Sport: Mid-Term Report

For close to 50 minutes it looked as if Navy’s highly advertised footballers were in for a Pennsylvania dunking. Then they tied the score, and with just 25 seconds to play fired a last desperate shot. Bob (“Hunchy”) Hoernschemeyer faked an end run, turned and heaved a pass; Tony Minisi—who was a flashy Penn freshman a year ago—got there just in time to outjump three Pennsylvania defenders for the winning (14-10-7) catch.

The Midshipmen hardly looked like one of the two teams voted most likely to succeed in 1945. Army, the experts’ other pre-season choice, did. Last week, the Cadets’ well-seasoned T attack steamrollered Duke 4840-13 for victory No. 5. It was such easy going that All-America Fullback Felix (“Doc”) Blanchard and All-America Halfback Glenn (“Junior”) Davis—Mister Inside and Mister Outside —had what amounted to a day off: they scored only three touchdowns, let the second-stringers have a whirl.

At the season’s halfway mark, the other leading college teams were:

¶Alabama, unbeaten mostly because of a bull’s-eye passer named Harry Gilmer. Last week, he tossed 19 passes, completed 13, three of them for touchdowns. Score: Alabama 28, Georgia 14.

¶ Notre Dame, which kept its first team in only eleven minutes against Iowa, and won, 56-to-0. The man the fast-blooming Irish depend on to knock out Navy this week is passing, running, kicking Quarterback Frank (“Boley”) Dancewicz, who is also the deadliest tackling back ever seen at Notre Dame.

¶ Ohio State, once-beaten (by Purdue). Led by Halfback Dick Fisher (Halfback George Sarringhaus was on the injured list), the Buckeyes slapped down mighty Minnesota, 20-10-7.

¶Purdue, which was upended, 26-10-14, by hitherto helpless Northwestern.

¶Columbia, alias Gene Rossides & Co., breezed by Brown, 27-10-6, for their fifth straight.

On the West Coast, the name player was Herman Wedemeyer (no kin to the General), Hawaii’s gift to St. Mary’s College. He is a 173-lb., triple-threat halfback who even knows how to block. So far his luster has been dimmed by the fact that St. Mary’s has met only weak opposition. This week Wedemeyer gets his chance against Southern California.