30 Century of Education Wednesday, October 11, 2017

LOU
Continued from page 29
“Then I thought that as long as I was not going to
play anyway, I might just as well not play as a fullback.
So I went and watched the backs go through their drills.
Later on the head coach blew his whistle again and
asked one of the assistant coaches to put together a
scout team to run the defensive plays of our next oppo-
nent.
“The assistant coach, John Cabas, was also the head
basketball coach, pointed to a number of scrubs and
then he realized that he was one player shy. He saw me
asked, ‘Hey Lou, do you want to step in here and play
linebacker?’ I could have told him, ‘Hey, I don’t have
my doctor’s permission or my parents’ permission. The
deal is that I am supposed to just watch in case I am
allowed to play later on.’ I thought that it would be a lot
easier to just say, ‘Sure, I’ll play. What do I do?’
“He said, ‘You just stand over the right guard, watch
who the quarterback gives the ball to and then tackle
that guy. And if anyone tries to stop you, you just push
him out of the way.’ So I became a linebacker. Football
can be a very simple game.
“I did this for the next two a half weeks: Go to band
practice. After band practice, get dressed in my football
uniform and then go practice with the football team. On
game nights, I marched with the band. Then my high
school played one of the top teams in the state, and sev-
eral of our players got injured. Our team was short on
bodies. During the following practice, the Head Coach
Earle Bruce asked, ‘Where’s Slaby?’
“’Coach, he’s at band practice.’
“’Band practice? Well get him the hell out of the
band!’
“I was only missed when we were short of bodies.
The coach did ask me if I would quit the band and play
full time with the team. I told him I would.”
Slaby could play basketball too. Along with Jim
“Moe” Meissner — who quarterbacked the 1958
Quakers to a 9-1, 10th-ranked season in Earle Bruce’s
second year as head coach — they were the only two-
team, football/basketball players in school. Meissner
was a year ahead of Slaby.
Working out with upperclassman Meissner, Slaby
learned what keeping his body in shape was all about.
Meissner showed Slaby the ropes for real, top physi-
cal conditioning, working out a couple times a day,
year-round.
Meissner said they were ahead of everyone in 1958-
59 with their year-round conditioning.
“We were the only two that played football and bas-
ketball,” he said. “We’d go in early, before 6 a.m. and
run on the track at the old high school. We’re talking
basketball in 1957-58 when we were still in that school
doing football, getting in condition for football.”
Meissner said there were six freshmen who practiced
from 3 to 6 p.m. and from 6 to 9 p.m. “We practiced six
hours a day,” he recalled.
lshields@salemnews.net
A page from the 1936 Salem High School yearbook.