SWC75
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DALLAS
Arnie Burdick reported that “Ten days in Oklahoma followed by a quick hop into this dazzling fashion center, (Dallas), creates a shock almost too abrupt for the humans to absorb. It’s like a shut-in being released.” When Coach Ben Schwartzwalder led his tigers up in Norman out of their cages Sunday and brings them here, it might create almost as much excitement as when the last hurricane whistled through here. The Orange isn’t exactly locked up but the players will drool at the glamour and excitement that is Dallas.”
A photo in the Post Standard showed an SMU co-ed putting ten gallon hats on both Jim Brown and Jim Ridlon at the airport. “She was one of hundreds of fans that greeted the Syracuse team.“ But “Coach Ben Schwartzwalder wasn’t taking any chances on having the players forget the prime purpose of their visit…A few hours after the team’s delayed arrival here, Ben had the squad out for a practice session which lasted more than an hour.” Ben was concerned about the temperatures, 15 degrees higher in Dallas than Norman, (65 degrees vs. 5o), and the extent to which he would have to have his second team play. “Schwartzwalder admitted today that his first team is considerably stronger than his second team”. Of course, not too many second teams have Jim Brown on them. But Bill Reddy noted that the Orange first team hadn’t been scored upon in their last five games.
“Although Texas Christian continues to be a four point favorite, a surprising number of Texas sports writers have picked Syracuse to win. This might be part of a plot to fire up the Frogs, however, since there have been some indications that the TCU players maybe including to take Syracuse lightly.” Ben was asked if his team was as ready for TCU as they were(n’t) for Alabama. “You can find out for yourself on Tuesday afternoon”, was the terse reply.
Oscar Fraley, in his weekly prediction column, favored the Orange, saying they were called that “for some daffy reason”. And that they were “squashed thoroughly in the 1953 Orange Bowl. But exhaustive research had shown that Horned Frogs do not thrive on orange peels like Florida cattle. Now can your give me a better reason for picking Syracuse?” I wonder what Alabama cattle feed on?
Three previous northeastern teams had gone to the Cotton Bowl and none of them had won: Boston College lost to Clemson in 1940, 3-6, Fordham to Texas A&M 12-13 in 1941 and Penn State and SMU had tied in 1948, 13-13. At least the games were close. Texas Christian was fighting a 6 game bowl losing streak of their own, having last won in the 1/1/39 Sugar Bowl over Carnegie Tech, (then an eastern power), the year Davey O’Brien led them to their national title. Arnie Burdick wrote a column about the only other time Syracuse had played a team for Texas: a game in Archbold Stadium vs. SMU in 1932. The Mustangs had the reputation of being an aerial circus and Vic Hanson prepared intensely to stop it. Orange center Matt Wamsack picked off the first SMU pass and ran it in for a touchdown. They never threw another, ran it down SU’s throat and won 6-16.
Arnie reported that this would be the first Cotton Bowl not to be a sell-out. The expected crowd was between 65-70,000 in a 75,504 seat stadium. The Post-Standard: “Indications are that there will be some empty seats for the first time in years. But Cotton Bowl officials don’t think the decrease in attendance will be alarming.“ As of Christmas Day, SU had sold 3700 of the 8000 tickets they had received from the Cotton Bowl committee and were in danger of having to send back the rest, a bad sign if you wanted to be invited back. But sales were slow in Texas as well, TCU being the Southwest conference’s second best team and “the still glowing embers of the fire that raged in Miami on January 1, 1953” were also a factor.
Ben Schwartzwalder told Bill Reddy that, “Whether we win or lose in the Cotton Bowl Tuesday, this is a great thing for our squad”. He was talking about the extra practices the team was able to get in. “Even though he had to refer to a painful subject, Schwartzie declared: “Bad as we looked against Alabama at Miami, we were a better team in ’53 because of the experience we gained there. “
Reddy was concerned about the preparation issue: “There are different methods of approaching the same goal, which for any football team is victory. The Orangemen and the Horned Frogs prepared for this game in opposite fashion and already the method used by TCU had paid off in another bowl game.” He went on to describe how Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd famously took it easy on his players before bowl games. The Engineers had just beaten Pittsburgh, 21-14 in the Gator Bowl for their eight straight bowl win. “Pittsburgh worked like fury to prepare for the contest, while Georgia Tech took it easy, avoided heavy contact and almost waltzed into the bowl.”
“For this Cotton Bowl, Syracuse actually worked harder and longer than it worked prior to its eight game, one loss season. Driven by the urge for perfection, the Orangemen drilled for nearly a month to reach the peak of readiness. Meanwhile the Horned Frogs, aided by the fact that their 10 game season lasted two weeks longer than did the Syracuse schedule, forgot about football for a while, then confined themselves to comparatively light workouts with frequent lay-offs. Perhaps the TCU method tends to bring a team up to a game in sharper, more relaxed condition than the system used by the Orangemen. Yet, as Schwartzwalder remarked the other day, “A coach can only do the job as he thinks it ought to be done. You get only one guess.”
“It might be pointed out, then that, prior to the Orange Bowl game, Syracuse used the method used by this year’s TCU squad. You can hardly blame Schwartzwalder for trying a different system.” This statement is in ironic contrast to comments made by Bob Fleck about the Miami experience in Ken Rappoport’s “The Syracuse Football Story”: “I thought we were going to have a lot more free time than we did. We had a little bit of dissension down there. I was one. I felt that we should have been doing a little bit more than just practicing twice a day. We had blackboard drills at night and things like that. It was no fun at all…..It made you feel like a slave or something like that. They took away a guy’s identity, dressing alike and all that stuff. What we needed was a free night where everybody could do what he wanted to do…chase girls, have a beer or a soda or anything….” Bob complained to Schwartzwalder who told him “Well, there’s a lot of traffic going north. Get your thumb out.” I doubt insufficient girl chasing was the main cause for a 6-61 defeat. I also think that a player’s view of how much practice is enough is not all that similar to a coach’s view.
Reddy heard a story that might have had more to do with the loss to Alabama: “My informant insists that when Syracuse worked out at a Miami Beach athletic field, polishing its plays in supposed seclusion, Alabama had a movie camera trained on the workouts and could study in advance the plays, the sequences, the blocking and the faking which the Orange was preparing to spring. At least, because of careful surveillance of visitors at the Norman, Oklahoma training headquarters, that type of pocket-picking probably won’t be operating for Syracuse’s Cotton Bowl foe.”
An article in the Herald by Bill Clark traced all the similarities between things that happened in December 1952 leading up to the Orange Bowl disaster and December 1956 leading up to the Cotton Bowl challenge. Some were silly: LeMoyne’s basketball team beat Scranton by one point in each month. Others seemed relevant: Syracuse ordered some oxygen to be onto the sidelines for each game. In each game, Syracuse had not been the first choice for the game and their selection had been something of a disappointment to the local fans. Red Drew’s comments about Syracuse in 1952 sounded very much like Abe Martin’s comments in 1956. But Bill noted one difference: “In some ways history repeats. In some ways it doesn’t. One thing nobody has been saying this year is the comment that was right before the game in Miami four years ago: “Syracuse doesn’t belong on the same field with ‘em”.
Bill Reddy felt a surge of confidence: “I think this Syracuse team isn’t going to lose. I don’t believe Texas Christian has been called upon to stop a runner like Big Jim Brown all season, possibly in the entire career of this senior-studded Horned Frog eleven. I don’t believe the Frogs will be able to cope successfully with the variation on offense which Syracuse will introduce. I don’t believe TCU’s line will have the get-up -and-go of the Syracuse forwards. I think the Frogs will score, perhaps more than once, chiefly because Schwartzwalder will have to rest his first team occasionally and the second team doesn’t loom as strong as TCU’s reserves. But I look for Syracuse to have an edge to mean victory.”
“If this turns out to be a dream, a dream which persists in the face of Texas confidence and Texas defense of an overwhelming state pride; if all this is another form of whistling past the graveyard, well a guy can dream, can’t he? “
Arnie Burdick reported that “Ten days in Oklahoma followed by a quick hop into this dazzling fashion center, (Dallas), creates a shock almost too abrupt for the humans to absorb. It’s like a shut-in being released.” When Coach Ben Schwartzwalder led his tigers up in Norman out of their cages Sunday and brings them here, it might create almost as much excitement as when the last hurricane whistled through here. The Orange isn’t exactly locked up but the players will drool at the glamour and excitement that is Dallas.”
A photo in the Post Standard showed an SMU co-ed putting ten gallon hats on both Jim Brown and Jim Ridlon at the airport. “She was one of hundreds of fans that greeted the Syracuse team.“ But “Coach Ben Schwartzwalder wasn’t taking any chances on having the players forget the prime purpose of their visit…A few hours after the team’s delayed arrival here, Ben had the squad out for a practice session which lasted more than an hour.” Ben was concerned about the temperatures, 15 degrees higher in Dallas than Norman, (65 degrees vs. 5o), and the extent to which he would have to have his second team play. “Schwartzwalder admitted today that his first team is considerably stronger than his second team”. Of course, not too many second teams have Jim Brown on them. But Bill Reddy noted that the Orange first team hadn’t been scored upon in their last five games.
“Although Texas Christian continues to be a four point favorite, a surprising number of Texas sports writers have picked Syracuse to win. This might be part of a plot to fire up the Frogs, however, since there have been some indications that the TCU players maybe including to take Syracuse lightly.” Ben was asked if his team was as ready for TCU as they were(n’t) for Alabama. “You can find out for yourself on Tuesday afternoon”, was the terse reply.
Oscar Fraley, in his weekly prediction column, favored the Orange, saying they were called that “for some daffy reason”. And that they were “squashed thoroughly in the 1953 Orange Bowl. But exhaustive research had shown that Horned Frogs do not thrive on orange peels like Florida cattle. Now can your give me a better reason for picking Syracuse?” I wonder what Alabama cattle feed on?
Three previous northeastern teams had gone to the Cotton Bowl and none of them had won: Boston College lost to Clemson in 1940, 3-6, Fordham to Texas A&M 12-13 in 1941 and Penn State and SMU had tied in 1948, 13-13. At least the games were close. Texas Christian was fighting a 6 game bowl losing streak of their own, having last won in the 1/1/39 Sugar Bowl over Carnegie Tech, (then an eastern power), the year Davey O’Brien led them to their national title. Arnie Burdick wrote a column about the only other time Syracuse had played a team for Texas: a game in Archbold Stadium vs. SMU in 1932. The Mustangs had the reputation of being an aerial circus and Vic Hanson prepared intensely to stop it. Orange center Matt Wamsack picked off the first SMU pass and ran it in for a touchdown. They never threw another, ran it down SU’s throat and won 6-16.
Arnie reported that this would be the first Cotton Bowl not to be a sell-out. The expected crowd was between 65-70,000 in a 75,504 seat stadium. The Post-Standard: “Indications are that there will be some empty seats for the first time in years. But Cotton Bowl officials don’t think the decrease in attendance will be alarming.“ As of Christmas Day, SU had sold 3700 of the 8000 tickets they had received from the Cotton Bowl committee and were in danger of having to send back the rest, a bad sign if you wanted to be invited back. But sales were slow in Texas as well, TCU being the Southwest conference’s second best team and “the still glowing embers of the fire that raged in Miami on January 1, 1953” were also a factor.
Ben Schwartzwalder told Bill Reddy that, “Whether we win or lose in the Cotton Bowl Tuesday, this is a great thing for our squad”. He was talking about the extra practices the team was able to get in. “Even though he had to refer to a painful subject, Schwartzie declared: “Bad as we looked against Alabama at Miami, we were a better team in ’53 because of the experience we gained there. “
Reddy was concerned about the preparation issue: “There are different methods of approaching the same goal, which for any football team is victory. The Orangemen and the Horned Frogs prepared for this game in opposite fashion and already the method used by TCU had paid off in another bowl game.” He went on to describe how Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd famously took it easy on his players before bowl games. The Engineers had just beaten Pittsburgh, 21-14 in the Gator Bowl for their eight straight bowl win. “Pittsburgh worked like fury to prepare for the contest, while Georgia Tech took it easy, avoided heavy contact and almost waltzed into the bowl.”
“For this Cotton Bowl, Syracuse actually worked harder and longer than it worked prior to its eight game, one loss season. Driven by the urge for perfection, the Orangemen drilled for nearly a month to reach the peak of readiness. Meanwhile the Horned Frogs, aided by the fact that their 10 game season lasted two weeks longer than did the Syracuse schedule, forgot about football for a while, then confined themselves to comparatively light workouts with frequent lay-offs. Perhaps the TCU method tends to bring a team up to a game in sharper, more relaxed condition than the system used by the Orangemen. Yet, as Schwartzwalder remarked the other day, “A coach can only do the job as he thinks it ought to be done. You get only one guess.”
“It might be pointed out, then that, prior to the Orange Bowl game, Syracuse used the method used by this year’s TCU squad. You can hardly blame Schwartzwalder for trying a different system.” This statement is in ironic contrast to comments made by Bob Fleck about the Miami experience in Ken Rappoport’s “The Syracuse Football Story”: “I thought we were going to have a lot more free time than we did. We had a little bit of dissension down there. I was one. I felt that we should have been doing a little bit more than just practicing twice a day. We had blackboard drills at night and things like that. It was no fun at all…..It made you feel like a slave or something like that. They took away a guy’s identity, dressing alike and all that stuff. What we needed was a free night where everybody could do what he wanted to do…chase girls, have a beer or a soda or anything….” Bob complained to Schwartzwalder who told him “Well, there’s a lot of traffic going north. Get your thumb out.” I doubt insufficient girl chasing was the main cause for a 6-61 defeat. I also think that a player’s view of how much practice is enough is not all that similar to a coach’s view.
Reddy heard a story that might have had more to do with the loss to Alabama: “My informant insists that when Syracuse worked out at a Miami Beach athletic field, polishing its plays in supposed seclusion, Alabama had a movie camera trained on the workouts and could study in advance the plays, the sequences, the blocking and the faking which the Orange was preparing to spring. At least, because of careful surveillance of visitors at the Norman, Oklahoma training headquarters, that type of pocket-picking probably won’t be operating for Syracuse’s Cotton Bowl foe.”
An article in the Herald by Bill Clark traced all the similarities between things that happened in December 1952 leading up to the Orange Bowl disaster and December 1956 leading up to the Cotton Bowl challenge. Some were silly: LeMoyne’s basketball team beat Scranton by one point in each month. Others seemed relevant: Syracuse ordered some oxygen to be onto the sidelines for each game. In each game, Syracuse had not been the first choice for the game and their selection had been something of a disappointment to the local fans. Red Drew’s comments about Syracuse in 1952 sounded very much like Abe Martin’s comments in 1956. But Bill noted one difference: “In some ways history repeats. In some ways it doesn’t. One thing nobody has been saying this year is the comment that was right before the game in Miami four years ago: “Syracuse doesn’t belong on the same field with ‘em”.
Bill Reddy felt a surge of confidence: “I think this Syracuse team isn’t going to lose. I don’t believe Texas Christian has been called upon to stop a runner like Big Jim Brown all season, possibly in the entire career of this senior-studded Horned Frog eleven. I don’t believe the Frogs will be able to cope successfully with the variation on offense which Syracuse will introduce. I don’t believe TCU’s line will have the get-up -and-go of the Syracuse forwards. I think the Frogs will score, perhaps more than once, chiefly because Schwartzwalder will have to rest his first team occasionally and the second team doesn’t loom as strong as TCU’s reserves. But I look for Syracuse to have an edge to mean victory.”
“If this turns out to be a dream, a dream which persists in the face of Texas confidence and Texas defense of an overwhelming state pride; if all this is another form of whistling past the graveyard, well a guy can dream, can’t he? “
