Football

Whether or not Ohio State wins the Western Conference championship, its football season will be the most memorable in years.

It started with loud charges by Tree-Surgeon-Governor Davey that 13 members of the squad had State jobs (TIME, Oct. 21). Pleased by the uproar, officials at Ohio State admitted the fact, while Ohio State publicists ballyhooed the team's new name, ''Scarlet Scourge," announced that requests for Ohio State's football schedule had been received from London, Paris, Alaska, Bombay and Addis Ababa. In its second game, against Drake, Ohio State made a season's record for the number of players used (47) as well as the number of points scored (85-to-7). By that time "Jumping Joe" Williams, sophomore halfback of Barberton, Ohio, was a U. S. celebrity, the Nov. 2 game with Notre Dame a sure sellout.

Last week, Ohio State opened its Conference schedule against Northwestern, in a game that might have had a shade more significance if Northwestern had not lost to Purdue fortnight before. Undismayed, college authorities arranged a "Dad's Day" celebration. Male parents of all Ohio State students were welcomed to Columbus by Football Captain Gomer Jones, invited to a banquet. Fathers of football players, on the sidelines wearing the same numerals as their offspring, were introduced to the 43,000-crowd over loudspeakers.

Ohio State promptly scored two touchdowns on passes. Jumping Joe Williams--around right end for 23 yards, through tackle for 35 more--made a third. Held three times on the 2-yd. line, Northwestern finally pushed a touchdown across just before the half ended. Parades followed, by the 140-piece Northwestern band, the 120-piece Ohio State band. In the second half, Northwestern threatened but Ohio State did the only scoring, after a 70-yd. march, in the last quarter. Final score, 28-to-7.

Ohio State's coach, considered chiefly responsible for the current football furor in Columbus, is a greying, garrulous, good-humored ex-Army captain named Francis Albert Schmidt. He graduated from Nebraska in 1914. started coaching at Kendall College, made a reputation at Texas Christian where he functioned from 1929 ;o 1934. At Ohio State, Schmidt's methods have been nothing if not thorough. He made his players practice six weeks in winter and all spring, brought them back to Columbus three weeks early this autumn, divided the squad into four groups, held workouts from 9 a. m. until sundown. Most Big Ten coaches abide by tacit agreement not to run up one-sided scores against each other. Not so, Schmidt. Superficial characteristics of his strategy are complex ground plays, frequent passes. His 18-year coaching record: won 137, lost 30, tied 10.

Seventeen games drew 500.000 people. The biggest crowd (61,000) saw what was probably the best game--Yale 7, Navy 6--in the Yale Bowl. For the Yale victory, after four periods of smashing, bruising football, credit went to Substitute Henry Gardner. He trotted onto the field in the first quarter, trotted off a few seconds later, after place-kicking the extra point following Yale's touchdown.

Pitt is the only team that has beaten Notre Dame three years in a row since 1900. Notre Dame's Coach Elmer Layden waited anxiously last week until three minutes before the Pitt game ended. Then, with the score tied, a basketball star named Martin Joseph Peters kicked the field goal that won for Notre Dame, 9-to-6.

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In Texas, Southwest Conference teams have developed a football style of their own. It is florid and spectacular, a gambler's style, based on passes and pure speed. Last month experts thought Rice, Conference champion last year, with an available first string weighing one long ton (2,240 lb.), had the strongest concentration of football manpower in the U. S. Then Southern Methodist became high-scoring team of the country with 148 points to 6 against four opponents. In the Dallas game that seemed likely to mean at least a Conference title to the winner last week, a 150-lb. Southern Methodist back named Bobby Wilson wiggled around Rice's speedy ends, tunneled through Rice's hulking line for a touchdown. Orr's field goal for Southern Medthodist made it 10-to-0.

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In Berkeley, a Santa Clara back named Joe Kelley somehow achieved a punt that went backward over his own head. California capitalized it, 6-to-0.

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Three sprouting Roosevelts--James, John and Franklin D. Jr.--motored safely to West Point, watched Harvard lose to Army, 13-to-0.

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Beaten by Princeton and Yale after leading at half time, Penn last week took revenge on Columbia, 1933 Rose Bowl winner, 34-to-0.

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