Monday, Dec. 02, 1946
Little Champ
Not since Eleuthere du Pont built his powder works 144 years ago had there been so much fireworks in Delaware. Tiny University of Delaware had been unbeaten for 29 games--a record that outshone Army's. It had a high-stepping halfback, ex-marine Gerald ("Doc") Doherty, who averaged 13.5 yds. every time he carried the ball, and a second-string replacement who averaged twelve. It had three full squads that trotted on & off the field as units. Last week Delaware's Blue Hens played their last game of the season, against little Muhlenberg, which also had been undefeated all year. Wilmington Park wasn't nearly big enough to hold everybody who wanted to see football's biggest little game. The victor: Delaware, 20-12.
The brand of smokeless powder that Delaware's quiet, 6 ft. Coach Bill Murray uses is the outmoded double-wing with unbalanced line to the left instead of the right. He disdains the flashier T and trickery ("If you can't dig 'em out, run over them"). The Blue Hens like to kick-off instead of receive, then concentrate on blocking kicks, intercepting passes, running back punts for touchdowns. That's the way Bill Murray, a onetime Duke halfback, had a 36-game winning streak in his previous job: coaching the Children's Home, a Methodist orphanage in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The New Year's Day Rose Bowl rivals were chosen last week--and nobody was very happy about the choice. The Big Nine, who for 25 years have kept their fingers out of all Bowls, signed a contract with the Pacific Coast Conference which promised that, for the next three years, the westerners must play the Big Nine champ, and nobody else. Unbeaten U.C.L.A. beat its deadliest rival and Los Angeles neighbor, U.S.C., last week (13-6), and will represent the West. Twice-beaten Illinois defeated Northwestern 20-0, and will presumably represent the East. That left Army's far superior team--which wanted to play in the Rose Bowl--out in the cold, cold air. Said U.C.L.A.'s All-America prospect, End Burr Baldwin: "We would have been glad to hitchhike to West Point to play the cadets."
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