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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 112632, member: 289"] The Game The Orange got an early break after an exchange of punts thanks to a botched Illinois handoff which was recovered on the Illini 30 . Runs by Jim Brown and Sam Alexander produced a first down on the 16 but two runs and two pass attempts produced nothing and the home team took over. Quarterback Em Lindbeck found Abe Woodson for a 40 yard pass to the SU 26. “Brown, the last man, made the tackle to prevent the touchdown. JC Caroline then ran the ball to the 8 but Woodson fumbled on the next play, ending the threat. Syracuse was forced to punt and Eddie Albright’s kick went out of bonds on the Illinois 41. Lindbeck again dropped back and looked for Abe Woodson. He found him and the result was 59 yard touchdown pass. “Three Syracuse tacklers missed shots at Woodson as he scampered down the sidelines….Lindbeck, faking well, passed to Woodson, who juggled the ball, hung onto it, was missed by two tacklers and evaded another as he went all the way to score.” The kick made it 0-7 for Illinois. Caroline then intercepted a Mickey Rich pass at the Illini 48. A defensive holding penalty later pushed the ball to the SU 27. “Carolina ran for a touchdown after a tricky double reverse. Caroline ran beautifully down the sidelines….On the first play, (after the penalty), the home team pulled a tricky double reverse Lindbeck to Woodson to Caroline and the dusky star, pulling dangerously close to the right sideline, went twisting and dodging all the way for a 27 yard scoring jaunt.” Now it was 0-14. Illinois was “getting well” against Syracuse. The Orange responded with their only scoring drive, a 71 yard march completed by a four yard plunge by fullback Don Laacksonen. The drive got started with a great catch in which he pulled the ball out of Lindbeck’s arms for a 19 yard completion. But his extra point attempt went wide. Syracuse’s scoring was done for the day at 6-14. An Abe Woodson fumble gave SU the ball on the Illinois 41 but the Orange gave up ball on downs at the 26. Illinois drove from there to the Orange 18 but time ran out of them and the Orange were still “in it” at the half, 6-14. But not for long. Jim Brown returned the second half kick-off to the 35 but fumbled and Jack Chamblin recovered for Illinois. The Illini drove to the one where Caroline was stopped on a fourth down sweep. But on the next play Chamblin ripped the ball away from Billy Micho and Illinois recovered on the 5. Two plays later, Woodson scored on a one yard dive. Don Laacksonen blocked the conversion but SU was now down 6-20. Caroline went back to field a Syracuse punt but had a surprise in store for the Orange. He caught the punt but then handed off to teammate Harry Jefferson on a reverse. “While the Orangemen chased Caroline, Jefferson swung to the left and getting a key block from Steve Nosek at the Syracuse 20, hotfooted it all the way, 89 yards, to pay dirt..” It was 6-27 after three periods. The fourth period started with four consecutive turnovers, three fumbles and an interception which produced no scores. Then reserve Illini quarterback Hiles Stout lofted a pass that Eddie Albright prepared to intercept. But the ball was thrown so high that Illinois’ Charlie Butler was able to close on the play and pick the ball out of Albright’s hand. He wasn’t caught until the one yard line. On the next play, Bob Graeff scored and the conversion produced a final score of Illinois 34 Syracuse 6. For some reason the home team, perhaps starved for the kind of glory they expected, kept launching passes on it’s last possession but it came to nothing. Perhaps they realized what was coming up: four more losses in a row to Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin and Northwestern to finish a dismal 1-8, the worst record ever for a team ranked so highly in the preseason polls. (This was one of two Illinois teams to win their only game of the season vs. Syracuse: the other would be in 1978). The rushing totals for the game were close. Syracuse’ plodding offense managed to gain 165 yards to Illinois’ 177. But SU could only complete 4 of 16 passes for 47 yards while the Illini was 6 for 9 for 188 yards. That plus the long reverse on the punt return spelled the difference in the game. The Post Standard noted that J.C. Caroline, Abe Woodson and Harry Jefferson were all “shifty negro backs”. Illinois was in the forefront of northern schools that had benefited by integrating their teams. Syracuse had had a history of that themselves and would benefit considerably from “negro” talents, the height coming when the next #44 would be the first African American Heisman Trophy winner. Jim Brown, “playing his best game, to date, was the work horse. He carried the ball 13 times for 63 yards, a 4.8 average.” Jim was the subject of the only photo of the game printed in either Syracuse newspaper, a shot of him being forced out of bounds by J. C. Caroline after a six yard sweep. If the fans at the game were told that the greatest running back ever was playing in the game, they would likely have assumed it was the guy doing the pushing on that play, not the guy being pushed. Jim in his autobiography, (ironically titled “Out of Bounds”), recalls this game. “Fourth game of the year, against Illinois, several of our backs were injured and they had no choice but to start me. I also got some time at cornerback, made a few rough tackles, a couple of respectable runs. Illinois had an All-American player named J.C. Caroline. Once J.C. turned the corner, I rushed in and stuck him. They had to carry J.C. off the field. The next week my coaches were more polite.” Caroline would only rush for 440 yards in 1954 and would go on to have a long career in the NFL with the Chicago Bears but as a defensive back. He did get some carries as a running back and ran for 263 yards in ten season, 12,049 fewer than the man he pushed out of bounds in 1954. At this point Ben Schwartzwalder was in his sixth season and had lost three games in a row to give the team a 1-3 start. His overall record was 27-23-1. Of course the record in the previous 51 games was 17-32-2 but still, SU fans had to wonder if someone else couldn’t do better. They needn’t have worried. Syracuse wouldn’t lose consecutive games for the rest of the decade. [/QUOTE]

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