2017 is the 75th anniversary of Ohio State's first national championship season. To honor the achievement, this series will post articles from the Columbus Citizen Journal on the day they ran in 1942.

The Citizen Journal gives the details on Ohio State's travel plans, Brown still wants revenge against Northwestern, Chuck Csuri is a tough dude, Getchell takes out a sketch pad, Byrer tries to get in the head of coaches and Red Top is selling beer.

With the prospect of a working week cut short because the Bucks will start travelling tomorrow, Coach Paul Brown had his Ohio State gridders "down in the dirt" last night for a two-and-a-half hour drill emphasizing fundamentals, offense and defense against the passes Otto Graham will fire Saturday as demonstrated by George Slusser.

Returning from the Michigan-Northwestern game, Assistant Coach Fritz Mackey reported that "the Northwestern ends were open behind the Michigan backs all afternoon but Graham was barely missing on the long ones."

But Brown know that Ohio can hit those ends far down the field since it was a long pass that gave the Wildcats their one-touchdown win over Ohio State last year, a defeat which Brown has been waiting a year to avenge.

Yes, Brown is out for revenge against Northwestern, but I think Hawk missed the real story...Fritz Mackey scouting for the game. If you remember, Tippy Dye was called upon to scout USC when they played at Washington. Dye didn't arrive back to Columbus in time because of plane and transportation issues.

I still like to believe that Tippy didn't go to the game, but instead went Las Vegas, lived up up like Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, then continued his hedonism in Chicago on his way back to Columbus. 

Back to Hawk's preview 

Leave Tomorrow

The Bucks will have a full workout tonight and another tomorrow and plan to leave for Evanston tomorrow on the 11:15 p.m. train. The squad will stat at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Evanston and will take a short workout on foreign soil Friday afternoon in preparation for the game.

"We're expecting a tougher team than the one that bowed to Michigan last week," Brown said yesterday. "From what we hear, Northwestern is giving up a few of its 'get rich quick' ideas and is going to get right down to hard, solid fundamentals this week. If they do that---balance their passing attack with a more concentrated ground offense---they'll be plenty dangerous for anyone to face."

"Lynn Waldorf's been around long enough that he won't get panicky and change his whole system just because his team has lost a couple of tough ones," Brown continued.

I still cannot believe that the paper gave a detailed description of the team's travel plans. Joe Fan could travel and stay with the team if he had the time and money to do so. Unreal.

Michigan Got Breaks

"He knows, and we know, that Michigan had every break in the books last week and we can't count on that to happen to us. We'll be meeting them on their own grounds, though, and we won't go into this one asleep. We're going to get right down to fundamentals ourselves, and we're going to have plenty of work in these next days."

The two teams will use similar offenses. Both use the single-wing-back predominantly, the only variation being that the Wildcats often use a deep wingback instead of moving him up close behind the line.

"We're improving in several ways from week to week," Brown opined yesterday. "Paul Sarringhaus is finally beginning to block in a manner that is satisfactory in every sense of the word. He's taking pride in his work, he's practicing it, and he's getting better as time goes on."

Dean Csuri Tough

"Hal Dean is playing a better brand of guard with the passing weeks, and none of our opponents so far has been able to do a thing with our right tackle, Charlie Csuri. He's tough on defense.

The left end for the game Saturday probably will be Bill Sedor, if Brown doesn't change his mind before then. John White, in reserve, is sure to see action. Don Steinberg's bruised shoulder is slow in responding to treatment and he may easily be out of action completely, while the other left flanker, Dante Lavelli, is almost sure to be out of the game because of his injured knee.

Lavelli injured his knee against USC on the next-to-last play of the first half. The play led to a verbal brickabrat between Paul Brown and USC's coach Cravath.

Hawk turned his attention to Northwestern.

One threat that is often overlooked in the Wildcat attack is senior guard, Alan Pick. Although he is only a third-string player, Pick has already accounted for one victory this season and scored against Michigan. Pick is a dangerous place-kicker. He racked up the 3-0 margin over Texas, and booted anther three-pointer against the Wolves.

Graham Is Punter

Besides running and passing, Graham will handle the punting chores for Coach Waldorf. He is a veteran at this kicking game, doing it for his second season. He is a good consistent booter and last year took Bill deCorrevont's starting job away from him.

Although the Wildcat loss through graduation was heavy, there are 17 lettermen back in uniform and at least one man is available at every position who won his monogram. The reserves, however, come largely from the sophomore team and are inexperienced.

Bob Motl and Bud Haese, double letter winners, will open at the flanks next to lettermen Garren Karisted, a second-stringer last season, and Ray Vincent, now in his second season as a starter at the tackles. The guards will be safe in the hands of 204-pound Alex Kapter and Capt.  Nick Burke, a senior who is also a holdover from last year's first string. Center is capably filled by Harold Hudson who won his letter as a sophomore last season.

In the backfield, a quartet of veterans will be the starters. Ed Hirach will do the truck-horse an do the bucking chores. He was the highest ground gainer per play on the squad last season except for Don Buffmire who carried the ball only 19 times against Hirach's 49 times. Buffmire will be in at right halfback opposite the inimitable Graham while Bud Kean will round out the starting quartet at quarterback.

The cartoon below is pretty bold as it places Pappy Waldorf in the role of one Adolf Hitler.

Byrer opens his column with a hypothetical situation that could happen when schools agree to not scout each other. Back in the '40s, some schools would agree not to send scouts and play the game "blind".

The CJ's sports editor makes the point that although it is a gentlemen's move, most coaches are too tempted to get an edge by scouting. 

...Far fetched? If you think so you should have listened to a few of the squawks I've heard from coaches after their teams have lost important games.

One of the outstanding was a charge by a losing coach that the winning coach had tapped the telephone wire leading from the losing team's bench to the press box and listened in on the telephone conversations between the losing coach and his first assistant stationed in the press box to get a bird's-eye view of the play on the field.

Some coaches are like that and as long as there are non-scouting agreements between bitter rivals are just as Utopian impossibilities as a world at peace with Hitler in it.

Can you imagine Bill Belichik agreeing to not scouting an opponent? I wonder if it was one of his relatives that was accused of wire tapping? 

Next, Byrer tries to explain why coaches are always looking at the negative side of things.

Why Coaches Are Pessimistic

A comparatively new football fan was curious, "Are football coaches really as pessimistic as you sports writers make them out to be?" he wanted to know: "I'd think they'd be trying to make their boys confident and the boys on the other team afraid before a game. Instead they all seem to believe that the other team is going to win."

Seem is the correct word there. I don't think that most coaches are nearly as pessimistic as they try to act.

It's an old technique. Some of the greatest coaches went to extremes with it---Gloomy Gill Dobie, for one, and Sniveling Carl Snavely, for another.

The act has several purposes. One is to guard against overconfidence on their own squad. If a coach can keep his boys feeling that they've got to play their best if they are to win, they're more apt to play their best than if they feel that they have an easy victory ahead of them for the taking.

Another is the effect on the other team. The thought is that if the opposing players read in the papers that the coach of the rival team doesn't think his boys have a chance, they might be overconfident themselves.

Still another is the effect on the public. If a coach directs a team to victory over another team his team was expected to beat, he gets little credit. If his team loses to such a team he gets plenty of blame. But if he can make fans think his team has only an outside chance at best, then he's a hero if he wins and isn't likely to be run out of town if he loses.

It's an old act. It's even a bit out-moded. But most fo the best of them still use it.

I wonder how Byrer would have described Lou Holtz? He finished his piece by answering questions sent to him by readers.

Answering a Query

Answering a query from R. H. Skeels, 37 W. Fifth av: 

Ohio State has scored in every quarter of each of the four games played to date except the second quarter against Southern Ca. ... Highest quarter totals were 20 points in the third and fourth quarters against Fort Knox and 14 points in the first quarter against Southern Cal ... Total quarter scores for the Buckeyes 39, 32, 40, 47---158.

Lynn Waldorf, coach of Northwestern, Ohio State's Saturday opponent, is starting his eighth season at the Evanston school...His teams have won 33, lost 19 and tied four...Waldorf is dean of Western Conference grid coaches since the retirement of Bob Zuppke.

The Ohio State team will leave Columbus Thursday just before midnight and will stay at the Edgewater Beach Hotel while in Chicago...The Bucks will work out Friday afternoon at Dyche Stadium, where Saturday's game will be played.

Answering another query: Ohio State has had three defeatless years in football---1916, 1917 and 1920...The 1920 team, however, lost to California's Golden Bears in a post-season game played on Jan. 1, 1921, in the Rose Bowl and the 1917 team played a scoreless tie in a post-season game with Auburn at Montgomery, Ala. after an untied and undefeated regular season.