North Carolina Pre-Flight at Navy

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  The Wilmington morning star, Wilmington, N.C., September 26, 1943, page 8

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  StrongNauyTean1 Grounds ~ 6. Pre- Fighters, 81 = D ANNAPOLIS, Sept. 25. up – There was no longer any secret about the potential power of Navy s l943 football squad today after the midshipmen took the blanket of four full teams, all of them scoring combinations, to smother the desperately-trying but ineffective veterans of the North Carolina Pre-Flight Cloudbusters, 31–⁠0. All through the long preseason practices, Capt Johnny WhelcheI the sailors head coach, had guard ed as carefully as any Naval sec ret the versatility of wealth O. material at the Naval Academy. But, 1850 fans were in Thomp son Stadium to watch the Middies toy with the once-powerful Pre- Fighters ana coast to a victory that was certain midway of the opening period. Navy counted il every quarter, twice in the second and threw four battle lines in &C ton to allow the Cloudbusters nj closer to their goal than midfielo all afternoon. Navy stars glittered all over the place but not the least Of the new faces uncovered by Captain Wheel chel was Bruce Smith, stocky plebe, formerly of Miami, Fla. high. a rriple-threat and who spark. ed the Middies to two of their five touchdoWns. Ben Martin and little Hal Ham. berg elaborated in 81 YARD drive for the first touchdown mid. way in the initial stanza, with Joe Sullivan diving over from the two Gus Hampton piacekicked the point after, the only one all afternoon and the sailors were out in front. 10. Bill Crawley and Grady Gay were the spearheads of the next drive, with Gay taking the pig skin from Crawley on the gray. bearded Statue of Liberty place to race the final Is yards, culminating 50-yard march. Bruce Smith made his debut to spark SO yard march four min utes later, tossing Is yards to Charlie Guy for the score. after runs by speedy Jim Petit and Smith-to-Vic Finos passes had eat en- up the distance. Hills Hume, a star of 1912, and Bill Barron took the stage for the fourth score, with Barron circling left end for a touchdown after a 80 yard parade.

Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The text is the machine reading of the page, mistakes and all.

Tied 1–⁠1 in two meetings, counting the one since this game.