A Weekend in Time

November 19, 1932

Banker Ralph W. Ellis of Springfield, Mass, was graduated from Harvard in 1879. Of the 51 football games that Harvard and Yale have played, he has seen all but one. But even Banker Ellis had never seen a Harvard-Yale game quite like the one last week. A gusty south wind from Long Island Sound lashed rain into the Yale Bowl by the cloudful. The 50,000 people (who contributed only $2,315 to solicitors for an unemployment fund) kept away from the field till the last minute and then piled into the Bowl wearing oilskins, rubber boots, blankets, with newspapers folded around their necks for scarves and wrapped around their hats. The storm made it all the more likely that, like most Harvard-Yale games, this one, between two teams with almost equally erratic records, would be decided by a stroke of fortune.

Thus began Time magazine's summary of the college football weekend. The game, "sometimes a sort of exaggerated water-polo," went Yale's way throughout, 19-0, for the most decisive win in the series since Harvard's 41-0 triumph in 1915. Despite the fact that the Eli finished their season a mere 2-2-3, frenzied students tore down the goalposts. The Crimson ended 5-3.

In New York City, the same storm drenched three games: Fordham edged Oregon State on a safety, 8-6, at the Polo Grounds while Columbia-Syracuse and Holy Cross-Manhattan (at Yankee Stadium) played scoreless ties.

Across the continent, the sun blazed down on the oldest rivalry on the West Coast: Stanford-Cal at Berkeley. 78,000 in summer clothes watched a scoreless tie. "Pop" Warner's underdog Indian squad (6-3-1 with a trip to Pittsburgh coming up) won the statistical battle (208 rushing yd. to 124, seven to six first downs) over their hosts (6-3-2 with a December 17 visit from Georgia Tech).

Other results:

"Not since Michigan's famed Benny Friedman had the Western Conference had a forward passer like Michigan's Harry Newman. Last week, Harry Newman executed his wiliest play of the year." The play did not even involve a forward pass. Instead, Newman kicked a FG with 36 seconds left in the first half for the only score to clinch the Big Ten Championship over Minnesota. [Newman was later inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.]
Nebraska (5-1-1) grabbed the Big Six championship with a 5-0 victory over Oklahoma (4-4).
"Auburn has an extraordinary football team, called 'Tigers' or 'Plainsmen.' Its coach is Chet Wynne, Notre Dame FB in 1921. Captain and LHB is Jimmy Hitchcock, baldish, small, fast, whom Auburn publicists like to compare with famed Red Grange." Auburn (9-0) claimed its first Southern Conference Championship with a surprisingly tight 14-7 win over Georgia (2-5-1) in Columbus, the site of the oldest rivalry in the South for 13 of the past 14 years. The Plainsmen have now outscored their opponents 255-34.
Notre Dame, 6-1 in its second year under "Hunk" Anderson, dominated Navy (2-5-1) in Cleveland but won only 12-0 despite a 20-4 first down edge and 282 rushing yd to 71.
Utah kept its streak of not losing a Rocky Mountain Conference game since 1927 intact and clinched its fifth straight championship with a 12-0 win over the Colorado Aggies (the last team to derail the Utes). Ike Armstrong's squad finished 6-0-1 after a 35-0 trouncing at the hands of USC in the season opener.
"After 40 years of football against North Carolina, Duke and its new Coach Wallace Wade [in his second year since migrating from Alabama] managed to win for the first time, 7-0."
"Ever since their 6-6 tie last month, there has been bickering between Vanderbilt and Tulane. Tulane accused Vanderbilt's Assistant Coach Russ Cohen of spite in having Tulane's Captain Nollie Felts barred for professionalism. Vanderbilt accused Tulane of booing Coach Cohen at their game. Last week, Coach Cohen announced that Vanderbilt and Tulane had severed relations, that Vanderbilt would play Louisiana State University instead next year. Tulane showed no mortification; its second team ran through Sewanee, 26-0."
"Biggest score of the week: West Liberty's 137-0 against Cedarville at Wheeling WV with 71 points by LHB Joe Korshalla."

October 20, 1956

John David Crow

The top two teams in the Southwest Conference met as 3-0-1 Texas A&M hosted 3-0 TCU. The game, played in a driving rain with gusts up to 90 mph, came to be known as the "Hurricane Bowl." The Horned Frogs dominated the first half, keeping the Aggies bottled up in their own territory and driving inside the 10 three times only to be denied. Finally, in the third quarter, as skies cleared, the visitors scored but missed the point. Early in Q4, 150 lb. scatback Don Watson kept A&M in the game with an INT in the end zone. As an encore to his 51-yard run that beat the Frogs last year, Don scooted around end for 37 yards to the enemy 20. Four player later, he lobbed a pass to HB John David Crow to culminate the 80-yard drive. The PAT gave the Aggies a 7-6 lead which they protected in the last nine minutes.

Up East, 212-lb HB Jimmy Brown battered Army, but Syracuse won by only 7-0. In the Midwest, #2 Michigan State spotted downtrodden Notre Dame a TD on a drive led by do-everything QB Paul Hornung, then rolled to a 47-14 rout. The impressed AP voters leapfrogged the Spartans over Oklahoma for the top spot. Since Duffy Daugherty's squad was ineligible for a repeat trip to the Rose Bowl, Michigan staked its claim to be the Pasadena frontrunner with a 34-20 win over Northwestern. Eastern Independent Penn State (3-1) and undefeated Ohio State were scoreless with 4 minutes to play, but QB Milt Plum's 73-yard punt gave the visiting Lions of Rip Engle great field position that led to a 7-0 lead. Woody Hayes' Buckeyes, averaging 333 yards on the ground in their first three contests but stymied on this day, took to the air with two passes to Leo Brown totaling 61 yards to set up a 3-yard TD run. QB-K Frank Kremblas kicked the tying point, but OSU had too many men on the field. Kremblas missed his second try from the 25.

Jim Brown

Angry that Kansas' first quarter TD ended its regular season shutout streak at eight games, Bud Wilkinson's Sooners rolled to a 34-12 victory. In the Pacific Coast Conference, undefeated USC scored a surprisingly easy 35-7 win over Washington while QB John Brodie led Stanford to a "workmanlike" 21-7 triumph over Oregon. Down South, North Carolina won its first game for new coach Jim Tatum, 34-0, over Tatum's former team, Maryland. In the SEC, undefeated Georgia Tech ran away from Auburn 28-7. Tulane knocked Ole Miss from the undefeated ranks with a 10-3 upset in another monsoon game under the lights in Jackson. TU's QB Gene "Mighty Mouse" Newton scampered 86 yards on the soggy field on the first offensive play of Q3 for the game's only TD. Second-year coach Paul Dietzel saw his LSU Tigers fall to 0-4 after a 14-0 defeat in Lexington.

October 10, 1964

Joe Namath

#3 Alabama defeated North Carolina State 21-0 in a game that changed the career of Tide QB Joe Namath. With 6 minutes left in Q2 in a scoreless game, Joe rolled out, cut right, and suffered a knee injury. He had been a fleet option QB who could burn a D with his feet as well as his arm. Steve Sloan finished the drive with a rushing TD for a 7-0 halftime lead. Sloan directed two more scores in the second half as E Tommy Tolleson set a Bama record with 8 receptions.

Amazingly, #4 Ohio State gained more yards passing than rushing for the second week in a row in a 26-0 trouncing of #2 Illinois. That phenomenon had occurred only twice in 84 previous games under Woody Hayes. DB John Fill raced 48 yards with a deflected pass off the hands of Illini E Bob Trumpy to set up the game's first score, a 24-yard bootleg by QB Don Unverferth. After four first downs on its initial drive, the home team never penetrated the Buckeye 30 the rest of the contest as star FB Jim Grabowski managed just 32 yards.

On Friday night in Jacksonville, 4-0 Georgia Tech shutout Navy 17-0 as "brilliant" junior QB Roger Staubach nursed an injured ankle. So Yellow Jacket signal-caller Bruce Fischer got a chance to shine (5-7 for 142 yards and a TD). The Academy's backup QB Bruce Bickel led marches to the 6, 16, 24, and 12 but the Tech D repelled every onslaught.

LSU gained 319 yards with its flanker O but found itself in a 3-3 tie with visiting North Carolina late in Q3. Then second string HB Gawain DiBetta broke the tie with a 5-yard run, and E Doug Moreau kicked a second FG and caught a TD pass from QB Pat Screen for a 20-3 triumph.

Florida handed Ole Miss its worse loss since 1956, a 30-14 shellacking in Gainesville. The Rebels, pre-season favorites for the SEC crown, fell to 2-2 while UF moved to 3-0. Ahead only 10-7 in the Q3, the Gators gained momentum on a 62-yard punt return by Allen Trammell. Soph QB Steve Spurrier added two TD passes to E Charles Casey.

Previously unbeaten UCLA left Syracuse with their tails between their legs after the Orange D, known as "The Spiders," limited the visitors to 45 yards in the air and -4 yards rushing. 'Cuse enjoyed three long TDs on interception reteurns by DBs Buddy Johnson (35 yards) and Charlie Brown (54 yards) and a 90-yard punt return by HB Floyd Little. It all added up to a 39-0 Bruin humiliation.

Another unbeaten team, #5 Kentucky, also received a spanking on the road. Florida State QB Steve Tensi threw two TD passes to WR Fred Biletnikoff as the 4-0 Seminoles handed the Wildcats a 48-6 defeat, their worse since 1945.

Undefeated #1 Texas, the defending AP national champion, dominated Oklahoma in the annual Red River Shootout in Dallas despite Sooner LB Carl McAdams' 18 tackles, interception, and fumble recovery. The interception set up HB Lance Rentzel's Q1 TD. After a 7-7 standoff at intermission, WB Phil Harris, FB Harold Phillips, and E Pete Lammons scored TDs in the second stanza. New OU coach Gomer Jones lost to Darrell Royal, who ran his record against his alma mater to 7-1. For the third time in four years, the game ended 28-7 in favor of the Longhorns.

In Portland, disappointing Washington, expected to gain a return trip to the Rose Bowl, lost to Oregon State 9-7. After the Huskies took a 7-6 lead in Q2, the Beavers dammed up UW and won on a 21-yard FG by Steve Clark that was set up by OSU's second interception. The first had led to a TD in Q1.

When all the dust cleared, Ohio State leapfrogged Alabama to #2 in the AP Poll while Syracuse jumped to #7, LSU to #9, and FSU to #10.

October 12, 1968

Archie Manning

In the SEC, soph QB Archie Manning's 10-yard Miss a 7-0 lead in Athens. However, Georgia's rock-ribbed D shut out the Rebels the rest of the way while their O brethren scored 21. TB Kent Lawrence scored from the 7, and QB Mike Cavan threw a 63-yard TD pass. Meanwhile, in nearby Atlanta, Tennessee won 24-7 over independent Georgia Tech, which had left the conference after the 1965 season. The teams combined for 11 lost fumbles, and the Yellow Jackets threw 63 passes trying to come from behind. WB Lester McClain, the Vols' first African-American player and one of the first in the SEC, caught 12- and 24-yard TD passes from QB Bubba Wyche.

Virginia stunned the fans in Wallace Wade Stadium by amassing an ACC-record 495 yards rushing and 603 yards of total O in a 50-20 thrashing of Duke. HB Frank Quayle, who reminded Cavalier fans of Bullet Bill Dudley from the early 1940s, gained 182 on 15 rushes.

The biggest upset of the young season took place in Columbus where youthful Ohio State downed top-ranked Purdue 13-0. QB Rex Kern, part of a sophomore class rated the best in Buckeye history, missed open receivers in the scoreless first half that also saw the teams combine for five missed FGs. After intermission, the OSU D, led by DB Jack Tatum's 2 sacks and 3 pass breakups, dented the scoreboard when DB Ted Provost intercepted Mike Phipps and rambled 35 yards. Another INT, this one by DL Jim Stillwagon, at the 25 set up a 14-yard TD dash by backup QB Bill Long, subbing for the injured Kern. Farther north, 2-1 Michigan (in "Bump" Elliott's last season at the helm) defeated Duffy Daugherty's 3-0 Michigan State Spartans 28-14 in Ann Arbor.

#6 Kansas scored 2 TDs late in the fourth quarter to beat #9 Nebraska 23-13 in Lincoln before the largest crowd in Big 8 history. QB Bobby Douglass scored the go-ahead TD on a one-yard plunge with 4:09 left. After the Big Red failed on a fourth-and-seven at its 23, Douglass added the clincher on a 10-yard run.

The first African-American player in the Southwest Conference, WR Jerry Levias, returned a punt 89 yards in the fourth quarter to give SMU a 21-14 victory at TCU. A few miles away in Dallas, FB Steve Worster carried two Oklahoma tacklers over the goal line with him with 39 seconds left to propel Texas to a 26-20 triumph. Uncharacteristically, the wishbone O covered most of the 85-yard drive by air. In Fayetteville, Baylor lost a record-tying tenth straight conference game to Arkansas 35-19.

TB O. J. Simpson scored on runs of 3, 46, and 4 yards in USC's 7-24 victory in Palo Alto. The Juice totaled 220 for the day. Stanford's soph QB Jim Plunkett had a relatively poor day: 14-30/246y, TD, 2 INTs. With Purdue's loss, the Trojans took the AP's #1 slot. Down the coast in L.A., Penn State advanced to 4-0 with a 21-6 beating of UCLA.

November 3, 1979

Jim Kelly

Miami (FL) visited its fellow independent, Penn State, for what turned out to be the coming-out party of East Brady PA prep star QB Jim Kelly, who had rejected the Nittany Lions because he didn't want to play LB. Completing 17-30 for 280 yards, Kelly got the last laugh, 26-10.

Two other Eastern independents met in the Steel City with Pittsburgh besting Syracuse 28-21. Panther frosh QB Dan Marino threw two short TD passes for a 21-6 halftime edge. Then, after 'Cuse pulled to within 21-13, threw a 36y screen pass and a 33-yarder to set up the clinching TD.

Further South, Virginia stunned Georgia in Athens 31-0 for the Cavs' most impressive win in more than a decade. Another SEC team was also upset at home. "What's a Rutgers?" was the headline in the Knoxville paper. After the Scarlet Knights carved up the 17th-ranked Vols 13-7 before 84,265 at Neyland Stadium, the visitors could answer, "A team better than yours!"

Dan Marino

In Jackson, LSU scored 28 of the final 35 points to overcome Ole Miss, 28-24. The Tigers didn't lead until WR Tracy Porter ran in from 4 out with 2:29 left. Porter had set up his own score with a 52y punt return. QB John Fourcade had sparked the Rebels to a 17-0 lead. Then, after LSU took the lead, he marched his forces 82y to the 3 before Willie Teal's end zone interception ended Rebel hopes.

Nebraska, ranked #2 in the AP behind Alabama, ran its record to 8-0 with a 23-20 squeaker at Missouri. The Tigers passed up a tying FG attempt from the 11 to go for the win. However, DE Derrie Nelson sacked QB Phil Bradley as time expired.

In the Pac-10, USC rode the school-record 380y passing (25-for-35) of QB Paul McDonald to a 34-7 romp over Arizona in the Coliseum. TB Charles White charged ahead for 167y rushing to balance the attack. The only blemish on the record for the #4 Trojans was a 21-21 tie with Stanford three weeks earlier.

October 11, 1986

The biggest shocker occurred in Neyland Stadium where Army upset Tennessee 25-21. Trailing 21-7 entering the last skirmish, the Cadets (3-2) stormed back, finally taking the lead with 35 seconds left on DB Reggie Fullwood's 2-yard return of a blocked punt by CB Charles Williams. QB Jeff Francis (24-33/334 yds) marched the Vols (2-3) to the enemy 15 before his pass was broken up in the end zone as time expired. The victory was the first for the Black Knights against a Division I-A team on the road since a 17-13 win over Stanford in 1979.

Tiger Stadium worked its Saturday night magic again as LSU (3-1) defeated Georgia (3-2) 23-14. Three FGs by Ron Lewis, who grew up a Dog fan, were the difference. As so often happens under Bill Arnsparger, the Tiger D made halftime adjustments and shut out the visitors to preserve their record of allowing no points in the fourth quarter. QB Tommy Hodson's pass to favorite target Wendell Davis put the Bengals ahead for good in Q3. TBs Harvey Williams (133 yds) and Sammy Martin (106 yds) led the rushing attack. On the other side of the ball, LB Toby Caston made 20 tackles and a late INT.

Jim Harbaugh

Michigan remained undefeated (5-0) in whipping rival Michigan State 27-6 in the Big House. QB Jim Harbaugh threw 2 TD passes – amazingly the most ever in the series by a Wolverine – and rushed for another TD. Spartan WR Andre Rison was limited to one catch. MSU (2-3) sorely missed injured TB Lorenzo White.

The Red River Shootout turned into a massacre as Oklahoma punished Texas 47-12. The Sooners (4-1) scored on five of their first six possessions for a 31-0 halftime lead. QB Jamelle Hollieway and TB Patrick Collins led Barry Switzer's efficient wishbone. Meanwhile, the D limited the Longhorns (2-2) to 29 yds rushing. The lopsided defeat turned up the heat on coach Fred Akers.

In Lincoln, Tom Osborne's Cornhuskers moved to 5-0 by defeating Oklahoma State (2-3) for the 13th straight time, 30-10. The Blackshirt D coralled TB Thurman Thomas, holding him to only 38 yd in 22 carries.

Thurman Thomas

A three-TD underdog, the Texas Tech Red Raiders (3-3) proved rude guests, besting Arkansas 17-7. Diminutive WR Tyrone Thurman's 27 yd punt return set up a 1 yard sneak by QB Billy Joe Tolliver for a 10-point lead that forced the Razorbacks (4-1) to take to the air, unfamiliar territory for Hogs.

Out West, another unbeaten team bit the dust as Washington State (3-2-1) scored a surprisingly easy 34-14 victory over USC. That Wazoo won at all was amazing considering the 29 straight defeats the Trojans had laid on the Cougars. Troy QB Rodney Peete's 253 yards sounds impressive but could not offset his two fumbles and 2 INTs.

Another Pac-10 contest saw UCLA (3-2) explode for 25 points in Q4 to knock Arizona (4-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten, 32-25. TB Gaston Green rushed for 2 TDs, including a 32-yarder in the last minute. The Wildcats' only 2nd half score came on a pass from TB David Adams to WR Derek Hill midway through Q4.

As a result of the week's activity, the top four in the AP poll remained the same: Miami, Alabama, Nebraska, Michigan. Oklahoma's rout jumped them to fifth over Penn State.