howton said the players would approve any plan that is equitable.

HAUGSRUD, WITH 100 G'S, SEEKS FRANCHISE IN NFL

JAN 28 (Philadelphia-Green Bay Press-Gazette) – That big old airliner was tipping a little to one side all the way out here from Milwaukee Monday afternoon. Investigation revealed that one of the passengers had $100,000 in his pocket. The “loaded” passenger was a man from Duluth by way of Minneapolis – one Ollie Haugsrud who was on his way to the City of Brotherly Love. Ollie was going to Philly for the purpose of (1) buying somebody else’s franchise in the NFL or (2) applying for a new franchise. Ollie looked longingly at the Packer delegation and made with that “they won’t sell anyway” smile. All fooling aside, Haugsrud really had $100,000 in his back pocket and he intended to use it as a toke of good franchise faith from Minneapolis men interested in a pro grid berth. Oh yes, the plane wasn’t really tipping. You see, Ollie had that money in a check – not in silver dollars…Haugsrud isn’t somebody out of Maverick. Actually, he has many friends in Green Bay since he operated the old Duluth Eskimos in the early NFL days and later became general managed the Chicago Cardinals. So come in Ollie: “Well, back around 1925 we weren’t doing so good in Duluth; we didn’t have the best facilities and the league needed some money. So they asked me to sell the franchise so that they could get some money to pay up some bills. The league did that in those days; that’s why they sold so many franchises – they’d get more money in the bank. I sold my franchise to Orange (N.J.) for twenty-five hundred bucks and I never was too happy about that. So the league, we were meeting in the Statler in Cleveland, promised me that if a franchise was ever awarded to any city in Minnesota I would get it. So I’m going out to Philadelphia to get what they promised me. It’s still in the league’s minutes, you know. They can look it up. Of course, I don’t want it myself. I’m representing a fine group of men in Minneapolis and one of the key figures in getting things started was Charley Johnson (sports editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune)…”We’re not making much of a fuss about it around Minneapolis. We’re working quietly. Like Charley was saying, “We made a lot of noise about a big league baseball team coming and we never got a team; maybe we can get into pro football without a big stir.” Minneapolis has a good start to pro baseball or football – namely, a new no-post, no-pillar municipal stadium, which can be expanded from 22,000 to 40,000 in a hurry. The Packers and Pitt drew nearly 20,000 there for an exhibition last September. “Minneapolis should have a pro football team, we’ve got good football fans there. The Gophers have stayed a steady second or third in national college attendance in the last 15 years. It would be good for Green Bay, just think of the rivalry – Minneapolis and the Packers; it might get something like your Packer-Bear series.” While Ollie talked, we couldn’t help by feel a bit chesty – on behalf of Green Bay, because here (in Ollie) was a giant city trying to get what our town has had for years and years.

WHAT WILL PACK DO WITH 5 QB'S? SCOOTER HAS PLAN

JAN 29 (Philadelphia-Green Bay Press-Gazette) – Surprised about the quarterbacks? Why, of course, and you’re not alone. A guy from the Rams, name of Bert Rose, asked last night: “What are you going to do with five?” It isn’t quite that bad and let’s not get excited. Here’s how Packer Coach Scooter McLean explained his picking QBs Joe Francis of Oregon State and Doug Maison of Hillsdale College in two of the first three rounds Tuesday: “More quarterbacks? We can always strengthen what we have, don’t forget. But that Oregon State boy is a good all-around player; he was a tailback in school but learned that QB easily in the East-West game. And he’s tops as a defensive back. He’s just a good football player…’A WONDERFUL THROWER’: “The Hillsdale quarterback is a wonderful thrower and he’s good sized, too. I never thought we’d be able to get him; never thought he’d last that long.” Drafting two quarterbacks isn’t unusual when you consider that (1) this second of the draft is a sort of gravy picking in that major weaknesses were dealt with in the preliminary draft last December and (2) one of the QBs (Francis) could easily be turned into a key defensive weapon. Earlier, the Packers nailed Jimmy Taylor and Dick Christy, line power in Dan Currie and Jerry Kramer and a good linebacker in Ray Nitschke. Five quarterbacks? Rose, the Ram publicitor, figured Paul Hornung in the group along with Bart Starr and Babe Parilli and the two draftees. Hornung, however, will go at fullback under McLean’s present plans. “We only got three – Wade, Cox and Ryan,” Rose said. So?...UNCLE WITH EAGLES: Incidentally, Maison, a 200-pounder, was to be selected by the Eagles on an early round. But Maison didn’t want to be in the embarrassing position of taking the quarterbacking job away from his uncle, who happens to be Al Dorow, an Eagle QB obtained last year from Washington. The meat of the Packers’ draft was in the first five choices. After the fifth (the ninth of the 1957-58 draft) pick, there was a collection of scattered hopes and futures including three sophomores and three juniors. McLean, operating at the draft tackle with talent scout Jack Vainisi and his only coaching aide, Jack Morton, grabbed two big men in the first five – tackle Ken Gray of Howard Payne College, a 235-pounder, and Mike Bill, a 225-pound center and linebacker. The first of the group was composed of the two quarterbacks and the talented hitter from Pulaski High and St. Norbert College – Norm Jarock, the Bays’ ninth pick. “I’m sure glad we were able to get Norm. It was quite a sweat wondering what the other clubs would do,” McLean said. The first purely running back selected by the Packers in this draft. Before him, they nabbed two backs noted as QBs, one a defensive star, too, and the two linemen. Jarock was one of three local interest boys selected in the draft. The others are center Dick Campbell, the former West High immortal who starred at Marquette, and Bob Barron, a center from St. Norbert and former Central Catholic (Premontre) boy. Campbell was selected on the 10th round by Pittsburgh. Barron, a junior-eligible who is captain of the ’58 Knights, was chosen by the Bears on the 25th round. After getting Jarock, McLean came in with a junior tackle, Carl Johnson of Illinois, and then snared three ends but all three will play different spots, as it were. Harry Horton, a 220-pounder from Wichita, will be on defense and Wayne Miller of Baylor, 195, is highly rated as a pass catcher. Gene Cook, 205, played under Morton at Toledo two years ago, may get a look as a slot back. Miller, by the way, is the Hank Gremminger type, which means a shot at defense. The Packers picked off seven tackles out of the 25 players and all but two or three of them are also being figured for trials as defensive ends. Included among the tackles is Oregon’s Jerry Kershner, the 21st pick, who was rated as the best lineman in the last Rose Bowl game. Kershner is practically thin at 6-4 and 220 but he’s been picked as a “future”, even though he’s a senior. He expects to go into service next September for at least a year. A rawboned youngster, Kershner can carry at least 30 more pounds. Great things are expected of him once he fills out…BRIEFS: Francis received two honors yesterday. Besides being drafted by the Packers, he was given the Pop Warner award for being selected as the most valuable player in the Pacific Coast Conference last night. Francis starred at Kamehemha High in Honolulu before going to Oregon – the same prep school that Purdue’s Charley Ane, the Lions’ tough tackle. Another Hawaiian to make good in the pros was Herman Clark, the great Bear guard…When Scooter and Walter Wolfner, owner of the Cardinals, went up to flip the coin for the first choice yesterday, Walter said to Scooter: “I hope you win, as long as I can’t.” The Cardinals owed that choice to the Baltimore Colts, who, thanks to Wolfner winning, selected Ray Brown, the Mississippi star…In line with the recent sports hearings in Washington, Commissioner Bert Bell reminded the clubs before the draft “remember, you are not trading ball players; you are trading choices.”…NFL owners today turned to talk of player pensions and heard a report from Bell on the condition of professional football. Just what will result from the scheduled pension conference between a committee of league owners and representatives of the players association is problematical. The players want a pension plan. Bell says, “Fine, if it’s feasible.” Insurance executives in attendance are expected to provide an answer. Bell hasn’t said who will represent the owners at the pension meeting although he was joined by Art Rooney of the Steelers, Joe Donoghue of Philadelphia and Wellington Mara of New York in Monday’s discussion on the subject with the players. Atty. Creighton Miller, Billy Howton of Green Bay, Kyle Rote of New York and Baltimore’s Bill Pellington represent the association.

JAROCK 'SLINGIN' HASH' WHEN DRAFT WORD CAME

​JAN 29 (Green Bay) - The Little All-American halfback was “slingin’ hash,” as he called it, in the St. Norbert College cafeteria Tuesday noon when he was informed that the Green Bay Packers had just selected him as their ninth draft choice. A big smile of delight and enthusiasm immediately split the sharp features of Norm Jarock’s Pulaski-bred face and he declared to all around him, “Gee, I’m happy about that. I was hoping the Packers would take me, I really would like to play with them and believe me, I’m going to try it.” Later in the day, the Knights’ Bob Barron echoed that he would “give it a try” with the Chicago Bears, who selected him in the 25th round. Barron, however, emphasized that he would finish his schooling next year and serve as co-captain of the Green Knights before trying the pros. The ex-Marine, who commanded the center position on the undefeated Knights last fall, felt that he would have to add some pounds to his 225 frame before he could make the Bears. He also said that he certainly felt honored to be picked by as fine an organization as the Bears. Jarock, who averaged 8.4 yards a try in his college career and led the nation’s small college players in both rushing and total offense last year, according to NCAA and NAIA statistics, also announced he was going to turn down a commission in the regular Army in order to try the Pack. The RA commissioner would entail his leaving immediately after graduation in June for at least three years of service. Turning it down would be a big step for Jarock since he had contemplated an Army career and once you turn down an RA commission, you don’t get another chance at it…CLOCKED AT 9.8: However, the rugged (6-0, 195) will have to accept an Army Reserve commission and will probably have to go on active duty about next January. The length of his tour has not yet been determined, but it would be either six months or two years. As to his much discussed head injuries last fall, Jarock reports that he has not suffered any effects from the crashes and that doctors have stated he can continue playing football without any worries. At the suggestion that the Packers might attempt to use his speed as a pass receiver, instead of primarily a runner, Jarock simply said, “I don’t care where they want to play me, I just want to make the team and I’m really going to work at it as hard as I can.” Anybody want the Pulaski ticket concession?

BROWNS WON'T GIVE PACK EXHIBITION DATE FOR '58

JAN 29 (Philadelphia-Green Bay Press-Gazette) – The Packers can’t get an exhibition game with the Browns. And the Eagles and Steelers can’t seem to work out a preseason contest with the Lions. “Something will have to be done about that and it probably will,” Packer General Manager Verne Lewellen said Tuesday, and he won’t have to wait long. Commissioner Bert Bell said Tuesday night that “preseason schedules will be discussed Wednesday.” He declined to elaborate. The big trouble is that the so-called rich clubs – from a won and lost standpoint – are trying to schedule each other at choice spots. The Browns and Lions, as an example, want to play two exhibitions against each other. And in the process, the Packers have been “frozen” out of a date with Cleveland and Pitt and Philly can’t do much business with Detroit. The Lion-Brown thing is supposed to be a home and homer and, of course, is designed strictly for purposes of making money. Its value stems somewhat from the lopsided playoff last month. The heavy thinkers here feel that the Lions and Browns are out to make a lot of quick bucks, without giving much thought to their league brothers – not to mention their future. Some Eastern Division teams are unhappy about missing the lucrative exhibitions on the West Coast, claiming that only a favored few get the assignments. That also will be hashed over today. Lewellen is busy trying to iron out the Bays’ exhibition card. The only sure-fire game is the annual contest in Minneapolis…Bell took time out before resuming the draft after dinner Tuesday night to “compliment you coaches for your conduct on and off the field during the past season. It’s that kind of conduct that enables the league to keep its high reputation and makes it possible for us to get into Franklin Field (in Philly) and maybe even in Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.” Bell, referring to officiating, boomed over a PA system that “I know you’ve all been hot under the collar about officiating and I guess I have done the same thing but overall your work with the officials has been wonderful and I want to compliment you for it. Five years from now, officials of major college football game will be coming from YMCA leagues and school teachers, but we have had considerable success drawing our officials from former professional football players. I’m sure they will continue to be successful.” Bell invited the clubs to send in film clips on officials’ calls “that you didn’t like” and he added: “Only three teams sent in clips last year – the Colts, Cardinals and Browns.”…The Packers may play a league game in Washington in 1958 for the first time since the late 1940’s. The tentative schedule has Green Bay playing Washington and Philadelphia as its Eastern Division opponents.

PACK AIDES NEARLY SET: SCOOTER

JAN 30 (Philadelphia-Green Bay Press-Gazette) – There was no great earth-shaking Packer news smoked out of the NFL’s annual convention here Wednesday, but at least the Green Bays are getting warm. Two items of importance will be announced in the immediate future – the club’s assistant coaches and the preseason schedule. Coach Scooter McLean, before leaving Wednesday afternoon, said that, “We’ll have the staff all set in a short time,” and General Manager Verne Lewellen is ready to reveal the exhibition program “as soon as we get a few details worked out.” That paragraph contains no news except that there will be news soon. The fast-growing grapevine around here normally would carry some thoughts on possible Packer aides but, oddly enough, we have yet to hear a make-sense name. Scooter won’t even give a hint. He expects to return to Green Bay Monday, by the way. McLean is presently on a coach-signing and/or coach-hunting trip, while the two Jacks, Vainisi and Morton, left Wednesday to sign the draft choices. Scooter said he’s looking for three more assistants which would give the Packers a coaching staff of five. One of the coaches will scout the Packer opponent one week in advance, McLean said, “to give us a good cross check on the movies.” Wally Cruice, the Packers’ holdover game scout, will continue to work with the team, but he’ll scout the opponent two weeks in advance. The league, at its first business meeting Wednesday, hashed out preseason games and no fireworks were reported. Lewellen said that “there could have been if some of the poor clubs hadn’t been given a good shot at some of the better games.”…FIRST GAME AUG. 15: Lewellen said he was satisfied with the Packers’ non-league schedule – “We’re playing just five games as we wanted.” The league’s non-loop schedule starts with games the weekend of Aug. 15 – which is the date of the All-Star game in Chicago. The Packers won’t start league-team play until the following weekend and will be occupied each weekend going into the league opener. Included on the Packers schedule will be two Eastern fixtures – New York in Boston and Washington in Winston-Salem. Other games probably will be in Green Bay, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Thus, the only heavy traveling would be on the one eastern swing. Besides the same eastern trip a year ago, the Bays went to Florida and Texas, which cut into the profits…BILLY HOWTON APPEARS: Yesterday’s program was made extra interesting due to the appearance of a redhead from Texas – the Packers’ Billy Howton. Dressed in a black business uniform, Howton, president of the NFL Players’ Assn., told the writers the results of a meeting of his group, members of four different insurance firms which are investigating a retirement plan similar to baseball and a league committee. “We are pleased by our reception and encouraged because no one spoke out against a pension,” Howton said. With Howton at the meeting were players Kyle Rote of the Giants and Bill Pellington of the Colts and player attorney Creighton Miller and the following from the league: Commissioner Bert Bell, Joe Donoghue of the Eagles, Art Rooney of the Steelers, Wellington Mara of the Giants, and Fred Trowbridge and Dominic Olejniczak of the Packers. Among spokesmen for the insurance firms are Bill Dudley, onetime all-pro…PLAYERS’ STATUS CLEAR: “I’m quite confident a plan can be worked out. It’s a complex problem and it will take time to develop,” Howton said. The most significant part of the meetings was that it eliminated any remaining doubt as to the Players’ Association status in the eyes of the league. As Miller puts it: “We certainly feel we are recognized. We are now in the process of negotiating, aren’t we?” Howton wanted it put on the record that the association strongly supported Bell’s refusal to televise the Frisco-Detroit playoff and the championship game in Detroit…BACK BELL’S STAND: “After discussing this matter at great length at our annual meeting in Cleveland last week,” Howton said. “The players firmly endorse Commissioner Bell’s stand in not televising either of these games in the home area. By maintaining the blackout, he was acting in the best interests of the players. In the event Commissioner Bell had permitted home TV, it is conceivable future gates and attendance could suffer considerably and proportionately reduce the players’ share.” The player group made another appearance before the press last night and Howton announced the appointment – by a committee of players and owners – of Dudley as the association’s pension and insurance consultant. Bullet Bill, a nine-year veteran of the league, said he’ll submit a plan in six to eight weeks. Dudley said he has been interested in pension and insurance plans for athletes since 1952 when “I discovered that football players, boxers, jockeys and others had to pay higher premiums for standard insurance.”

NFL DROPS BONUS, KEEPS TV BLACKOUT

JAN 30 (Philadelphia-Green Bay Press-Gazette) – The league eliminated the bonus choice in one of several actions at Wednesday night’s meetings in the Warwick Hotel. It was dropped because it was termed something of a lottery at last summer’s congressional hearings. The bonus draw was started in 1947 when the Chicago Bears won the hat pick and selected Bob Fennimore, Oklahoma back. Oddly enough, a Chicago team, the Cardinals, won the last bonus – King Hill, the Rice quarterback, who was picked in December. The Packers won the second-last bonus, picking Notre Dame’s Paul Hornung a year ago. The bonus draw was the idea of Curly Lambeau, who felt that every club should have a chance at a top star regardless of where it finished. Elimination of the hat draw was predicted, but it was expected that another plan would be approved, giving the team with the lowest won-lost percentage for the season the bonus pick. The league stuck to its guns on the business of blacking out television in the areas where games are being played, voting to continue the policy for 1958…ADD NEW SECTION: In another moved to bring pro football away from the glare of Congress, the league added a new section to the resolution passed in May 1935 permitting a player to switch clubs if he has a valid reason. The addition follows: “If for any valid reason it would be impossible to play in the city he has been selected by or the player can show reasonable cause why he should be permitted to play in a city other than that designated for him, then through such arrangements that can be made by sale or trade with another club, he shall be permitted to play in the city he prefers if the commissioner of the league approves his reasons as valid.” Starting next year, the league decided, the preseason schedule as to dates and teams will be made at the annual winter meeting. This is designed to prevent private wars among clubs and to make sure every team gets a shot at the big gates.