Rose, Sugar, Cotton . . .

There are those who believe there is no justification for post-season Bowl games. Yet last week every Bowl was brimful. Millions of football fans, who used to spend New Year's Day holding their heads, sat at their radios holding their breath. For, wherever they turned, they heard "the most exciting game ever. . . ."

At Pasadena, the Rose Bowl, oldest and most coveted of U. S. bowl games, drew the largest crowd: 91,500.* They went to see the final reel in the rags-to-riches thriller that made Clark Shaughnessy and his Stanford team the standout football performers of 1940. Up from the cellar to Pacific Coast champions in one season, the undefeated Indians faced a steamrolling Nebraska eleven that had been stopped only once--by mighty Minnesota.

By half time, with Cornhusker power matched by Indian guile, the score had seesawed to 14-13, in favor of the Indians. Then, in the third quarter, after Nebraska had staged a Samsonian goal-line stand, the stadium suddenly shook with a thunderous roar. With his teammates giving an incredible display of downfield blocking, Stanford's Pete Kmetovic, running back Nebraska's punt, scooted over the Nebraska goal line in a 40-yd. zigzag sprint--with all of the Cornhuskers flat on their faces behind him. The Nebraskans failed to score again. So the Indians stuck another feather in their war bonnets. Score: 21-40-13.

At New Orleans, 73,000 fans filled the Sugar Bowl to watch undefeated Tennessee play undefeated Boston College. When the sun had set on as hair-raising a game as has been seen all fall, the underdog Boston gang, led by scrawny Charlie O'Rourke, a 158-lb. stringbean, had proved that they could take care of themselves in any company.

In the last quarter, with the score tied at 13-all and only two minutes to play, O'Rourke, starting on his own 20-yd. line, threw three successive sure-shot passes. Then, faking another pass, he tucked the ball under his arm and snake-danced down the field to give Boston College the ball game. Score: 19-to-13.

At Dallas, the Cotton Bowl was packed for the first time, to see the bone-crushing Texas Aggies tackle the bone-crushing Fordham Rams. The Aggies had Jarrin' John Kimbrough, who was reportedly offered $37,500 last week to turn professional next year with the upstart New York Yankees. The Rams had no Kimbrough, but they had a better backfield, a better line. After outplaying the Farmers for two periods, the Rams were caught napping, watched the Texans score one touchdown, then another, to win the game by one point, 13-10-12.

At Miami, with 30-odd bands tootling to beat the cars (but kept from radio listeners lest they hear, illegally, an ASCAP tune--see p. 57), Mississippi State beat Georgetown, 14-10-7, in the Orange Bowl.

At El Paso, 14,000 fans basked in the Sun Bowl, saw Ohio's Western Reserve beat Tempe (Ariz.) State Teachers, Border Conference champions, 26-10-13.

* At least two ticket holders failed to show up.

A pair of Texans, in their New Year's Eve cups, boarded the wrong train, tried to get into the Sugar Bowl at New Orleans with tickets for the Rose Bowl, 2,000 miles away.

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