Four Other Top Quarterbacks

There are, of course, other outstanding college quarterbacks. Some of them are fortunate enough to play with strong teams, while others, like Sonny Gibbs, must labor with losers. Here are four of the best. Saturday two of them won, two lost, but all showed why they deserve All-America consideration.

TERRY BAKER, OREGON STATE: There is very little that Terry Baker (SI, Oct. 16, 1961) does not do well. At Oregon State he plays football, basketball and baseball, and takes a tough mechanical engineering course.

"I think you get the best education by taking courses that are hard," he says. "If you get used to working hard, you find you do your best work. That's one reason I take part in as many sports as possible."

The coaches of Oregon State's various teams have been competing vigorously for Baker's time for three years, but Baker has given his best to football. In his sophomore year he was third in the nation in total offense. Last year he was 11th. He is off to a fine start this year, helped by last week's one-man show in which he gained 217 yards and scored two touchdowns in leading State to a 27-0 upset of Stanford. As he says, he likes to keep busy.

BILLY LOTHRIDGE, GEORGIA TECH: Bobby Dodd, Tech's coach, was talking about his junior quarterback, Billy Lothridge, recently: "He looks awful in practice," Dodd said. "Sometimes he scares you. But when Saturday comes he's a ballplayer, and that's the only day we play, Saturday."

Lothridge is a Georgia boy, 6 feet 1 and 184 pounds. His favorite receiver is his high school chum, Billy Martin, a 6-foot-4 end, and around Tech the two of them are called "Mr. Cool and the Jolly Giant." Lothridge throws a soft, delicate pass, like a man shooting darts. Such passes, with Martin on the catching end, scored touchdowns that led to Tech victories in its first two games this season, but last week LSU managed to bottle up the Lothridge-to-Martin combination for all but a few minutes of the afternoon and thus defeat Tech 10-7.

Lothridge is one of the best punters in the country, and seems likely to make the pros on that talent alone. He also runs, kicks field goals and extra points. Says Coach Dodd: "If Billy ever got hurt it would take a platoon of folks to replace him."

MATT SZYKOWNY, IOWA: When Iowa's Wilburn Hollis was injured against Southern California last year, Matt Szykowny (pronounced So-conee) took his place and led the Hawkeyes to two straight victories, one of them a 47—15 rout of Wisconsin in which Szykowny completed 14 of 17 passes for three touchdowns. This year Szykowny outpassed Oregon State's Terry Baker to win Iowa's opener 28—8. Then last week against Southern California, Szykowny, like Hollis the year before, was injured early in the game. Without him Iowa could not move the ball and lost 7—0.

Szykowny is a methodical, calculating man. A local sports announcer invited him to appear on his program and asked: "Matt, as one of the outstanding quarterbacks in the nation, what do you think your chances are this year?"

Szykowny eyed the announcer coolly and then replied: "Of what?"