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 undefeated season is now gone. The Buckeyes are now hoping Wisconsin will lose twice to open the door for a Big Ten title.

Les Horvath couldn't get past the scrimmage line on this play and lost three yards for Ohio State.

"The better team won."

That was Paul Brown's statement after Ohio State's 17-to-7 defeat at the hands of Wisconsin. Paul went on to say:

"I want to congratulate Harry Stuhldreher. He had a great team out there today. They seemed to anticipate what we were trying to do and meet it. Hirsch was a great back. So was Harder. This Negus is a great center. Schreiner is a great end. They had an inspired team. I've no alibies."

It was the second time Paul Brown has experienced defeat as Ohio State's coach. His other loss was at the hands of Northwestern last season.

Brown showed total class in his comments after the defeat. Not easy to do when you see the Big Ten title and possible national championship evaporate.

Newsmen Admired Him

Newspapermen on the train from Madison to Chicago were admiring him in defeat. He doesn't like defeat. But he was taking it like a man and giving credit to the coach and team which beat him.

Harry Stuhldreher, Massillon's other outstanding gift to football, was extremely happy over what observers are calling the best Wisconsin win in team history.

"We beat a great team," Harry said. "It was a great ball game all the way through. What I liked especially, was the poise my boys showed after that Ohio State touchdown march, they just hung in there and took over. You've got to be proud of a gang like that."

Bucks Battered

The Buckeyes were pretty well battered up. The only serious injury was to Sedor. The Buckeye end has a twisted knee. Just how bad it is won't be known until a complete examination is made in Columbus Sunday. But the Bucks have a comparatively easy game coming up next Saturday with Pitt. By the time they play Illinois in Cleveland two weeks from today they should be at full strength.

Even writers back in 1942 knew that Pitt wasn't in the same league as Ohio State. 

A couple of bad breaks kept what might have been an Ohio State comeback well throttled in the third quarter. 

One came after Wisconsin had punted to Ohio State on the Badger 48-yard line. Sarringhaus tried a forward pass. If it had connected it might have started a Buckeye rally. If it had been incomplete, Ohio would still have had three more chances for a play.

Ruled Fumble

But Sarringhaus was tackled from behind as he tried to throw the ball. It his the ground and was ruled a fumble.

Wisconsin recovered and a potential Ohio drive never even got started.

A few moments later Jame broke loose and then fumbled when tackled and Wisconsin recovered on the Ohio 46-yard line.

Both of these starts might have bogged down anyhow. But the fact remains that they cost Ohio State opportunities which might have developed into scores.

It's always difficult to win a game when you commit more turnovers than the opponent.

Then Bucks Marched

Then came the Ohio march. Baumann punted out of bounds on the Ohio 4-yard line. Then it was James for 5. Fekete for 4. James for 5. Horvath for 10. Fekete for 9, Fekete for 5 and a Slusser to Horvath pass for 18. Then Horvath to Shaw for 13. Then Sarringhaus for 4 and Fekete for 4 and Sarringhaus over for the touchdown. That was a 96-yard march in five minutes and Buckeye followers saw hopes of one of these come-from-behind victories.

But the Badgers had other ideas.

Ohio kicked off and it was Wisconsin's ball on the Badger 34. A couple of plunges and a couple of passes led up to a play which had the Bucks completely baffled.

Schreiner Caught Pan

With the ball on the Ohio 14-yard line Hirsch faked a sweep and then turned and threw a pass to Shreiner, Wisconsin's All-American end. There wasn't an Ohio State man close to Schreiner as he caught the ball and stepped on over the line for the touchdown which put the final damper on Ohio's hopes.

From there on in it was just desperation try. Ohio tried and wend down fighting at the hands of a better team.

From Byrer's account, Wisconsin outplayed the Buckeyes and deserved the victory.

Today's 45,000 crowd set a new record for a Wisconsin home game. The largest previous football turnout here was 44,000 for a Wisconsin-Minnesota game in 1938.

The crowd also boosted Ohio State's spectator figures for the season close to the 260,000 mark. The Bucks played to 22,555 against Ft. Knox, 48,527 against Indiana, 56,346 against Purdue and 41,000 against Northwestern.

Last year, over an eight-game schedule, they were third in the country on total attendance with 486,468.

With four games remaining to play they need 230,000 to surpass that mark.

[...]

That means they'll have to draw 60,000 against the Iowa Seahawks in their final game of the season in Columbus to equal last year's mark. If they do it they'll probably lead the nation in attendance.

A little odd that Byrer put so much attention on attendance figures in the game recap. I guess a loss will do that to a writer.

The Bucks are due in Columbus Sunday morning at 7:35. Their train out of Madison was due to leave at 4:40 but was held for a while to allow players to change to street clothes and sport writers to finish their stories.

The Buckeyes wore their white road jerseys for the first time this season. The Badgers wore bright cardinal sweaters.

Byrer finishes the column with the most important news of the game. Four Ohio State starters were having stomach issues due to drinking bad water. 

Lynn, Horvath, Vickroy and Willis, of the Buck starters, were suffering from mild indigestion at noon. Ohio State coaches and trainers attributed it to the change in water.

Up until this year Ohio State teams carried their own water in big bottles.

Transportation difficulties have stopped that.

Would it have made a difference if the Buckeyes been able to travel with their big water bottles? Perhaps, perhaps not. We will never know, but Brown's grace in defeat definitely helped Ohio State in the eyes of the writers. 

Ohio's only touchdown came in the fourth quarter when Paul Sarringhaus rammed over to culminate a march of 96 yards.