Sport: Mid-Season

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For the first time in years, intercollegiate football has brightened the fall weekends with real excitement. The Navy-Notre Dame game in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium last week was worthy of a great season. It took the Navy just 30 minutes to work up a head of steam. Then, for the next half hour, the Middies pushed favored Notre Dame all over the field. On defense Navy's Ron Beagle seemed like a fifth man in the Irish backfield; on offense he made Quarterback George Welsh look like the hottest passer around. Badly mauled, the Irish just managed to hang on to their six-point lead. But the going was so rough during the last few minutes that Notre Dame Quarterback Ralph Guglielmi had to run out the clock by slithering through the mud toward his own goal.

The Upsets. Among men who follow football, Notre Dame had been a 13-point choice. But this season even the experts are used to surprises. From hardheaded prognosticators who swear by their charts to stouthearted alumni who swear at their coaches, the second-guessers have seldom been so wrong. Champions have fallen before underrated upstarts; last season's heroes are this season's also-rans.

<¶ California looked in September like a contender for the Pacific Coast championship; it seemed a cinch for a bid to the Rose Bowl. With the superb passing of All-America Candidate Paul Larson, last season's leading ground gainer, how could they lose? Then Oklahoma's Max Boydston, a big end who runs like a fullback, taught them how in their first game. After that, Ohio State, Oregon and U.S.C. drove the lesson home. Larson alone was not enough. Last week California lost another to U.C.L.A., 27-6. ¶ Illinois was an odds-on favorite to top the Big Ten. Red Grange's ghost, a spindle-shanked Negro halfback from South Carolina named J. C. (for nothing) Caroline was going to run the Illini right into the Rose Bowl. They lost four straight before J.C. got untracked. ¶ Wisconsin had Alan ("The Horse") Ameche, a standout All-America fullback. But The Horse was hog-tied by Ohio State, and Howard ("Hopalong") Cassady, a rampaging redhead, ran off with the ball game. Still shaken, last week the Badgers lost another to Iowa, 13-7. ¶ Rice had Rapid Richard Moegle, last year's Cotton Bowl hero, but it managed to upset the dope by losing to Wisconsin and S.M.U. ¶ Purdue turned up with a hot-handed teenager, Len Dawson, who passed the Boilermakers to an astonishing upset over Notre Dame (27-14). But if Quarterback Ralph Guglielmi and his "Irish" teammates were something of a disappointment, Dawson and Purdue were soon the same: they took two games to recover their poise. Last week, against Illinois, they were back in form and won, 28-14. ¶ Pitt. although Coach Lowell ("Red") Dawson was in the hospital with heart trouble, knocked off the powerful Navy team, 21-19, and uncovered Corny Salvaterra, a sharpshooting sophomore passer (he had tried for Annapolis and flunked his eye exam).