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.

There was no cheer in the Ohio State gridiron camp today. Paul Sarringhaus, the Hamilton flash who was finally living up to the good things the sportswriters had said about him before he entered college and was one of the two top men in the Buck offense, had injured his ankle and Coach Paul Brown was "giving up hope that he'd be able to play" against Northwestern Saturday.

"We're all butchered up for this game," Brown said, as the apparent chances of gaining revenge for last year's defeat at the hands of Coach Lynn Waldorf's Wildcats waned. "And to top it all," he added as muddy squadmen straggled in from a two-hour practice session in a pouring rain, "we had to get this kind of practice just two days before the game."

And a glance at the injury list shows that the coach was not too much on the gloomy side in declaring that his squad had been butchered." At left end, three men were not in first class condition. Dante Lavelli is definitely out for the game, John White and Don Steinberg are not in good shape as yet. As a consequence, Bill Sedor, a good sound blocker and tackler but weaker than some of the others in finesse, will be the starter as he was against Purdue.

It's never a good time to have injuries, but Brown had to be beside himself as he was preparing to take down the only team to beat him at the helm of Ohio State. To make things worse, the Buckeyes might be missing more offensive players. 

Right Halfback Short

The next bad place was at right halfback where both the second and third stringers were not able to go at top speed. Bill Durtschl is the third man at the position, the top punt returner on the team, but he has not been able to practice for two weeks because of his injured knee. Bob Frye, the second team man, has a groin injury but probably will be able to play Saturday if he's needed. Les Horvath will start with Staker and Cleary in reserve.

The rest of the squad is in condition to play but many men are suffering from some sort of injury or another. Jim Rees, the big second team tackle, limped painfully on a twisted ankle in the inch-deep mud of the practice field last night: Bill Hackett, substitute guard, wore a cast on his hand, and other men were careful not to aggravate old injuries.

"It'll be just like it was last year when we met Northwestern without our fullback and sparkplug, Jack Graf, in the lineup." Brown lamented, obviously worried that his team will not be ready to work at its best.

James In Backfield

Tommy James will take over in Sarringhaus' place in the backfield and will make an admirable understudy if he is not quite up to the par set by the injured man. James is lighter than Sarringhaus, weighing only 155 pounds, but he is built solidly and packs as much wallop per pound as any man on the squad.

James is a good runner, a fine passer and showed to good advantage on the one quick-kick he got off in last week's game. Although he is only five feet nine inches tall, James has the knack of playing the ball and is a good man on pass defense. Backed by his former teammate at Massillon, George Slusser, James will not detract very much from the Bucke attack.

The rest of the team will be the same as the one that started against Purdue last week. Sedor will team up with big Bob Shaw at the ends. Bill Willis and Charlie Csuri, two of the toughest men on the Buckeye defensive line will be stationed at the tackles, while Lin Houston and Hal Dean will attempt to commit friendly murder from the guards. Old reliable Bill Vickroy will call defensive signals and back the line from his center post.

I'm not sure what "friendly murder" is, but I don't think I would want to line up against Lin Houston and Hal Dean as they try to commit it. 

Hawk continues his rundown of Ohio State's offensive players and gives insight on the team's practice and future schedule

In the backfield, the three starters in every game this season will go along with James. Captain George Lynn will block and call signals at quarterback; Gene Fekete will spearhead the offense at fullback, and flashy little Les Horvath will hold forth at the right halfback spot.

The squad had a long practice last night, over two hours in all, and worked hard on all phases of their offense for this week despite the constant rain and slippery going under foot.

The team will finish off practices on the home lot tonight with another long session before entraining for Northwestern at 11:15. A short workout is planned at the Northwestern Stadium Friday, after which the Bucks will retire to the Edgewater Beach Hotel, to sty until game time.

Bob Motl, 192-pound senior who made the All-Big Ten team as left end last season, is one of the top receivers in Northwestern's vaunted aerial attack which the Wildcats will spring on the Bucks Saturday. Motl set up both touchdowns against Michigan last week by catching passes rifled to him by Halfback Otto Graham. He's fast----in 1940 he got his biggest athletic thrill when he caught a pass while playing against that same Michigan and outran then Wolverines' great Tom Harmon to score. He'll probably start at end against the Bucks at Evanston Saturday.

For the first time in years your correspondent is visiting Chicago without being persistently quizzed by Windy City sport writers about "Who's gonna be the new Ohio State coach?"

In the last few years of the regime of Dr. Jack Wilce, all through the five years the late Sam Willaman was at the helm and almost all through the Francis Schmidt reign the Chicago boys had 'em on their way out.

Of course they were eventually right in each case.

But Dr. Wilce coached Ohio State gridders for 16 years, Sam Willaman for five and Francis Schmidt for six and Fin at least 15 of those 27 years some, if not all, of the Chicago scribes had their axes sharpened for the Buckeye incumbent.

The reasons varied. In the case of Dr. Wilce and the late Mr. Willaman it was their intentness on the job in hand which led to their unpopularity with the writers. When an Ohio State team would take the field in Chicago for practice on the day before a game with Chicago or Northwestern they wanted their teams to do some practicing.

A flock of scribes and photographers would swarm onto the field. The scribes wanted interviews with coaches, captains and players. When the thing reached a stage where it seemed the boys weren't going to get any practice at all Dr. Wilce and the late Mr. Willaman would rebel.

Perhaps they could have been more diplomatic about their rebellions. But, anyhow, it ended up with Ohio State coaches and Ohio State football teams becoming unpopular with most of the Chicago sport writers.

It's hard to fault Dr. Wilce and Mr. Willaman for getting upset when their teams weren't able to proceed with practice.

Chicago press antagonism to Dr. Wilce and Mr. Willaman was mild, however, compared to the storm which seethed about the craggy features of the vociferous Francis Schmidt. 

Schmidtty was just as intent upon practice as his predecessors and was more vehement in getting 'em told.

Then Francis had the additional misfortune of having his teams seem to run up big scores too often against friends of the various Windy City scribes.

"Shut the Gates of Mercy Schmidt" they called him. They lambasted him whether his Ohio State teams won or lost.

It got so Ohio State stars had a tough time making an all-star team regardless of how good they were.

The last all-star game, last August, on Soldier Field here against the Chicago Bears, saw the first real Ohio State representation on an all-star squad. Stephenson, Fisher, Daniell and Graf were the four Buckeyes on that squad.

The net effect is pretty well illustrated in the case of Dick Fisher. Dick has been the outstanding star of Bernie Bierman's Iowa Seahawks this fall. He was just as good a back last fall while starring for Ohio State. But when it came time to pick all-American teams last fall Fisher got very little mention.

The anti-Ohio State prejudice was still strong among the guys making the recommendations though it was diminishing.

Without seeming effort Paul Brown has done a lot to overcome that prejudice in his slightly over a year at the Ohio State football helm. Along with scribes in Columbus, in Ohio, in the Midwest and throughout the country, Chicago sport writers like the little fellow with the big personality who came from the high school ranks to a spot heading the team rated No. 1 in the nation in less than two years.

So, 75+ years ago Ohio State players were getting the shaft when it came to winning post season awards and honors. It appears the tradition of spurning Ohio State continues today with the winner of the Big Ten's Coach of the Year. 

Times Have Changed

Times have changed in football. 

The first question an Ohio State follower used to hear when he came to Chicago before an Ohio State-Chicago or Ohio State-Northwestern game was: "What are you guys betting on your chances?"

If you acted all cocky about Ohio State's prospects you'd get a chance to put up or shut up.

It's different now. Of course Chicago folks quit betting on Chicago against Ohio State several years before the Midway school abandoned football.

But there isn't the amount of betting between followers of the two college teams that there used to be. I can remember when followers of a team would consider it a disgrace to leave any opposition money uncovered. That isn't the case anymore.

Probably there's just as much betting. There may be more.

But it's being done in pools or in bookie joints with the bettors putting up their dough against the bookies at the prevailing odds.

I see more pools this fall than ever before. Ten folks will get together and put up a quarter, a half dollar or a dollar apiece. Then they draw numbers running from one to zero. If the last digit of the combined score of the opposing teams add up to two the lucky person who drew No. 2 collects the whole pot.

Thus pool winners in Ohio State's 59-to-0 victory over Camp Knox held No. 9. In the 32-to-21 victory over Indiana it was No. 3. In the 28-to-12 win over Southern California it was zero. In the 26-to-0 win over Purdue it was No. 6.