Sport: Kickoff

Last year Yale University made the front page of the New York Times by selling the right to broadcast its football games to Atlantic Refining Co. for $20,000. As another football season opened last week, so many commercial broadcasting contracts had been signed by colleges all over the U. S. that none of them caused much comment. Atlantic Refining’s program this year includes the schedules of 21 colleges, excluding Yale, whose home games will be sponsored by the Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. of New York. Ohio State, having held out against the trend (together with Minnesota, Princeton and Harvard, which still held out this year), finally succumbed—but not exclusively—to the Kellogg Co. (Corn Flakes), which also has contracts with the University of Oklahoma, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Nebraska and Fordham. Michigan State has signed up with the Olds division of General Motors and the University of Iowa with Brown & Williamson (Sir Walter Raleigh) Tobacco Corp. For the third year Humble Oil & Refining Co. of Houston will have a monopoly of Southwest Conference games. On the Pacific Coast, Associated Oil Co. (“Let’s Get Associated”) began its twelfth and biggest broadcasting season, during which it will sponsor about 100 “sportcasts” at a cost of $250,000.

More significant to football fans than new broadcasting rights, are new rules of the game. Last year there were none. This year there are several, least technical of which is that players must now wear numbers both front and back. Teams this year will not get a second kickoff. If the ball goes out of bounds on the first kick, the receiving team will put it into play either on its 35-yd. line or at the point where it went out. If a player kicks a free ball this season, it will automatically go to the opposing team at the, spot where it was kicked, thus obviating future controversies such as that which Yale’s Larry Kelley provoked last year by “unintentionally” kicking a fumbled ball to Navy’s 3-yd. line. Players trying to intercept forward passes this year will not have interference called for bodily contact, “no matter how severe.”

Of the 150 college games played last week, most notable were the following:

¶ A crowd of 68,000, anxious to see what Texas Christian could do without their phenomenal passer, Sam Baugh, saw a 150-lb. quarterback named Dave O’Brien complete six forward passes, but fail to score against an aggressive Ohio State team, 14-to-0.

¶ In Minneapolis Coach Bernie Bierman gave his Golden Gophers a warm-up against North Dakota State, used 55 players including five quarterbacks to finish 69-to-7. Halfback Andy Uram played only a few minutes in the third quarter, but long enough for four streaking runs, two of which resulted in touchdowns.

¶ Coach Dana X. Bible made his re-entry in the Southwest Conference by revealing a potent, passing University of Texas team which defeated Texas Technological College 25-to-12.

¶ Duke, favored to win another Southern Conference championship, started the season by trouncing Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 25-to-0.

¶ A third-string haltback named Dick Cassiano scored four touchdown to help Pitt overwhelm Ohio Wesleyan 59-to-0.

¶ In Seattle Captain Fritz Waskowitz led his Washington Huskies, Pacific Coast Conference Champions, to a 14-to-0 victory over the University of Iowa.