Pitt Wins (boss's Orders)

The people of Oakland are large-hearted and larcenous, according to legend, and Forbes Street is the home of such fanciful characters as Gus Miller the Newshawk, Big Bob and Joey Diven, the world's greatest street fighter. Oakland's most ardent sports fans do not necessarily believe in paying their way into games, and the Oakland Colts once appeared in the scarlet-and-gray uniforms of the Ohio State Buckeyes the day after the State uniforms had mysteriously disappeared. "But they are good people," says one university man. "If you had a week to live you'd want to live it with them."

In the past Litchfield and Michelosen had been bothered by the fact that too many Panthers were acting as though they had a week to live and were going to make the most of it. Two Pitt players were suspended last year for fighting with an Oakland cop. "Discipline has always been the 11 th team on our schedule," says Cook, "and we haven't licked it yet."

So far in this smooth, wonderful year, however, there have been no worries. The bad actors have been weeded out, to Michelosen's especial relief, and Oakland is quiet, comparatively. More attention is being paid to what the Panthers do on the field, and if some Oakland regulars are still skeptical ("Give Michelosen a 7-7 tie in the fourth quarter," they say at Canter's Restaurant, "and you'll see how razzle-dazzle he is"), the happy voices from Ajax, Bab-O and Comet are not skeptical at all: "If Michelosen can't do it, Litchfield can."