Key Men

Before college football adopted some professional standards, a forward passer had to be five yards back of the line of scrimmage. Before that, two incomplete passes in a row drew a 5-yd. penalty. Nowadays, a sleight-of-hand T-quarterback may pitch right from the line of scrimmage; he may also flip four failures in a row without penalty--though his coach might have something to say about that. The new rules deliberately encourage a more open style of play, and good passers have popped up all over the football map this year. Key men in the T-formation, they can make a poor team better than average, a good team great, and, on a bad day. they can also make an average team look helpless. Some of the best went to battle last week, with varying results.

Holy Cross's Charlie Maloy, the "passingest" player in Eastern football history, tossed two touchdown passes in a snowstorm to down Colgate, 13-7, and keep his team's Bowl hopes alive. Maloy, a 20-year-old senior from Rochester, N.Y., was pitching against the East's best pass defense. He completed 10 out of 13 for 119 yds., running his three-year record for passing gains to more than two miles.

On the other side of the continent, Washington's Don Heinrich, the Pacific Coast Conference's leading passer, who in 1950 held the intercollegiate mark of 60.7% completions in one season, sparked his team to a 22-7 upset of California. Husky (6 ft. 1 in., 178 Ibs.) Heinrich carried the ball himself for one score, and earned two more points on a freak play: a California man nabbed a Heinrich pass and fell over his own goal line for a safety.

Michigan State's Tom Yewcic and his aptly named understudy, Willie Thrower, tossed only seven passes between them but completed five, two for touchdowns, as the nation's top-ranked team whipped Indiana on a muddy field, 41-14.

But when one of these key men has an unlucky day, as one did last week, the roof caves in. Columbia's brilliant Mitch Price, who has already shattered six Ivy League passing records and whose 16-seconds-to-go pass tied Army, was undone by hard-charging Dartmouth defenders. With Price completing only 9 out of 27 for 40 yds., Columbia lost, 38-14.

Maryland's Jack Scarbath, touted as the best bet for All-America quarterback honors, enjoyed the easiest day of all. The nation's No. 2 team had an open date.

Other results last week:

California's two unbeaten football titans won easily. U.S.C. plowed Stanford under, 54-7, and U.C.L.A. chewed up Oregon State, 57-0, to pave the way for the upcoming clash between these Rose Bowl aspirants. Georgia Tech, the nation's No. 3 team, overpowered Army, 45-6; Notre Dame outgamed fourth-ranked Oklahoma, 27-21; Navy surprised Duke, 16-6.

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