The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-03
Gridiron Season
 Was Greatest In History Of Game

NEW YORK, Dec. 2-(By Asso- ciated Press. )-The 1923 football sea son, marked by attendance figures that shattered those for all previous gridiron seasons, by a record array of intersectional battles, and by a sensational series of upsets, has add
 ed probably the most brilliant chapter
 of all time to the remarkable grow tn of the nations favorite college pas time. 1 Proof of the keenness with which campaigns for major titles were l fought is the fact that only three elevens stood out with undisputed 1 claims to premier honors. These
 were the University of California, champions of the Pacific coast con-
 ference for the fourth straight year
 Colorado university winner of the 1 Rocky Mountain conference title
 with a clean slate; and Yale, another unbeaten eleven, which captured the
 Big Three" crown for the first time l since 1916. Because of it's impressive showing | through a difficult schedule. Yale
 stood out as the most formidab bic 1 eleven in the east, in the opinion of d
 majority of critics, although many rated the powerful CorneR eleven, unbeaten in three years, on an equal 1 footing with the Blue. l the western conference were divided by Michigan and Illinois, both of which showed clean slates, while in
 the Missouri valley conference, Ne braska and Kansas, two more unde- i feated aggregations ended their sea . son in tie for first place. Rival claims for the southwestern conference crown were made by both Texas and Southern Methodist uni versity, with the iatter's position somewhat strengthened by a victory over Baylor, last years title holder, which held Texas to a tie.
 vandy Southern Champ.
 In the outhern conference, Wash ington and Lee and Vanderbilt dis puted title claims, neither being de- feated by a conference rival, but, under a system of selection by sports writers. Vanderbilt was picked as the best eleven and awarded the Pickens trophy.
 which punctuated play throughout tho fall was Nebraskas victory over Notre Dame. conqueror of Princeton, West Point and Georgia Tech in out standing intersectional contests and hailed as one of the wonder teams" of all time until 1t met reverse.
 Syracuse, with its goal line previ- 
 pionship hopes broken by Col gate in another form reversal, but the Orange retrieved some prestige by downing Nebraska.
 Alabama university's southern con ference championship hopes were upset by defeat by Florida week ago.
 A host of individual stars scintil lated in all parts of the country with an especially great wealth of back field material High scoring honors perhaps went to John Levi, versatile fullback of the Haskell Indian team of Kansas. Levi, hailed as a second Jim Thorpe, amassed 13S points in nine games as compared with the total of 72, with which Harold Grange, spectacular Illinois back, led record of 9S, which put George Pfann. brilliant Cornell quarterback, at the top in the east.
 New attendance records in practi- cally every area marked the rapid strides taken by the gridiron sport in popularity. With almost million persons witnessing the western con- ference games, more than that num- Der accommodated in only five of the larger eastern stadia, and gen. orally increased figures elsewhere, it Is probable that the total attendance at all college games was close to 5000, 900 for the year.
 The University of Pennsylvania, playing all nine of its games at Franklin field, alone drew nearly 400, 900, a record probably beyond that of any other institution In the coun- try.
 Dedication of several new stadia helped increase attendance totals, the new structures including one at Dartmouth, and another at Califor- mia. where the seating capacity, close to 73,O00, is second only to that in the Yale bowl. which was packed with nearly S0,000 fans on two occasions this fall.