SWC75
Bored Historian
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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 Dino Babers era. 68 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”.
THE BUILD-UP
Arnie Burdick interviewed Fred Rice, the new Colgate coach. He asked him what impact the 61-7 whipping Syracuse had given its traditional rival the year before would have on this year’s game. “How do you think your squad will react next week when they enter Archbold Stadium? “I think they’ll be all right” answered the new football mentor, who looks young enough to pass for an under-graduate. “In fact, I expect it will help them get real ready. At least we certainly don’t plan on avoiding talking about last year’s game. We plan on it helping us. The one thing that, I believe, my boys have proved this year is that they’re not scared of anybody. We’ve played rugged teams like Illinois and Army and haven’t backed away so I can’t see why Syracuse should make them quake. Don’t get me wrong. I respect Ben and his boys. I know that Syracuse has a real good football team bit I feel that if we all get well and play well that we’re quite apt to do well. “
Rice then proceeded to bemoan the fact that Colgate had no spring practice and no time for a proper conditioning program in the fall. He also said he wished that the NCAA would go back to the days of unlimited substitution so he could give his guys a break in the middle of a quarter. “We’ve had to do too much switching for we have a very small squad. Some boys have played three positons in one game and many, two.“ His comments are interesting because I’ve always felt that the return of unlimited substitution (two platoon) football, killed big time football for the smaller schools, (it nearly did so here). You have to recruit so many more players that you can’t just recruit players who grew up in your area and were always aware of your school. That put a premium on dazzling facilities and began all the big spending we see now. Ben Schwartzwalder never had a significant player who wasn’t from New York or an adjacent state. He would have never thought to look to Oregon for a quarterback.
One thing in Colgate’s favor is that Jim Brown, who produced 43 of those 61 points, was now in Cleveland. If SU had been coming off an 1956 victory over Colgate of just 18-7, the prospects for a close game in 1957 would have been evident. Nonetheless the 1957 NCAA Guide doesn’t have anything to say about the Red Raiders except to label them ‘undistinguished’. Street and Smiths had studio posed ‘action’ shots of Ralph Antone, “strong rugged blocker” determinedly moving forward, (while staring at the ground and sticking out his tongue), and quarterback Ray Harding cranking up to throw and pass downfield, (while looking at the photographer). Cornell and Colgate often appeared in studio shots, against black background in those days. I never saw a Syracuse player in such an environment. All of our posed shots are out doors on the practice field.
Reference was made to the fact that Syracuse still had a #44 – Tom Stephens- but that he was unlikely to get anywhere near 43 points. But he had done pretty well in 1957. Ben: “I don’t know where we’d be without Stephens.” Tom, 6-0 190, had started the season nursing a ‘charley horse’ and was behind Ernie Jackson and Dave Baker in the depth chart but soon rose to #1with a TD against Cornell and two more against both Nebraska and Pittsburgh. He was the team’s #2 rusher behind Ed Coffin with 251 yards in 56 carries, (4.2) and the #2 pass receiver behind Dick Lasse with 11 for 174 yards.
The S&S article says that Rice “faces a bleak outlook. Al Jamison’s departure left Rice with only two regulars and 6 other lettermen to replace heavy losses in graduation….The team has speed and size but without spring practice, the Maroon will need to scramble in early games before finding the right combination.” Don Zimmerman was the fullback. Halfbacks Walt Betts and Ted Boccuzzi “are not only exceptionally fast but able pass defenders and receivers.” Boccuzzi was “Colgate’s top track sprinter.” Antone anchored the line, which also had Charles Ehin, a Lithuanian immigrant who is still learning the game.”
The Monday Post Standard headlined an article with “Raiders sure to follow style set by (Holy Cross’s Tom) Greene”. Once you’ve been burned by something all your opponents will be looking to exploit the same weakness. The youth of Coach Rice was emphasized. The Herald Journal had a picture of a smiling Fred Rice next to his captain, tackle Ralph Antone and, indeed he looks like an older brother at most. (Rice had, in fact celebrated his 39th birthday the day before: Fred Rice - Wikipedia .) Colgate was “fully healthy” and coming off a “handsome” 32-0 win over Bucknell. They were “coming on with a flourish” while Syracuse “may be retrogressing”. (There’s a word I haven’t seen in too many 1950’s sports pages.) Colgate was 3-40, having scraped by Cornell 14-13 and Princeton, (who had been a major power in the 1950s’ and who won the Ivy League that year), 12-10. But they got hammered by Illinois, (0-40), Rutgers, (6-48), Yale, (0-20), and Army, (7-53), before their handsome victory over Bucknell. Rice had told Arnie Burdick that after the Illinois game he looked at the Sunday paper to see how many other coaches had had the experience of losing a game by 40 points. In those days he wouldn’t have found too many, outside of Colgate.
Syracuse was trying to “button up its pass defense” to take on Colgate’s Ray Harding. “It doesn’t appear as though the Raiders can mount too effective a ground attack against the bigger Syracuse forwards. Colgate has competent passing and some fine receivers in Rick Randall, Al Jamison, (who apparently did not depart), and Ted Boccuzzi. They can all catch the ball and, perhaps more important, they’ve got the speed to bother the Orange deep secondary. Syracuse’ s power, headed by Ed Coffin, who probably had his best day Saturday, should be able to control the ball against the Maroon and the Syracuse depth may be able to take its toll during the second half of the contest, too. “ Coffin was SU’s leading rusher with 380 yards in 91 carries. Chuck Zimmerman had completed 42 of 74 passes for a net gain of 635 yards. The leading pass catchers through 7 games were Dick Lasse with 12 in 160 yards and Tom Stephens with 11 catches for 174 yards. (Amba Etta Tawo had totals like that for single games last year.)
Syracuse end Glenn Preising suffered a head injury in the first half of the Holy Cross game and spent the night in a hospital. It was feared he might not be able to play again that season. When “a series of tests showed that he had sustain no severe injury”. Dr. Clyde Barney, had been was “conked” on the opening kick-off but returned to action. “Lasse was shaken up twice during the game but appeared to be OK yesterday. Lasse said later that he couldn’t remember much of what happened during the game but made some memorable plays nonetheless. One wonders what, if anything, the “concussion protocol” was in 1957.
Ben Schwartzwalder told Bill Reddy: “Our biggest job is the same as usual: trying to correct our multitudinous errors.” (First we get ‘retrogressing’ and now we get ‘multitudinous’.) “We know they’ll throw. Everyone else does. And they’ve got a good thrower in Harding, fine receivers led by Al Jamison. Their backs have more speed than ours and their line probably will out-speed ours, too.“ Arnie Burdick added to the gloom: “Holy Cross upset Syracuse last week to end a string of seven straight losses to the Orange. Colgate comes here with a streak of six losses in a row to the Hillmen. What’s more, the Raiders scouts saw how the Crusaders did it.”
Tuesday’s paper revealed what had happened with Al Jamison: Jamison “stirred up a hornet’s nest last January when it was learned that he left the Chenango Valley to (a) go back home (b) attend Houston University under his ex-Raider mentor Hal Lahar or (c) just plain give up the idea going to school… Unfortunately for Schwartzwalder and Bill Orange, Jamison changed his mind about ending his grid career at Colgate. Al returned to his Toledo home after completion of the first semester of the 1956-57 school year but returned in July for summer study and the 1957 football season.” Jamison in 1956 had caught 29 passes and “tied for first in the nation in TD passes with 6”. Actually, that tied him with Pittsburgh’s Joe Walton, (we had faced both of them). His catch total was #6 in the nation. That was college football in the 1950’s.
Jamison was huge: 6-4 220. Ben: “Jamison is quite a threat in there and we’ll have to take particular pains to defend against him. He’s got good hands plus the power and size to run right over you after he gets the ball.” After some early injuries, Al had gotten healthy enough to catch 20 balls for 266 yards and 4TDs going into the SU game, (“a highly reputable figure”. In 1956, Jamison had an Etta Tawo-like day with 10 catches, 2 for touchdowns, in a very modern 46-55 loss to Army that set a record for combined scores between major college teams that is currently held by last year’s Syracuse-Pitt game. .
He made the right choice by resuming his football career. He joined the Houston Oilers in 1960 as a 6-5, 250 pound offensive lineman and played for their teams of 1960-62 that played for the AFL title in the first three years of its existence, winning the first wo and losing the third in overtime. He was first team all-AFL each of those years.
The Herald-Journal had a headline story on the Tuesday sports page describing the game as a battle between Jamison and Syracuse’s Dick Lasse to see who was the better man and who could lead his team to victory. Lasse a 6-2 210 pounder who would alter play 5 years for the Steelers, Redskins and Giants, was “dwarfed physically by” Jamison. “But certainly Dick wouldn’t come out second best in the fury of his blocking charge, nor the desire that he has as a young man to make good.“ Both had sustained significant injuries. “Lasse got whacked going down under a punt in an Orange pre-season scrimmage at West Point. He heard “the birdies” for most of the rest of that afternoon and suffered a recurrence on the opening kick-off of the Holy Cross game in Archbold Stadium last weekend. In addition, Dick has had both hands badly bruised and swollen from the opening of the season and plays with both of them heavily encased in bandages…Jamison “got his ankle smashed” against Illinois “and has been limping ever since. According to Rice, he’s just starting to “push off it real good now.” A picture in Friday’s Post Standard showed Jamison posed in a running positon with the caption “Expert Receiver”.
Ray Harding had completed 47 of 11 passes for 577 yards and 6 scores. He’d completed 9 more to the opposition and his back-ups had thrown four more interceptions. Ted Boccuzzi was the leading rusher with 356 yards in 89 carries. Don Zimmerman was second with 205 yards in 65 attempts.
Both teams were working hard on extra points, Syracuse having missed 2 of 3 in the one point loss to Holy Cross and Colgate having missed 3 of 5 against Bucknell. This was not unusual in the days before specialists, although it was not very good, even in those days.
Colgate was nursing some injuries in the line. “Guard Bob Conklin is recovering from a severe bumping“ while tackle Bill Borog and end Bob Nasanovich “have not yet regained form following injuries in the Bucknell game.”
It was the last home game for Syracuse seniors. Among them: “(Ed) Coffin, an ex-GI from long Island, blossomed into authentic stardom this year, after being in the shadows of Jim Brown and Jim Ridlon a year ago…A standout end a year ago who cleared the path for Brown on strong side off-tackle and sweep plays, (Dick) Lasse has been called the best lineman in the East by Coach Schwartzwalder….he has been named the top lineman in three of the seven Orange games to date by the press …(Chuck) Strid has been a Syracuse workhouse despite numerous injuries…Among the alternate team seniors, (Ferd ), Kuczala figures to see the most action against Colgate. “
Friday’s Herald had a headline “Syracuse (ground) vs Colgate (air)”. Syracuse was the bigger stronger team but they appeared to be weak in pass defense while Colgate felt that passing the ball would be their biggest strength. Cornell was the only common opponent: Colgate had nipped the Big Red 14-13 while Syracuse had crushed them 34-0.
Oscar Fraley, whose book “The Untouchables” came out that year and inspired both the TV series and movie with the same title, was a sportswriter for UPI by day and an article he wrote on former SU coach Ossie Solem, (apparently in response to national publicity Dr. Eddie Anderson had gotten for being “the Dean of the Nation’s Football Coaches”, which he wasn’t yet and Solem was) appeared in the Tuesday Herald. Fraley quoted Solem: Versatile defenses have made college football a throwback to the game as it was played 50 years ago. The big trend has been toward ball control. The main reason is that the defense has become so versatile and most of the time you’re facing a nine man line. It’s a throwback to 50 years ago because now you throw only enough to maintain the ball.”
Ossie had been the head coach at Drake and Iowa before moving on the Syracuse in 1937, where he coached until 1945. His assistants included Bud Wilkinson and Biggie Munn, who took over for him in 19046 before moving on to Michigan State. Munn took most of his staff with him, (like Doug Marrone – and Dino Babers), including Duffy Daugherty, who took over for him in East Lansing in 1954 while Biggie became AD. Wilkinson was national coach of the year at Oklahoma in 1949. Munn won the same honor in 1953 and Daugherty in 1955. That Michigan State staff produced many other fine coaches, including Bob Devaney, Dan Devine, Bill Yeoman and Frank Kush. Ossie moved on to Springfield in Massachusetts from 1946-57, where he coached Dick McPherson. Quite a coaching “tree”.
“There is something spiritual in Ossie facial serenity and the soft-speaking Solem has had a profound effect on his players. His credo is “leave no regrets on the field” and his players admire his calmness and control.” Indeed, his players didn’t leave anything on the field, including pennies: “They cured me of superstition when I was at Drake University. We weren’t doing too well at Drake in 1921 and were trailing 7-0 in one game when one of the boys found a penny on the field and flipped it to me. The boy said, happily, “Here’s a lucky penny. Watch us go now!” Drake did too, scoring 15 points in the next few minutes to win the game. After that, before every game, the players would ‘find’ a lucky penny for Ossie. They didn’t lose another game that year and the following season went unbeaten. I was kind of relived when we finally lost a game later the following season. My coat pocket was bulging with lucky pennies the kids had found and they were getting to be quite a nuisance!”
Despite the loss to Holy Cross, bowl talk hadn’t completely dissipated. Syracuse was reported to be one of 12 schools in contention for the December 28 Cigar Bowl in Tampa: “Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Houston, Virginia Military, West Virginia, Syracuse, Boston College, Penn State, Louisiana State, Miami Florida and Florida State”. It was said all the listed schools had been contacted but nothing was said about how responsive they were. The Cigar Bowl had been created right after the war as a small college bowl game and was last held in 1954. A committee was trying to revive it as a major college bowl game. Unfortunately they failed for lack of an appropriate venue, (per Wikipedia), and there was no Cigar Bowl in 1957.
Wednesdays’ Herald had a picture of “Hamilton’s Hall of Famers”, former Colgate coaches Andy Kerr and Buck O’Neill, (the latter also a former Syracuse coach), discussing the game. Another shot below them, current head coach Fred Rice points to a display of autographed football commemorating every Colgate victory over Syracuse in football. There are 31 of them. (There still are.) To the right of the page is another photo, entitled “Red Raider Rogue’s Gallery”. It was a bulletin board in the Colgate locker room with pictures of the top Syracuse players “so that the Raiders can become acquainted with them.” After the previous year’s 61-7 drubbing, virtually no on the Colgate campus felt they could win against Syracuse – except the players, who stared at those pictures each day.
Rice: “We are not changing anything in particular for our plans this week. The boys know we have to be ready for a job. We’re healthier than at any time all season but must take the risk of contact work. In our chalk talk, every boy has been unusually attentive and we got more out of our drill in the gymnasium than in most outdoor sessions all season.” The Post Standard said “He conceded Syracuse a large edge in man power and a hefty weight advantage in the line, offering only that the Raiders would have to show “a lot of heart, ability to make the breaks work for us and persistence to keep Syracuse from getting the breaks” He said that he felt “Syracuse has still not reached its potential and scouting reports from the Pittsburgh game indicate that that potential is awesome.”
Former quarterback and now assistant coach Guy Martin: “We know Syracuse will score. It’s up to us to find a way to move that ball ourselves.“ A Colgate student told the paper: “I’m a student here and I think we have a chance to win because our football players feel they have a chance. Why, I was with one of them who was in Syracuse Monday night. We went up on campus and all we heard was how the Syracuse players felt they couldn’t lose. That made my Buddy feel great for he says our team has a chance and I’m with him.”
Buck O’Neill was not. He told Bud Vander Meer that “it will take a miracle for Colgate to win. Syracuse has a darn good coach and I’m afraid they might make it a one-sided game again this year, for they are tough.” He was optimistic about Colgate’s future, though, due to their undefeated freshman, team, which included a couple of players from Manlius, (I assume he meant the Manlius Military Academy, which was noted for producing athletic talent.) Andy Kerr declared “A fighting team always has a chance”.
A committee of Ohio State faculty member reported to the Big Ten that “Collegiate Amateurism can’t work…the concept of amateurism has changed because of social and economic developments. Skill in any form is marketable in our society. We should realize that it is no longer shameful not to be an amateur and that a college athlete can be a gentleman and scholar and at the same time receive aid because of his athletic activity. Colleges are only pretending when we try to claim that college athletics are strictly amateur when actually many of them are not. …To labor through a maze of hypocritical statements, tongue-in-cheek cynicism and an occasional instance of outright deception is far more destructive to the welfare of the student than to admit freely that amateurism is no longer a workable concept college athletics.” The committee recommended “a workable plan for financial aid to students and the abolition of job programs for athletes.” We are still arguing about the same things.
Arnie Burdick put out the annual column citing the history of upsets in the series. He pointed out that the last three games Syracuse played resulted in upsets. Syracuse was favored to beat Penn State and Holy Cross but not Pittsburgh. “Colgate could win but it’s not likely, unless the Red Raider passers have a field day, taking advantage of a rather weak Syracuse aerial defense. The overhead route has been about the only way that the Orange has yielded yardage this fall but it doesn’t seem possible that if stronger elevens, such as Pitt and Penn state, couldn’t run on the Hillmen too much, that Colgate could do a lot of damage on the ground. …In fact, it says were that Syracuse’s passing figures tomorrow will surpass the Colgates, for the Orange has got its best aerial attack since 1953, when Pat Stark punctured the Raider anti-aircraft equipment.” Syracuse had passed for 880 yards to Colgates 807 and Syracuse had faced better competition.
“Syracuse vs. Colgate has always been a fan’s game…Sometimes fans get a little too serious about the action on the gridiron and forget the purpose or reason for getting together which is to have a good time – see some old friends….The crowd helps make the game, too. It’s always a spirited and colorful and festive and gay crowd….It’s hard to sit in Archbold Stadium tomorrow, no matter how much of a football technician you are, without some of the genuine excitement and enthusiasm rubbing off on you.”
37,000 fans were expected to produce a gate of $115,000.” That’s an average ticket price of $3.11. Syracuse was a 16 point favorite. “At halftime the Colgate-Syracuse keg ceremony will be held. The keg goes to the school recording the most wins in varsity sports during the past school year.” The Herald on Friday had a shot Colgate students piling wood for a bonfire for their pep rally. The caption was “Orange burns at the stake”. I miss having a genuine rival.
Somebody had composed a poem for the occasion, recalling what happened the previous year:
Please to remember the 17th of November
Of Brown’s thunder and trot…
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
Though us he roared; Six times he scored
Then 7 from placement he got
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
But this is a new season and we’ve got reason
To think that 61 was a lot
Is it any wonder why Brown’s Thunder
Should never be forgot….
Go gather wood like a good Raider should
And make for the Orange a cot
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
Pile it one higher then light the fire
Our guy bill orange will get hot
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
Then, in the game Oh, Lord, let us reign
And give Syracuse a good sweat
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
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 Dino Babers era. 68 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”.
THE BUILD-UP
Arnie Burdick interviewed Fred Rice, the new Colgate coach. He asked him what impact the 61-7 whipping Syracuse had given its traditional rival the year before would have on this year’s game. “How do you think your squad will react next week when they enter Archbold Stadium? “I think they’ll be all right” answered the new football mentor, who looks young enough to pass for an under-graduate. “In fact, I expect it will help them get real ready. At least we certainly don’t plan on avoiding talking about last year’s game. We plan on it helping us. The one thing that, I believe, my boys have proved this year is that they’re not scared of anybody. We’ve played rugged teams like Illinois and Army and haven’t backed away so I can’t see why Syracuse should make them quake. Don’t get me wrong. I respect Ben and his boys. I know that Syracuse has a real good football team bit I feel that if we all get well and play well that we’re quite apt to do well. “
Rice then proceeded to bemoan the fact that Colgate had no spring practice and no time for a proper conditioning program in the fall. He also said he wished that the NCAA would go back to the days of unlimited substitution so he could give his guys a break in the middle of a quarter. “We’ve had to do too much switching for we have a very small squad. Some boys have played three positons in one game and many, two.“ His comments are interesting because I’ve always felt that the return of unlimited substitution (two platoon) football, killed big time football for the smaller schools, (it nearly did so here). You have to recruit so many more players that you can’t just recruit players who grew up in your area and were always aware of your school. That put a premium on dazzling facilities and began all the big spending we see now. Ben Schwartzwalder never had a significant player who wasn’t from New York or an adjacent state. He would have never thought to look to Oregon for a quarterback.
One thing in Colgate’s favor is that Jim Brown, who produced 43 of those 61 points, was now in Cleveland. If SU had been coming off an 1956 victory over Colgate of just 18-7, the prospects for a close game in 1957 would have been evident. Nonetheless the 1957 NCAA Guide doesn’t have anything to say about the Red Raiders except to label them ‘undistinguished’. Street and Smiths had studio posed ‘action’ shots of Ralph Antone, “strong rugged blocker” determinedly moving forward, (while staring at the ground and sticking out his tongue), and quarterback Ray Harding cranking up to throw and pass downfield, (while looking at the photographer). Cornell and Colgate often appeared in studio shots, against black background in those days. I never saw a Syracuse player in such an environment. All of our posed shots are out doors on the practice field.
Reference was made to the fact that Syracuse still had a #44 – Tom Stephens- but that he was unlikely to get anywhere near 43 points. But he had done pretty well in 1957. Ben: “I don’t know where we’d be without Stephens.” Tom, 6-0 190, had started the season nursing a ‘charley horse’ and was behind Ernie Jackson and Dave Baker in the depth chart but soon rose to #1with a TD against Cornell and two more against both Nebraska and Pittsburgh. He was the team’s #2 rusher behind Ed Coffin with 251 yards in 56 carries, (4.2) and the #2 pass receiver behind Dick Lasse with 11 for 174 yards.
The S&S article says that Rice “faces a bleak outlook. Al Jamison’s departure left Rice with only two regulars and 6 other lettermen to replace heavy losses in graduation….The team has speed and size but without spring practice, the Maroon will need to scramble in early games before finding the right combination.” Don Zimmerman was the fullback. Halfbacks Walt Betts and Ted Boccuzzi “are not only exceptionally fast but able pass defenders and receivers.” Boccuzzi was “Colgate’s top track sprinter.” Antone anchored the line, which also had Charles Ehin, a Lithuanian immigrant who is still learning the game.”
The Monday Post Standard headlined an article with “Raiders sure to follow style set by (Holy Cross’s Tom) Greene”. Once you’ve been burned by something all your opponents will be looking to exploit the same weakness. The youth of Coach Rice was emphasized. The Herald Journal had a picture of a smiling Fred Rice next to his captain, tackle Ralph Antone and, indeed he looks like an older brother at most. (Rice had, in fact celebrated his 39th birthday the day before: Fred Rice - Wikipedia .) Colgate was “fully healthy” and coming off a “handsome” 32-0 win over Bucknell. They were “coming on with a flourish” while Syracuse “may be retrogressing”. (There’s a word I haven’t seen in too many 1950’s sports pages.) Colgate was 3-40, having scraped by Cornell 14-13 and Princeton, (who had been a major power in the 1950s’ and who won the Ivy League that year), 12-10. But they got hammered by Illinois, (0-40), Rutgers, (6-48), Yale, (0-20), and Army, (7-53), before their handsome victory over Bucknell. Rice had told Arnie Burdick that after the Illinois game he looked at the Sunday paper to see how many other coaches had had the experience of losing a game by 40 points. In those days he wouldn’t have found too many, outside of Colgate.
Syracuse was trying to “button up its pass defense” to take on Colgate’s Ray Harding. “It doesn’t appear as though the Raiders can mount too effective a ground attack against the bigger Syracuse forwards. Colgate has competent passing and some fine receivers in Rick Randall, Al Jamison, (who apparently did not depart), and Ted Boccuzzi. They can all catch the ball and, perhaps more important, they’ve got the speed to bother the Orange deep secondary. Syracuse’ s power, headed by Ed Coffin, who probably had his best day Saturday, should be able to control the ball against the Maroon and the Syracuse depth may be able to take its toll during the second half of the contest, too. “ Coffin was SU’s leading rusher with 380 yards in 91 carries. Chuck Zimmerman had completed 42 of 74 passes for a net gain of 635 yards. The leading pass catchers through 7 games were Dick Lasse with 12 in 160 yards and Tom Stephens with 11 catches for 174 yards. (Amba Etta Tawo had totals like that for single games last year.)
Syracuse end Glenn Preising suffered a head injury in the first half of the Holy Cross game and spent the night in a hospital. It was feared he might not be able to play again that season. When “a series of tests showed that he had sustain no severe injury”. Dr. Clyde Barney, had been was “conked” on the opening kick-off but returned to action. “Lasse was shaken up twice during the game but appeared to be OK yesterday. Lasse said later that he couldn’t remember much of what happened during the game but made some memorable plays nonetheless. One wonders what, if anything, the “concussion protocol” was in 1957.
Ben Schwartzwalder told Bill Reddy: “Our biggest job is the same as usual: trying to correct our multitudinous errors.” (First we get ‘retrogressing’ and now we get ‘multitudinous’.) “We know they’ll throw. Everyone else does. And they’ve got a good thrower in Harding, fine receivers led by Al Jamison. Their backs have more speed than ours and their line probably will out-speed ours, too.“ Arnie Burdick added to the gloom: “Holy Cross upset Syracuse last week to end a string of seven straight losses to the Orange. Colgate comes here with a streak of six losses in a row to the Hillmen. What’s more, the Raiders scouts saw how the Crusaders did it.”
Tuesday’s paper revealed what had happened with Al Jamison: Jamison “stirred up a hornet’s nest last January when it was learned that he left the Chenango Valley to (a) go back home (b) attend Houston University under his ex-Raider mentor Hal Lahar or (c) just plain give up the idea going to school… Unfortunately for Schwartzwalder and Bill Orange, Jamison changed his mind about ending his grid career at Colgate. Al returned to his Toledo home after completion of the first semester of the 1956-57 school year but returned in July for summer study and the 1957 football season.” Jamison in 1956 had caught 29 passes and “tied for first in the nation in TD passes with 6”. Actually, that tied him with Pittsburgh’s Joe Walton, (we had faced both of them). His catch total was #6 in the nation. That was college football in the 1950’s.
Jamison was huge: 6-4 220. Ben: “Jamison is quite a threat in there and we’ll have to take particular pains to defend against him. He’s got good hands plus the power and size to run right over you after he gets the ball.” After some early injuries, Al had gotten healthy enough to catch 20 balls for 266 yards and 4TDs going into the SU game, (“a highly reputable figure”. In 1956, Jamison had an Etta Tawo-like day with 10 catches, 2 for touchdowns, in a very modern 46-55 loss to Army that set a record for combined scores between major college teams that is currently held by last year’s Syracuse-Pitt game. .
He made the right choice by resuming his football career. He joined the Houston Oilers in 1960 as a 6-5, 250 pound offensive lineman and played for their teams of 1960-62 that played for the AFL title in the first three years of its existence, winning the first wo and losing the third in overtime. He was first team all-AFL each of those years.
The Herald-Journal had a headline story on the Tuesday sports page describing the game as a battle between Jamison and Syracuse’s Dick Lasse to see who was the better man and who could lead his team to victory. Lasse a 6-2 210 pounder who would alter play 5 years for the Steelers, Redskins and Giants, was “dwarfed physically by” Jamison. “But certainly Dick wouldn’t come out second best in the fury of his blocking charge, nor the desire that he has as a young man to make good.“ Both had sustained significant injuries. “Lasse got whacked going down under a punt in an Orange pre-season scrimmage at West Point. He heard “the birdies” for most of the rest of that afternoon and suffered a recurrence on the opening kick-off of the Holy Cross game in Archbold Stadium last weekend. In addition, Dick has had both hands badly bruised and swollen from the opening of the season and plays with both of them heavily encased in bandages…Jamison “got his ankle smashed” against Illinois “and has been limping ever since. According to Rice, he’s just starting to “push off it real good now.” A picture in Friday’s Post Standard showed Jamison posed in a running positon with the caption “Expert Receiver”.
Ray Harding had completed 47 of 11 passes for 577 yards and 6 scores. He’d completed 9 more to the opposition and his back-ups had thrown four more interceptions. Ted Boccuzzi was the leading rusher with 356 yards in 89 carries. Don Zimmerman was second with 205 yards in 65 attempts.
Both teams were working hard on extra points, Syracuse having missed 2 of 3 in the one point loss to Holy Cross and Colgate having missed 3 of 5 against Bucknell. This was not unusual in the days before specialists, although it was not very good, even in those days.
Colgate was nursing some injuries in the line. “Guard Bob Conklin is recovering from a severe bumping“ while tackle Bill Borog and end Bob Nasanovich “have not yet regained form following injuries in the Bucknell game.”
It was the last home game for Syracuse seniors. Among them: “(Ed) Coffin, an ex-GI from long Island, blossomed into authentic stardom this year, after being in the shadows of Jim Brown and Jim Ridlon a year ago…A standout end a year ago who cleared the path for Brown on strong side off-tackle and sweep plays, (Dick) Lasse has been called the best lineman in the East by Coach Schwartzwalder….he has been named the top lineman in three of the seven Orange games to date by the press …(Chuck) Strid has been a Syracuse workhouse despite numerous injuries…Among the alternate team seniors, (Ferd ), Kuczala figures to see the most action against Colgate. “
Friday’s Herald had a headline “Syracuse (ground) vs Colgate (air)”. Syracuse was the bigger stronger team but they appeared to be weak in pass defense while Colgate felt that passing the ball would be their biggest strength. Cornell was the only common opponent: Colgate had nipped the Big Red 14-13 while Syracuse had crushed them 34-0.
Oscar Fraley, whose book “The Untouchables” came out that year and inspired both the TV series and movie with the same title, was a sportswriter for UPI by day and an article he wrote on former SU coach Ossie Solem, (apparently in response to national publicity Dr. Eddie Anderson had gotten for being “the Dean of the Nation’s Football Coaches”, which he wasn’t yet and Solem was) appeared in the Tuesday Herald. Fraley quoted Solem: Versatile defenses have made college football a throwback to the game as it was played 50 years ago. The big trend has been toward ball control. The main reason is that the defense has become so versatile and most of the time you’re facing a nine man line. It’s a throwback to 50 years ago because now you throw only enough to maintain the ball.”
Ossie had been the head coach at Drake and Iowa before moving on the Syracuse in 1937, where he coached until 1945. His assistants included Bud Wilkinson and Biggie Munn, who took over for him in 19046 before moving on to Michigan State. Munn took most of his staff with him, (like Doug Marrone – and Dino Babers), including Duffy Daugherty, who took over for him in East Lansing in 1954 while Biggie became AD. Wilkinson was national coach of the year at Oklahoma in 1949. Munn won the same honor in 1953 and Daugherty in 1955. That Michigan State staff produced many other fine coaches, including Bob Devaney, Dan Devine, Bill Yeoman and Frank Kush. Ossie moved on to Springfield in Massachusetts from 1946-57, where he coached Dick McPherson. Quite a coaching “tree”.
“There is something spiritual in Ossie facial serenity and the soft-speaking Solem has had a profound effect on his players. His credo is “leave no regrets on the field” and his players admire his calmness and control.” Indeed, his players didn’t leave anything on the field, including pennies: “They cured me of superstition when I was at Drake University. We weren’t doing too well at Drake in 1921 and were trailing 7-0 in one game when one of the boys found a penny on the field and flipped it to me. The boy said, happily, “Here’s a lucky penny. Watch us go now!” Drake did too, scoring 15 points in the next few minutes to win the game. After that, before every game, the players would ‘find’ a lucky penny for Ossie. They didn’t lose another game that year and the following season went unbeaten. I was kind of relived when we finally lost a game later the following season. My coat pocket was bulging with lucky pennies the kids had found and they were getting to be quite a nuisance!”
Despite the loss to Holy Cross, bowl talk hadn’t completely dissipated. Syracuse was reported to be one of 12 schools in contention for the December 28 Cigar Bowl in Tampa: “Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Houston, Virginia Military, West Virginia, Syracuse, Boston College, Penn State, Louisiana State, Miami Florida and Florida State”. It was said all the listed schools had been contacted but nothing was said about how responsive they were. The Cigar Bowl had been created right after the war as a small college bowl game and was last held in 1954. A committee was trying to revive it as a major college bowl game. Unfortunately they failed for lack of an appropriate venue, (per Wikipedia), and there was no Cigar Bowl in 1957.
Wednesdays’ Herald had a picture of “Hamilton’s Hall of Famers”, former Colgate coaches Andy Kerr and Buck O’Neill, (the latter also a former Syracuse coach), discussing the game. Another shot below them, current head coach Fred Rice points to a display of autographed football commemorating every Colgate victory over Syracuse in football. There are 31 of them. (There still are.) To the right of the page is another photo, entitled “Red Raider Rogue’s Gallery”. It was a bulletin board in the Colgate locker room with pictures of the top Syracuse players “so that the Raiders can become acquainted with them.” After the previous year’s 61-7 drubbing, virtually no on the Colgate campus felt they could win against Syracuse – except the players, who stared at those pictures each day.
Rice: “We are not changing anything in particular for our plans this week. The boys know we have to be ready for a job. We’re healthier than at any time all season but must take the risk of contact work. In our chalk talk, every boy has been unusually attentive and we got more out of our drill in the gymnasium than in most outdoor sessions all season.” The Post Standard said “He conceded Syracuse a large edge in man power and a hefty weight advantage in the line, offering only that the Raiders would have to show “a lot of heart, ability to make the breaks work for us and persistence to keep Syracuse from getting the breaks” He said that he felt “Syracuse has still not reached its potential and scouting reports from the Pittsburgh game indicate that that potential is awesome.”
Former quarterback and now assistant coach Guy Martin: “We know Syracuse will score. It’s up to us to find a way to move that ball ourselves.“ A Colgate student told the paper: “I’m a student here and I think we have a chance to win because our football players feel they have a chance. Why, I was with one of them who was in Syracuse Monday night. We went up on campus and all we heard was how the Syracuse players felt they couldn’t lose. That made my Buddy feel great for he says our team has a chance and I’m with him.”
Buck O’Neill was not. He told Bud Vander Meer that “it will take a miracle for Colgate to win. Syracuse has a darn good coach and I’m afraid they might make it a one-sided game again this year, for they are tough.” He was optimistic about Colgate’s future, though, due to their undefeated freshman, team, which included a couple of players from Manlius, (I assume he meant the Manlius Military Academy, which was noted for producing athletic talent.) Andy Kerr declared “A fighting team always has a chance”.
A committee of Ohio State faculty member reported to the Big Ten that “Collegiate Amateurism can’t work…the concept of amateurism has changed because of social and economic developments. Skill in any form is marketable in our society. We should realize that it is no longer shameful not to be an amateur and that a college athlete can be a gentleman and scholar and at the same time receive aid because of his athletic activity. Colleges are only pretending when we try to claim that college athletics are strictly amateur when actually many of them are not. …To labor through a maze of hypocritical statements, tongue-in-cheek cynicism and an occasional instance of outright deception is far more destructive to the welfare of the student than to admit freely that amateurism is no longer a workable concept college athletics.” The committee recommended “a workable plan for financial aid to students and the abolition of job programs for athletes.” We are still arguing about the same things.
Arnie Burdick put out the annual column citing the history of upsets in the series. He pointed out that the last three games Syracuse played resulted in upsets. Syracuse was favored to beat Penn State and Holy Cross but not Pittsburgh. “Colgate could win but it’s not likely, unless the Red Raider passers have a field day, taking advantage of a rather weak Syracuse aerial defense. The overhead route has been about the only way that the Orange has yielded yardage this fall but it doesn’t seem possible that if stronger elevens, such as Pitt and Penn state, couldn’t run on the Hillmen too much, that Colgate could do a lot of damage on the ground. …In fact, it says were that Syracuse’s passing figures tomorrow will surpass the Colgates, for the Orange has got its best aerial attack since 1953, when Pat Stark punctured the Raider anti-aircraft equipment.” Syracuse had passed for 880 yards to Colgates 807 and Syracuse had faced better competition.
“Syracuse vs. Colgate has always been a fan’s game…Sometimes fans get a little too serious about the action on the gridiron and forget the purpose or reason for getting together which is to have a good time – see some old friends….The crowd helps make the game, too. It’s always a spirited and colorful and festive and gay crowd….It’s hard to sit in Archbold Stadium tomorrow, no matter how much of a football technician you are, without some of the genuine excitement and enthusiasm rubbing off on you.”
37,000 fans were expected to produce a gate of $115,000.” That’s an average ticket price of $3.11. Syracuse was a 16 point favorite. “At halftime the Colgate-Syracuse keg ceremony will be held. The keg goes to the school recording the most wins in varsity sports during the past school year.” The Herald on Friday had a shot Colgate students piling wood for a bonfire for their pep rally. The caption was “Orange burns at the stake”. I miss having a genuine rival.
Somebody had composed a poem for the occasion, recalling what happened the previous year:
Please to remember the 17th of November
Of Brown’s thunder and trot…
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
Though us he roared; Six times he scored
Then 7 from placement he got
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
But this is a new season and we’ve got reason
To think that 61 was a lot
Is it any wonder why Brown’s Thunder
Should never be forgot….
Go gather wood like a good Raider should
And make for the Orange a cot
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
Pile it one higher then light the fire
Our guy bill orange will get hot
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
Then, in the game Oh, Lord, let us reign
And give Syracuse a good sweat
Is it any wonder why Brown’s thunder
Should never be forgot…
