The Bold Brave Men of Archbold 1955: Pittsburgh

[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

There was a new trend in college football: big-time teams playing big time teams from the beginning of the season. Herman Hickman of Sports Illustrated commented on it in his football preview article:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1130184/index.htm
“Gone are the days when football powers played only ‘breathers’ until the second or third week of October.”

Pittsburgh had already played a game, beating California 27-7. Now they were going to play Syracuse for the first time since 1930. They had been 6-2-2 again Syracuse before that, in the Pop Warner/Jock Sutherland era. They were particularly impressive against the Golden Bears, who seemed to wilt in the 92 degree hear when the Panthers didn’t. Pitt, led by their outstanding halfbacks Dick Bowen and Bobby Grier, out-rushed the Californians 371-29 and held them to only 2 pass completions and one first down in the second half.

Bill Reddy of the Post Standard: “In the 67 years that Syracuse has been playing varsity football, nobody has been called upon to play such a schedule. Pitt is one of the burgeoning powers on the national scene. Anyone in the Midwest or the Far West can’t hear mention of Syracuse without suddenly asking ‘Syracuse…where’s that?’…. The thumping administered by Pittsburgh to California Saturday has resulted in fans feeling sorry for Syracuse University’s gridders already. If Pitt can whip California, they’re saying, what chance has Syracuse against the Panthers?” Trying to find a positive note, he pointed out Syracuse had outscored Princeton in a scrimmage the same day, (not a small thing in the mid-50’s). Reddy suggested that the Tigers might win the Ivy league, (which they did). “A thing to remember is that some of the greatest football ever played on this continent was played in the old days when Syracuse played Pitt and there’s no reason to believe that the passing of the years has changed the formula.”
Roy Simmons had a more pessimistic view. He had been at the Pitt-Cal game and said “They have tremendous backfield speed, excellent passing- their line is big, active and ambitious. My, they look like a professional line, for they average close to 220 pounds.”

Jack Slattery of the Herald-Journal described the Pitt team as possessing “on a par with the kind of material Bud Wilkinson has at Oklahoma“. He quoted their former coach, Red Dawson, as saying that “It’s only a matter of time until this team jells. When it does, they’ll be one of the best teams in the nation“. Quarterback “Corky” Salvaterro and “lightening quick” running back Dick Bowen were “two of the best players in the nation. Slattery acknowledged that SU had “a rugged, strong team” and that this “would be one of the best games in the country” that weekend but he couldn’t favor the Orange. Ben Schwartzwalder backed off his grumbling about the schedule: “I don’t resent this schedule. It’s a challenge. We expect to grow into it.” That’s better than shrinking before it - as long as you don‘t get crushed under it.

Neither could the odds makers who made Ben’s boys a 13 point home underdog. Pittsburgh was ranked #7 nationally, quite a challenge for an opening game, especially when it wasn’t their opening game. The game was televised throughout the East as a “regional” game. Tickets were being sold not only at the stadium but also at the hotel Onondaga downtown. A crowd of 20,000 was expected at the game. Meanwhile the squad was taken as a group to register for classes on Thursdays, September 22nd, so they could be eligible to play in the game. A new, plastic field cover the Athletic Department was very proud of was placed over the field after the last practice and would be removed an hour before the game.

It seemed we were playing not the Pittsburgh Panthers but Al Capone’s gang when you looked at the nicknames for the players. There were “Bugs” Bagamery, “Slippery” Bowen and two “Corky’s“, Salvaterra and Cost. On second thought I don’t think Big Al employed anyone named “Corky”. (I’ve also seen Salvaterra’s name as “Corny”).

But Pitt did employ a line that averaged 220 pounds, ten pounds per man more than SU’s. And with Pete Schwert, Joe Krivack, Jerry Cashman and Ed Bailey all nursing injuries, (Bailey, as it turned out needed surgery on his shoulder and was out for the year), Syracuse was short-handed up front. Ben did something that could only have been done back in that era: He sent fullback Bill Brown and halfback Al Cann to practice with the linemen, in case they were needed. There wasn’t that much difference in the size of a back or lineman in those days. Another sign of the times: The new Pitt coach, John Michelosen, (a former player there under Jock Sutherland, assistant of Red Blaik’s at Army and coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers- the youngest head coach in the NFL prior to Lane Kiffin) was bringing a traveling squad of 38 players into Archbold Stadium.

SU’s starting line-up for the opener was Tom Richardson and Jim Ridlon at ends, Jim Brill and Pete Schwert at tackle, Cal Smith and Rudy Farmer at guard, Bill Brown, the ex-fullback at center, Eddie Albright at quarterback, Jim Brown and Billy Micho at halfback and Don Laacksonen at fullback.

 

[SWC75]

THE GAME

The crowd was reported to be about 16,000. A heavy rain provided for a muddy, slippery field., even with the wonderful new tarpaulin.

The home team came out unintimidated by the visitors, forcing them to punt and then putting on a 69 yards drive that took up most of the first period. Included was a 40 yard pass, Albright to Ridlon that got called back because someone was offsides. Billy Micho had a 24 yard run. The Orange moved to a first down at the Pitt 6. Jim Brown powered the ball to the 1 on the next play. But another offsides call moved them back 5 yards and the drive ended on an incomplete pass to Brown.
But SU got the ball back deep in Pitt territory after an exchange of punts when back-up quarterback Darrell Lewis fumbled and Don Laacksonen recovered at the Pitt 25. Pitt stiffened up until, “on fourth down, when, from the 18 yard line, Albright fired a pretty pass down the middle to Ridlon, who shook loose at the goal line and gathered it in for the touchdown.” Back in the day we didn’t have kicking specialists and Jim Brown attempted the conversion. It was wide right. (Actually it seems to me that the lack of specialists made this play more interesting). But the Orange had dominated the first quarter and had a 6-0 lead over the #7 team in the nation.

But the Panthers “began to flash real blocking power for the first time” on their next possession, marching 66 yards to score. They finally penetrated Syracuse territory 22 minutes into the game. Tommy Jenkins finished off the grinding drive when he “slammed inside left guard, got some strong blocking in the secondary and stumbled into the end zone.” Ambrose Bagamery, (now doesn’t that name sound like a specialist?) kicked the extra point to give the visitors the lead, 6-7, which proved to be the halftime score.
SU returned the second half kick-off to the orange 41, then suffered a 5 yard delay of game penalty. No problem. Eddie Albright dropped back and passed to Billy Micho who caught it at the Pitt 35, evaded one defender and motored down the sideline 64 yards for the score. Unfortunately Browns kick as again inaccurate but SU had a 12-7 lead.

Corky Cost (!?!) returned the kickoff to midfield but the orange forced a punt. At this point the Pitt defense took over and tackled Albright for consecutive losses, forcing another punt. The Panthers took over at the Orange 31 and three plays later Corky Salvaterra launched a pass to the end zone and Joe Walton out-leaped two orange defenders for the ball. This time even Ambrose Bagamery couldn’t kick the ball through the uprights but Pitt still led, 13-12.

Jim Ridlon returned the kick-off to the 45 but fumbled it there and Pitt had the ball again. Cost launched a pass that Louis Cimarolli caught on the 14. Eddie Albright made the tackle but was “knocked out for the rest of the game. It was revealed after the game that Albright had “cracked a bone in his throwing hand”. Cimarolli then ran it to the 1 on a sweep. Two plays later Pete Neft pushed it over the goal line and Bagamery converted to make it 12-20.

The Panthers had bottled up Jim Brown, (28 yards in 12 carries) and now we had no passing game with Albright out. They now used “double-barreled blocking (which proved) powerful enough to grind out yardage in the late going when the undermanned Orange faded under the continued pressure up front.”

Ben first went with John Pannucci to run the team but he was unable to engineer a first down and Pitt took the punt and launched a drive that went to the SU 8, where the defense stiffened and a fourth down pass was batted down. Ed Ackley seemed to have gotten the Orange out of trouble with a 27 yard burst but a backfield in motion penalty, (remember those?) nullified the play. Ferdinand Kuzala had replaced Pannucci and he somehow channeled the spirit of the still unborn Troy Nunes, retreating into the end zone to escape a third down pass rush and was tackled there by Bob Roseborough to complete the scoring at 12-22.
Pitt out-gained SU 190-230. Behind their powerful lien they out-rushed the Orange 95-185. But the home team out-passed the visitors, 92-45 thanks to the long play to Micho. And they had competed well with a nationally ranked team to open the season. It boded well for the rest of a difficult schedule.

Photos in the Herald Journal showed Ridlon catching the first SU touchdown. He’s turned and is catching the ball with both hands extended in a sort of Willie Mays basket catch while Corky Salvaterra and Dick Bowne close in on him, too late to stop the score. Syracuse is in it’s by now traditional white jerseys with orange pants and helmets. Pitt is in blue jerseys with gold helmets and pants with blue trim. The numbers are bright so they were probably white.

Below the Ridlon score is a picture of Tommy Jenkins scoring Pitt’s first touchdown. He’s bolted past several blockers whoa re still on their feet while the orange defenders they have blocked are on the ground, “knocked from their feet by the deadly Pitt blocking.” Actually, they were not dead, just irrelevant.

The Post Standard had a shot of the Ridlon score, taken from behind the goal posts, (which were at the back of the end zone, contrary to what you see in most films from the 50’s which show the goal posts to be on the goal line. The shot shows that Bobby Grier was also moving in of the play from Ridlon’s left. It didn’t matter. They also had a shot of the Jenkins score, from a farther distance. That’s all there was and since, both scores were first half plays, I assume a newspaper deadline was somehow involved.

 

[SWC75]

THE AFTERMATH


Pittsburgh had been an intimidating foe for Syracuse to play but they faced a challenge of their own the next week. They traveled to Norman, Oklahoma to play Bud Wilkinson’s Sooners, who had won 20 games in a row, (in a streak that would eventually reach 47). That big, powerful line wasn’t enough to hold off the Sooners, who won 26-14 and went on to win the national championship. The next week they faced a strong Navy team, the defending Sugar Bowl champs and played their worst game of the year in losing 0-21.

They rallied to beat Nebraska 21-7 and Duke 26-7. The Blue Devils were actually the better team in those days, (they finished 7-2-1 to 5-5 for the Huskers). They then met one of the first good Miami (Florida) teams and got beat 7-21. The Panthers rallied from that to win their last three games over Virginia, West Virginia and Penn State by a combined 64-14.

Navy at 6-2-1 had the best record among the top Eastern Independents and had beaten Pitt decisively. But the Midshipmen had been to New Orleans the year before. The Sugar Bowl committee wanted someone different. They considered West Virginia of the Southern Conference, who had been there two years before and who brought an 11 game winning streak into their “backyard brawl” with Pittsburgh. When Sugar Bowl scouts saw the Panthers dominate that game, 26-7, they decided to invite Pitt to New Orleans to play Georgia Tech.

This created a problem. Pittsburgh halfback Bobby Grier was black and no black player had ever played in the Sugar Bowl. Boston College had one when they played Tennessee in 1941 but he was forced to watch the game from the press box. Pittsburgh announced that Grier was a member of their team and he would “travel, eat, live, practice and play with the team”. Governor Marvin Griffin of Georgia was appalled. “It is my request that athletic teams of units of the university system of Georgia not be permitted to engage in contests with other teams where the races are mixed on such teams or where segregation in not required at such games…The South is at Armageddon!” It was the bad old days.

Georgia Tech had been founded by a couple of Confederate Officers who believed a big reason they had lost the Civil War was that the South was technologically backwards. They probably had it in mind that they didn’t want to lose the next war. But they were no longer in charge in 1955 but Tech, unlike many similarly named schools, was a public school. Nonetheless Robert Arnold, head of the Board of Regents passed the buck, saying they had no control over athletic department policies. The team voted to play in the Sugar Bowl and a spokesman noted that Tech had played integrated teams before without controversy. Tech students led a torchlight parade to the Governor’s in support of the team and the press also seemed behind Tech playing against Pitt and Grier. The Board of Regents finally voted 10-1 to allow the team to go but also passed a resolution banning Georgia schools from playing against integrated teams in games played in the State of Georgia.

Pitt dominated most of the subsequent game, outgaining the Yellow Jackets 311-142. They could never punch in a score, being the victims of a goal line stand at the one just before the half and having reached the 5 at the end of the game. A factor in both occasions was that the field clock had malfunctioned in the first period. “I thought we had 30 seconds left. We could have gotten off another play easily”, said quarterback Darren Lewis. On the first half play the Panthers had rushed their final play because they didn’t know how much time was left. In addition, drives to the Tech 16 and the 7 ended in an interception and a fumble, respectively.

But the play the game is remembered for came in the first period when Grier was covering Don Ellis of Tech in the end zone. The play sounds a bit like the ‘tight end throwback‘: “Mitchell faked to left halfback Paul Rotenberry, who hit left tackle as the fullback and right half took off for the sidelines to the left. Mitchell had the ball on his hip and started to follow the other two backs around left end. Suddenly, he wheeled and made a 180-degree turn and raced for the right sideline, took the ball off his hip and lofted a soft pitch to right end Don Ellis.” (Quotes courtesy of “The Sugar Bowl: The First Fifty Years” by Marty Mule).

Grier recalled “I was outside in what we called an ’Eagle’ defense. I went back with the player and when I turned to look up and see where the ball was, I got pushed in the back. The ball was over his head and I was lying on the ground when the official threw a flag and said I pushed him- with me lying on the ground, looking up and the ball over both our heads.”

Ellis had his own version: “I got behind him. Then, when I turned around to look for the pass, he shoved me in the stomach, knocking me off stride. It was a fine pass and I think I could have caught it.” The ball was placed on the one and the stadium erupted in boos. In the press box reporter Buddy Gilberto saw a colleague tying “Bobby Grier, the first Negro to play in the Sugar Bowl was roundly booed by a crowd of 80,175 spectators today in Tulane Stadium.” Gilberto asked him “You don’t really believe that do you? They’re booing the call, not Grier.” Pitt was then penalized again for offsides and Mitchell pushed over from the half yard ’line” for the game’s only score.

After the game, Pittsburgh’s SID, Beano Cook, called it a “chicken call…a chicken call”. That may be an edited version. Grier told reporters “He was pushing me all the way down the field and pushed me across the goal line. I didn’t push that man. I was in front of him, how could I have pushed him? I don’t blame the city. New Orleans went out of it’s way for me in many ways. My arguments were with the Governor of Georgia and a game official.” He was being nice to New Orleans. He was not allowed to stay with the team at their downtown hotel- the team elected to stay in dorms at Tulane- and was not permitted to attend the post game banquet.

The Sugar Bowl book had a picture taken from in front of the play. Grier is on the ground, turning back toward Ellis, who is jumping and reach for a pass over his head. It also ahs a five shot sequence from the game film that shows Grier in front of Ellis, his arms spread out but not seeming to touch Ellis. Ellis had an arm extended in Grier’s direction as he falls down- but he could simply be stumbling. He’s a yard in front of Ellis and on his knees when the ball arrives. Ellis jumps a foot off the ground and has his arms fully extended but the ball is just past his fingertips.

U-Tube has a clip on Bobby Grier and the game but not a shot of the play, for some reason:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVqzfH7S0kk
The only still I could find of the play was in this article:
http://www.mmbolding.com/bowls/Sugar_1956.htm


After the game Louisiana Governor Earl Long got a similar resolution passed to the Georgia one banning integrated sporting events in his state. This was a big reason why Syracuse wound up playing Texas in the Cotton Bowl in 1959 rather than Mississippi or defending national champion LSU in the Sugar Bowl, both of whom were rated above Texas. The ban was finally ended by the Orange when they played in the 1/1/65 Sugar Bowl. Times were changing.

Next week: Boston U.

 

[br801]

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”.

How could someone read that and not get fired up? Nicely done, SWC, as usual.

 

[SWC75]

How could someone read that and not get fired up? Nicely done, SWC, as usual.

Note that "The Saltine Warrior" contains no references to native Americans. The "Warrior" is an Achilles-type warrior. The problems came when someone came up with a native American mascot and called it "The Saltine Warrior", which caused the song to be banned. We now paly "Down Down the Field", which is a good song, too, and supposedly more [polcially correct. ironically, it does have a reference to native Americans:

Out upon the gridiron stands old Syracuse,
Warriors clad in orange and in blue,
Fighting for the fame of Alma Mater.
Soon those Crouse chimes will be ringing,
Soon you'll hear those fellows singing.
Onondaga's braves are out to win today,
The sons of Syracuse are ready for the fray,
The line holds like a wall and now the Orange has the ball,
So ready for that old long yell. Rah! Rah! Rah!

Chorus:
Down, Down the field goes old Syracuse,
Just see those backs hit the line and go thru';
Down, down the field they go marching,
Fighting for the Orange staunch and true.
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Vict'ry's in sight for old Syr-a-cuse,
Each loyal son knows she ne'er more will lose,
For we'll fight, yes, we'll fight, and with all our might
For the glory of old Syracuse


This U-Tube clip has both songs, inclduing some other material: