The Bold, Brave Men of Archbold 1955: Boston U.

[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

Strangely, even though they didn’t have a game until September 24th the Orange had a bye the next week. They played their second game of the year against Boston University on October 8th . (The 2012 team, also with a bye, will have played 5 games by that date.)

Neither team came into this game with a win, Buff Donelli’s Terriers having lost to Penn State 0-35 and Connecticut, (then a Yankee Conference team), 7-10. This was huge disappointment after their 7-2 1954 season, when they’d beaten the Huskies by four touchdowns. Buff Donelli had declared the 1955 team to be “My best 11”. The Herald Journal: “Reports of scouts indicate that early game breaks have hindered the Terriers in each start with costly fumbles and penalties puncturing morale.” They had had two drives deep into Penn State territory that ended in a fumble and an interception. Donelli: “We just haven’t jelled yet. Maybe we’ll hit our stride against Syracuse.”

The Terriers had the second leading receiver in the nation in John Bredice, who had 11 catches for 119 yards and the team’s only score. Bredice had scored twice in Boston’s 19-41 rout of the Orange in Boston in 1954. Halfback Ken Hagerstrom was back and had also scored twice in that game. “They also have such backfield standouts as Frank Chiera, Bob Silva and John Slauson, all speedy individuals who can go all the way from any spot on the field.” Len Hill, a sophomore, was their quarterback. There was concern that Syracuse’s pass defense was untested: Pittsburgh had only thrown the ball five times. Of course, that’s all the needed to throw it with their powerful line.

Syracuse wasn’t feeling too badly about being 0-1 since their loss was to one of the best teams in the country, Pittsburgh. Bill Reddy: “There wasn’t a great deal of gloom around town after Pitt beat Syracuse Saturday. Nearly everyone expected the Panthers to win and most fans were pleased that the Orangemen had managed to make it that close. It could have been closer. Syracuse could have won, with a few more favorable bounced of the unpredictable pigskin. Pitt was the better team, for one reason. The Panthers had a better ‘bench‘. The could substitute freely at every position without seriously weakening their team. Syracuse couldn’t make such changes without cutting it’s efficiency and in the end it was greater Pitt manpower which made the difference. Playing 11 men against 11 men, I’d be inclined to take Syracuse over Pitt, but that’s not the kind of game they play.” Nor was it the kind of game Maryland, Army, West Virginia and Penn State played. Like Pittsburgh, they were all ranked in the Top Twenty and were on Syracuse’ schedule. No team out of the Top Twenty was scheduled to play that many teams that were in it. Maryland was the #1 team in the country.

Another factor Reddy noted was the injury to Eddie Albright, “because it left the Orange without an experienced field general for the last 15 minutes and it was in that phase of the game that the Panthers sewed it up.” Albright, despite his hand injury suffered while playing defense against Pittsburgh, was expected to be able to play in the game early in the week. A special cast was made for his thumb. Later reports cast doubt on the proposition. Finally it was announced that sophomore Ferdinand “Fern” Kuczala, who had impressed with his passing ability in practice, (vs. a freshman te4am that “offered little resistance”), would start the game for SU. Kuczala, a high school teammate of Lenny Moore, would not be in the same collegiate backfield with Jim Brown. The other back-ups were John Pannucci and Lou Iannicello.

Jim Ridlon was moved into the backfield to increase the team’s pass-catching abilities. Don Laacksonen was in competition with a 41.7 yard average. Pete Schwert who had played end, center and tackle for SU, was being tried at guard. He was a football player’s football player at 6-4 and 220 pounds. Ben bemoaned the poor tackling in the second half against Pitt, especially three plays that could have been stopped for losses and wound up in big gains.

It was going to be the only night game of the season for the Orange. 18,000 fans were expected for the game, as was Boston’s 120 piece marching band. There was an Old Beanpot trophy to be awarded to the winner. Boston U. had held it since the previous year’s game. Arnie Burdick, the SU SID, claimed it could hold 16,000 beans. Although no one had tested that theory, having better things to do.

 

[SWC75]

THE GAME

The Terriers had passed SU crazy the previous year, scoring 4 TD passes in the first half to take a 6-34 halftime lead on the way to a 19-41 win. They tried it again this year but the plan backfired. Ken Hagerstrom, who had plagued the Orange a year before with a couple of long scores and an interception in the end zone, returned the kick-off 33 yards to the Boston 40. But Len Hill’s first two passes were incomplete and the third was intercepted by Don Althouse and returned to the BU 24. Six plays later, Fern Kuczala snuck over from two yards out. Jim Brown kicked the point to put SU up 7-0.

The terriers came right back. Hagerstrom again found a seam and returned the kick-off to the 39. This time they stayed on the ground, finding holes in the Orange wall. Seven straight running plays, three of more than 10 yards resulted in Frank Chiera going over form the four. But Jim Ridlon, playing one of his best games, blocked the point to keep SU ahead. They would quickly extend the lead.

Billy Micho caught a shot kick-off at the 18 and returned it 29 yards to the SU 47. Kuczala hit Althouse for 11 yards and Althouse and Laacksonen both had 9 yard runs before Jim Brown “took a handoff, cut wide and sung back into the secondary. He shook off one tackler and raced the rest of the way to pay dirt, a 24 yard gallop.” Big Jim then kicked the point to make it 14-6.

Chiera fumbled on the second play after the kick-off and Ron Tyler recorded for SU at the 34. It was the turn of SU’s second team and John Pannucci dropped back and floated a pass to Harvey Healy in the end zone for the score. A classic “sudden change” score. This time Jim’s conversion attempt didn’t make it past the line of scrimmage but the Orange led 20-6, after one.

Syracuse dominated the second quarter but couldn’t score. A 54 yard punt return by Brown was topped by a 40 yard scoring run by #44. But it was called back for holding. Syracuse wound up faking a punt form the BU 39 but a pass fell incomplete. On it’s next possession the orange went on a grinding, penalty filled drive that ended with a failed fourth down plunge by Tyler at the BU 2.

The home team got back to work in the third quarter. On the second play after the kick-off Jim Brown “swept to his right got a good block at the line of scrimmage and out-ran two Boston defenders on a 66 yard scoring jaunt. Jim made it a seven point play” and the score was a commanding Syracuse 27 Boston University 6.

The Terriers awoke, too late. Hagarstrom had another good kick-off return to the 35. Boston drove to the Syracuse 31, where it was 4th and 9. An offsides penalty made it 4th and 4. Hagerstrom “burst into the secondary, got a good block from George Speneas and shook off a pair of tacklers at the 20 before going all the way to score. They try was wide and the score was 27-12.
There was no more scoring but there was till excitement. An exchange of interceptions, the latter by Jim Ridlon set up the other Jim for a long but pointless romp. He “took a pitch-out and, with good blocking, reeled off a 54 yard run into the end zone.” The blocking was a little too good and the play was called back.

Boston had one more threat, getting three straight first downs to the SU 30. But then Ridlon ended the threat with an interception and the Orange ran the clock out.

Syracuse rushed for an impressive 293 yards in this game and passed for 57 more while holding the Terriers to 265. But that was evened out by the penalty yardage. Syracuse was called for 94 yards in penalties, (not counting the positive yardage that was negated). BU had a single offside penalty. But of course, if a play is created by an illegal block it’s best to pretend it never happened.

Jim Brown had 129 yards that counted on only 10 carries. Ken Hagerstrom led the Terriers with 80 yards on 16 carries. The two teams combined to misfire on 18 of 27 passes, of which 4 were intercepted, three by Syracuse, two of them by Jimmy Ridlon. The visitors also lost the games only fumble.

There was again a dearth of pictures in the paper, possibly because the game was played on Saturday night. Jim Brown was shown running over quarterback Len hill on this called back 40 yard run form the second period. Hill dislocated his shoulder and had to leave the game, as did his back-up, Tom Lerario shortly afterwards. SU’s started, Eddie Albright, as it turned out, was unable to play a down himself. That clearly contributed to the bad passing numbers.

There were two shots of Fern Kuczala’s one yard run for SU’s first score. He’s falling forward across the goal line in the arms of two BU linemen. The first shot was in front, from the back of the end zone. The second was from the side and says it was a one yard run but Fern looks as if he’s more than a yard away from the goal line when the picture was snapped. Syracuse was in white jerseys with orange helmets and pants, BU in white helmets and pants with scarlet jerseys.