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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 754962, member: 289"] THE GAME Some years ago I purchased a tape of this game from an Internet source. It’s grainy black and white with no sound but gives me a visual record of the plays described in my usual main source, the newspaper. I don’t know how to load things onto You-Tube so I will simply incorporate what I see into the descriptions. The main plays can be seen in this brief clip that is already on You-Tube: [media=youtube]q60n_5zRaY4[/media] (Remember to register and vote!) SU’s uniforms are orange from head to toe, except for white numbers and blue trim. (We were the Orange back then.) Maryland, despite being the home team, is all in white, with the distinctive triple stripes they used for years on their helmets. The outside stripes are red and the center one gold. Their numbers and trim are red. The Post Standard: “Underdog Syracuse scored the greatest opening-game victory in its 68 year football history when a battling band of Orangemen upset the University of Maryland before a crowd of 27,000 at Byrd Stadium today, 26-12.” The Herald-Journal: “An aggressive, well-poised and determined Syracuse University gridiron machine struck a grand note for eastern football here in sun-flooded Byrd Stadium yesterday afternoon by downing nationally-ranked Maryland 26-12 before 27,000 who sat in on Tommy Mont’s coaching debut. “(We complain about the crowds today: Byrd Stadium held 35,000 in 1956) “The Orange, beginning its eighth season under Ben Schwartzwalder and directed by clever and confident sophomore Chuck Zimmerman, showed a more imaginative, better-balanced attack with greater finesse and weakside punch than they have been able to exhibit before. However it was the fire and determination of the New Yorker’s defense…their bone-rattling and teeth-chattering tackles that punished the Southerners with constant pressure forcing them into innumerable ball-handling and timing mistakes which robbed them of ball possession. “ Maryland won the toss and took the ball. Don Healy returned Jim Brown’s kick-off to the Maryland 40. Three plays gained five years and John Fritsch punted to the Syracuse 26 where the ball went out of bounds. The Orange could only get 9 yards and Jim Ridlon punted to John McVicker at the Maryland 23. “The fleet halfback, getting fine blocking on the outside, skirted the right sideline and went 67 yards before Bill Brown hauled him down on the Syracuse 9.” Looking at the film, Maryland had such an excellent screen set up that no Orangeman was outside the hashmarks until McVicker was well into Syracuse territory. Three plays later, Fritsch sneaked the ball over. A bad snap, (the kicker wound up trying to pass to the holder who wanted no part of it), cost them the conversion and it was Syracuse 0 Maryland 6. The rout was on! Yes it was. “Syracuse, which had played in awe of the Marylanders a year ago, demonstrated immediately that that this was to be no repeat of that performance by counter-marching for the equalizing TV.” Ed Coffin responded by returning the kick-off to the Syracuse 41, breaking two tackles along the way. Two offsides penalties on the Terps gave the Orange a first down on the Maryland 43. Ridlon ran for 17 yards on a weak-side pitch-out. Three plays later, “Ridlon took a pitch-out, went to his left and passed to Jim Brown. The big fellow caught the ball at the 15 and out-raced two defenders to the end zone to complete the 24 yard scoring play.” Jim’s extra point gave the underdogs the lead at 7-6. The film pans the SU sidelines and shows the excitement level with players jumping up and down. We were playing Maryland in their place and beating them! “Three offsides penalties, (a sure sign of a lack of focus by the Terps), ruined Maryland’s next sequence and Hawkins punted weakly on the Terp 45.” But an interception by Ted Kershner of a Chuck Fogarty pass at the 17 killed the threat. Maryland was again unable to move and Fritsch punted to the Maryland 43. (The film shows this one was nearly blocked. The defense had great penetration on this series. On one play the quarterback is already being tackled by the ankles as he’s trying to hand off. ) Chuck Zimmerman hit Dick Aloise on the Maryland 24. Brown “plowed for 9 yards to the 15”. But Dick fumbled on an end-around and Mike Sandusky recovered for Maryland on the 9. The Terps were driving as the quarter ended. They got to the SU 49 before Frisch punted to Brown who was “swarmed over” at the SU 12. Ridlon had to punt from there and the ball was run back to the Syracuse 36. Then came the turning point in the game. Bob Rusevlyan hit the line but the ball was jarred from his grasp by Mike Bill and popped in the air. “Dick Lasse, alert to the opportunity, picked it off in mid-air and was in the Maryland secondary before the Terps realized what had happened. Ridlon threw a block to clear a path at the line of scrimmage. Tom Stephens, sophomore end, cut across to provide an escort for Lasse as the junior raced down the left sideline. Stephens moved slightly ahead of Lasse and, as Dick reached the 10 yard line on his 68 yard scoring jaunt Stephens wiped out the last Maryland defender with a perfectly-timed block.” The film shows Ruseylyan holding the ball to one side, getting hit, turning around and the ball flies out of his hand. Lasse grabs it and the only Terp with a shot at him is the quarterback. Lasse does a pirouette in front of him that so confuses the Marylander that Lasse can just run past him. Brown’s kick was wide but the underdogs were ahead 13-6. The film shows the SU cheerleaders actually running on the field as Lasse crossed the goal line. No “excessive celebration” penalties back then. It also shows the wild celebration on the SU sidelines, with players jumping up and down and hugging each other. There’s a real sense of the team realizing they were coming into their own this day. The revved-up Orange stopped the Terrapins cold and forced another punt to the Syracuse 41. But Syracuse was unable to take advantage of the field position due to a holding penalty. An exchange of punts set up the Orange on their own 40. “Brown skirted end twice for a first down on the Terp 45. Then Zimmerman hit Lasse on the 21 for a first down. A bad snap led to a field goal attempt that only went 10 yards as the half ended. After the half, Maryland had an opportunity to change the momenumt back in their direction when Ed Cooke blocked a Ridlon punt and Maryland recovered at the SU 48. They got to the 34 but Aloise sacked Healy for a 9 yard loss. On the next play a Syracuse end, (I couldn’t make out his number on the film), took out both a blocker and a back who had caught a screen pass to force a punt which gave SU the ball on its own 12. After a short gain, Jim Brown took a pitch-out, knifed his way through three defenders with help from Ridlon and Lasse and was off to the races. 78 yards later, he was pulled down from behind by Fritsch at the Maryland 7. After two running plays only got it to the 5, Zimmerman found Ridlon in the end zone with a “beautiful running pass” for the score. Brown’s kick was wide left but Syracuse led 19-6. Schwartzwalder commented after the game that Jim’s big run ”took something out of Maryland.” That may be but the Terrapins put on their best drive of the game, from the Maryland 35 to the Syracuse 4. Frisch took a pitch-out, looked to pass but was hit by Tom Stephens and fumbled. Jack Healy tried to corral the ball but just pushed it backwards where Bill Brown fell on it for the Orange. It had been a close thing. On one play a Maryland receiver got open along the right sideline and a beaten defender leaped to tip the ball before it got to him. On another play, the past defender on a sweep managed to make the tackle before the back could break away down the left sideline. “There the Orange, showing one of the finest demonstrations of ball control that they’ve ever flashed as they ate up 83 yards of and more than 10 minutes of time in marching to the clinching touchdown. It took 19 plays with Ed Coffin and Zimmerman helping mightily on dives and keepers as Brown continued to get the yardage needed for first downs. A nine-yard burst by Brown made it first down on the Maryland seven. Ridlon fought for three and then Brown, on a pitch-out, went wide and dived through two tackles into the corner of the end zone. This time Brown faked his placement and Zimmerman passed to Ridlon for the 26th Syracuse point with only three and half minutes left in the final period. What is impressive about this drive on film is the blocking. There were no big gainers but virtually every play gained yardage because the line of scrimmage was consistently moved forward a couple of yards on every play. Maryland was determined to stop the orange and their tackling was sure but contact was always made after the SU backs had already made a couple of yards. On wide plays and passes, the blocking consistently took out the nearest defenders so the play had a chance to gain yardage. The gains were incremental but inexorable. Brown capped it off by out-running several Terps to the corner of the goal line and diving in, carrying a tackler with him. Afterwards, he was escorted to the sideline by his linemen, all patting him on the back. They all have their helmets off, which was not considered such a grievous sin back then. Maryland, still showing some spirit, drove to the Syracuse 2 where the game appeared to have ended but Ed Coffin was injured and the officials called time out to deal with him. That allowed Maryland to get off one more play Healy dived over from the two. One play on the drive featured an odd two hand chest pass to an open receiver on the sideline. The play where Coffin was injured was a double lateral play, with the QB running to the line, turning and throwing overhand but backwards to one back, who pitched to another. Coffin wasn’t fooled and made the tackle but was injured doing it. For some reason, Maryland was allowed to try a conversion even though time had run out but it was wide, leaving the final score at Syracuse 26 Maryland 12. There were about 1500 Syracuse fans there and they mobbed the team as the final gun sounded. Ben Schwartzwalder described it as “The biggest win we’ve ever scored. Somebody asked me before the game how we’d make out but I didn’t want to claim any victory. I like my victories after the game and that’s what I got today. We knew we could move the ball but defense was the question. I’ll know more when I see the pictures but right now I’d say we played a pretty good ball game. ” Ben was also enthused about the way his team won, controlling the ball of 10 of the 15 minutes in the fourth quarter. Syracuse out-rushed the Terrapins 266-190 and out-passed them 99-20 for a total edge of 365-210. Maryland had led the nation in rushing defense in 1955, giving up only 78 yards per game. Syracuse got more than three times that. “Zimmerman completed 5 of his 6 throws, which riddled the Terp’s defense and came at times when the pressure was nerve-shattering. He even threw and completed passes on first down, something that conservative, power-minded Schwartzwalder elevens haven’t done often. “ Jim Brown, “the offensive siege gun of the battle”, wound up with 154 yards in 18 carries. He wound up with a minor cut over his eye for his efforts but was too happy about the outcome of the game to be bothered by it. “Yes, I guess that first touchdown helped out a lot. Then we knew we could score on them. We expected to beat them. Not as big as we did, maybe but we all felt that way.” Tackle Jerry Cashman said “We knew we’d taken and we did, that’s all. We came down here to win and we’re not surprised we did.” Chuck Zimmerman turned to Jim Ridlon and said “We gotta be something now, eh?”. Jim just nodded and grinned. The Sunday Post Standard had a head-on shot of Jim Brown’s big run. Three Marylanders are after him, one falling forward but supporting himself with his right hand. A fourth is on the ground. Behind them is Chuck Zimmerman, watching with interest. On the front page of the sports section, we see Jim Ridlon being uphended as he tried to score in the fourth quarter. He seems to be held upside down by three Mayrland tacklers. Next to it was a shot of the end of Jim Brown’s long run as Frisch, who had an angle on him, is reaching forward for the back of his pants. Below those shots was a picture of the fourth SU touchdown, Jim Brown being brought down, too late, in the end zone by Ed Cooke. One the next page we see the opening score of the game with Frisch going over from the SU 1. Jim Brown stands helplessly behind the line and the official has thrust his arms in the air, almost a statue of himself. On page 36 Dick Lasse is shown being brought down by Frisch and Healy after catching a second period pass. Next to that was a shot of Jim Brown carrying Ed Cooke, who had his arms around Jim’s neck, for five first period yards. In the Herald American, the shot of an upside-down Ridlon was on the front page, perhaps symbolizing that the college football world had been turned upside down by the result. The sports page began with a shot of Jim taking a pitch-out and sweeping for 4 yards in the first period . Page 67 was entirely devoted to pictures from the game. The top one showed Ed Coffin’s kick-off return in the first period that set up SU’s answering score. Below that is a shot of Frisch’s sneak for a score to open the scoring, this one from the back of the end zone. You can’t really see him under a pile of players. Next to that we see Ridlon running through a big hole to get five second period yards. The hole is so big you wonder how he didn’t get more. Two Terps have been sealed off, probably 8-10 feet apart. Below that is the head-on shot of Jim Bown’s big run. Next to that is the shot of Lasse being tackled by Fritsch and Healy. “Syracuse feasted on mock turtle soup that night.” [/QUOTE]

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