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Wally Weber Goes Western With A Little Prompting

Wally Weber Goes Western With A Little Prompting image
Parent Issue
Day
5
Month
January
Year
1949
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Wally Weber Goes Western With A Little Prompting

"Hi y'all, podner?"

One had to look twice, but there he was—Michigan’s Wally Weber, gone western.

The genial and loquacious Wolverine football coach was wearing a 10-gallon Oklahoma sombrero, presented to him by friends in Elks City, Okla., where Wally made two banquet appearances.

Dangling from his watch chain was a golden key, a key to the City of New Orleans which was presented Wally at a banquet of the Sugar Bowl committee, where he also appeared as a speaker.

Wally took a busman's holiday and drove to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl game. The trip to Elks City, 600 miles away was a side trip where Wally talked before the Lion's Club and the Quarterback Club.

He also was recognized later at New Orleans at the Quarterback Luncheon and invited to the rostrum where he made a few well-chosen remarks. His speech went over so well there that the Sugar Bowl committee invited him to the committee banquet that night. That is where he received the key.

"Most wonderful hospitality I ever experienced," says Wally of his trip to the southwest "They really treat you fine down there.”

Wally got a big kick out of the Oklahoma oilmen covering the bets offered by the tobacco men from North Carolina. “It really was big business,” says Wally, "and the gold really flowed through those hotel lobbies.”

Wally stated that the Sugar Bowl game was decided by breaks and refused to compare the football as played there with the Western Conference variety.

After all, it will be several days yet before Wally will be able to shake off that southwestern drawl.

"Yippee, podner.”

BIG-TIME OPERATOR FROM WEST OF PECOS?: No, it’s Michigan's master mauler of language, loquacious Wally Weber, sporting a black sombrero picked up on a holiday junket to New Orleans and points west. The phone and the pose are along the lines of character acting although no one uses the telephone more than does Weber who makes upward of 500 talks a year furthering the cause of collegiate athletics and Michigan's place there-in.