Football Matches

Champions are collapsible. Notre Dame, popularly regarded as the best team in the land, lost heavily to the hitherto inconspicuous Army eleven, 18-0. Undefeated Princeton perished before a soaring Yale forward pass in the dying minutes of the game; fumbled a few plays later; retired ruefully a 14-6 loser. Tennessee, invincible in the south, was securely tied by Vanderbilt. Georgia, beating Clemson 32-0, advanced to the lonely magnificence of the only major team in the country unbeaten & untied.

New York University made 14 first downs to Penn State's five as Halfback Briante swelled his record for yards gained for the season to within 19 of famed Harold ("Red") Grange's 1,260; but N. Y. U., as yet unbeaten, was tied 13-13. Washington & Jefferson, also unbeaten, beat Bucknell 19-3. Potent Pittsburgh took a sound whack at western supremacy by smashing Nebraska, 21-13. Illinois waged another successful combat in the rush for the Western Conference championship, defeating Chicago 15-6.

Thus the 1927 championship can not be unanimously awarded to any eleven. Georgia has beaten Yale, but no one else of national importance. There are at least ten elevens for whom supporters can conscientiously claim the championship. No one of them can win it.

In the Far West, green jerseys from Santa Clara, beaten by Southern California 52-12, swarmed over mighty Stanford to stage the worst upset in many seasons of Pacific football, 13-6. Southern California, tied with Stanford for the Conference title (Santa Clara is a non-conference team), drubbed docile Colorado 46-7. The good Washington eleven, losers only to Stanford, crumbled California, 6-0.

The midwest held its head up by virtue of a 27-12 victory for Michigan over Navy. Syracuse and Colgate, good teams each, were each equal to everything the other showed, 13-13. Harvard painted another bright spot in a spotty schedule by defeating Brown 18-6. Dartmouth contributed the most massive victory of major teams, smothering Cornell 53-7.

... The chief individual of the week was a man who did not play. Bruce Caldwell, Yale halfback worshipped by many as the greatest hero of the year, sat on the sidelines*at New Haven while 80,000 people wondered what he might have done in the second quarter when lunging Princeton linemen twice held Yale for downs within the five yard line.

Exeter and Andover, most ancient U. S. schoolboy rivals, struggled fiercely for the 47th time; pointlessly.

Statistics are now sufficiently numerous to indicate the chief change in the game occasioned by new rules. The goal posts were this season, as everyone knows, set back 10 yards from the goal line. As result, Of leading individual scorers in the east only 15 have kicked goals from the field. No player has made as many as three field-goals. In the Western Conference, only one field-goal has been kicked all season.

At Stevens. During the 1924 football season at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N. J., there were two fractured skulls, one broken leg. Football was abolished. Last week Physical Director John A. Davis made a statement anent a new football game at Stevens; played in sneakers & gymnasium suits; akin to "Touch Football," played at many a school informally; at many a week-end party. "The present system has changed the entire attitude of the students toward sports. Four hundred and fifty students now play football--and like it."

*A Providence, R. I., newspaper reporter had stuck his nose-for-news into Caldwell's mount ing fame, reported how he had played for Brown as a freshman before entering Yale. By Yale's dual contract with Princeton and with Harvard, Caldwell can play no more Yale football. He can, however, play basketball & baseball in the winter & spring. /-the same rules apply as in regular football except that it is unnecessary to tackle -- a runner-with-the-ball.