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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 462574, member: 289"] THE GAME 　 I have a VHS tape I made of a newsreel about the 1955 college football season several years back- I think it was on AMC or TCM. One of the games covered is the 1955 Syracuse-Maryland game. They only have 7 plays in the highlight clip. I have not been able to find this on U-Tube so I will describe those plays when I get to them in the narrative. The tape shows some shots of the stands. It was the largest crowd, (32,500), ever to see a football game in Syracuse when the opponent wasn’t Colgate. Fans are seen joining hands and moving in unison back and forth, a sort of primordial ‘wave’. It was an era when being a spectator meant being a participant, with organized cheers, card sections, etc. If those fans walked into the Carrier Dome for a game today, I wonder what they would think? The articles lead off with tributes to the dominance of the Maryland team. “Mightly Maryland continued unbeaten by crushing Syracuse, 34-13...Jim Tatum’s red-jerseyed charges displayed superiority in speed and power…The Terps left no doubt of their class in scoring impressively in their initial appearance against a Ben Schwartzwalder-coached array of underdogs…..The strongest team to show here in years, unbeaten Maryland rolled over an out-classed Syracuse eleven for a 34-13 victory…The Terps amazed the standing-room-only crowd with the speed and power of their attack as they built a two touchdown lead in the first period and were never in danger thereafter. Syracuse, which had hoped to contain the Terp’s all-round offense on the strength of a brilliant showing against Army the week before, tried to turn the trick with a ground attack but were unable to against consistently against the swift and beefy Maryland line.” On SU’s second play from scrimmage, Jim Brown fumbled a pitch-out from Albright and Bob Pellegrini of Maryland recovered at the SU 29. Ed Vereb swept for 5 yards and Phil Perlo went off tackle for four more. Vereb got a first down to the 18 on another sweep. Still another sweep by Vereb got the ball to the Orange 9. Tamburello went up the middle to the 5. He then lost a year but Perlo “ripped through from the 6” and Bob Laughery converted for a 0-7 Maryland lead. SU was forced to punt and Howie Dare, (great name for a punt returner), returned it 42 yards but much of that was lost due to a clip. “On the next play Ed Albright intercepted a Vereb pass as he out-wrestled (Russ) Dennis for the ball while both were falling to the ground.” Althouse again had to punt and Dare again had a good return nullified by a clip that put the ball on the Maryland 28. The Terps drove 72 yards for a second score. Tamburello hit Jim Parsons for 39 yards. The clincher came on a 20 yard pass from Vereb to Dennis. It had been 4th and 13. This is the first play on the newsreel. Vereb takes a pitch-out, runs right and throws it to Dennis in the end zone. Russ is being chased by Ferd Kuszala, (#24) and Gus Zaso, (#36) but they get there just to late to break the play up. They tackled Dennis but all three are 2-3 yards into the east end zone. This time Perlo kicked the point and it was 0-14. At the end of the first quarter the Orange began a 70 yard march. Albright passed to Brown for 13 yards and then Jim ran another 7 to breach Maryland territory for the first time as the quarter ended. Two plays from this drive are on the newsreel and they are interesting. Ed Albright passes to Don Althouse for 14 yards. What’s interesting is how he does it. He takes the snap and leaps in the air, using both hands to fire what in basketball is known as a chest pass to Althouse who has cut just behind the line and over the middle from his end position. The quickness of the throw catches the Maryland defenders flat-footed. The pass is completed between two linebackers, who are dragged forward as they tackle Althouse. Then comes the touchdown play. Albright, (#23), is under center but pivots to his left and moves to the side, his back to the line. Maryland jumps offsides but it won‘t matter. The ball is directly snapped to Zaso, who runs to the line and hands it off to Albright, who then pitches it to Mark Hoffman, (#18) who sprints outside and throws a pass to Althouse, (#87) who has gotten behind the defense for the score. Both newspaper accounts got the play wrong, saying it was Zaso who pitched to Hoffman. One said that Albright pitched the ball to Zaso before he pitched it to Hoffman. That’s how confusing the play was but with the newsreel, you can see what happened, (after running it back several times). In the old days, faking and misdirection seemed to be much more of an art form than it is now. The plays were more choreographed and the fakes carried out with more panache than you see now. The modern game in some ways seems more primitive, less imaginative. Having multiple players in the backfield allowed for more versatility as well as more blocking at the point of attack. Spreading the team out has it’s advantages, but you lose some things as well. Jim Brown’s extra point pulled the Orange to within 7-14. It was as close as they would get. “The Terps were marching downfield inexorably after the next kick-off and the ball had reached the Syracuse 26 in a series of swift plays when Perlo fumbled and Ted Warholak recovered.” The best SU could do was another Don Althouse punt and “Vereb led a drive which carried to the Syracuse 25 before (Ron) Tyler halted the burst by intercepting Tamburello’s pass on the goal line and ran it out the Syracuse 16. “A fumble by Ferd Kuscala who dropped the ball after a 17 yard gain, gave the Terps their chance for their third touchdown.” In the newsreel, Dare sweeps around left end, (and toward the west goal), for 8 yards to the SU 10 as the newsreel announcer intones “But Maryland was too busy scoring to hold Syracuse down”. (?) Vereb goes over from the three through a gaping hole, only having to leap one prone defender. Laughery’s placement was wide and the halftime score was Syracuse 7, Maryland 20. Jim Parsons returned Pete Schwert’s second half kick-off to the Terp 46. Vereb then broke away for a 30 yard run, bursting up the middle before being tackled by the SU safety, #44. That’s the only time Big Jim appears on the newsreel. Two carries by Perlo got the ball to the 4 and Vereb got it to the 2. Healy scored but the play was called back by an offsides penalty. Tamburello got it back to the 3 and Healy scored again. This is the final play on the newsreel. Tamburello just gets the ball off to Healey while tripping over his own feet and falling to the turf. Healy muscles his way in to the west end zone behind a wall of blockers. Perlo converted for a 7-27 lead. But the Terps weren’t done. “The Orange drove to the 50 but then Albright, chased hard, lost 25 yards on two passing attempts.” Don Althouse went back for a punt only to see the ball sail over his head. He chased it down and tried to kick it but it was blocked and Pellegrini recovered on the SU 7. Healy swept left end for the score. Laughery made it 7-34. The game became a comedy of errors for a time. Chuck Strid recovered a Dare fumble on the Maryland 42 but the Orange surrendered the ball on downs at the 36 after they declined further passing following Albright’s debacle. Maryland drove to the Syracuse 35 but fumbled again as Ed Coffin wound up with the ball at the 38. Syracuse put on a drive but this time it was Coffin who fumbled on the Maryland 38. There was one more. Tamburello fumbled on the Maryland 32 to set up SU’s closing score. Brown got 9 yards around left end. Ed Coffin carried it to the 20. Ron Tyler ran for 9 yards and then Brown did the same. Big Jim then dove over the goal line from the 2. The extra point was botched due to a bobbled snap and the final score was Syracuse 13 Maryland 34. The game was generously covered with photos in the Sunday papers. Jimmy Brown is shown catching the 13 yard pass in the first SU scoring drive. He looks to be ’tight rope walking’ along the sideline with a Maryland player a step behind him and Ed Coffin in the background. The photographer appears to be just a few feet in front of the play. Russ Dennis’ touchdown grab is shown from behind the end zone, although it looks like a more placid play than it does on the newsreel. Dennis is shown apparently standing in the end zone waiting for the ball. Gaso and Kuscala are not yet in the picture although Billy Micho, (#46) is 5-10 yards in front of the play, having leapt for the ball but, realizing it’s over his head, has turned in vain to watch the play. There’s two shots of Ron Tyler’s goal line interception, one with the pass in the air and the Maryland receiver at about the 7, turning to look for the ball as he heads for the goal line. Tyler, (#16) is running along the goal line from the center of the field. The pass was apparently under-thrown as the next picture is a close-up of Tyler leaping to make a ’basket’ catch of the ball behind the confused Terrapin, who is still looking up for the ball with his arms outstretched. There’s a picture in “The Syracuse Football Story” on page 191 of Jim Brown on a sweep around end against what I recognize to be Maryland. The caption is “The unsinkable Jimmy Brown sails into some opponents”. (My Dad always loved that shot and caption.) I had always imagined this to be from the 1956 game but it is from the 1955 game. (SU wore it’s all orange uniforms in the 1956 game but here they are in their traditional white jerseys with orange helmets and pants. Maryland is in dark- red- jerseys with white pants and helmets and a triple stripe- red, gold, red over the top). The same photo was displayed in a cropped version in the newspaper. It’s a four yard gain in the second period. As can be seen in the full picture, Jim’s interference has been defeated on the play and are sprawled on the ground. Two Maryland players, still upright, are waiting for him with two more on the way. I believe the same play is presented in the Post Standard under the caption “Orange star lugs the leather.” This one is from the side and the press box. It says it’s a three yard gain and the quarter is not given but the same players seem to be in the right place. Phil Perlo is on the ground in the end zone, clutching the football for the first score, with his blocker next to him and a couple of Syracuse defenders looking down at them. Don Althouse is shown scoring in a long shot. He’s cruised into the end zone already with a lone Maryland defender several steps behind. Ed Vereb is shown hitting the turf in the end zone with Maryland’s third score in two different pictures, one from the left and one from the right, both beyond the end zone. Ron Tyler is shown on his 9 yard run, setting up Jim Brown’s score on the second SU touchdown. It’s the end of the play and Ron is bring roughly brought to the ground by several Terrapins. Jack Healy is shown scoring the final Maryland score after the blocked punt. Jack is either grimacing or smiling, (I’d guess the latter), as he gallops past the last SU defender towards the end zone. The Terps dominated the stats, out-gaining the Orange 179-322 and out-rushing them 115-221. It was a turnover-plagued game, with Maryland intercepting 2 passes and recovering 3 fumbles but coughing up 5 fumbles and throwing an interception of their own. They also had 9 penalties for 75 yards to only 3 for 25 for the home team. Syracuse had some consolation in rushing for 115 yards on a team that had been giving up only 40. Jim Brown, “a bearcat on defense and a battler on attack”, gained 74 of those yards on 16 carries. But Maryland had achieved their goal of thrashing the team that had beaten Army, just as Michigan had done to steal the #1 ranking from them. They’d beaten the Wolverines by proxy. Syracuse had once again seen a vision of what a powerhouse team could be and they weren’t looking in a mirror. Ben Schwartzwalder said “We made a couple of mistakes- really bad mistakes- and that’s something you can’t do against a club as good as Maryland…..If we didn’t make those errors and set up a couple of scores for them I am sure it would have been a more interesting game to watch.” Syracuse’s running success was in part due to the defense the Terrapins chose to play. “They played us soft” said Schwartzwalder. “Every team they played this year tried to pass against them and they couldn’t do it. They looked for us to pass and by playing us soft made it almost impossible for us to throw. In fact, I believe we might have thrown too much.” Nonetheless, per Jack Slattery, “The press box opinion was that Jimmy Brown was the best back on the field, better even than Maryland’s Vereb, (who ran for 132 yards in 15 carries). Stanley Woodard, veteran of many football campaigns, classed Brown as the best back he’d seen this year. The big fellow from Long Island played all but the final minutes of the game.” Don Althouse, just getting used to his new teammates after a stint in the Army, said “That Jimmy Brown sure proved to the world that he can carry the mail against good ball teams, didn’t he? Two weeks in a row he showed them how to run.” There would be many more lessons. Schwartzwalder was asked if the team profited from playing a team like Maryland. “I’m sure we’ll be a better team because of the game we played today. Of course, I hate to take a licking like that but the fellows came out of it pretty well and we had to learn a lesson playing such a fine team.” He was also asked if he resented Coach Tatum leaving his starters in as long as he did. “Not at all. Maryland’s shooting for a #1 ranking and bowl bid and it’s their job to go out and get all they can. That’s part of the game. “ It was a lesson Ben would learn well. Maryland would go on run the table, with their third perfect regular season in five years. They were again matched up with Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl in a game that, to modern eyes, would settle the national championship, (which Oklahoma had officially won, there being no poll after the bowls). It was the end of Maryland’s glory era. [URL='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsEP1V7ahwk'][U][COLOR=#0000ff][U][COLOR=#0000ff]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsEP1V7ahwk[/COLOR][/U][/COLOR][/U][/URL] Then there would be another rematch- with Syracuse to open the 1956 season. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?