Southern Accent

Last year only four major football teams wound up their regular seasons undefeated, untied. Three of them were Southern: Texas Christian, Duke, Tennessee. All three were invited to participate in post-season Bowl games. Two of them beat their opponents and the third (Duke) had Southern California licked until 18 seconds before the Rose Bowl's final whistle.

This year the Dixie landslide has continued. On the second Saturday of the season, Louisiana State and Alabama overpowered Holy Cross and Fordham--two of the East's most powerful teams. The following week, Tulane trimmed Fordham and North Carolina trounced New York University, a less touted but promising outfit. By last week even the proudest Northerners had to admit that football was acquiring a decided Southern accent. A little grudgingly they conceded that the most outstanding game of the week was not in Yale's hallowed Bowl, not in Minnesota's famed Stadium nor Los Angeles' vast Coliseum, but in the shadow of the Smoky Mountains at Knoxville: Alabama v. Tennessee.

Every U. S. football fan has heard of Alabama. Its teams have played in the Rose Bowl five times. That it had another potentially great team this season was no surprising news. But to most fans above the Mason-Dixon line, Tennessee has always been considered minor league --just hillbilly stuff. Last year, when the unheralded boys from the Smokies burned up the Southeastern Conference,* won all ten games on their schedule (rolling up 276 points) and then drubbed undefeated Oklahoma, Big Six champion, in the Orange Bowl, even boarding-school girls in New England became aware that Tennessee could play football.

Tennessee's prowess, for the most part, is attributed to modest, Texas-born Major Robert Reese Neyland (pronounced knee-land), football coach since 1926. Famed 25 years ago as one of the greatest all-round athletes ever turned out at West Point, The Major (as he is known to his players) is at long last being recognized as one of the great football coaches of the U. S. In twelve years (one year he was unable to coach because of Army duty in the Canal Zone)* he has turned out six undefeated teams, and his record of 102 victories, twelve defeats and eight ties is almost equal to that of the late, great Knute Rockne.

With his mania for perfection in fundamentals, his devoted scouting corps (mostly former pupils who would still die for dear old Neyland) and the Southeastern Conference rules that permit subsidized players, The Major has been able to mobilize an increasingly formidable squad each year. This year's is probably his best.

To see how Major Bob's boys stacked up against Alabama last week, the largest sport crowd (40,000) in the history of Tennessee crammed into Knoxville's Shields-Watkins Stadium. In the Army, Major Neyland learned that it is wise to keep the enemy guessing as long as possible. Last week he showed that it works as well on a football field. Most scouted player on his team is George ("Bad News") Cafego, son of a Hungarian coal miner--a rugged, jimber-jawed quarterback who has the reputation of being able to do everything but blow the referee's whistle.

By the middle of the second quarter last week, everyone realized that Cafego was not the only string to The Major's bow. An unheard-of sophomore named Johnny Butler, breaking through right tackle on his own 43-yd. line, zigzagged down the field, eluding all eleven Alabamans, and finally crossed the goal line standing up. That was only the beginning. When the final whistle blew, Tennessee's line had held the mighty Crimson Tide to only two first downs, its backs had rolled up two more touchdowns, and the Major's boys had won their 17th game in a row, 21-to-0.

Rumor had it that representatives of the three major Bowl organizations were at Knoxville last week to outbid one another for first call on Tennessee's services on New Year's Day. For the first time in its history, Tennessee seemed on its way to the Rose Bowl.

* There are three major conferences in the South: Southwest (comprising seven colleges in Texas and Arkansas), Southeastern (13 colleges in the area from New Orleans up through Kentucky and Georgia) and Southern (15 colleges from South Carolina up to Maryland). *Up to three years ago it was possible for an Army officer to follow a joint career as soldier and coach, taking leave of absence each season. When the practice was outlawed, Major Neyland, U. S. Engineer Corps, forsook the Army for the football field--at $12,000 a year.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.