Dream Team

Once upon a time, not so long ago, U. S. football fans knew the systems of their favorite teams. They knew what to expect from a team that used the Notre Dame system, what to expect from a team that used the Warner system. But the universal practice of scouting has changed all that. Today no major college sticks to either of these famed post-War standard brands of play. Each coach teaches his own version of the Notre Dame or the Warner--or a cross-breeding of both--varying his attack to suit the talents of his players and to upset the calculations of his opponents. Although tackling and blocking still win most football games, contemporary coaches must have a fat bag of offensive tricks (some have as many as 200). What the 1938 coach sees in his pipe dreams is a magician at every position--not only to fool his opponents but to please his public.

Major reason for present-day gate receipts of $75,000,000 during an eight-week college football season is the increasing prevalence of wide-open play, more pronounced this year than ever before. Almost every major college has at least one better-than-average runner, one better-than-average passer. The forward pass, written into the rules in 1906, wandered around as a hit-or-miss side line for a quarter of a century. Now, since it has become the darling of the Rules Committee, the pass has developed into a major technique--classified into spot, crossover, alley, flat aerials and many another specialty. That football may eventually evolve into a sort of basketball is evidenced by a glimpse of any vacant lot in November: most boys are throwing footballs, not running with them.

One of the few U. S. colleges which still cling to old-fashioned ground plays is the University of Pittsburgh, for the past 15 years coached by tall, angular Dr. John Bain ("Jock") Sutherland. Jock Sutherland, who learned his football under famed Pop Warner, is the envy of every other football coach in the country this year. He has what they call a "dream backfield''--powerful running backs who can block, kick and handle passes with equal skill.

But what makes this year's Pitt team the most outstanding in the U. S. (some say it is the greatest of all time) is a mighty line--without which no back can sparkle. If Pitt's dream backfield of Goldberg, Stebbins, Cassiano and Chickerneo is rated on a par with the famed Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, Pitt's line-- Daddio, Merkovsky, Lezouski, Dannies, Petro, Raskowski, Hoffman--may be favorably compared with Fordham's recent Seven Blocks of Granite, or any other publicized bulwark of the past.

To watch this dream team in its annual skirmish with Fordham, 76,000 wildly enthusiastic fans, the largest sport crowd in Pittsburgh history, jampacked the Pitt Stadium last week. Millions of others listened at their radios, attracted by the drama of the setting: two of the most powerful teams in the U. S. coached by two famed football players of a bygone day (Pitt's 1914-17 Guard Sutherland and Notre Dame's 1922-24 "Horseman" Jim Crowley), playing in a series nicknamed the "Goose Egg Classic" because of three scoreless ties in the past three years. Whether undefeated Pitt or undefeated Fordham would be the first to break the string of zeros was the basis of many a wager--in Pitt's favor at 3-to-1.

Schoolboys could recite Pitt's record: In its first five games this season, it had got 66 first downs, gained 1,653 yards from scrimmage, averaged four touchdowns a game--against such strong opponents as West Virginia, Temple, Duquesne, Wisconsin and Southern Methodist. Fordham, in four games, had made 69 first downs, gained 1,607 yards from scrimmage.

Spectators, looking for a Pitt air attack like that which it uncorked against recent opponents, saw no such thing. First score was a 13-yd. Pitt field goal, made by Daddio. Then for almost three periods, Pitt clung to the ground, permitted Fordham to fool her with a few hoary formations that succeeded in scoring a touchdown. But in the last period the dream team came out of its trance--smashed its way to three touchdowns in ten minutes and won the game, 24-to-13. It was Pitt's 22nd straight game without defeat. No other major college team today trails such a record behind it.

Other undefeated teams which defeated formidable opponents last week:

> Notre Dame, its first-string team relieved by platoons of substitutes sent onto the field eleven at a time, overpowered a smart Army team, 19-to-7, in a last-quarter flare-up.

> Texas Christian, led by little Davey O'Brien, gained 525 yards (241 on passes), scored six touchdowns for a 39-to-7 victory over theretofore unbeaten Baylor.

> Northwestern, undefeated but tied by Ohio State, toppled mighty Minnesota from the unbeaten ranks with a 6-to-3 thrashing.

> Duke defeated North Carolina, 14-to-0 and incidentally preserved its record of not permitting any opponent to cross its goal line this season.

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