1942: Football

Collegiate Football.

Operating under handicaps that were judged early in 1942 to preclude the possibility of going ahead, football nevertheless enjoyed a full and exciting season to make its contribution to the war effort.

Losses of players and coaches to the armed forces, transportation shortages, and dimout regulations left their mark. Attendance at college games, largely resulting from the rationing of gas and rubber and the banning of railroad specials to sports events, fell off 19 per cent generally and in some cases 50 per cent.

The Army-Navy game, held in recent years before 100,000 people in Philadelphia, was transferred by presidential order to Annapolis, where less than 12,000 were present and the unique sight was offered of half of the regiment of midshipmen substituting as a cheering section for Army. The cadet corps was not allowed to accompany its team.

Despite the many dislocations, football had a big year. Both the college and professional teams played out their normal schedules. The various bowl games were held, with the Rose Bowl classic returning to Pasadena and the East-West charity fixture to San Francisco. The crowds, if smaller on the whole, taxed the capacity of the stadia for a large number of games.

The armed services went in for football in a big way. Army and Navy leaders bespoke the value of the sport in training young men for combat duty and in developing the qualities of leadership required of the officer personnel.

Commander Thomas Hamilton of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics was one of the foremost advocates of football as a preparation for fighting service. Through his initiative, physical fitness programs were established for naval aviation cadets in pre-flight schools at the universities of North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa and at St. Mary's (California).

Leading coaches, including Benie Bierman of Minnesota, James Crowley of Fordham, Harvey Harman of Rutgers and Ray (Bear) Wolf of North Carolina, were commissioned to assist in the direction of this training program. The football teams of these pre-flight schools were among the strongest in the country.

There were Army teams, Navy teams, Coast Guard teams, Marine teams and air base teams. The best of those playing in college competition was Great Lakes, which won legendary fame in the first World War.

Two Army All-Star elevens were organized to help raise funds for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. Lieut. Colonel Robert Neyland, formerly of Tennessee, and Major Wallace Wade, erstwhile of Duke, were put in charge of them. They played eight games against professional clubs in the National Football League and won four games and lost four. The sum of $241,392.29 was raised for the fund.

The caliber of college football was not up to the usual standard. This was owing in part to the fact that freshmen had to be drafted in some sections to fill out the depleted varsity squads, many coaches left to join the colors, and the players did not have as much time for practice as usual under accelerated academic programs.

Nevertheless, the play was exciting and to the liking of the public. The football was more open, the highest scoring average in twelve years resulted, and never before has there been a season so filled with shocking upsets. It remained for the end of the season to furnish the climax.

On one and the same day, Boston College and Georgia Tech, then ranked first and second nationally, took terrific drubbings. Boston College, which had beaten Fordham by 56-6, went into a stunning tailspin in its closing game with Holy Cross, which had been beaten four times, and was routed by 55-12. Georgia, which had been ousted from the top position when it was upset by Auburn, toppled Georgia Tech with a 34-0 pasting.

On that same day, Navy, a 3-to-1 underdog, completely outclassed Army to win by 14-0. It was a season in which Illinois humbled once-invincible Minnesota. The Golden Gophers, champions and unbeaten in 1941 and 1940, had their winning streak ended by Bierman's Iowa Seahawks and lost four times during the campaign.

A team as good as Northwestern lost nine of its ten games. Nebraska lost seven. Oregon State, Rose Bowl winner the year before, lost five. Cornell, Texas A. & M., Duquesne, Stanford, Southern California, Duke and Texas Christian University, all habitually strong, were beaten three or more times. Notre Dame lost two and was tied twice. Only one team of major status, Tulsa, won all its games (except the Sugar Bowl game).

The mid-West and the deep South were the strongest centers. In the final ranking compiled by the Associated Press poll, Ohio State was rated at the top. Next in order came Georgia, Wisconsin (the only team to beat Ohio State), Tulsa, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Boston College, Michigan, and Alabama.

Georgia won the invitation to the Rose Bowl with its victory over Georgia Tech and beat the University of California at Los Angeles (U. C. L. A.) in Pasadena by the score of 9-0.

In the Sugar Bowl at New Orleans Tulsa and Tennessee were the rivals, the decision going to Tennessee by 14-7.

Boston College and Alabama met in the Orange Bowl at Miami and the latter won, 37-21.

Texas and Georgia Tech squared off in the Cotton Bowl at Dallas and the decision went to Texas, 14-7.

Conference titles went to the following: Western, Ohio State; Southeastern, Georgia; Southern, William and Mary; Big Six, Missouri; Missouri Valley, Tulsa; Southwestern, Texas; Pacific Coast, University of California at Los Angeles; Big Seven, Utah and Colorado tied. Boston College was ranked as the top team of the East and received the Lambert Trophy. Yale won the Big Three crown for the first time since 1936 and Amherst won the Little Three title with an upset victory over Williams.

The coach of the year was voted to be William Alexander of Georgia Tech. Frank Sinkwich, Georgia back, won the Heisman Trophy as the outstanding player of the year and Paul Governali of Columbia was second, winning the Maxwell Award.

COLLEGIATE 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.

Ohio State: Fort Knox, 59-0; Indiana, 32-21; So. California, 28-12; Purdue, 26-0; Northwestern, 20-6; Wisconsin, 7-17: Pittsburgh, 59-19; Illinois, 44-20; Michigan, 21-7; Iowa Pre-Flight, 41-12.

Georgia: Kentucky, 7-6; Jacksonville, Tchrs., 14-0: Furman. 40-7; Mississippi, 48-13; Tulane, 40-0; Cincinnati, 35-13: Alabama, 21-10; Florida, 75-0; Chattanooga, 40-0; Auburn, 13-27; Georgia Tech., 34-0.

Wisconsin: Camp Grant, 7-0; Notre Dame. 7-7; Marquette, 35-7; Missouri, 17-9; Great Lakes, 13-7; Purdue, 13-0; Ohio State, 17-7; Iowa, 0-6; Northwestern, 20-19; Minnesota, 20-6.

Tulsa: Waco Air Base, 84-0; Oklahoma, 23-0; Randolph Field, 68-0; Washington (St. L.), 40-0; St. Louis, 41-0; Drake, 40-0; Oklahoma A. and M., 34-6; Baylor, 24-0; Creighton, 33-19; Arkansas, 40-7.

Georgia Tech: Auburn, 15-0; Notre Dame, 13-6; Chattanooga, 30-12; Davidson, 33-0; Navy, 21-0; Duke, 26-7; Kentucky, 47-7; Alabama, 7-0; Florida, 20-7; Georgia, 0-34.

Army: Cornell, 28-8; Columbia, 34-6; Harvard, 14-0; Pennsylvania, 0-19; Notre Dame, 0-13; Princeton, 40-7; Navy, 0-14.

Boston College: Georgetown, 47-0; Temple, 28-0; Fordham, 56-6; Boston University, 37-0; Holy Cross, 12-55.

Columbia: Brown, 21-28; Army, 6-34; Pennsylvania, 12-42; Cornell, 14-13; Dartmouth, 13-26; Navy, 9-13.

Cornell: Army, 8-28; Columbia, 13-14; Yale, 13-7; Dartmouth, 21-19; Pennsylvania, 7-34.

Dartmouth: Harvard, 14-2; Yale, 7-17; Princeton, 19-7; Cornell, 19-21; Columbia, 26-13.

Fordham: Purdue, 14-7; Tennessee, 14-40; L.S.U., 13-26; Boston College, 6-56; Missouri, 20-12.

Harvard: Pennsylvania, 7-19; Dartmouth, 2-14; Army, 0-14; Princeton, 19-14; Yale, 3-7.

Michigan: Northwestern, 34-16; Illinois, 28-14; Harvard, 35-7; Notre Dame, 32-20; Ohio State, 7-21.

Navy: Princeton, 0-10; Yale, 13-6; Georgia Tech, 0-21; Notre Dame, 0-9; Army, 14-0.

Pennsylvania: Yale, 35-6; Princeton, 6-6; Army, 19-0; Navy, 0-7; Cornell, 34-7.

Princeton: Navy, 10-0; Harvard, 14-19; Dartmouth, 7-19; Yale, 6-13; Army, 7-40.

Tennessee: Fordham, 40-14; Alabama, 0-8; Mississippi, 14-0; Kentucky, 26-0; Vanderbilt, 19-7.

Texas: Northwestern, 0-3; S.M.U., 21-7; Baylor, 20-0; T.C.U., 7-13; Texas A. and M., 12-6.

U.C.L.A.: T.C.U., 6-7; California, 21-0; Stanford, 20-7; Oregon, 7-14; Washington, 14-10.

Yale: Pennsylvania, 6-35; Navy, 6-13; Dartmouth, 17-7; Cornell, 7-13; Harvard, 7-3.

Professional Football.

Professional football came up with the most stunning reversal of the season when the Chicago Bears, supposedly the greatest force the game has known in many years, were beaten by the Washington Redskins in the play-off for the championship of the National Football League, 14-6.

Unbeaten in eighteen successive league games going back to 1941 and champions for the past two years, the Bears were overwhelming favorites to repeat. But the Redskins clearly outplayed the Bears in the first half, turned them back twice in the final half when Sid Luckman and Charley O'Rourke connected with their passes, and won before a sell-out crowd in the national capital. Sammy Baugh, their great passer, was the man of the hour, with the line doing a great job.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants, the only team to beat Washington, finished behind the Redskins in the Eastern division. The Green Bay Packers were second to the Bears in the Western loop.