The New Champ

Any college football player would consider a 10-0 season, a 27-16 Rose Bowl victory over U.S.C. and an un disputed national championship a great way to wrap up a college career. For eleven of Ohio State's 22 starters on the offensive and defensive platoons, that is just the beginning. They are only sophomores.

To keep Coach Woody Hayes' Rose Bowl record perfect (3-0) last week, his youngsters had to fight from behind. Heisman Trophy Winner O. J. Simpson shocked them with a stunning 80-yd. dash in the second quarter, to give U.S.C. a 10-0 lead. In making his break away run, Simpson squeezed through a closing hole at his own left tackle, then showed Ohio State some of the swiftest acceleration and one of the greatest change-of-direction cuts ever seen on any football field. He broke to his right, outran the Ohio State secondary and tore down the sideline unmolested.

Simpson's score might have demoralized a lesser team, but Ohio's Sophomore Quarterback Rex Kern simply huddled with the Buckeyes and told them, "I guess we'd better get rolling and quit messing around." With Kern at the controls, that was just what Ohio State did.

Son of a Lancaster, Ohio, barber, Kern was a high school star in football and basketball and was persuaded to at tend Ohio State with the offer of being allowed to play both sports. In the Rose Bowl, his ball handling was superb. Play after play, his fakes fooled NBC television cameramen so badly that they lost the action entirely. A 69-yd. Ohio State drive ended with Fullback Jim Otis scoring from the one; a 50-yd. drive to the Trojan 10 enabled Kicker Jim Roman to make good on a 26-yd. field goal with three seconds left and tie the score at halftime.

The second half was all Ohio State. Capitalizing on fumbles by Simpson and U.S.C. Quarterback Steve Sogge, Kern kept the Buckeyes in control of the ball. He lobbed two touchdown passes and easily earned selection as the game's most valuable player.

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