Sport: Football, Dec. 14, 1931

The South has two great teams this year. Tulane, the only major team in the country which has won all its games, last week beat Washington State 28 to 14, later accepted an invitation to go West to play Southern California in the Tournament of Roses, Jan. i. Tennessee, which since 1926 has won 52 games, lost two, tied three, went North to play N. Y. U. It was a triumphant trip. Smalltown citizens—especially firemen in full uniform—cheered the team at station after station. Liveliest demonstration occurred at Bristol, whose main street is the State line between Virginia and Tennessee. Citizens escorted Tennessee's most famed back, Eugene Tucker ("Wild Bull," "Bristol Blizzard," "Black Knight") McEver across the platform so he could exchange a word with his parents, then carried him back to the train. When the team arrived in Manhattan, two stowaways were found in the baggage car.

In 1929 Gene McEver scored more points than any other back in the U. S. An injury to his right knee the next summer might have ended his football playing; instead, it made him better than ever. After a season on the sidelines, he has learned how to plunge straight through a line instead of shifting through a broken field, how to shake off tacklers instead of dodging them, how to throw forward passes that sometimes travel 60 yd. Stocky, black-haired, grey-eyed, McEver wears a helmet that always falls off. Tennessee footballers remember only once when he took time out—on a rainy day, when his trousers fell off as well as his headguard. Left end Merlon Derry-berry of Columbus, Tenn. has the highest scholastic average of any Tennessee student for the last three years, has earned his scholarship every year. Younger than many footballers (20) he is likely to follow his brother Everett to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship next year. Younger than Derryberry is rolypoly Herman Hickman, 230 lb., 19-year-old guard, who "once took out the whole side of an opposing line with one sweep of his arm."

In last week's game, the team coached by N. Y. U.'s Chick Meehan was a little too well-prepared. Expecting long forward passes, they were surprised in the second period when a Tennessee halfback named Beatty Feathers ran 65 yd. for a touchdown. Expecting Gene McEver's line drives, they were surprised a minute or two later when an alternate halfback, Herbert Brackett, behind brilliant blocking, ran 75 yd. for another touchdown. Except for Gene McEver's extra point—by a line plunge—after the first touchdown, there was no other scoring. The Tennessee defense—headed by Herculean Herman Hickman—held N. Y. U., once at two inches, later at five yards, from the Tennessee goal line.

The members of the Southern Methodist band protested a ruling which prevented them from accompanying the team to play St. Mary's in San Francisco. What the bandsmen missed: Southern Methodist's first beating of the year, 7 to 2.

At a round-robin charity tournament in the Yale Bowl, Yale beat Holy Cross 6 to 0, in a 24-minute game. Then, when Brown had beaten Dartmouth 0 to 0 by decision of three judges, Yale beat Brown, 0 to 0, the same way.

After a supposedly weak line had surprisingly stood off Penn's Perina and Kellett for 50 minutes, a long pass (Kirn to Tschirgi) gave Navy a touchdown and the game, 6 to 0.