Nice Boys, But No Match

The Colt players were gracious victors. Big Daddy Lipscomb, who speaks for publication with all the care and diplomacy of a candidate for office, said: "These boys were all potential pros. They were good boys." Gino Marchetti, toweling himself near by, smiled. "Sure they were," he said. "They go to Sunday School every day."

John Unitas, who looks positively scrawny by comparison with giants like Lipscomb and Marchetti, said, "We expected the All-Stars to put on a lot of pressure, but our guys took real good care of me. I always had plenty of time to throw. They gave me beautiful protection."

Milt Davis, who returned an interception for one of the Colt touchdowns, paid equally sincere tribute to the Colt defensive line: "The guys up front were in on their quarterbacks so fast we never had to worry about the long ones. We could play up tight because they never had time for anything but hooks and slants."

Probably the definitive statement was Art Donovan's. Donovan is a 270-pound tackle who has played pro football for nine years and rates as one of the best defensive linemen in the league despite his 34 years. He has a face as Irish as Paddy's pig, an incongruously high, squeaky voice, and a deep affection for his job.

"I would say they were nice boys," he said pontifically. "Nice little boys. But they got an awful lot to learn."

Most of the All-Stars began their postgraduate football studies a couple of days after the game, as rookies on the various teams in the National Football League. Grosscup, who belongs to the New York Giants, flew out of Chicago Saturday morning to Hershey, Pa., where he watched the Giants lose their first exhibition game to the Philadelphia Eagles 21-17.

"I got to start all over," he said before he left. "The Giants use different terminology and a different cadence and I'll be just about starting from scratch."

Saturday's game must have been an interesting one for Grosscup, one of five candidates for the quarterback's job on the Giant team. Coach Jim Lee Howell tested all four of the other candidates—Frank Gifford, who wants to convert from halfback; George Shaw, recent acquisition from the Colts; Don Heinrich, No. 2 behind Charley Conerly for several years, and Conerly himself.

Howell opened the game with Gifford, who was surprisingly capable, mixing short and long passes with keeper plays in which he ran the ball well. Gifford completed three of six passes, Shaw three of 10, Conerly two of four and Heinrich two of six. Probably the most effective of the quartet, though, was Conerly. The aging (38) Giant quarterback marched his team 65 yards in 11 plays in the third quarter for a touchdown and apparently has lost none of the cunning and poise which have made him the Giants' top quarterback for 11 years.

Grosscup, handicapped by his late start, may have a tough time breaking into the Giant lineup. But he is probably the best passer of the five quarterbacks and he is a cool operator under pressure, as he showed abundantly in the time he played against the Colts. He has gained some 20 pounds in the last couple of years, mostly through working with barbells, and, as Otto Graham pointed out after working with Lee in the All-Star camp, he is smart.