Little Brown Jugglers

Ever since 1903 when an upstart University of Minnesota team, coached by Yaleman Henry L. Williams, startled a select circle of U.S. football fans by holding Fielding H. Yost's famed point-a-minute Michigan team to a 6-to-6 tie, Minnesota and Michigan have furnished the No. 1 collegiate rivalry of the Midwest: the struggle for the Little Brown Jug that served as a water jug that day.* Through the decades Minnesota, winner of eleven Big Ten titles, became famed for its powerful lines that looked--to opposing teams--like a nightmare of Primo Cameras; Michigan, winner of 14 Big Ten titles, became famed for its speedy passing and tricks that made jugglers look like paralytics.

Last week the No. 1 rivalry of the Midwest became the No. 1 football interest of millions of U.S. fans. Minnesota, in its seventh year under Coach Bernie Bierman, boasted a team equal to the famed 1934 and 1935 outfits that earned the unofficial title of U.S. champion. Michigan, under its new coach, Fritz Crisler (recently lured from Princeton), displayed an unexpected renaissance after losing 22 of its 32 games in the past four years.

What interested drama-loving fans was the possibility that Coach Crisler, who had tried and failed to break the long run of Michigan victories while he was head coach at Minnesota in 1930-31, might now, in his reversed position, break the four-year winning streak of the college he once coached.

Among the 58,000 spectators who filled Minnesota's Memorial Stadium, Bernie Bierman's team was the favorite. Defending champion of the Big Ten, it had beaten Washington, Nebraska and Purdue this season. Fritz Crisler's green but speedy team had beaten Michigan State 14-to-0 and Chicago 45-to-7.

Few fans, however, were prepared for the powerhouse offensive that Michigan uncorked. For 55 minutes it blasted Minnesota's theretofore impregnable defense, scoring a touchdown--with unexpected attacks of straightforward, old-fashioned delayed bucks--in the first few minutes of the last quarter. Then, with five minutes left to play, canny Coach Bierman frantically called from the sidelines his only able passer, Harold Van Every, who had been out with a kidney ailment since the first game of the year. Before the astonished spectators knew what it was all about, Minnesota had crossed the goal line and had kicked the extra point--something that Michigan had failed to do earlier in the quarter. With Van Every's surprise attack, Minnesota, outplayed in every department, had in time's nick defended the Jug, 7-to-6.

Meanwhile, five other members of the Big Ten Conference kept last week's spotlight on the Midwest:

> At Madison, an undefeated Wisconsin team that had trounced Marquette and Iowa, put up a brave front against Pittsburgh but could not muster enough strength even to dent the No. 1 team of the East until the last ten seconds of play when Pitt, in front 26-to-0, put its third-string men on the field. Final score: Pitt 26, Wisconsin 6.

> At the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, a flashy Purdue eleven that allowed Minnesota to score only seven points against it last fortnight miraculously held Fordham to a 6-to-6 tie, despite the fact that Fordham gained over three times as much ground by rushing (419 yards to 129 yards).

> At South Bend, old Bob Zuppke's Illinois team, which upset Indiana University's championship dreams fortnight ago, kept 45,000 fans on edge before finally surrendering to undefeated Notre Dame, 14-to-6.

> At Evanston, Northwestern and Ohio State made the most threatening lunge at Minnesota's Big Ten title by tieing one another, 0-to-0.

* A Michigan-owned jug, it was held as hostage by Minnesota in 1903, was later painted half maroon (for Minnesota), half blue (for Michigan). Of the 20 games played since 1903, Michigan has won 13, Minnesota six, one was tied.

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