Move Over, Chief

When senior Dave Lewis, the only real Indian on the Stanford Indians' roster, was asked to move from quarterback to half to make room for Gene Washington, the only people more upset than opposing AAWU coaches were the Stanford PR men who were faced with recoining such goodies as "the Big Chief leading the tribe" and "Red Man for the Big Red." The last two West Coast teams to go to the Rose Bowl were quarterbacked by sophomores. Stanford Coach John Ralston hopes to make it three in a row. Ralston considers Washington better than Paul Brothers of the 1964 Oregon State team and as good as UCLA's Gary Beban last year.

"Gene is a born leader," brags Ralston. Better yet, he is a born athlete. He is 6 feet 2 and 180 pounds and may be one of the finest athletes yet produced by Poly High School of Long Beach, Calif. The school lists among its alumni tennis star Billie Jean Moffitt King, footballer Willie Brown, and San Francisco Giant rookie Ollie (Downtown) Brown. The latter two are cousins of Washington. At Poly, Gene wound up with an A minus average while still finding time to play football and basketball, run a 9.7 hundred and get elected student body president.

Stanford had the best freshman team in its history last year and would have been good even with Gomer Pyle at quarterback. Gene Washington, calling the signals, still managed to stand out as the Papooses went undefeated. He averaged 8.9 yards a carry, third best on the team, and connected on 48% of his throws. His chief asset is his running ability which he learned, in part, from operating in a single wing at Poly. He is fast, strong and quick and a very dangerous man on the roll-out option—a play uppermost in the functioning of John Ralston's variable T. If Gene Washington has a weakness it is in his passing—he is inconsistent. One problem he will not have is calling signals. Ralston will do that. "We ask our quarterbacks to do a lot," Ralston explains. "If he can do the physical job, we want to share his mental problems, especially when he's a sophomore."

A back who may challenge Washington as the Coast's outstanding rookie is California's Rick Bennett. A bruising runner with a deceptive change of speed, Halfback Bennett was almost a Stanford Indian himself. He had signed a letter of intent to attend the school, but at the last moment—and days after he had signed—he decided to go to Cal. The conference declared him ineligible for his freshman year. The enforced year's layoff may have delayed his development some, but Bennett has great potential and should be one of the West's best runners by his senior year.