By Shirley Povich
Washington Post Staff Writer
September 17, 1937; Page 1

Big league football and 24,492 customers came to Griffith Stadium last night. So did Riley Smith.

And when handsome Riley Smith, Alabama ’35, had performed all his various chores for the Washington Redskins, the newly-adopted Capital entry in the National Football League was the decisive victor over New York’s Giants.

The score was Redskins, 13; Giants 3. Or more properly put, it reads: Riley Smith, 13; Giants 3. Because it was Riley Smith who produced every Redskin point, the entire 13, the whole kit and caboodle of ’em honest.

It was no less then a scoring binge by big, 200-pound Riley Smith last evening as a made to order night brought out the huge throng, come to star-gaze at Baugh, at Leemans, at Danowski, Milner, Edwards and Hein. With deft toes and hands and a streaky change of pace when that need arose, the comparatively unheralded Smith projected himself full into the spotlight of last night’s scene to win the game for Washington.

Smith’s Big Night
Here’s what he did and now perhaps, you’ll pardon my exuberance.

He kicked a field goal in the first quarter of the of the 18-yard line to lift the Redskins to a 3-0 lead. And in the fourth quarter, he dropped back to the 18-yard line at the other end of the field he place-kicked another field goal to break a 3-3 tie. And then—

When Giant passes were flooding the brilliantly-lighted field in a last desperate attempt that threatened to snatch victory away from the Redskins, Riley Smith turned their own weapon against the New York behemoths, snatched a Giant pass on his own 40-yard line and streaked 60 yards down the sidelines for the only touchdown of the night.

Sure, he kicked the point after that touchdown, too. He was something to see tonight, this quarterback who joined the Redskins fresh from his Rose Bowl triumphs.

Thrilled to Smith
To Riley Smith the 24,492 thrilled almost from the moment that Jesse Jones, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation chief, spiraled the opening ball out onto the field to launch a carnival night for Washington football fans, but there were others during that 60 minutes of football played to the hilt.

There was Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, putting his college reputation squarely on the spot, and justifying every advance notice with his magnificent forward-passing barrage against the Giants. And there was Tuffy Leemans, home to the scene of his college triumphs, as a full-fledged star of the Giants. And there was Big Turk Edwards, battering through the Giants line and Don Irwin slashing his way through the tackle openings, and Ed Danowski attempting gallantly, but vainly, to match the passing of Baugh. No touchdown pass sped from the throwing hand of Baugh but glory fairly dripped from the lead, lank Texas kid who was a marked man tonight but made the transition from the college gridiron to the professional ranks with a tremendous thump.

It was Baugh’s superb passing—to Charlie Malone, to Wayne Millner and to Bob McChesney—that set the Giants back on their heels in that fourth quarter and put the Redskins in position for that tiebreaking placement by Riley Smith and when the battle was over it was an amazing record that Baugh had compiled with his passes.

Dropped His Passes
Sixteen of them he had thrown, and eleven times he had found a receiver. On three occasions he pitched the ball directly into the paws of a waiting but errant colleague who dropped the thing. His passes netted the Redskins 115 yards compared to the 60 the Giants amassed from Danowski’s six successful passes in 11 attempts.

The Giants lost, but Leemans didn’t fall. When the limping form of George Washington’s Tuffy passed to the sidelines late in the second quarter—an ankle painfully turned—the Giants were beaten. Never to return to that ball game, Leemans watched from the sidelines as a devitalized New York team took its beating.

He had been a Trojan out there in that first half, Leemans had. And though he was idle throughout those last two quarters, he remained the leading ground-gainer of the night with his 72 yards from scrimmage. He had sparked the Giants to their greatest scoring threat with a smashing, twisting gallop of 25 yards through a maze of tacklers to put the ball on the Redskins 15-yard line in the second quarter.

That was when the Giants hammered to within two inches of a touchdown only to be turned back by a downright gallant and heroic stand of eleven Redskins, who in a near-maniacal fervor didn’t give, even grudgingly. But that goal-line stand demands a few paragraphs of its own.

Baugh Hits Mark
To begin almost at the beginning, Sammy Baugh didn’t waste any time flaunting his passing prowess on the Redskins’ before the eyes of the Giants, and on the Redskins’ first play from scrimmage after the opening kickoff he rifled a bullet pass into the arms of Ernie Pinckert for a five-yard gain. Then ensued a Redskin advance of 65 yards down the field.

With the Giants wary of Baugh’s passing, Quarterback Riley Smith varied the Redskins’s attack and sent Colgate’s Don Irwan and Baugh banging at the tackles. Who said Baugh couldn’t run with the ball? He galloped 11 yards around left end on a cutback play. He smashed through right tackle for 8 deep in Giant territory and, after Irwin had relieved him with intermittent gallops through the line, Baugh ducked a change by big Ed Wieseth and flung a 13-yard pass to Charley Malone to put the ball on the Giants’ 15. He had tried two passes to that point. And he had completed two.

On the 15-yard line, the Giants stiffened, whereupon, with Baugh holding the ball, Riley Smith dropped back to his 18 line for a place kick