Crisis

Last week the 1939 attack of U. S. foot ball fever reached its crisis with many a delirious game:

> At Cambridge, 52,000 fans, sitting in an ice-caked horseshoe, had hot & cold chills as they watched Harvard and Yale fight it out in the traditional Big Game of the East. No title was at stake. Undefeated Cornell had already clinched the mythical Ivy League championship. Ducky Pond had admitted that this year's Yale team was the worst he ever coached. Harvard had been beaten by Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Princeton.

Yet the shivering spectators would not have traded seats with any sun-baked fan in Florida or California. In as exciting a game as has been seen in its 57-year history, the underdog Bulldogs tore the Harvard team to tatters, kept them away from the Yale goal line until the very last minute, scampered away with a 20-to-7 victory. Even before the last-minute Harvard touchdown, jubilant Yalemen were on the field snatching the ball from the players, scuffling with cops, tearing down goal posts and bashing one another's noses.

> At Ann Arbor, 80,000 Midwest rooters turned out for the 36th annual Michigan-Ohio State game, watched Tom Harmon & Co., with the aid of Old 83 ("a sort of psychic double cross" play originally concocted by Fielding Yost for his point-a-minute teams), outsmart Ohio State's pow erful machine that had been beaten only once this season (by Cornell). Despite last week's loss (21-to-14), Ohio State finished in front in the Big Ten race (with five Conference victories, one defeat), nosed out Iowa's Iron Men who, unable to do more than tie Northwestern last week (7-to-7), wound up in second place with four victories, one defeat, one tie. Michigan and Northwestern, pre-season favorites, tied for fourth place with two losses each.

> At Lawrence, Kans., Paul Christman & Co. showed Kansas what this year's Missouri team can do. They chalked up three touchdowns, a 20-to-0 victory and their first Big Six Conference championship. Nebraska, drubbing Oklahoma last week (13-to-7), finished second; Oklahoma third.

> At South Bend, the Notre Dame-Southern California game determined no championship. Yet 56,000 fans jampacked the Rockne stadium to find out whether undefeated Southern California was really a mighty team or just mightier than a lot of West Coast teams that were playing like chumps this year. They found out. Southern California 20, Notre Dame 12.

> At Philadelphia, 15,000 Negro fans gathered for the annual Lincoln-Howard game, Harvard-Yale game of Negro football (started in 1894). In recent years, Lincoln and Howard, once the Big Two of colored collegiate athletics, have been overshadowed by Johnny-come-lately Negro football teams, but their annual set-to is still the traditional Big Game of the year.

Last week the fans near went past themselves. They cheered lustily for Ralph Oves, Lincoln's towering center, who stands out in the line like a moon on a dark night (Oves is the only white player in Negro football). They set off firecrackers, one of which, mistaken for the timekeeper's gun, sent the players to the sidelines. They tooted piccolos during timeouts, chanted A-well-a-take-um-a-Joe (crapshooters' lullaby).

By the fourth quarter, when Lincoln was leading 14-to-0, half the spectators were milling around on the field, at times crowding the players into a 60-foot square. Finally, unable to handle the crowd, officials called off the game. Lincoln, leading 14-to-7, claimed victory. Howard protested on the grounds that Lincoln, as host, should have kept the field clear. Irate coaches appealed to the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association to decide who won.

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