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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 907806, member: 289"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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