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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 907803, member: 289"] 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.” [/QUOTE]

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