Half Time

This Saturday, at Ann Arbor, Minnesota and Michigan will fight for the Little Brown Jug, a trophy that has survived 38 years of football rivalry. Until last week, this year's Michigan team--"wrecked" by the loss of Tom Harmon and Forrest Evashevski--was written off as a pushover for Coach Bernie Bierman's gigantic Gophers, favorites to win the mythical 1941 football championship of the U.S. as they did the 1940. But last week Michigan's omens improved: Michigan outsmarted Northwestern (14-to-7). More important for the superstitious, its victory was won with brilliant touchdown passes of a sophomore named Tom Kuzma, who comes from Tom Harmon's home town of Gary, Ind., and plays in Harmon's old tailback position.

So both Michigan and Minnesota will take the field at Ann Arbor with their slates clean. Besides highly-touted Northwestern, which had rolled up 92 points in its first two games, Michigan has beaten Michigan State (19-to-7), Iowa (6-to-0), Pittsburgh (40-to-0). Minnesota's three victims are Washington (14-to-6), Illinois (34-to-6) and Pittsburgh (39-to-0). If the Gophers beat Michigan (as they have for the past eight years), they still have Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin to tackle.

Last week as the season approached the halfway mark, two other dark horses besides Michigan crowded the leaders:

Ohio State. Last year Minnesota nearly caught a tartar in Ohio State. This year Coach Bierman may consider himself lucky that he did not schedule the Buckeyes. They have humbled three reputable opponents so far: Missouri (12-to-7), Southern California (33-to-0), Purdue (16-to-14).

The Buckeyes' record gives Ohio's taxpayers a chance to crow. Supporters of the State University and its most rabid football rooters, citizens last winter demanded that Ohio State hire Paul Brown, a 32-year-old high-school coach, to replace Francis Schmidt. At Massillon (Ohio) High School, Brown had chalked up a record of only one defeat in 60 games. No one expects him to steer the Buckeyes through the season undefeated--with Northwestern, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan still to play--but on his record so far Upstart Brown has done the outstanding coaching job of the year.

University of Georgia. Another college coach who jumped from the bushes to the big time is Wallace Butts of University of Georgia. In their first three games this season, his Bulldogs scored 129 points to 20 for the opposition. More sensational than its coach, however, is Georgia's star halfback, Frank Sinkwich.

Playing against South Carolina three weeks ago, Sinkwich had his jaw broken on one side, cracked on the other. With his jaws wired, his chin in a sling and his breathing so impaired that he required trips to the sidelines for whiffs of oxygen, Sinkwich played for three quarters of last fortnight's game against Mississippi, threw a pass that tied the score, 14-to-14. Last week, against Columbia, Sinkwich played for nearly 60 minutes, scored the touchdown that licked the Lions, 7-to-3. "He can do everything but bite into a steak," moaned Columbia's .Coach Lou Little, flabbergasted that a cripple had tamed the most formidable herd of Lions he has turned out in years.

Elsewhere the triumphant march of the favorites continued:

South. Toss-up for the No. 1 team of the South is still between Duke's Blue Devils and the University of Texas' Longhorns. Last week the Blue Devils spiked Colgate, 27-to-14, for their fourth straight victory; and the Longhorns made it four straight against Arkansas, 48-to-14.

East. Navy, with so many backfield dreadnoughts that rival coaches have asked for some under Lend-Lease, sank Cornell, 14-to-0. Fordham, headed for the Rose Bowl, trampled West Virginia's Mountaineers, 27-10-0.

West. Only undefeated big-time team on the West Coast is now Santa Clara, which beat Michigan State 7-to-0 last week. But Buck Shaw's Broncos have a bumpy road ahead: Oklahoma, Stanford (victor over San Francisco, 42-to-26, last week), Oregon, St. Mary's and U.C.L.A.

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