For Prestige

All the University of Illinois had to do last week to cinch an invitation to the Rose Bowl was to defeat Wisconsin. Underdog Wisconsin, beaten in the Rose Bowl last year (and ineligible as a repeater to return this season), had nothing to gain but prestige. It turned out to be quite an incentive.

Illinois, undefeated and ranked No. 3 in the U.S. (after Notre Dame and Maryland), counted heavily on a pair of the ablest touchdown twins since Army's famed Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis. They were Negro Sophomores J. C. ("Mr. Outside") Caroline, the nation's leading ground-gainer, who had already broken Red Grange's old Illinois yardage record,* and Mickey ("Mr. Inside") Bates, who was just two shy of Grange's 13 touchdowns in one season. Furthermore, the touchdown twins are able to switch their inside-outside roles. Wisconsin seemed to have little to offer except determination and a rugged fullback named Alan ("The Horse") Ameche./-

Illinois, with Bates and Caroline rolling up most of the yardage, scored early, but Wisconsin bounced right back. By half-time at Madison, the partisan crowd of 52,887 was roaring its acclaim for Ameche & Co., who had tied the score, then gone ahead 14-7. The touchdown twins never caught up. Leading ground-gainer of the day, as Wisconsin salted the game away with three more touchdowns in the last quarter: Alan Ameche, with 145. Final score: 34-7.

. . .

At East Lansing, Mich., the Michigan State band happily saluted Illinois' upset by playing On, Wisconsin! Since Michigan State had just beaten its archrival, Michigan, 14-6, it had gained a likely tie for the Big Ten title andx a chance for the Rose Bowl. At Norman, Okla., the University of Oklahoma downed Iowa State 47-0 to win the Big Seven title for the sixth year in a row, clinch an Orange Bowl bid. Oklahoma's probable New Year's Day opponent: second-ranking Maryland, which trounced Mississippi 38-0. Texas took over the top spot in the Southwest Conference (and a probable Cotton Bowl bid) by downing Texas Christian 13-3.

The upsets of the day saw undefeated West Virginia defeated by South Carolina 20-14, Georgia Tech beaten 13-6 by Alabama, and Princeton, aiming for its seventh straight Big Three (Yale-Harvard-Princeton) title, overturned in the last 23 seconds by Yale, 26-24.

The week's foregone conclusion: Notre Dame's easy conquest of North Carolina, 34-14, leaving the Irish still the No. 1 U.S. team.

*In 1923, his best year, Grange ran for 1,260 yards in seven games; up to last week, Caroline had run for 1,316 yards in seven games, /- Cousin to Cinemactor Don (Alexander Graham Bell] Ameche.

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