Sport: The Undefeated

The Army and Navy last week demonstrated that they are invincible, if only on a football field. In The Bronx and Philadelphia, on fields closely resembling duck soup, the Cadets and the Midshipmen kept their 1941 football records clean—Army for the fifth successive week, Navy for the sixth.

Navy’s dreadnoughts swamped a previously unconquered Pennsylvania team, 13-to-6. Army’s tanks rolled up no score, but theirs was a moral victory. For the foe they held to a 0-to-0 tie was Notre Dame.

At the beginning of the season, football experts predicted that Notre Dame’s Frank Leahy, drafted from Boston College to coach at his alma mater, would turn out to be the outstanding coach of the year. Leahy has done a creditable job: with a surprise find in blond Angelo Bortolo Bertelli, a sophomore sharpshooter who has completed 39 passes in 64 tries for a gain of 579 yards, his Notre Dame team has defeated Arizona, Indiana, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Tech and Illinois.

Last week football fans wondered whether Army Coach Earl (“Red”) Blaik had not done even better. Like Leahy, Blaik was called back to his alma mater (from Dartmouth) this year to take over a team of veterans who required unteaching as well as teaching. Like Leahy, he was lucky enough to inherit from last year’s freshman ranks one flashy newcomer: Halfback Ralph Hill, who lopes like a gazelle and can stop on a dime. With Hill and a little shuffling of old hands, Blaik, a strict disciplinarian and master strategist, came up with a winning combination. So far, Army has blasted The Citadel, Virginia Military Institute, Yale and Columbia. Practically the same Army team won only one game last year—a 20-to-19 victory over little Williams.

Teams which now have big hopes for the rest of the season:

Minnesota, thanks to the scampering feet of little Bud Higgins, 147-lb. halfback, defeated Northwestern, 8-to-7. It was the Gophers’ 14th successive triumph.

Texas, ranked co-leader with Minnesota in last week’s Associated Press poll, squashed Southern Methodist, 34-to-0. In six games this season, the Longhorns have scored 230 points to 27 for their opponents.

Texas’ Agricultural & Mechanical College, crowding Texas in the Southwest Conference race, also chalked up its sixth successive victory—7-to-0 over Arkansas. The Aggies have scored 213 points to 7 for their opponents.

Duke, still Dixie’s No. 1 team, defeated Georgia Tech, 14-to-0. From here in, Duke’s schedule is a breeze.

Fordham, pride of the East, trounced Purdue, 17-to-0.