1940: Football

College football continued to hold big favor with the public and to maintain its high standard of play in 1940 in spite of the fact that the country was seriously concerned with the war in Europe, problems of our own national defense, conscription, and a torrid presidential election. The same held true for professional football. Possibly 1941 will be a different story, since the draft is likely to take away a good many players, but during the past year football had clear sailing through a season marked by huge crowds, thrilling games and a number of 'boners' in the enforcement of the rules by officials.

The leading college teams of the year as ranked in a national poll were Minnesota, Stanford, Michigan, Tennessee, Boston College, Texas A. & M., Nebraska, Northwestern, Mississippi State and Washington. Minnesota, Stanford, Tennessee and Boston College won all their games, as also did Lafayette.

Michigan, whose Tom Harmon broke the 15-year-old scoring record of Red Grange and was chosen as the outstanding player of the year, lost only to Minnesota and by the thin margin of a point after touchdown. Texas A. & M. was the victim of a stunning reversal in its final game with Texas. That defeat ended a winning streak that had continued through nineteen games and cost the Aggies an invitation to play in the Rose Bowl.

Nebraska lost its opening game to Minnesota and then won all others, to capture the Big Six crown and get the call to play in the Rose Bowl with Stanford. Northwestern lost to Minnesota, by a point, and to Michigan. Mississippi State was unbeaten but tied by Auburn and was invited to play in the Orange Bowl, and Washington lost to Minnesota and Stanford.

Cornell and Notre Dame were two teams that ranked among the best in the country only to crash from their high station near the end of the campaign. Cornell, which was ranked the No. 1 team of the country for four successive weeks, lost to Dartmouth in the most shocking setback of the year, its first defeat in nineteen games.

The circumstances of that defeat were unprecedented. Cornell scored a touchdown on a forward pass on the last play of the game at Hanover, N. H., and apparently won by the score of 7 to 3. Two days after the game, however, it was definitely established that the pass had been scored on an illegal fifth down.

The referee, W. H. Friesell, admitted his mistake, whereupon Cornell, on its own initiative, conceded the victory to Dartmouth by the score of 3-0. This was the first time on record that the score of a game was reversed, and because the illegal play came on the last play of the game, the reversal was accepted as official. Following that history-making episode, Cornell lost its final game with Pennsylvania after leading by 13-0, Frank Reagan leading Penn out of the hole to victory with one of the season's most brilliant individual performances.

Notre Dame, fancied to have its best team since Knute Rockne's days at South Bend, revealed weaknesses in barely eking out victory over Army and Navy and then lost to Iowa and Northwestern.

Stanford was the surprise team of the year and its coach, Clark Shaughnessy, was the coach of the year. In 1939 Stanford won only one game and Shaughnessy's Chicago eleven was crushed by all its opponents in the Big Ten. Football was abandoned as an intercollegiate sport at Chicago, and Shaughnessy went to Stanford to succeed Tiny Thornhill. To every one's amazement, Stanford proceeded to defeat all the big teams on the Pacific Coast, ended the season without a defeat or a tie and won the conference championship and the Rose Bowl award. The Cardinals met Nebraska at Pasadena on New Year's Day and climaxed their brilliant season by winning with the score of 21-13.

Tennessee, which won all the games on its regular schedule for the third season in a row and carried off the Southeastern crown again, faced Boston College, the No. 1 team of the East, in the Sugar Bowl at New Orleans. In an exciting game, victory went to Boston College with a score of 19-13.

Georgetown, which lost to Boston College by the margin of a point in one of the outstanding games of the year, marking its first defeat since 1937, played Mississippi State in the Orange Bowl at Miami and lost by the score of 14-7.

The Cotton Bowl in Dallas presented Fordham and Texas A. & M. The New Yorkers, the first team from Gotham to engage in a bowl game since Columbia went to the Rose Bowl to upset Stanford on New Year's Day, 1934, had their best offensive team of Jim Crowley's regime and lost only to St. Mary's of California during the regular season. The game at Dallas resulted in a close victory for Texas A. & M. by the score of 13-12.

Other sectional titles were won by Minnesota (Big Ten), Clemson (Southern), Utah (Rocky Mountain), Tulsa (Missouri Valley). Texas A. & M. and Southern Methodist shared the Southwest crown. Pennsylvania succeeded Cornell as the champion of the Ivy League. Williams was the Little Three champion, Lafayette, the Middle Three, and Harvard and Princeton shared the Big Three honors.

The record crowd of the year was drawn by the Army-Navy game. The midshipmen defeated the cadets by 14-0 before 102,000 in Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium. Penn and Cornell attracted 80,000 to Franklin Field, and the same number saw Stanford defeat California at Berkeley. Army and Notre Dame played to 78,000 at the Polo Grounds and 73,000 saw Harmon, the winner of the Heisman Trophy, wind up his varsity career with a last dazzling exhibition against Ohio State in Columbus. Notre Dame played before almost half a million spectators in nine games and Penn was not far under this figure for eight games.

The East and the Middle West led in attendance gains, as well as in the number of strong teams. Boston College, Cornell, Georgetown, Penn, Fordham, Penn State, which lost only one game; Navy, Lafayette, Colgate, Temple, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Duquesne all played good football in the East, though some of them got off to bad starts. In the Middle West, Minnesota, Michigan, Northwestern, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Iowa, Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Indiana and Detroit all were virile.

In the South, besides Tennessee and Mississippi State, the strong teams were Mississippi, Alabama, Duke, Tulane, L. S. U., Auburn, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Texas A. & M., S. M. U., Rice and Texas stood out in the Southwest. On the Pacific Coast the best were Stanford, Washington, Santa Clara, California, Oregon State, Southern California, St. Mary's and Oregon.

There were no marked strategic trends in football in 1940 and no new departures offensively or defensively. The forward pass figured heavily in the scoring. The leading passers included Allerdice of Princeton, O'Rourke of Boston College, Supulski of Manhattan, Christman of Missouri, Hursh of Indiana, Filipowicez of Fordham, Pugh of Texas A. & M., Kopcik of Georgetown and McCullough of Cornell.

Professional football continued to enjoy big favor. There were 55,000 at the Polo Grounds for the meeting between New York and Brooklyn, and three hours after the box office in Washington was opened for the play-off between the champions of the Eastern and Western Divisions, the game was sold out.

The Washington Redskins and the Chicago Bears met for the national title and the Redskins were massacred by 73 to 0, the worst drubbing in the history of the play-off.

Brooklyn finished as runner up to Washington in the Eastern Division, a tribute to the coaching of Dr. Jock Sutherland, serving his first year in professional football, and to Ace Parker, as great a player in the professional ranks as was Harmon in college competition.

Davey O'Brien closed out his football career with the Philadelphia Eagles with his greatest exhibition of passing. No less than thirty-three of his aerials were completed against Washington. O'Brien hung up his moleskins to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

FOOTBALL SCORES

Listed below are the scores of all games played by the five top-ranking teams; and, following them, the scores of major games participated in by other leading teams. In each case the score given first belongs to that team in italics.

Minnesota: Washington, 19-14; Nebraska, 13-7; Ohio State, 13-7; Iowa, 34-6; Northwestern, 13-12; Michigan, 7-6; Purdue, 33-6; Wisconsin, 22-13. (Games played — 8, games won — 8, Score for — 154, against — 71.)

Stanford: San Francisco, 27-0; Oregon, 13-0; Santa Clara, 7-0; Washington State, 26-14; Southern California, 21-7; U.C.L.A., 20-14; Washington, 20-10; Oregon State, 28-14; California, 13-7; Nebraska, 21-13. (Games played — 10, games won — 10, Score for — 196, against — 85.)

Michigan: California, 41-0; Michigan State, 21-14; Harvard, 26-0; Illinois, 28-0; Pennsylvania, 14-0; Minnesota, 6-7; Northwestern, 20-13; Ohio State, 40-13. (Games played — 8, games won — 7, games lost — 1. Score for — 196, against — 34.)

Tennessee: Mercer, 49-0; Duke, 13-0; Chattanooga, 53-0; Alabama, 27-12; Florida, 14-0; L.S.U., 12-0; S.W. Tennessee, 40-0; Virginia, 41-14; Kentucky, 33-0; Vanderbilt, 20-0; Boston College, 13-19. (Games played — 11, games won — 10, games lost — 1. Score for — 331, against — 45.)

Boston College: Centre, 40-0; Tulane, 27-7; Temple, 33-20; Idaho, 60-0; St. Anselm, 55-0; Manhattan, 25-0; Boston University, 21-0; Georgetown, 19-18; Auburn, 33-7; Holy Cross, 7-0; Tennessee, 19-13. (Games played — 11, won — 11. Score for — 339, against 65.)

Army: Cornell, 0-45; Harvard, 6-6; Notre Dame, 0-7; Princeton, 19-26; Navy, 0-14.

Colgate: Cornell, 0-34; Brown, 20-3; Holy Cross, 6-0; Syracuse, 7-6; Columbia, 17-20.

Columbia: Dartmouth, 20-6; Syracuse, 0-3; Cornell, 0-27; Navy, 0-0; Colgate, 20-7; Brown, 0-0.

Cornell: Colgate, 34-0; Army, 15-0; Columbia, 27-0; Yale, 21-0; Dartmouth, 0-3; Pennsylvania, 20-22.

Dartmouth: Columbia, 6-20; Yale, 7-13; Harvard, 7-6; Princeton, 9-14; Cornell, 3-0; Brown, 20-6.

Fordham: Tulane, 20-7; Pittsburgh, 24-12; St. Mary's, 6-9; Purdue, 13-7; N. Y. U., 26-0.

Harvard: Amherst, 13-0; Michigan, 0-26; Army, 6-6; Dartmouth, 6-7; Princeton, 0-0; Yale, 28-0.

Navy: Princeton, 12-6; Yale, 21-0; Pennsylvania, 0-20; Notre Dame, 7-13; Army, 14-0.

Nebraska: Minnesota, 7-13; Missouri, 20-7; Pittsburgh, 9-7; Kansas State, 20-0; Stanford, 13-21.

N. Y. U.: Lafayette, 7-9; Syracuse, 13-47; Holy Cross, 7-13; Penn State, 0-25; Fordham, 0-26.

Northwestern: Wisconsin, 27-7; Minnesota, 12-13; Illinois, 32-14; Michigan, 13-20; Notre Dame, 20-0.

Notre Dame: Illinois, 26-0; Army, 7-0; Navy, 13-7; Iowa, 0-7; Northwestern, 0-20.

Pennsylvania: Yale, 50-7; Princeton, 46-28; Michigan, 0-14; Navy, 20-0; Harvard, 10-10; Army, 48-0; Cornell, 22-20.

Pittsburgh: Ohio State, 7-30; Missouri, 19-13; Fordham, 12-24; Nebraska, 7-9; Duke, 7-12.

Princeton: Navy, 6-12; Pennsylvania, 28-46; Harvard, 0-0; Dartmouth, 14-9; Yale, 10-7; Army, 26-19.

Texas A. and M.: U.C.L.A., 7-0; Baylor, 14-7; Arkansas, 17-0; Southern Methodist, 19-7; Texas, 0-7.

Yale: Pennsylvania, 7-50; Dartmouth, 13-7; Navy, 0-21; Brown, 2-6; Princeton, 7-10; Harvard, 0-28.