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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 556117, member: 289"] THE GAME 1955: Syracuse vs. Penn State. Jimmy Brown vs. Lenny Moore. Those were the days! Syracuse took the opening kickoff and gained a couple of first downs but had to punt. The first big break of the game came when Jerry Cashman hit Milt Plum at the Penn State 29, forcing a fumble that Don Laacksonen, (whose ankle must have healed when he realized it was the Penn State game), recovered. Jim Brown then “bulled” his way for 21 yards to the 8, stopped not by the Lions but rather by the linesman, who got in his way. Two more Brown carries got the ball to the 4. Mark Hoffman fumbled but Cashman recovered at the 2. Then Big Jim dived over the left side for the score and kicked the extra point to give Syracuse a 7-0 lead. State seemed poised to answer when they drove to the SU 32 but they gave up the ball on downs when a keeper by Plum came up short. On the next play, Jim Ridlon was thrown for a 4 yard loss and the Beaver Field crowd was riled up. But the Orange got moving again. Brown ran for 16 yards, then 3. Laacksonen went for 12. Hoffman carried for 3 and then 17 yards to the 21. An offside penalty set the team back but didn’t stop the drive. SU went to its “special” play with Albright pitching to Hoffman who threw to Brown, who made a diving catch at the 10. Three plays only gained 4 yards but Brown took a swing pass from Albright and dived into the end zone for the score. Jack Faris blocked the point to leave it at Syracuse 13, Penn State 0 but it was a heck of a start for the visitors. A “brilliant 29 yard run” by Moore set up the Lions at the Syracuse 23 late in the half but Ridlon threw Moore for a loss and the Orange again took over on downs on their own 28. Then came what the Herald-American had the guts to call a “peculiar and eventually proven stupid strategy”. (The Post Standard simply called it “one bit of bad judgment which let Penn State get up off the floor”.) They went, gasp, to the air! An incomplete pass and a two yard run by Laacksonen and then the big mistake! Joe Sabol intercepted another Albright pass at the SU 36 and ran the ball to the 10. With15 seconds left in the half, “Plum passed to Kane on the Nittany left flank and Kane, catching it on the 2, dived into the end zone. The conversion made the halftime score 13-7. It didn’t seem to matter so much when Jim Brown returned the second half kick-off 51 yards. He followed that up with a 26 yard run from scrimmage and took a pitchout to run it in for the final five yards. Then he kicked the conversion and Syracuse seemed back in control at 20-7, three minutes into the second half. But “it seemed to infuriate Nittany. They retaliated, going 59 yards in 11 plays with one bread and butter pass play going for 20 yards to the Orange 29…. Moore added a 15 yard dancing dash up the middle and the same brilliant halfback jumped over for the last two yards to paydirt.” Plum kicked the point and it was a ballgame, 20-14. It was more than that when Mark Hoffman fumbled on the Orange 32 but Syracuse held on downs at the 23. Syracuse was forced to punt but got the ball back when Jimmy brown intercepted a Milt Plum pass at the Orange 42, (they would later be teammates on the Cleveland Browns for years). He followed it up with a 42 yard run off a great block by Billy Micho. But Eddie Albrights pass into the end zone form the 9 was picked off by Milt Plum. “There was no stopping of the inspired Lions as they went 80 yards in 13 plays. Moore dashed 22 yard s on a third and 10 situation and Plum eluded Tom Richardson’s grasp to pass to Bobby Allen for another first down on the Syracuse 41. Moore and Bill Straub alternated carries until they reached the Syracuse one. Straub went over form there and the conversion gave the home team the lead for the first time, 20-21. Syracuse tried to come back but Don Laacksonen fumbled and the Lions put on a final drive that was ended only by the clock. They had the ball at the Orange 2 when the clock ran out. The ending anticipated the end of the game four years later when Syracuse would finish off a 20-18 win in front of the Penn State goal line. But on this day it was the home team that had the happy ending. Jimmy brown gained 155 yards on 20 carries and scored 3 touchdowns. Lenny Moore countered with 149 yards on 22 carries with one score. But he had a lot to do with the Nittany Lion’s other two scores. “it proved to be a real offensive battle. State gained 238 yards rushing, Syracuse 265. The Nittany clicked on four of eight passing attempts for 54 yards and the orange connected on two of five for 21.” The Post Standard in those days had a “Pictorial Gravure Magazine” in its Sunday paper and the November 6 version has on its cover a picture of Jim Brown doing the Heisman pose with the football, holding it with one arm under his left shoulder and thrusting his right arm out in one of his famous straight-arms. (I suspect the Heisman aspect of it was accidental: Negroes didn’t win Heisman trophies in 1955.) It’s advertising the following week’s game against Colgate. The front of the Herald-American sports section had a shot of #44 heading toward the end of the line past three Penn State defenders on a “30 yard sweep”. I assume this was his 26 run setting up the third touchdown). It also had a page of football pictures. Four of them were from the Syracuse game. Lenny Moore was in a dramatic shot, ”plunging from the three yard line for the second touchdown”. Actually, he was on his feet, also in a sort of Heisman pose but with his free arm swinging back behind him as he drew a bead on an unseen defender- or the goal. Two Syracuse players are being blocked behind him. Jim brown is shown crouching down to deliver a blow to a tackler at the goal line as he scores the third SU touchdown. Below them “Bill Kane catches pass for Penn State’s first touchdown in second period as team started victory co0meback”. Kane has caught the ball and is tumbling across the goal line with 15 seconds left in the half as Eddie Albright dives in vain for him and another SU defender, (I think it’s #69, Ralph Farmer, a guard), runs up too late to do anything about it. Next to that shot, we see Lenny Moore being tackled by Jim Brown and Don Laacksonen with another Orangeman, (I think it’s Tom Richardson), coming up to help. The occasion is not identified. The Post Standard showed Jim Brown tumbling over the goal line after catching Albright’s pass in the second quarter. This time it’s Lenny Moore who is coming up too late to stop the play. Milt Plum is lying on the ground behind Jim after having tripped him up. On another page, Lenny and his teammates Dan Radakovich and Billy Kane have their arms around Jim as he’s brought down short of the goal after an 8 yard ru. (I’m guessing this is just prior to the third touchdown). Penn State, despite being the home team are in their white jerseys with two narrow stripes around one wide stripe on the arms. It’s hard to tell with the black and white photographs but Syracuse appears to be in blue jerseys with orange helmets and pants. The jerseys could be orange, which was more common for the team in those days. The Orange went home with a 3-3 record. In their next 61 games they would go 48-12-1. They would twice get off to 1-1 starts in the next six year but other than they would have a winning record for the duration. [/QUOTE]

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