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1939 was Don Faurot’s proof of concept

Football's Dizzy Dean, the ebullient Paul Christman of Missouri, pitched a gorgeous game at the Yankee Stadium yesterday. The big blond junior neglected to take his press notices into the fray with him but he did not need them. Before the fascinated gaze of a gathering of 50,000 he passed and ran NYU into a 20-7 defeat.

— New York Times, Nov. 12, 1939

"He'd come into a huddle, see that the team was tense, and he'd loosen 'em up with something crazy," recalled Bud Orf. "Like, 'Hey, Bud, your zipper is open.'"

Smiling, Orf continued, "I've often thought how Faurot was considered conservative and a disciplinarian, but, proving that he was indeed a good leader, he gave Paul considerable leeway.