Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1920 — FANDOM EYES BLOOMINGTON [ARTICLE]

FANDOM EYES BLOOMINGTON

HIGH SCHOOL WORLD AWAITS CLASHES—FRANKLIN H. S. RULES FAVORITE. ~ LjILU. With the coming basket ball tournament which is to decide the standard bearer among Indiana high schools for the coming year but a few days away, two to be exact, there is a great deal of speculation among the followers of the great winter pastime as to what team is the most likely to come through and obliterate the “hopes of the other twenty-five championship contenders.* Each school which has a team that has survived the district meet feels that their representative is the one that will 'be the best able to stand the gaff and drag down the banner emblematic of the state high school 'basket ball championship. A feeling of confidence pervades the atmosphere of twenty-six Indiana towns and this spirit of confidence will last until Friday mofning at least, when the contestants get the flag and dash into action. By noon Friday some teams will have already had their hopes dashed on to the rocks of despair and it will continue in that manner throughout the remainder of that day and Saturday. One team alone will be joyous—the one that emerges from the final game unscathed. , It’s a long way to a championship crown in any field, but sport critics with their usual reckless abandon are rushing headlong into the prophets field, swayed in many instances not by their judgment but

by their prejudices. Among the starters in the weekend classic there are four teams that seem to stand out loftily above the shoulders of what are termed the lesser lights. These favorites are Franklin, Columbus, Anderson and Emerson high school, of Gary.At a glance it must be admitted that the winner of the flag should come from this quartette of ton notch performers —'but it is the well-known dark ponies that are always likely to tack thecontents of the dope bucket galley west th«t are causing many of the critics to be more reserved m their 'opinion, and it is these same uncertain performers that always add zest to any sporting event and give it the spice of uncertainty _ that creates the interest and continues, to lure the followers of the pastime year after year. Always there is some unheralded team that is likely to rise up and smack one of tne sure things on the crown with a hefty wallop while the crowd watches in a dazed . manner. Its a grand old pastime with the element of uncertainty taking the lead from the opening spasm until the curtain drops on the two nnai monarchs of the two-day gnnd. On season’s form the winner or the crown should be Franklin a team that has bowled over its opponents with a crushing, monotonous regularity. The downstate five apparently are a powerful aggregation composed for the most part of seasoned veterans. They present a brilliant, flashy attack and are a powerful scoring machine, sturdy as Gibraltar on the' defense. If there Is such a thing as a sure thing bet it is Franklin and only by the freakiest sort of luck can she be kept away from the final gS The most likely opponent of Franklin for the final affair is Columbus, who, however, must weather the storm of Jefferson high school of Lafayette, Technical of Indianapolis and Hartford City, providing, of course, that .those three teams do what is expected of them. If not Columbus, thenit should be either orEmerson that faces the flashy Franklin five in the nightcap.