University of Virginia Library

collegiate football
weekend of upsets

Ask any professional
oddsmaker, or even just a typical
armchair quarterback what is the
football scene for the coming
weekend and name the winners. He
would tell you as if he were the
coach himself.

But the college game can be
pretty unpredictable, and this past
weekend attested to that. There
were no less than four upsets which
involved local teams and countless
others, were staged by major
colleges all around the country.

Saturday afternoon the Duke
Blue Devils, still shell shocked from
the crushing shutout that the
Wahoos put on them a week earlier,
faced the University of Pittsburgh
in Durham. Winless in three starts,
the Panthers, perennial doormat of
the Eastern Independents, were
able to put everything together and
dump the Devils 14-12. Pitt
mounted a well balanced ground
and aerial attack while holding Leo
Hart and company to a minus
yardage rushing.

The most stunning defeat
though, was dealt to the Gobblers
of VPI by the University of
Richmond. The Spiders in scoring
their first victory over Tech since
1961 relied on the passing arm of
Charlie Richards and the strong
defensive play of Mel Medved and
Buzz Montsinger. It was the end of
the third quarter before the Turkeys
could make their initial first down
and they were held to only 44
yards on the ground.

Quarterback Tommy Kendrick
teamed up with fullback Ray
Yauger for touchdown passes of ten
and five yards to rally Clemson
from a 10-0 deficit to a 14-10 lead
over Georgia Tech. Late in the
fourth quarter the Engineers
fumbled on their own 18 yard line
and, two plays later Yauger again
scored.

On November 1 the Carolina
Tarheels will come to
Charlottesville to renew their
ancient rivalry with the Cavaliers.
All pre-season prognostications
showed UNC to possess little more
than high hopes for the 1969 grid
season. But yesterday they proved
that they might have something
more going for them at the expense
of SEC power Vanderbilt.

Terry Swofford hit on three
touchdown aerials, and Don
McCauley scored twice to lead the
Tarheels 38-22 victory. Coach
Blackburn better start getting his
defense prepared.

In addition to these teams biting
the dust, our own pigskin
prognosticators took a little gas,
too. With no less than six upsets in
the nine games that they had to
choose from last week, they are all
still in mourning. In fact neither
one of our editors has had the
courage to show his face in the
office yet.

coach blackburn
quarterback fassio