Along
with thousands of other Pittsburgh football fans I have been thrilled
with the comeback performances of the Steelers. These, as many of
us know, have been the result of a happy combination of circumstances,
which include great work by Buist Warren.
Want
to know about Warren? Well,
here's a story I used on one of my recent broadcasts at 6:30 P.
M. on KQV:
"This
season's surprise package among the Pro gridders is a slim-hipped
halfback who used to do his strutting for the Tennessee Volunteers.By
name he is Buist Warren. By all standards of Pro Football, he is
terrific.
Buist
or Buzz as his teammates call him got off to a very inauspicious
start in the National Professional League this fall. In fact, just
a little over a month ago Warren was just another Navy dischargee
looking for a' chance to turn an honest penny or two.
His
first thought was football. After all - Buzz had played in the Orange,
the Sugar and the Rose Bowl with the Tennessee teams of 1938, '39
and '40. Buzz didn't star in those games. He had the ill luck to
be playing in the shadows of two great stars - Johnny Butler and
George Cafego.
And
the Vol coach used Warren principally as a relief man. When the
Varsity had softened up the opposition - with end runs, Warren was
sent in to shell them with passes. And Buzz developed into one of
the prettiest passers ever turned out in the hill country.
In
his secondary role, Warren didn't rate the headline. Consequently,
Coach 'Greasy' Neale, didn't have the band out when Buzz popped
up in the Philadelphia Eagle camp. It seems Bobby Suffridge, a former
Tennessee guard now with the Eagles, suggested that Buzz come to
Philadephia.
Maybe
Coach Neale has lost some of his famed football insight, or maybe
'Greasy' thought he had enough backs in Mel Bleeker, Steve Van Buren,
Sonny Karnofsky and Jack Banta. Anyway, a couple of exhibition games
went by the boards and Buzz still was getting his quota of exercise
by sliding up and down the Eagle bench.
About
16 days ago, Neale decided to unload Warren onto the Pittsburgh
Steelers. And that decision may go down in Pro Football history
as the prize boner of all times. For Warren has changed, the Steelers
from the League's easiest touch to a team that's respected around
the circuit."
