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.

Brown is concerned about Illinois, Byrer answers a question, the latest Williamson Rankings, Illinois is down a player and Pitt is wanting to get rid of Bowser.

 

"In preparing to meet the Illinois team," Buckeyes Coach Paul Brown announced yesterday afternoon, "we'll be planning to meet the best-balanced, most dangerous and most speedy foe we have met so far this year."

Then the squad started last night without any actual heavy work but with a long skull drill in the training quarters.

"We're not calling off the active workout because of the game last week or because we don't fear the Illini," Brown commented, "but because we have a hard row ahead of us and we want to go into it without any resemblance to staleness or lethargy."

A glance at the Illinois roster shows that Brown knows just what to expect and that he is "going into this game with his eyes wide open," as he terms it.

Brown is taking it easy on his team at practice because he knows the next couple of games are going to be tough? That's a novel concept.  

Smith Is Leader

The leader of the Illini attack is Captain Jimmy Smith, the fullback. Smith is light for a fullback, weighing only 173 pounds, but he carries that weight on a squat five-foot eight-inch frame. He is fast as a halfback, cuts back powerfully over the opposing tackles and is a hard man to bring down in the open field.

Most of the help for Smith comes from the left halfback. Don Griffin is the starter there and is a five-foot eleven-inch, 187-pound passer and runner. He adds deception and flash to the attack to balance Smith's straight-ahead rushing.

The punter of the team is Walt Correll, the right halfback. He is one of the best in the Big Ten at this task. He has an average of nearly 50 yards for the season and kicked one over 75 yards against Northwestern.

Rounding out the starting backfield is quarterback Ray Floreck, one of the two sophomores on the squad. Floreck is much the same type of quarterback that George Lynn is for the Bucks---a blocker who seldom ever carries the ball. He is five feet, 11 inches tall and carries 197 pounds of solid muscle.

Hawk goes on to preview the Illini line, but let's skip that and fast forward to the end of the article.

Are Ball Stealers

The most notable point about the Illinois team is its ability for stealing the ball. The squad has scored several times this season on recovered fumbles and on stolen balls.

Ace passer of the team, Dick Good, has a knee injury and it is not known whether or not he will play against the Bucks. If he is lost, a valuable secondary threat will be lost. 

Playing its first season under Coach Ray Eliot, the team is gunning for the conference championship. The Saturday game, last of the conference season for the Illini, could put them in position for the crown.

This will be Illinois' final conference game and Ohio State should expect the Illini to put up a major fight in Cleveland.

An AP article from Champaign briefs the readers on Illinois' Big Ten title history, how the Illini will stop Ohio State's offense and an injury update on Good.

Inspired by the chance to bring Illinois its first share of the Big Ten football title spoils since 1928, the Illini buckled down to hard work today in their first scrimmage of the week in preparation for their final conference assignment of the season against Ohio State Saturday at Cleveland.

The Illini concentrated on fashioning a defense to stop the Buckeye triumvirate of Gen Fekete, Paul Sarringhaus and Les Horvath.

It was learned yesterday that Dick Good, Illinois' most effective passer for the last three campaigns will not be available Saturday. Good's knees, injured in the Notre Dame game Oct. 24, have failed to respond.

His loss leaves two experienced halfbacks, Don Griffin, the team's leading ground gainer and Art Dufelmeier, who has taken over much of the passing duties in Good's absence. Dufelmeier, who accounted for 70 yards via passing and rushing against Northwestern, has completed 7 of 9 throws in two Big Ten appearances.

The Illini have a new offensive formation that is adapted from the parts of the single wing, the "T" formation and the Notre Dame system attacks.

Ray Eliot is scheming to put his squad in the best position to win. However, it might be difficult without his best passer.

Ohio State is climbing the charts in the latest Williamson Ratings.

Ohio State's jumped from 19th to ninth among college football teams in the Paul B. Williamson rating system by virtue of the 59-19 walloping the Bucks administered to Pitt's Panting Panthers last week.

 

Williamson System Top 25

RANK	TEAM
1	GEORGIA
2	GEORGIA TECH
3	BOSTON COLLEGE
4	NOTRE DAME
5	TULSA
6	ALABAMA
7	WISCONSIN
8	TEXAS
9	OHIO STATE
10	TENNESSEE
11	LSU
12	HARDIN-SIM
13	MICHIGAN
14	MARQUETTE
15	BAYLOR
16	ILLINOIS
17	WASHINGTON STATE
18	MISSISSIPPI STATE
19	IOWA
20	INDIANA
21	DUKE
22	WILLIAM & MARY
23	NAVY
24	MINNESOTA
25	FORDHAM

The Bucks are rated second only to Wisconsin in the Western Conference and above all three future opponents.

Ohio State has a rating of 94.9, Illinois is rated 93.7, Michigan 94 and the Iowa Seahawks 94.3.

A perfect team would be rated 100.

Handling Injured Players

A letter from Bob Nott, 430 E. Como-av:
"Dear Lew---
"For years I've watched injured Ohio State players carried and jostled from the football field on that long trip to the locker room. Bob Frye is the latest victim, and it burns me up to think that this kid with a broken leg must be hoisted from the ground by the arms and legs and carried out like a sack of potatoes.

"Any player injured badly enough to be carried from the field should be placed on a stretcher---and not on the sidelines but right out on the field where he is lying. Anyone with the most elementary knowledge of first aid knows the danger of moving a fracture case. The trainer, obviously, can't diagnose the injury on the field.

"Some day they may have a fractured vertebrae case and, by jostling the victim, pinch the spinal cord and snuff out a young life---all for the want of a five-dollar stretcher."

Comment: I'm inclined to agree with Mr. Nott if only for the sake of the example set for spectators at a game. Certainly an injured person SHOULD NEVER be carried except under the direction of a doctor or a trainer qualified to know how it should be done.

Ohio State has stretchers and has a trainer and team physician. Had Frye's fracture been of a nature that it was dangerous to carry him the stretcher would have been summoned.

But there is a definite possibility that some of the folks who saw Frye carried from the field Saturday might try to do the same for some accident victim and cause serious injury or even death.

The tendency of a sympathetic bystander is to do something quickly for an injured person. Often the victim would be better off if left right there until a competent physician or emergency squad arrived to direct proceedings.

Following the 59-19 by the hands of the Buckeyes, supporters of Pitt football are wanting a change in the direction of their program.

The football setup at Pittsburgh is about to explode unless quick, drastic action by those in control freezes it for the duration.

One powerful faction is working behind the scenes to oust Coach Charley Bowser and to replace him with Tom Davies, present Western Reserve coach, once all-America back at Pitt.

When Bowser was moved in this same faction wanted Davies. Although Davies was interested, he made it plain he wouldn't take the head coaching job without also being made director of athletics, a position held by Jimmy Hagan.

Stories related by the Pitt supporters revolved around the contention that there is no discipline on the Panthers squad, the players don't care whether they win or lose, and the affable Bowser has lost control completely.

Today's Old School Ad

Not sure what an Adam Hat is, but it appears that celebrities wear them.