The Bold Brave Men of Archbold 1954: Penn State

[SWC75]

In the days of old, when knights were bold
Every city had its warrior man.
In the days of new, when fights are few
You will view them from a big grandstand.
In our college town one has great renown
If the game of football he should play.
With his pig-skin ball he is cheered by all,
He's the Saltine Warrior of today.
The Saltine Warrior is a bold, bad man,
And his weapon is a pigskin ball,
When on the field he takes a good, firm stand,
He's the hero of large and small.
He will rush toward the goal with might and main
His opponents all fight, but they fight in vain,
Because the Saltine Warrior is a bold, bad man,
And victorious over all.

We are early in a new era in SU football- the Doug Marrone era. 60 years ago, another era began- the Ben Schwartzwalder Era, during which SU rose from its greatest depths to its greatest heights, and then all the way back down again. It was the era into which I was born, the one I remember from my youth. I can still recall listening to the games on the radio and waiting until Tuesday to see the grainy black and white films of the previous Saturday’s games on the local news. The music played over these highlights was not “Down, Down the Field”. It was “The Saltine Warrior”. My Dad thought he knew the beginning of it and would sing “The Saltine Warrior was a bold, brave man”. I later found that the line was “bold, bad, man”. But that’s not the way I learned it and it’s not the way I like it. My heroes were not “bad” men. They were “brave” men. They were the “Bold, Brave Men of Archbold”.

 

[SWC75]

The Build-up

Jack Slattery was not that impressed with SU’s opening 28-6 win over Villanova. “The backs had been touted highly for their showing against Army and Bucknell. However, it was the fine play on the part of the green line which kept the ball game within reach of the Orange until the jittery backs could get a hold of themselves and the ball….Jim Brown, giant sophomore, showed flashes of fine play after a fumbling start. Ray Perkins proved why he is considered one of the finest backs in the country and Bill Wetzel made the fans realize why tears came to Ben Schwartwalder’s eyes every time he saw the big fellow hobbling on crutches last year. Art Trolio played one of the best games he has played in an Orange uniform.” Colgate Coach Hal Lahar warned “Don’t cry too many tears for this club. They’ll come along.” Slattery gave some off-handed praise to a fellow sportswriter. “But above all the lads proved Stanley Woodward to be one of the all-time great prognosticators. He picked Syracuse to win one game this year. Already they have proved Stanley to be nothing short of a genius.” Stanley had predicted a win over Villanova but then seven straight losses. He turned out to be wrong but he would look something like a genius for the next few weeks.

There was an article in the paper saying that Illinois and Stanford, who were about to play each other in Palo Alto, were leading a “a small-sized revolt against the NCAA and it’s TV policy, which limited TV games to just one national game a week. Illinois athletic director Doug Mills “went so far as to predict that unless the present policy is abandoned there will be a bolt from the ranks of the NCAA.” His Stanford counterpart, Al Masters, said “the only thing that will work is regional control of the televising of intercollegiate games.” He also complained that his school would lose about $30,000 because the NCAA doesn’t black out the games locally. He expected a crowd of 35-40,000, rather than 60-65,000. Mills warned that state legislatures were passing bills forcing the televising of games. “We’ve fought this off several times but I doubt we could do it again.”

Illinois had been on great run, winning the first Big 10-Pacific Coast Conference Rose Bowl by 45-14 over UCLA in 1946, going undefeated with a tie in 1951 and crushing Stanford in the Rose Bowl 40-7 and then going 7-1-1 with the most exciting player in college football, JC Caroline, in 1953. They were expected to be one of the top teams in the country but Penn State, who had a great back of their own in Lenny Moore, (whose picture appeared in Monday’s Post Standard), wasn’t impressed, beating them 14-12 in Champagne. It was described the way any intersectional victory by an Eastern team was in those days: “It was big stroke for Eastern football” Rip Engle had told his players “Aren’t you a little tired of hearing Eastern football derided? Don’t you think it’s time to do something about it?” It was his only pep talk. Engle was named UPI national coach of the week. He said it was the greatest win of his coaching career. The Lions had won 7 of their last 8 games, the only loss being by one point to West Virginia’s Sugar Bowl team of 1953. They were ranked 10th in the country by the writers and 9th by the coaches. Their next opponent was Syracuse at Archbold Stadium. The Lions were a 7 point favorite.

The Lions were heavy favorites and the feeling was that to have any chance, SU needed to get it’s passing game going- somehow. “It’s improbable that we will they’ll be able to sustain a grinding attack against the heavier, more experienced Lions.” More encouraging was the Syracuse defense, which held Villanova’s offense, based on the Chicago Bear T formation Coach Frank Reagan had learned while playing for the Bears to 87 yards in 59 plays. But Penn State’s line at 208 pounds per man had a 15 pound advantage over the Orange. Roy Simmons and Rocky Pirro scouted them against Illinois and Pirro said that Penn State had “two great teams”- their first and second teams. Ben Schwartzwalder was particularly impressed with Moore, whom, he considered superior to Caroline. He joked that he’s been hard on second string quarterback Ed Albright for failing to recruit Moore, his high school teammate for Syracuse. (Imagine Jim Brown and Lenny Moore lining up next to each other!)

Ben addressed the troops: “If we’re going to have a chance with high-riding Penn State in Archbold Stadium Saturday afternoon, we’re going to have to get better blocking. We improved our blocking considerably during the Villanova game last week. But we can’t afford a slow start against the Nittany Lions. We’ll have to get a little more firepower from our passing attack this weekend for we sure aren’t going to be able to dent that big tough line.” Ben was also stressing punt and kick-off coverage. The kickers were practicing three things: kicking it high, kicking it far and kicking it away from Lenny Moore. But Ben also hoped to get something out of his kick returns. Ray Perkins, Jimmy Brown and Sam Alexander all took it the distance in practice kicks. But Don Bailey, the Lion’s punter, had held Caroline to 0 punt return yards in the previous week’s game by effectively kicking away from him.
Syracuse was third in the country in total defense after being second in the country in rushing defense the previous year, But that was deceiving. Most of last year’s team was gone and this year consisted of one game vs. Villanova. Penn State had rushed for 279 yard against mighty Illinois. And Lenny Moore had out-rushed JC Caroline, the 1953 national rushing champion 124 yards to 115. Penn State could pass, too. Jim Garrity was the leading pass receiver in the East the previous season with 30 for 349 yards and 3 scores. They also had a “gargantuan tackle named Roosevelt Grier, 6-5 250” and 6-5 basketball star Jesse Arnelle playing end. They had to replace record-setting quarterback Tony Rados but Bailey, the punter was also a passer and sophomore Milt Plum was looking pretty good. Another sophomore, Sam Valentine, was a promising guard. Penn State was described as “A big, experienced squad which is well-stocked with veterans and which will have a speed edge on the Orange all along the line and in most spots in the secondary.”

There was talk that the game might decide the Lambert trophy, as it did the last time the Lions invaded Archbold in 1952. Newsreel companies had applied for credentials to photograph the game for their audiences. Penn State was #1 in the Lambert Poll as the best team in the East. Syracuse was far behind at #6, so the newsreel people may have been a bit optimistic. Both teams were described as “undefeated” in the newspaper, which was correct. They were both 1-0.

 

[SWC75]

The Game

It was a memorable time in sports. On this day the New York Giants completed a sweep of the Cleveland Indians, who had won an American League record 111 games in the World Series. The International league in those days as an independent league, as were most of the minor leagues. Their teams were independent, although they may have had working agreements with major league teams. But the league made it’s own schedule and it’s own playoff format. The Syracuse Chiefs, who had finished fourth, had beaten the Montreal Royals for the Governor’s Cup the night before and were preparing to play the Louisville Colonels the American Association in the Junior World Series. Meanwhile the Syracuse Nationals were embarking on the season which would get their the NBA championship, the only major league professionals sports championship Syracuse has ever won.

Only 18,000 people were in the seats at Archbold despite 70 degree temperatures. There was a slight rain, which muddied the field and forced teams to concentrate on running the football. A radio broadcast of the Final World Series game was played in the press box as the reporters made notes on the SU-Penn State game.

Ben Schwartzwalder was just trying to figure out how to beat Penn State and in 1954, he was unable to come up with any answers. The headlines read “LIONS TAKE FULL CHARGE AT STADIUM: Syracuse unable to pierce wall.“ Syracuse failed to take advantage of two early breaks. Pete Schwert recovered a fumble on the Penn State 17 but four plays only gained three yards. The fourth play was Mickey Rich pass that was batted down by the leaping basketball player, Jesse Arnelle, who had two open receivers behind him. Then Sam Alexander recovered a Lenny Moore fumble on the 35 moments later but this time the Orange went backwards 10 yards. They never did score. It was the first time the Orange had failed to score in a game at Archbold in seven years. “The Orange had no passing attack and the Staters knew it. Rip Engel sent his men into a seven-man front and went with it throughout the fray., even bringing the secondary up and issuing the Syracuse a challenge to throw the pigskin.” It worked. Syracuse had one first down in the first three quarters.

Penn State, never passing once but using it’s size advantage up front, went 76 yards to score on 13 plays, 38 of them on 7 carries by Lenny Moore, who went the final 21 on weak side pitchout. (Moore had also gained 18 yards on the punt return that began the possession). “Several Orange tacklers had shots at the elusive negro back but he out maneuvered them at every step.” Most of those runs were behind Roosevelt Grier. “It was in this drive that Penn State realized they could run at will off the Orange right side.” Gus Zaso blocked the extra point, leaving it at 0-6 with 9 seconds left in the first quarter and that became the halftime score, as well.

Syracuse had one moment of brief glory in the second period when they held Penn State on downs at their own 40. Ray Perkins went back to pass and threw it deep- right into the arms of Lenny Moore. “The Ebony Flyer roared back 29 yards to the Penn State 49.” Moore also had a 22 yard punt return to the SU 28 but the Orange held on that occasion, as well. But, symbolically, the half ends with Syracuse in possession of the ball- at it’s own one yard line. Jim Brown had intercepted a pass at the 2 to end another Penn State threat and one play had gone backwards.

One score was all Penn State needed but they got an insurance score in the third period after Ron Younker returned a punt 49 yards to the SU 18. “Younker took a Laaksonen punt on his own 33, started to his right and was aided by rugged blocks as he skirted down the sideline before Laaksonen made the tackle. Four running plays garnered a first down on the 6. But then the Orange defense stiffened and tossed Charlie Blockson for a four yard loss to the 10. But then Lenny Moore took a pitch-out and ran it to the one before being knocked out of bounds. “On the next play Younker bounced over the middle to score standing up.” The Post Standard used the phrase “catapulted”.

SU was unable to take advantage of a huge break given them by the refs. You’ve heard of a “fifth down” play- how about a three down possession? “State picked up a first down then lost 15 on a personal foul by quarterback (Don) Bailey. Bailey made up 13 of those these on a pass to Garrity but lost eight when smothered by another pass (rush)- leading up to the most confusing play of the day. As Bailey picked himself up the officials gave the ball to Syracuse on the assumption that the Lions had failed in fourth tries for a first down. Not a dissenting voice was raised by the Penn State players or bench as the orange, dutifully obeying official orders, too over.” And, as usual, went nowhere.

It began to rain harder in the fourth quarter, making the ball slipper. Moore ended a Penn State drive on the SU 11 with his second fumble of the day. The Orange put together their only real drive of the day, gaining 72 of their 96 yards of total offense, in the fourth quarter, moving to the Penn State 17 in 14 laborious plays before Vince Vergara slipped on fourth down, a foot from the first down marker.

“The defensive play of Pete Schwert and Ray Perkins was a bright spot on a gloomy day for the Orange. Time and again they stopped the Nittanys but when Penn State needed yardage it avoided their territory.” It was not a day for offense. Penn State got 194 yards but held SU to a piddling 96. The Orange led in passing yards but by only 24-6. It was s game won in the trenches and Penn State won that battle. “Moore picked up 87 yards on 18 carries even thought he was a marked man…For Syracuse Ray Perkins 23 yards in 7 carries was tops.”

There were more pictures of this one than there had been for the Villanova game. Syracuse was in its white jerseys with orange pants and helmets, blue numbers and trim. Penn State was in its classic blue jerseys but with the triple stripes on the selves they used to use, white numbers, pants and helmet. Lenny Moore, #41, bolts past a Syracuse player whose number ends in “4” for his first period touchdown. The Herald identifies the defender as Tom Richardson, #84, but in the Post, in a shot taken a split second later, we can see it’s actually Ray Perkins, #14.

In the Herald , Jim Brown reaches high in the air to make is interception in front of the goal line to end the first half- and falls into the arms of the receiver, Bill Straub who doesn’t permit a return. In the Post we see a shot taken just before the ball gets there. We see that two SU players- the other is unidentified but is #58 or possibly 59. Per Upperdeck’s site, this would be either Joe Orzehoswki or Robert Musgrave- were leaping for the ball but Jim reached a little higher and got it. The pass was thrown by Milt Plum who would alter be handing off to Jim as the Browns quarterback from 1957-61. He was their second pick in the 1957 draft.
We also get a shot of Moore’s run to the one yard line in the third period. The guy who actually forced him out of bounds, Gus Zaso, “fell out of bounds and is hidden from the camera”. You don’t want to fall out of the picture when you fall out of bounds. Eddie Albright, #23, has come up and is giving Moore an extra hit as he goes out to make sure he doesn’t come back in and score. (There was no flag.) The picture next to it shows Ronnie Younker of Penn State running through a huge hole to score on the next play. He hardly had to “catapult” anything. The Post said he “could have been all alone in the stadium as far as the Syracuse defense would be concerned.”

Penn State would go on to a strong 7-2 record, losing to West Virginia and TCU on consecutive weeks in mid-season before closing on a four game wining streak. West Virginia went 8-1 that year and TCU was starting a stretch that would take them to the Cotton Bowl in both 1955 and 1956. The Lions would wind up ranked #20 by the writers and #15 by the coaches but were left out of the five major college bowls games that were played after the 1954 season.

The Orange had a bye week coming up and would spend it trying to find a passing game.