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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 462571, member: 289"] THE BUILD-UP 　 Bill Reddy of the Post-Standard said that the Orange “came back from the Orange Bowl Saturday. The onus that has been carried by Syracuse University football teams since that shellacking by Alabama in the 1953 Orange Bowl is being forgotten now that Coach Ben Schwartzwalder’s team showed, as it did against Army Saturday, that it can tackle a ‘big one’ and win….Ever since the game, there has been discussion as to whether Syracuse could have won it on a dry field. It’s a discussion which will get nowhere because football is a game which is played under the conditions which prevail and certainly under Saturday’s conditions, (which were rather frightful), Syracuse was superior in all departments. Those of us who watched it and thrilled to the crusading spirit of the Orangemen, came away convinced that the Syracuse team wanted to win their game so whole-heartedly that it would have won on a field dry as a bone- and possibly by a much bigger margin.” Orange Nation was feeling it’s oats. Ben Schwartzwalder said this was his biggest win yet: “Up to now, the biggest win any team of ours has had, in my opinion, was the 25-7 victory over Penn State in 1952. That one was the win we needed for the Lambert Trophy and the boys got it in a great display of football. But this one, over Army, is a lot bigger than that, I think. I’m proud of them all.” Of Maryland, he said “We’re solemn all over again. You have to be solemn when you think about Maryland.” Rocky Pirro had been sent to scout Maryland against UCLA, Wake Forest and North Carolina, (wins of 7-0, 28-7 and 25-7 ), and came back calling the Terps “the closest college football to a professional outfit I have seen….a big, speedy, T-formation squad powerful on attack and strong on defense…They‘re big, they move well, they don‘t get excited….I just never saw any college football team like Maryland. They just take their time, execute their plays and for all the world look like a professional football team. It certainly doesn‘t look like any college group I ever saw.” He said that quarterback Frank Tamburello was “a polished play director”. Halfback Ed Vereb had scored three TDs and passed for another against the Tar Heels, who gained only 18 yards against Maryland. Howard Dare was the other halfback and Phil Perlo the fullback. They ranked 1st in the nation in rushing defense, (40 yards a game) and #4 overall. Their line out-weighed Syracuse’s by 10 pounds per man. They’d won 10 games in a row. They were ranked #2 behind Michigan in the polls and favored by 2 touchdowns. But Army had been favored by three. Even Rocky was cocky, saying “We’ll be a stronger team to oppose Maryland than the three teams I saw…Syracuse will be the toughest team they‘ve played all season. The Terrapins can only put 11 men on the field, the same as we can.” That was a big statement since UCLA, at least according to the coach’s poll, was the defending national champions. Jim Tatum also had scouting reports from all three Syracuse games. He called the Orange “a balanced array”. Maryland was one of three teams remaining on SU’s schedule, (of 5) that were still unbeaten at this point, the others being Holy Cross and West Virginia. The two teams had not met since 1939, with the all-time series being 3-3-1. Jack Slattery said “In Jim Tatum’s Maryland Terrapins the Orangemen have to face one of the truly great teams in the nation. Maryland has the material to run the Orange right out of Archbold Stadium into Hendricks Field. And Tatum’s the kind of many who won’t stop them if he can.” Tatum said of own team, “We think we have a good college player at every position. We have enough seniors to provide experience. We have enough juniors to provide eagerness and we have enough sophomores to make mistakes and create excitement.” . The Herald Journal reported “Schwartzwalder is planning new offensive tactics through the air and tricky ground operations for the coming test.” The Post Standard: “Coach Ben Schwartwalder spent a good deal of yesterday’s practice routine trying to polish Bill Orange’s ground attack. He’s hopeful that good deception and faking will spring such speed backs as Jimmy Brown and Jimmy Ridlon for long yardage.” Jim Brown had gained 224 yards in 39 carries, a 5.7 average. Ed Albright had completed 67% of his passes, but that was only 6 of 9. But he did throw for 120 yards, 20 per completion. And he’d done that with injuries to both hands. Wednesday’s Herald has pictures of Albright throwing the ball and end Tommy Richardson catching a pass with a long black arrow connecting them. Thursday’s Herald had a big headline “MARYLAND EXPECTS HEAVY AIR ATTACK”. Shirley Povich of the Washington Post reported that the Terps were angry that they’d been dropped down to #2 behind Michigan. “I know a fellow could get tired of hearing that the only rugged football being played is in the Big Ten, at Notre Dame or at a couple of spots on the west coast…Michigan, for example, zoomed to it’s #1 ranking ahead of Maryland by knocking off Army. Well, Syracuse did the same thing and just as convincingly. So now the Terrapins could promote themselves smartly by beating Syracuse.” An unnamed Army spokesman said, “Syracuse was bigger and tougher than Michigan. Army took a worse physical beating in the Syracuse game than in the Michigan game. They quickly pointed out that the play of both Michigan and Army was clean but Syracuse was bigger, hit harder and did us more damage.” Jim Tatum said of Syracuse, “They played Army off it’s feet.” Joe Blair, the Maryland SID, said “Our club has been excellent on defense all season. But the offense hasn’t come to what Coach Tatum expected of it. In the spring, before the season started, Coach thought this would be his greatest team. But injuries changed the picture considerably. Offensively, we just grind out the yardage and then somebody manages to get the ball over the goal line.” Tackle Jim Brill had suffered a pinched nerve late in the Army game and was doubtful for Maryland. Lineman Jerry Cashman and fullback Don Laacksonen were also “banged up” but expected to play in the game. Jack Slattery of the Herald-Journal praised Don Althouse, saying that in his first tour with the Orange in 1952, he had “displayed a disinterest in books” but during his Army hitch, he came to realize the importance of a college degree. “Ben Schwartzwalder didn’t even count on Althouse. He knew of Don’s diffident attitude toward studies and just didn’t consider him in his football plans. Don contacted Ben and thoroughly convinced him of his desire to work in the classroom so he returned.” He “hit the books” and also developed into a fine player, who “punts well, he’s a strong defender…he caught the first touchdown pass and sent Army skidding towards defeat. But more than that, his very presence on the team made it possible for Schwartzwalder to move Jimmy Ridlon from end to a halfback post. The lessons Don Althouse learned in the Army bore fruit for Syracuse University. For the Army’s seat of learning at West Point it bore bitter fruit.” Friday’s Herald had pictures of the faces, (from ‘action’ shots taken on the practice field), across the top of the sports page and a listing of the starting line-ups for each team, with weights, (but not heights) listed. Maryland’s line, from end to end, weighed an average of 211 pounds per man with the biggest being Mike Sandusky at 240. SU’s line weighed 200 pounds per man, with the biggest being Jerry Cashman at 214. Jack Slattery said that Tatum had a “giant squad- eight teams strong” when he saw them in the spring but the paper said the traveling squad was 44 strong. They also reported that “Tatum never puts his boys through an outdoor practice the day before a contest either at home or away but goes over the opposition’s personnel and operations thoroughly in his inside talk to the players.” Slattery said that prior to the Army game, he had a feeling Syracuse would win but for this game he had “10 feelings….So far I haven’t got a winner. First I have Maryland defeating the Orange in a rout. Then I look at the record of the Terps and Jim Tatum coached teams. There’s no ground to believe there’ll be a rout. (There isn’t?) Then I see the Orange staging the biggest upset of the year with a victory over Maryland. But that, I find, doesn’t stick with me….I just can’t see any team in the nation beating them. That match over and another one beings- this one has Maryland as the victor in a hard-fought game with the margin of victory being sufficient but not exactly comfortable.” CBS decided to televise the game as it’s “Eastern Game of the Week”. The Post Standard heralded it as “The Game of the East”. The weather would be 52 degrees with only a light wind. Maryland was bringing it’s 150 piece band, (the number of tubas was unknown), and 1000 students and fans with the team for the game. The Herald warned travelers that there wasn’t a hotel room in the area that wasn’t taken already. “Filled up are Hotels Syracuse, Onondaga, Yates and others. Motels are jammed. So are tourist homes and cabins.“ A total crowd of 30,000 was expected, (the listed capacity of Archbold Stadium at that time was 40,000). One of them would Dr. Wilson Elkins, the President of “Maryland University” was one of them. “If Dr. Elkins is critical of the selection of plays of the Terps ace quarterback Frank Tamburello, it because of his experience. At his alma mater, Texas University, the Maryland president was an eight letterman and starting quarterback during the 1930 and 1931 seasons.” JimTatum was pretty confident. When told the Maryland fans had planned a victory celebration on Sunday at the Hotel Syracuse, he said he’d hold the team over so they could attend it. [/QUOTE]

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