The Bold, Brave Men of Archbold 1956: Penn State

[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.
Chorus: 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 Scot Shafer era. 64 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”.


(My primary sources for this series is the Post Standard Archive, which also includes the Herald Journal, various publications I have collected, including Street & Smiths and the NCAA Guide, Ken Rappoport’s The Syracuse Football Story and The Nittany Lions, The Terrapins by Paul Attner, Syracuse University Football by Michael Mullins and various internet sights, as noted.)

 

[SWC75]

THE BUILD-UP

Penn State had achieved a major blow for Eastern Prestige with a 7-6 victory at Ohio State. The Buckeyes had won a national championship in 1954, then repeated as Big Ten champions in 1955. They opened the 1956 season with wins over Nebraska, Stanford and Illinois by a combined 92-33 and were ranked #5 by the writers and #4 by the coaches. But the Nittany Lions beat them 7-6 in their own horseshoe. (The Buckeyes would go on to win a share of the national title the next year.) The Lions Had lost to Army 7-14 but beaten Pennsylvania, Holy Cross and West Virginia by a combined 93-0. (This was the beginning of a 28 year stretch where Penn State played West Virginia every year and never lost.) They were ranked #18 by the writers and #17 by the coaches. Syracuse was #14/#12. The Orange and the Nittany Lions had been playing for years but this was the real beginning of their rivalry for the Eastern championship.


West Virginia’s Coach Pappy Lewis said “it was the best State team of the seven he had faced….It’ll be an awfully good ball game. Both can defend, both can run, both can pass- they’re two very fine teams. I’d say it’s a toss-up. I don’t think that Penn State can stop Brown- he’s terrific and I’m not sure but what Syracuse won’t be able to collar Billy Kane- they’re both grand backs. Both have swell lines. I doubt if there’s a better center in the nation than Billy Brown of Syracuse and State’s Sam Valentine is as good as there is at guard.” Army’s Red Blaik, who had beaten Penn State but lost to Syracuse said “It will be a dandy game. I’d sure like to see the game myself- it would be a great thrill to watch it. Both teams are just about equal in every way. They play the same kind of football, too. They both like to stay on the ground. And they both have reasonably good defenses as the game is played today. They are both evenly matched. I’d say Syracuse had the one big back, (Jimmy Brown), that State doesn’t have. In the last analysis, it would resolve down to the mental attitudes of the two squads. The team that wants to win the football game, will.” Rip Engle: “I’ve had teams here with better potential but none has kept the faith the way this one has. We’ve been ‘up’ five weeks in a row but I’m sure we’ll be ready for Syracuse, too. If we’re licked, we’ll be licked physically, not mentally.”


“There was no day off for the Syracuse University gridders today. Ordinarily, Coach Ben Schwartzwalder takes it easy on his footballers each Monday during the course of the season but their unimpressive showing against Boston U. last Saturday, plus the importance of the coming clash with Penn State here this weekend cancelled the vacation. “This is it!” was the squad’s cry at their weekly Sunday afternoon movie session. “This is the one we want”… Rocky Pirro, assistant coach who scouted Penn State against West Virginia, was impressed with the depth of the Lion squad and with the diversity of the attack which Quarterback Milt Plum directs with great skill….State has a versatile attack that features the running of halfbacks Billy Kane, a hard man to bring down in the open field, and Ray Alberigi, who combines power and speed and their understudy, Bruce Gilmore who combines power and speed with elusiveness, and the passing and kicking of quarterback Milt Plum. Plum is a whole team by himself. He passes and intercepts passes, punts and kicks extra points. On kickoffs, as often as not, he sends the ball out of the end zone. He runs the offense with authority and poise.” Both Kane and Alberigi had rushed for more than 300 yards in five games.


Rip Engle told Bill Reddy, “This year’s team is the most spirited and determined group I’ve had since I’ve been coaching here…We’ve been out-weighed greatly. Physically we’ve been trodden down pretty much…But aside from big guys falling on our little guys, we don’t seem to have any serious injury problems.” Reddy wasn’t buying that last line. “Just as ball players tend to knock a few years form their actual age, football players tend to knock off a few pounds for the program. So I checked the weights of the probably starting line-ups for Syracuse and Penn State, as listed in their programs. On that basis, Syracuse outweighs Penn State by nine pounds on the line (if Don Althouse is healthy enough to start at left end, but considerably less if he can’t make it)> And Penn State will out-weigh Syracuse by two pounds per man in the backfield. This is a big Syracuse team. And it’s a big Penn State team, too. The Nittany opponents would need real giants if they had ‘big guys’ falling on such ‘little’ Penn Staters as 234 pound tackle Walt Mazar, 223 pound fullback Maury Schleicher or 214 pound guard Williard Smith.” The Lions also had an All-America guard in Sam Valentine. They’d average 4.6 yard per rushing attempt had intercepted 15 passes in only 5 games, just three less than the amount of completions they had surrendered.


“Milt Plum the senior quarterback, does everything but blow up the football without a pump. He passes, intercepts passes, kicks extra points, kicks field goals and punts for the coffin corner like the pigskin had eyes.” He’d completed 17 of 34 passes in four games for 320 yards and three touchdowns. He kicked 9 of 10 extra points, punted for a 39.3 average and normally kicked off into the end zone. One of his punts against Ohio State went 73 yards and was downed on the Buckeye 2. Another was downed on the 3. “But more important, Plum is more than a statistic. He’s a cool, calm-type athlete, a tall baby-faced kid who seems free from exposing his emotions. In the mad lion dressing room after the tremendous victory over Ohio State 10 days ago…with all the triumphant Staters roaring like Leo the Lion at his best, what was Mr. Plum doing? Why, he was off in a corner quietly combing the only ruffled part of his body- his hair!” (He would later spend five seasons handing the ball off to Jimmy Brown in Cleveland.)


Syracuse had not beaten Penn State since 1952. Then opening line had the Orange favored by an improbably half a point. A record crowd was expected but there were still 5,000 unsold tickets as of Tuesday. All were in the $2.50 range. There had never been a capacity crowd at Archbold for Penn State and Archbold Stadium at 39,000 had a greater capacity than State’s Beaver Field, which seated only 30,000. “Syracuse authorities attribute local enthusiasm to three things: (1) The winning of Big Games by the Orange over the least two years, notably two victories over Army and West Virginia plus the opening win of this year’s season over the Maryland Terrapins, (2) the opening of the New York State Thruway which enables fans from the Buffalo and Albany areas to drive back and forth to the gridiron action in one day and (3) the presence of Master James N. Brown.“ The Penn State traveling squad was to be “37 players and about 10 others”.


Jim had gained 583 yards, an average of 117 per game. He needed only 223 yards in the last three games to break George Davis’ school rushing record. He’d gotten 155 against the NittanyLlions in the 1955 game, out—dueling Lenny Moore, now with the Baltimore Colts, by 10 yards. Engle: “Brown was the best back we saw last year and from what they tell me, I gather that he’s still just as good. It would be a mistake to put all of our emphasis on brown because Syracuse has another back who can do you a lot of damage, too. I mean Jim Ridlon.”


Center Joe Krivak was definitely out for the Penn State and Holy Cross games with a dislocated elbow. Guard Rudy Farmer was doubtful for Penn State with an ankle injury. Halfback Ed Ackley, who had played well vs. Boston U., was doubtful with “a severe charley horse. However fullback Ed Coffin and end/punter Don Althouse were expected back. With Coffin back, Schwartzwalder was considering shifting Al Cann back to his original center position.


“In addition to the fullback-center changes, Schwartzie said that he would fully explore his quarterback situation this week. The Orange pilot is not satisfied with the ball-handling and passing of his signal-calling corps and it just might mean that he will take another look at sophomore Dan Fogarty, perhaps the team’s best, though erratic passer. Fogarty’s weight is against him, for he hits the scales at only 155 pounds….Syracuse’s passing attack hasn’t been effective since Chuck Zimmerman completed 5 of 6 passes against. Maryland.” Zimmerman had completes 13 of 28 passes for 168 yards and a score. Kuczala was 2 for 7 for 51 yards and Fogarty hadn’t attempted a pass. Late in the week it was reported that Zimmerman had the inside track on the quarterback spot. At the same time Don Althouse’s situation was become less optimistic. He was listed as “ready to play” but hadn’t been able to practice for two weeks.


The Saturday paper had its favored shots of the two teams at practice, taking a moment off to pose in formation for the photographer. Bill Reddy had seen Penn State get off the bus. “Casual inspection of the Penn State squad as it worked out briefly at Hendricks Field yesterday further dispelled the myth that the Lions are at all scrawny. They’re big enough and fast enough to beat anybody in the East and they they’ve already beaten the top team in the Midwest. If Syracuse is going to win this one, the Orangemen will have to play back to the form they displayed in their season opener against Maryland. In that game they had everything and they’ll need it all to cope with the well-balanced, eager Lions this afternoon. You’ll see a couple of teams going “all-out” in this one.”

 

[SWC75]

THE GAME

“A game that wound up in a flurry of pulsating excitement found Syracuse’s hard-pressed gridders eking out a 13-9 victory over Penn State in Archbold Stadium yesterday to zoom the Orangemen into top rank among Eastern football powers. It took all of the defensive strength the Orange could muster, plus some fine breaks for the home club, to decide this bruising battle of Eastern Titans and a near-capacity crowd of 35,000 reveled in the thrilling scrap.”


Actually, by modern standards, this would have been a dull game to watch until some near-comic foul-ups in the last couple of minutes that left the verdict in doubt until the final play. At least it would have been dramatic, with a strong element of tension. Syracuse’s continuing attempt to locate its passing attack was a total failure as three quarterbacks went 0 for 7 with an interceptions. 70% of the scoring was done by halftime as Penn State never got past the Syracuse 37 in the second half. The game was ultimate determined by turnovers, of which there were nine. The winning team was out-gained 213-257. Nonetheless it was all very important to the season and the history of the program as Syracuse pulled it out, 13-9 and thus got the inside track on the Lambert Trophy and the Cotton Bowl.


The game began with Jim brown fumbling the kick-off. But #44 picked up the ball and returned it to SU 21. Syracuse ran together four first downs, with Jim Ridlon making runs of 10 and 11 yards., the latter pushing the ball to the Penn State 31. But Chuck Zimmerman was sacked on first down, then threw a couple of incomplete passes. Ridlon tried passing into the end zone on fourth down but it was incomplete and Penn State took over.


The Orange got the ball right back as Billy Kane, (Arnie Burdick insisted on calling him “Candy” Kane and Milt “Sugar” Plum), fumbled and Bill Brown recovered on the Penn State 34. Jim Brown ran to the 23 on the first play but Zimmerman’s fourth down pass from the 18 was intercepted by Sam Valentine. Ben didn’t have much confidence in Jim Brown’s kicking beyond extra points , apparently.


The teams then began punting the ball back and forth to each other, the highlight being a 63 yarder that “Sugar” Plum deposited on the SU 1 yard line. This segment of the game ended when Ridlon punted to the Penn State 22. Kane returned the punt 15 yards to the 37. Alberigi bolted 14 yards to the SU 49. Plum completed passes to the 37 and the 15. Albergi got them another first down at the 4 and then “Kane took a pitch-out to the left, raced away from the bunched-up, contending lines and scored untouched. But Plum’s kick was wide and the score remained Syracuse 0, Penn State 6 with 5:51 left in the first half.


Ernie Jackson returned the kick-off to the 22 and then swept end for 10 more yards. But SU had to punt. Penn State moved to midfiled where Plum tried to throw a pass to the flat and Jim Ridlon stepped in front of it, picked the ball off and sprinted down the sidelines. He was caught at the 10 by Alberigi. Jim brown ran it to the 7. Penn state was offsides but on the next play Emil Caprara broke through to nail Jim for a 3 yard loss. “With five yards to go, Fogarty faked a pass, ran to his left and got a thunderous block by Jim Brown as Fogarty dived into the end zone.” But the snap on the conversion was bad and Fogarty bobbled the ball. The score remained 6-6.


Time was about to run out in the first half but Penn State went through Syracuse like the Orange had already gone to the locker room. Four plays, a 20 pass from Kane to Alberigi, a couple of completed Plum passes and a 34 yard run by Plum, (Ridlon caught him from behind at the 16) set up a short field goal by plum to make it 9-6.


Then came a strange controversy. With one second left, Penn State tried what the Herald Journal called an “on-sides” kick. The ball only went 7 yards and Penn State was flagged for a penalty. The referees said the clock had run out and that the half was over. Ben Schwartzwalder argued that the half could not end on a penalty and that Syracuse should have one more play. Head referee Francis X. Keating was unmoved. Arnie Burdick cited “Rule #3: On a free kick the game clock shall be started when the ball is legally touched” and “Rule #6: A ball must travel 10 yards before it is legal for the kicking team to touch it.” He said “There being time to kick-off, there was time for one more play.” I’m not sure how one concludes that. I’m also not sure why Penn state would have tired an on-sides kick with 1 second left in the half. The Post- Standard reported the kick as “Plum dribbled the ball only 8 yards”. I suspect he was just squbbing it to make sure the half ended.


What turned out to be the winning sequence of the game occurred late in the third quarter when Kane fumbled on the Syracuse 43. Ridlon ran for 7 yards and Brown got a first down on the 44. He got another on a fourth down plunge at the 33. He then made it to the 15 on a sweep. Zimmerman then recovered his own fumble at the 18. Ed Coffin forgot 2 yards and brown 3 to the 10 but SU lost the ball on downs. Penn State got a first down but Al Jacks fumbled a pitch-out at the 24. Ridlon ran the ball to the 19 as the period ended. On the first play of the fourth quarter Jim Brown ran it to the 13. Ridlon faked a pass and ran it to the 6. Runs by the two Jims got it to the 3. Zimmerman then scored on a quarterback keeper. Brown kicked the conversion and SU had the lead for the first time, 13-9.


Kane returned the kick-off to the 31 and then carried for a first down at the 43. He “clicked on a scissors play to the SU 47”. (I guess we were the only team running the scissors play back in the day.) Then Ernie Jackson picked off a Kane pass and ran it back 36 yards to the Lion 32. Al Cann bolted to the 20. But Syracuse couldn’t close it out. Penn State took over on downs at the 18 with 5:51 to play.


Plum tried to pass his team down the field again but Len Walters dropped along pass at the SU 10 with Jim Brown breathing down his neck. SU took over with 2:57 left. They faced a fourth down with 1:49 left when Rip Engle sent Plum in on defense. Syracuse immediately protested, citing a rule that a player could only enter the game once in a quarter. Those were the days when the NCAA was trying to enforce one-platoon football with a baseball like rule that when you took a player out in a quarter, you couldn’t send him back in in the same quarter. Roy Simmons had been assigned to keep track of this and he called it to the attention of the officials, who penalized Penn State 15 yards, giving SU a first down. But that hardly ending things. Jim Brown plowed through the Penn State defense for 30 yards to the 20 but then Ferd Kuczala fumbled. On the next play Brown intercepted a pass by Jacks, (remember Plum’s day was over), at the Penn State 40 and ran it back to the 20 but then fumbled as he was being tackled and the Nittany Lions had one last gasp. But the clock ran out after Jacks caught a pass at the SU 40 and couldn’t escape a tackle.


It was the first of 8 wins in 11 games against Penn State between 1956 and 1966.

 

[SWC75]

THE AFTERMATH

Back in those days, a star player was often used as a decoy but Ben Schwartzwalder was realizing that if you have a Jim Brown, you needed to give him the football. Big Jim carried the ball 28 times for 104 yards, even though he didn’t score. It was hard to get that number of carries in the one-platoon era where you alternated first, second and third teams, not offensive and defensive teams. With no pass completions, SU’s 213 rushing yards was their total offense. Penn State ran for 176 yards and passed for 81. SU was intercepted once and lost two fumbles. Penn state was picked off three times and lost three fumbles. There were only 2 penalties called on Syracuse and both were declined. Penn State was flagged three times. Sam Valentine had missed most of the second half with an injury.


The Post Standard had a shot of THE PAYOFF TOUCHDOWN on page one. “Chuck Zimmerman squirmed through a mass of mighty opposition from the one yard line on a ‘keeper’ play.” Zimmerman is going over backwards with arrow pointing to his helmet (“Zimmerman”) and the ball. There’s two layers of players under him and two Penn State player who seem to be tackling each other. SU is in its classic white jerseys with orange pants and helmet s and blue trim. Penn state is in its classic blue jerseys with white pants and helmets but with long selves and triple stripes at the elbow.


On the sports page we see Dan Fogarty going over for SU’s first half score. He’s flipping over a tackler and into the end zone, landing on his right shoulder. Jim Brown is kneeling next to him. Fogarty also had a “name” arrow pointing to him. At the bottom of the page we see Ernie Jackson’s interception. Ernie has lost his helmet but is still running down the field. He “got a good block from Don Althouse and then faked Maury Schleicher at the Syracuse 40 to keep on going.. Althouse is to his right, sitting on the man he blocked while Schleicher is crouching to his left, preparing for contact which never came.


On the next page we see Jim Ridlon’s big interception that set up the first SU touchdown. In a shot from the top of the stadium, Jim is motoring down the far sideline, outracing the arrow with his name on it. Nobody else is near him but “Milton Plum” and Ray Alberigi are downfield, trying to cut him off. Ray pulled Ridlon down at the 10.


The Herald-American had no game shots on it’s front page but on the sports page we see Fogarty’s touchdown run from behind. Dan has evaded Penn State’s Dick DeLuca, who is lunging at him while falling down, (he seems to be beseeching him to stop), t the five. A solid line with an arrow shows Dan basically direct route to the end zone while another Penn State player is headed to the same spot as shown by a dotted line. This is the player Fogarty launched himself over to score.


Below that Jim Brown, the white stripe on his helmet prominent, trying to free himself from the grasp of Penn State’s Dan Radakovich. On page 62, “End Len Walters of Penn State got past a tired Jimmy Brown of the Orange but dropped a pass in the clear in the closing minutes of the exciting game in Archbold Stadium.” Walters is diving forward, full extension. The ball has slipped through his fingers and will beat him to the ground. Jim is a step behind, with a pained expression on his face which accounts for the “tired” comment. But he was probably very happy that the ball had eluded Walters.


The Herald had a gravure page entitled “ORANGE GRINDS TO NARROW VICTORY OVER POWERFUL NITTANY LIONS”. The first shot is of Jackson’s interception. His helmet is already off and he’s motoring through a huge gap in the Lions improvised line of defense. Next to that is RIDLON PICKS UP FIVE. Jim is crossing midfield on a 5 yard third quarter game, chased by three Penn State tacklers. On the second line Jim is futilely trying to find the end of the line on a sweep deep in SU territory that only netted a single yard. To the right of that Ray Alberigi of Penn State ahs found the end of the line on a 20 yard 4th quarter run with Ridlon and Jerry Cashman closing in on him but with quite a gap between them. Below that was Zimmerman’s touchdown. But it’s hard to spot him and the numbers of the players in the picture seem, Alan Cann. In the Herald, he’s turned into Jim Brown, #44. Anyway, Chuck scored and we won.


A headline in Monday’s Post-Standard read “SYRACUSE TOPS IN EAST: Without going off the ground, Syracuse was over another big hurdle in its drive for Eastern football honors and a possible bid in a post-season bowl game. But it wasn’t the only big news in the East. Army and Colgate had played an historical game, the Cadets winning at West Point by the improbable score of 55-46. We have scores like that today but in 1956, to score 46 points and not win by a substantial margin was completely unheard of. In a much more exciting, if less important game than the one in Syracuse, the black Knights of the Hudson ran for 407 yards and passed for another 137 while giving up 259 yards passing and 176 rushing. The game was 21-20, Army at the half. Colgate took a brief lead at 20-26. But Army responded with three unanswered scores to make it 41-26. They swapped scores after that. Syracuse had to be pleased that they had shut out an Army team that had beaten Columbia 60-0 in their next game and now had scored 55 points on Colgate. But they had to be concerned that Colgate had scored 46 points, (while passing for 259 yards) on an Army team that Syracuse had managed only 7 points against. Syracuse’s Les Dye scouted that game and told Bill Reddy “You had to be sitting there to believe it.


But the Orange players had something else on their minds. “WE’RE GOIN’ SOUTH ORANGE CRY AFTER PENN STATE IS THROTTLED” read another headline. “They roared off Archbold’s sod yesterday looking and acting for all the world like young men with hopes of spending the first day of 1957 south of the Mason-Dixon Line….”We’re goin’ south!” shouted Chuck Strid as he hit the locker room after the wild wind-up of Saturday’s fray. “This was the one we needed.”….The whoops and hollers of the other members of the Orange cast hinted that they too had a whiff of the magnolias. Head Coach Ben Schwartzwalder was less obvious: “I’d be willing to work three more weeks- if we can win two more.” Asked if he was expecting any phone calls from Dallas, (cite of the Cotton Bowl), Athletic Director Lew Andreas limited his reply to “No.” and a shake of his head. But previous comments and actions of the Su sports maestro indicate that the combined lines of Penn state and Army couldn’t keep him from a phone if and when the call should come.”


When the Orangemen calmed down, they had high praise for Penn State, considering them, with Army as the best teams they had played. (There was no mention of the one team that had beaten SU. Pitt had lost for a second time to Minnesota, 6-9.) Bill Brown: “Penn State didn’t hit as hard, but their passing…our ball control won it. Nick Bacille: “On a par with Army- they fought us every inch.” Schwartzwalder pronounced Penn State “the smarter team” and appraised their passing. Jim Brown on his future teammate: “That plum can throw the ball a country mile. Boy, what a great passing attack. But we had to get just a few of them. I think they were better than Army. They tackled before I could get goin’. They’re a good ball club.” Schwartzwalder: “Brownie was in there the whole game and was getting’ whacked by three or four on every play.” Brownie?!?


Two observations here: The quotes from Jim Brown after these games don’t sound like the gruff, tough guy we have grown to know and respect, if not exactly love over the years. It’s easy to forget that Jim Brown had just exited his teens at this point in his life. His autobiography talks about a lot of insecurities he had at the time and resentments over the way things transpired. This is Jim Brown as a young man, before the shell hardened and his comments are less guarded and defiant.


Then there’s Milt Plum, who would join him on the Browns the next year, win the quarterback job from Tommy O’Connell and be the Brown’s quarterback through the 1961 season before giving way to Jim Ninowski and, eventually to Frank Ryan. Ignoring McConnell’s brief tenure, Plum was basically the guy who field Otto Graham’s shoes and he had Jim Brown right next to him. Like Graham. Plum was a great athletes and a fine football player. The Browns were acknowledged to have the greatest talent of any team in the league while he was there, (they also had Bobby Mitchell, who was a great player in his own right). Of course that was offensive talent- that’s what people generally mean by talent. It was during this time that the Browns went from the truly championship caliber defenses they had in the Graham Era, when they went to 10 straight championship games in the AAFC and NFL and gave up the fewest points in the league 8 times to the “rubber band” defense they became famous for in the 60’ which bent and occasionally did break. Plum was blamed for the Brown’s failure to beat out the Giants, who now had the best defense and shipped off to Detroit in 1962 where he earned the enmity of the Lions, (and especially the very vocal Alex Karras), by throwing a bad interception that cost them a chance at beating the Packers’ greatest team in Green Bay. They Lions got revenge on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit but finished 11-3 to the Pack’s 13-1. If they had both been 12-2, the Lions would have played the Giants for the title. They and Plum faded after that and he’s forgotten now while the Browns won a championship with Ryan at quarterback. But his numbers in Cleveland were excellent (66 TD passes compared to 39 interceptions) and he was the prefect compliment to Jimmy Brown. From what I’ve read of his college career, he was a great player and deserves to be better remembered.


Rip Engle wasn’t all that impressed with Syracuse- or with the referees. “I’m willing to bet $1000 that the pictures will show we didn’t substitute Milt Plum illegally.” He had charts to show that Plum had started the quarter and then been relieved. He was allowed to be sent back in once. Bud Vander Veer reported “The officials were undoubtedly keeping a close check on Plum…Syracuse scouts reported Plum was used illegally in the Army game. Last week Coach Art Lewis of West Virginia reported the same maneuver. Engle retorts that picture bore out the fact that he was not used illegally against the Mountaineers. . It is safe to assume that the Orange coaches requested the officials to watch the substitution of Plum closely yesterday.” The series in those days was noted for a lot of “one-upmanship” between the coaching staffs- was this the first salvo?


Engle did agree that Syracuse was owed another play at the end of the half but “even if Syracuse had that play, they wouldn’t have scored.”


More Engle: We’re every bit as good a football team as Syracuse and we’ll prove we deserve to be Eastern champions when we beat Pitt in our last game.” They would tie the Panthers 7-7. “I feel sorry for our boys. They deserved to win. But we k now we’ve won- maybe some thought we shouldn’t have won- maybe its justice. I know I’m just as proud of our team today as the day we walked out of the Ohio State dressing room. …Brown is not the back that Ridlon proved to be. Ridlon is much more an All-American than brown. Take away Jim’s first 28 yard run when our kids were broken=hearted and what did he average?” That would be 76 yards on 27 carries or 2.8 yards a carry. But you can’t take away runs for broken heartedness. I will say that I’ve heard Jim Ridlon call the ’56 crew a “one man team”. Jim is better at art than math. That was no one man team, even if “the man” was Jimmy Brown.


Roy Simmons comment on the much- maligned Syracuse pass defense: Look at the figures and you’ll see that our pass defense was more effective than Penn State’s passing attack. What did State gain by completing seven passes? Eight-one yards. And did you notice how many yard we gained on runbacks of pass interceptions? It added up to 112 yards that we made on three interceptions. “ Roy’s onto something there: why isn’t interception return yardage, (and sacks, for that matter), subtracted from passing yardage? Still, Bill Reddy was concerned about the Orange’ total inability to sustain a passing attack of its own: “When a team can become so disdainful of the air threat, as Penn State did in the second half, as to throw up virtually a nine-man line with two close backers up, the yardage to be gained on the ground becomes harder to achieve.” It’s still a problem.


The Old Scout was concerned about another problem that hasn’t gone away. “That orange team certainly gives you heart failure. …it’s the third straight game this year that’s left the crowd limp at the finish…One of these Saturdays, there’ll be an unhappy ending if they keep playing ‘em that close to the vest. …I get a kick out of Rip Engle’s comment that he thinks Jimmy Ridlon is better than Jimmy Brown. No doubt, that’s why Rip set his defenses the way he did…semi-rotating them to Syracuse’s right so that the Lions could stop Brown’s best power plays…Rip must have respected Brownie more than Ridlon or he wouldn’t have set his defense that way.”


The OS said that Syracuse seemed to be “getting licked on a lot of pass plays” and that “Syracuse sure gives the other fellow an awful lot of time to throw. I thought Milt Plum was going to smoke a cigar back there…” He was concerned what Colgate’s Guy Martin would do to the Syracuse pass defense. “From here it looks like Colgate wasn’t making its free throws…They out-scored Syracuse vs. Army six and half times. “ He did acknowledge Roy Simmons argument that we gained more yards on Penn State’s passes than they did. (It was often speculated that is the Old Scout was a real person, not just an invention of Arnie Burdick’s. That he might be Roy Simmons, but I doubt it.)


He hadn’t seen the Plum substitution and had no comment on it but suggested that Syracuse needed to sharpen up its substitution procedures. “That’s why young Fogarty, who hasn’t had much experience was holding the ball for the extra point after his TD> Both Zimmerman and Kuczala had used up their second quarter eligibility. Syracuse uses a ‘dead bench’ for those boys who can’t return ‘til the next period.”


But he was impressed with Ernie Jackson and “his brilliant interception…Gosh, he’s really coming…he’s the second boy that Kenny Molloy has helped interest in Syracuse. It would be something if he wound up at left halfback next fall, taking over for his #1 boy, Brown. Jackson is big and strong and can travel.”


“I thought Schwartzie got a lot of mileage out of his boys yesterday…they were ringing wet at the finish. With so many boys chewed up, he just had to go with his first gang a little longer than he would like to. If he had his full forces, he might have licked ‘em pretty cute.

 

[TexanMark]

Thanks Steve for these recaps. I really enjoy reading them.

 

[SWC75]

Thanks Steve for these recaps. I really enjoy reading them.

I'm glad someone does. I started following SU football in the 1960's and have always wanted to discover what the years leading up to that were like and this is my way of dong it. I post these in case some people might like to go along for the ride.