Forty Seventh Year
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SWC75
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For several seasons I've been doing game-by-game reviews of the Schwartzwalder Era (based on what was published in the Syracuse Newspapers of the time), doing one season a year. Here is my description of the the 1953 Boston U. game:
"The game seemed like a normal game most of the afternoon. No one knew that one of the participants would not survive it. The newspaper account of the game is spare, as if the reporters were more interested in the other story of the day, as well they should have been. There were only three pictures of the game published, all very small and none showing a score. They do reveal that Syracuse was in it’s white jerseys with orange helmet and pants while BU was in scarlet and white, with the helmets and pants white. The first shot was of Joe Terrasi carrying the ball to the SU 1 foot line in the first quarter, just before the first score, Lyle Carleson fumbling a white colored football at an unknown juncture of the game and a picture of BU guard John Pappas, #55, in game action, watching a tackle being made “about an hour…before he lapsed into unconsciousness“.
Syracuse came out basically unprepared to play the game and were totally dominated in the first half, gaining only 24 yards and finding themselves down by two touchdowns at the break. BU had 103 yards. The home team turned things around in the second half, outgaining BU 199-72 and coming back to earn a tie, 14-14.
On the first possession Pat Stark was intercepted by his counter-part, John Nunziato, who returned the ball 15 yards to the Syracuse 15. After four running plays, Don Defeudis scored from the one foot line to put the Terriers ahead, 0-7. In the second period, Lou Petroka “smashed through the Syracuse line, broke into the clear and ran 37 yards for another BU touchdown. SU 0 BU 14.
After what must have been an interesting intermission, Bob Leberman scored to make it 7-14, (the Post Standard archive copy of the 10/3/53 paper faded at the point where the circumstances of this score are described and it’s unreadable but the summary says that Leberman scored a TD and all of SU’s points were in the third quarter.)
Second team quarterback Bruce Yancey in “the game’s most thrilling play… a buck-lateral maneuver, broke to his right and raced 83 yards for the tying touchdown….Yancey spun into his own backfield away from his T quarterback position as the play started. Laaksonen then took a direct snap from center and lateraled to Yancey, who got some good downfield blocking as he raced down the right sideline.” It was the fourth longest run from scrimmage for a Syracuse player, wedged between James Mungro’s 86 yard non-scorer vs. Kentucky in 1999 and Doug Hogue’s 82 yard shocker vs. Rutgers in 2008. Warren Stevens went 90 yards vs. Rutgers in 1930 and George Davis holds the record with a 95 yarder vs. Fordham in Ben’s first year, 1949
Syracuse tried to pull out the victory, driving to the Boston 5 late in the game. The Orange forced the Terriers to punt to the SU 36. Bob Leberman ran for 12 yards and the caught a pass from Stark at the BU 29. Art Trolio, (who’s son Art Jr. is the long-time coach of Harrison High School, who just played for the NYS Class A championship in the Dome), went through the left side of the line for 7 and then Leberman matched that in the other direction. He then got 7 more to the 8. One second and three, a pass to Ray Perkins was “a bit high“. Bob Leberman was hit in the backfield for a yard loss. Then fullback Don Laaksonen drove the 5 but “went down holding the ball sideways”. The measurement was short by an inch. They forced the Terriers to punt but a series of desperation passes were incomplete. Boston tried one pass which was almost intercepted and then elected to run out the clock and accept the tie.
Lou Petroka gained 111 yards for Boston on 16 carried while Bob Leberman led SU with 74 yards on 13 carries. There wasn’t much passing, at least of the useful variety as SU was only 4 for 18 for 48 yards and Boston U 1 of 6 for 7 yards, despite the fact that Syracuse used an 8 man line for much of the game to try to stop their running attack.
Early in the fourth period of this game, Boston U was lining up for a play after moving from their 10 to the 30 on “seven hard-fought running plays” when guard John Pappas sank to one knee and told his teammates “I was banged on a play or two before.” It was the last thing he ever said. He passed out and never regained consciousness. He died at 3:30AM the following morning. His parents arrived at Hancock Airport at 5:30AM and were taken by cab to the Hotel Onondaga where Coach Donelli had to tell them that their son was dead.
An autopsy at University Hospital determined Pappas died of “an unusual hemorrhage to the middle brain, which caused impairment of vital body processes“, but there had been no fracture. Dr. Edward Swift said “It’s very unusual in football when a player who suffers a head injury isn’t knocked out.” He labeled it “a freak accident”, saying “He suddenly went bad and died.“ A picture in the paper of Pappas in action earlier in the game shows him without any face-mask: but nobody else has one, either.
Both coachers agreed that the game wasn’t unusually rough and it was reported that the players on both teams were very friendly to each other after the game. SU Athletic Director Lew Andreas said that relations between the schools had always been good and there was no reason to believe that would change. Donelli said that as far as he knew, the Terriers would play the remaining games on their schedule. SU and BU would continue to play every year through 1960.
There was some talk that the injury was due to the one-platoon system being too much for Pappas and potentially other players to handle but Donelli said that in his career Pappas had played as much as 55 minutes in a game under the two platoon system and not been injured.
A telegram was sent to Boston U. and to Pappas family, signed by the men’s and women’s student government heads at SU, offering condolences and saying they would like to attend the funeral. 1000 people were in attendance, including all 50 of Papas’ teammates. A collection was taken among the crowd at Boston U’s next game against Penn State to establish a memorial fund. At the end of the season, SU’s players named John Pappas the captain of their All-opponent team.
Bill Reddy wrote: “The death of John Pappas, the fine young senior guard on the Boston University team., was a shocking affair and his family and teammates receive all our sympathy. This is the first fatality suffered as a result of an injury suffered in Archbold Stadium since the big concrete bowl was built in 1909 and the medical findings still are incomplete. There is a possibility, based on studies which have not been fully checked, that a pre-game injury, entirely unsuspected, led up to Pappas’ death. Regardless of everything else, however, it is a sad outcome for any game. It casts a pall over both squads and leaves football itself in an ignoble light.”
I've covered every game from 1949-56 so far and will soon begin a series on 1957. Send me a message to my inbox with your E-mail address and I'll be glad to forward you what i've written so far in attachments if you are interested.
Longtimesu
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I'm just as vintage as you are. I got my hemmorioids from sitting on those damn cold, concrtete, steps
Loved Ernie. I was a heart broken, young teenager when Ernie died. I remember reading the newspaper article about his death. And I was a Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns fan. Really wanted to see him play in the same backfield with Brown.
