_y = The heat of battle, football RAIN ON OUR fl t orae ‘ Weber State chorale under the direction of Ronald Wooden Mrs. Carol Hurst at the piano. player Jim Massey. IT DIDN’T a PARADE Saturday morning was a near perfect day for a parade and with President Miller and other dignitaries leading the way, the 61 unit procession made its way down Washington Blvd. to the pleasure of the throngs of people lining the parade route. This years parade showed some of the most imaginative floats to decorate a homecoming at Weber and was an example of great things to come. Bands from all over the area plus entrants from many surrounding states added a good deal of interest and fine marching music to the parade. The sweepstakes winner was the L.D.S. Students Association float which depicted an ark with the heads of various animals protruding from the side and the theme “Those Were The Days When Noah Did His Thing”. Excelcior’s “Years Go Round” float was first in the mens organizations with second place going to Sigma Delta Pi. First place in the womens went to a unique offering with the legend, “Galley of the Dolls”, sponsored by LaDianaeda, with Otyokwa coming in second place. The Homecoming football game of 1969 turned out to be a real pleaser for the hometown crowds as many an old grad came back to see the Wildcats thump the favored University of Idaho 28-7. Idaho’s strength for the year was due in good part to the ability of one Jerry Hendrin, the nations leading major college pass receiver and a good prospect to make it big as a pro. The Wildcat defense held Hendrin to only 3 receptions and a total of 29 yards. Webers rugged defenders only gave up 74 total yards on the ground and 89 in the air. Tailback Sam Gipson and fullback Jack Brown took turns running through and around the Idaho defense to give Weber State the victory. The revelry of the 1969 Homecoming came to an end in the Union Building Ballroom on Saturday night at the Homecoming Dance. Students, faculty, staff and alumni all joined in the final event as a mixed bag of music gave the present crop of Wildcats as well as the “old timers’ a chance to strut their stuff on the dance floor. We congratulate all who worked so hard on this, the best homecoming yet and remind you to keep the dancing shoes out and make plans for the 1970 homecoming, it’s not as far away as you think. DAN VALENTINE ADDRESSES CONVOCATION AND PRESS CONFERENCE Dan Valentine, the satirical columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune was the guest speaker at a convocation held during Homecoming week at the Fine Arts Auditorium. Valentine was his usual mixture of barbed fun-poking and serious commentary and was well received by the near capacity audience. After the regularly scheduled address Mr. Valentine addressed a student press conference. Having been led to the ever-present issue of demonstra- tions and the Vietnam war, Valentine offered the opinion that “Demonstrations are useless’; according Weber with to the columnist, “Americans owe a responsibility to the meni Vietnam who never wanted to be there in the first place”. Phil Johnson the twenty-four hour coach © One of the most successful major college basketball coaches in the nation today is Phil Johnson, head coach at Weber State College and now in his second year. Coach Johnson hasn’t lost a conference game since becoming head coach last year and as a freshman mentor led his Wildcats into the N.C.A.A. Western Regionals at Los Angeles. As the Cinderella team of the tournament Weber State defeated ninth ranked New Mexico State after losing a see-saw battle to the powerful No. 3 ranked Santa Clara team in overtime. Coaching is an enviable profession but it isn’t just making the practice sessions, ball games and booster banquets. Coaches are notorious for losing hair, sleep and pounds, not to mention their patience. Spending a few days with a winning coach may help us to understand why. Phil Johnson lives basketball, he eats it, sleeps it and wakes up asking his wife how she thinks the team ‘s doing or how they look. This week was just about like all the rest. Monday: As soon as I arrived at the office I started going over the game films of last years Idaho game and the Idaho-Portland State game of this year. We watched for defensive match-ups and tried to analyze some of the new Idaho players. I thought about having a good short practice to sharpen up parts of our game. After lunch we made our practice plan and decided to work on a zone offense since Idaho will probably use the zone on us. Our practice session was good and morale was high. Ray Herbat from the Salt Lake Tribune was at the practice Session sO we went out to eat with him. He picks Idaho State to win the Big Sky. I went over to the dorm at 10:30 to see the players and got home about 11:30. I spent some time talking with a about the loyalty of the fans and our team for this Sait Lake Tribune columnist. Dan Valentine homecoming convocation speaker. State Coach Tuesday: I had a lot of correspondence to answer this morning but about halfway through, Assistant Coach Gene Visscher came in and we went over the Idaho game film again. We have to find the best defensive man for Idaho’s Malcolm Taylor. John Knoble came in and we talked about guarding Taylor. I made the final arrangements for a scouting trip that was to send Gene Visscher to Bozeman to Scout Idaho State and Montana State, with Dan Sparks and Mike Hall going to Pocatello later in the week to catch Gonzaga at Idaho State. We had a pretty good session today and the players seemed enthusiastic. After practice Don Sparks, Blaine Sylvester and I left for Salt Lake to watch a high school game and talk to a high school coach about one of his boys. I got home about midnight. Wednesday: I came into the office to learn that Kent Ross, our junior forward, had just become the father of a new baby boy. I was glad to hear that his wife and baby were okay and thought that Kent would probably be more relaxed now. We sent flowers to Mrs. Ross from the team and coaches. I finished my correspondence, which consisted of a lot of letters from ball players who were expressing unsolicited interest in Weber. I try to be cordial but these players are seldom the caliber we must have to stay competitive. I wrote to some junior college prospects from California and thought of the number of players we will be losing in two years. We need a good frosh team next year. Willy Sojourner dropped in and we talked about Idaho again. We talked about the importance of the Big Sky games and I asked him about his classes and quarter. Willy said he was doing “O.K.’’. the new