In the Running

One of Oklahoma's most cherished citizens this fall is big, blond Bud Wilkinson, 34, who learned his football as a guard and quarterback at Minnesota. After his first year as head coach at the University of Oklahoma two years ago (7 games won, 2 lost, 1 tied), he got offers from Yale and the Naval Academy. This season, to keep him from straying, Oklahoma boosted his salary to $15,000 (more than the president of the university was getting). Coach Wilkinson decided to stay awhile.

Last week, Bud and his boys flew to Boston for their first game since they won the Sugar Bowl championship from North Carolina on New Year's Day. The only thing that stopped them was rain, and that for only 24 hours. Next night, against a supposedly strong Boston College team, Halfback George Thomas ran the opening kick-off back for 95 yards and a touchdown. By game's end, Oklahoma's split-T formation had rolled up 358 yards on the ground and another 48 by passing. Final score: Oklahoma 46, Boston College 0.

Until somebody stopped Wilkinson & Co. (and the University of Texas seemed the only opponent in sight strong enough to give them an argument), Oklahoma belonged in the running for the national championship.

Among other winners in the season's opening last week:

P: Notre Dame, unbeaten since 1945 (when the Irish lost to Army and Great Lakes), began another season by outnumbering and completely outclassing Indiana. Coach Frank Leahy used 45 players to try to keep the score down, but it rose to 49-6.

P: Football's other great invincible, Michigan, unbeaten and untied since 1946 (by the University of Illinois), had a tougher time squeezing by fired-up Michigan State, 7-3

P: Tulane, the pride of the South, gave its deep and rugged line a workout against Alabama (28-14), taking pains to reveal as little as possible to scouts for Notre Dame, which it meets Oct. 15.

P: Sophomore-studded Stanford humiliated Harvard (44-0) with the flashiest offensive since Frankie Albert and Norm Standlee had their heyday in 1940. Stanford's new ball of fire: Halfback Harry ("Hoppy") Hugasian.

P: Tricky U.C.L.A. invaded Big Ten country to whip corn-fed Iowa (41-25) after cries of "Espionage" and countercries of "Nonsense." The Iowa campus was in a storm over a report (pooh-poohed by U.C.L.A.) that a student and former Hawkeye center had telephoned vital Iowa football secrets to U.C.L.A.'s new and talented coach, Red Sanders. The loudest roar in the storm was the voice of Iowa's President Virgil Hancher: "A breach of canons . . . moral turpitude . . . Such a student would not be justified in receiving a degree from this university."

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