THE BUILD-UP
Syracuse and Cornell picked up their series for a couple more years in 1957-58 before finally giving up the ghost. The Big Red had actually won the last previous game in the series, in 1954, 6-14. But these next two contests would not go well for them, which, (along with the athletic retrenchment of the ivy League), is why there have been none since. Cornell had stumbled through a 1-8 season in 1956, the worst record they’d ever had. After losing their 1957 opener to Colgate, 13-14, they’d matched their victory total frrm the previous season with a 20-6 romp over a bad Harvard team.
They’d been moving the ball, averaging 328 yards a game, compared to 290 for Syracuse. “The attacking style is the same as last year’s , except James is a little more lavish in his use of flankers and is splitting the line more. It gives a slot-T effect, used so effectively by the pros.” Coach James admitted “Cornell outmanned Harvard” but his scouts “reported the Red wouldn’t have a personnel advantage this time”. He “expressed pleasure with his experiment of using two units alternately. He said he would go it further and get a few other players ready for spot relief jobs on the units.” Apparently, they’d had a depth problem in 1956. Some of their players must have been playing 60 minutes.
James’ big weapon was speedy halfback Irvin “Bo” Roberson, a track star who would get the silver medal in the long jump at the Rome Olympics of 1960, then go on to a career with the Buffalo Bills. Per Wikipedia, “Bo Roberson is the only person to have an Ivy League degree, a Ph.D., an Olympic medal and a career in the N..L.” He’d been hampered by leg injuries in 1957, per Sports Illustrated, but was averaging 4.7 yards a carry through two games. SI reported that “Cornell has a wealth of other fine backs such as Bob Aniff, Terry Wilson, Bob Hazzard, and Tom Skypeck, who would be their new quarterback and had “great potential”. Emil Bolha, “who handles the ball well and can run the options which supplement James’ T attack”, was the back-up. Phil Taylor, per Street & Smiths, “is the sophomore with the best credentials. He’s big, strong and may wind up at fullback, where more power is needed.” Taylor averaged 4 yards a carry against Harvard. Another sophomore, Les Tilly, averaged 5.4.
Five starters were back in the line “but James may pass over some of them in favor of promising sophomores. The line was Cornell’s big weakness last year.” Gerry Knapp was “the fastest end in the ivy League”. The other end was Dick Eales.
For Syracuse the halfback battle continued. Tom Stephens was healthy now and appeared ready to reclaim the left halfback spot. Dean DeAngelis was pressing Dan Fogarty at right half and Ernie Jackson’s big interception indicated he was ready for more playing time. “The settling of this halfback issue is expected to help settle the Orange squad: until now, the Hill forces have played ‘scattered football’…that is, some good plays and some poor ones and a full game of top-flight ball will be needed if the orange is to register its tenth victory over the speedy red.” The Herald reported that Cornell’s speed, “Enables them to hit all holes quickly and with punch…(the fast backs) should deliver some TNT to the Cornell Flanker-T offense that may burst through and around the Orange line for quick long-gainers.”
There was concern over Syracuse’s skimpy ground game”, which was averaging only 170 yards a game. Ed Coffin, the leading rusher, had gained 92 yards in 25 carries, a 3.7 average. Chuck Zimmerman had completed 12 of 21 passes for 217 yards and been intercepted once. He had yet to throw a touchdown pass: all of Syracuse’s offensive scores had come on short runs.
Arnie Burdick did a column on the history of the SU- Cornell series, stressing how the schools had helped evolve the passing game since the modern series began in 1933, (the schools didn’t play between 1901-32 due to a dispute). “Gloomy Gil Dobie dusted off the ancient “sleeper” pass to produce the very first touchdown in the modern series…and ended that day when a Syracuse end, Walt ‘Twin’ Singer happily clutched the pigskin to his bosom in the Red end zone after gathering in an Orange pass. This catch won the game, 14-7 for Syracuse….The shadow of Wilmeth Sidat-Singh haunted the Cayugans for years after he performed the unbelievable in 1938, passing for three touchdowns in the last eight minutes of play to pin a 19-17 defeat on one of Carl Snavely’s better machines. …there was the pin-point control artistry of a Hal McCullough that enable the Big Red to out-class a good Syracuse eleven in 1940, 33-6…And the left-handed Ken Stofer lofted a long strike to Ray Jenkins the next year to set up Cornell’s lone scoring opportunity, which they cashed for a 6-0 triumph, as Ossie Solem’s reversed center offense huffed and puffed up and down the gridiron without denting pay dirt….An interception of a Cornell aerial helped forge a Syracuse upset for Biggie Munn in 1946 as Joe Watt plucked off a Red toss and scampered 80 yards….Pete Dorest and Rocky Calvo were crack Red passers n the games that followed…But perhaps, nobody in this heated series, including the great Singh, ever had a better day pitching than did Syracuse’s Pat Stark in 1953. On a field covered with snow, Stark controlled the football as if it were a yo-yo, tossing it as if it were on a string from one receiver, then another.”
Arnie’s summary reminded me that Syracuse football once had wonderful rivalries with its upstate New York neighbors. We went on to bigger things, but something special was lost that we’ve never quite regained.
Arnie felt that this year’s game would not continue the legacy of the forward pass in Syracuse-Cornell games. A Cornell coach told him “In going this year for our five touchdowns, we’ve pretty stayed pretty much on the ground grinding it out. We’ve driven better than 60 yards for each of those scores and there were no big gains, in spite of our terrific speed. We use the pass sparingly this year from our new offense- the slot T- and this new offense hasn’t been stopped yet. Our backs averaged better than four yards per carry last week against Harvard.” Arnie noted that Boston U. had held Syracuse to 100 yards rushing and predicted “This is a low that will make Schwartzie and his coaches work overtime this week in an effort to improve the Orange ground game. For the Syracuse elevens of recent years have enjoyed their greatest success by controlling the ball via a strong ground attack.”
Lefty James explained the “Slot T” to Bill Reddy: “The end is split out from the tackle and the wingback is set up in that final slot. He varies this with the basic T. And of course, when he uses a flanker from the basic T the wingback is stationed outside the end.” It sounds like the modern H back, except that there’s no wide-out on the other side. James was concerned about Syracuse’s line, which he said out-weighed his by 20-25 pounds per man. Cornell’s line averaged a respectable, (for the time) 195 pounds per man. James also downplayed his backfield, saying that “other than Roberson, they aren’t that fast”. But the game clearly was Cornell’s speed vs. Syracuse’s size and strength. James had won 4 of 6 from Schwartzwalder’s team, including the last game, 6-14 in 1954.
Wednesday’s Post Standard had an article about Bo Roberson, showing him wearing the Macgregor Helmets Cornell was using in those days:
http://www.helmethut.com/Dr.Ken5.html
The idea was to put external foam padding over the top of the helmet encased in synthetic leather to reduce the impact of head-on hits. What they found was they also increased the duration of contact, which resulted in more spinal injuries, so the experiment was abandoned after a few years and they went back to the round plastic Riddell Helmets, which limit the duration of contact. Bud Poliquin has also pointed out that studies show the problem with concussions isn’t what happened outside the head: it’s what happened inside of it- the brain would move back and forth within the skull. Bud says you’d have to pad the interior of the skull to combat that. It makes me wonder if the SU coaching staff is aware of this history when I see them wearing “guardian caps”:
http://www.syracuse.com/orangefootb...the_syracuse_football_helmets_seen_durin.html
Ben Schwartzwalder: “We’ll probably have quite a time stopping Mr. Roberson. He’ll be the fastest thing we’ve seen to date.“ He pointed out how difficult it had been to contain Paul Cancro of Boston U., and Roberson was clearly faster. Scout Les Dye marveled “He went four different directions on four consecutive steps on a play against Harvard.” He was also a passing threat as he proved in throwing for a TD vs. Colgate.
Cornell, meanwhile was “testing their aerial defenses” in practice, in anticipation of a Chuck Zimmerman aerial assault. Lefty James was also reshuffling his line in an attempt to deal with the more powerful Orange front wall.
Meanwhile, still another proposal for an Eastern football conference came from Boston College: how about Boston College, Boston University, Holy Cross, (a cozy group), along with Syracuse, Colgate, Penn State, Villanova and Pittsburgh. Bill Reddy was surprised that West Virginia wasn’t included, because they were “supposedly interested in joining such an organization….that many of the teams in this are moving toward semi-official status for such a league may be seen from examining future schedules.” He pointed out that BC was on Syracuse’s 1958 schedule, along with Pitt, Colgate, Holy Cross, Boston U., Penn State and West Virginia. “The ‘independent’ league probably will come eventually. The biggest stumbling block to a formal organization, I understand, is the reluctance of Pitt to give up most of its current intersectional rivalries in order to settle down to football in the northeast.”
It still bugs me that today we have no league that represents northeastern football and that the schools that should be doing it have scattered, attaching themselves to conferences representing other parts of the country in hopes of bigger paydays- when the northeast is still the most populous section of the country. The so-called “Northeast Megalopolis” from Boston to Washington contains about 50 million people and that doesn’t include Pittsburgh or West Virginia. I would love to have seen a league formed at that time of Boston College, Syracuse, Army, Navy, Penn State, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Notre Dame. There are some great natural rivalries there. Other schools such as Virginia Tech, Connecticut, Rutgers, Temple, Cincinnati or Louisville could have been added later to bring it up to 12. I think a league like that might still be in existence today, with much greater natural rivalries than the ones we are trying to create now.
Thursday’s Herald had an article on Cornell’s “secret weapon” Ted Thoren, who had scouted the Orange in 1954 and was credited for intelligence that allowed the Big Red to pull off the 6-14 upset in Syracuse that year, so much so that the team gave him the game ball. Lefty James had Ted sniffing around the Orange again in 1957 and this time the game was at Schoellkopf. They would need such information as their leading ground-gainer, Gary Knapp, had suffered a shoulder injury and was not expected to start. Cornell had lost their last five home games, not pleasing the home fans since October 29, 1955, when they’d beaten Columbia.
Big tackle Ron Luciano spent the night in the infirmary with some kind of virus and was seen just watching practice the next day. Trainer Julie Reichel reported that several other Orangemen were “under the weather” but all were expected to be available come game time. Cornell also had five guys who missed one practice or another. They were not the only teams under the weather: Notre Dame was reporting 6 players were sick prior to their game with Army, (which they would win anyway, 23-21). Meanwhile 5 of the 8 games in the County High School league were postponed because of the flu. Baldwinsville actually closed down the school for a time.
The weather they were under was sunny and warm and under that weather the SU team was working feverishly on their offense. Ben settled on Tom Stephen and Dan “Chuck” Fogarty as the halfback spots, which had produced only 118 yards rushing between them in the first two games. But Ernie Jackson was expected to see some time, too. Ed Coffin was the fullback and Chuck Zimmerman the quarterback. In the line, if Ron Luciano couldn’t go, Ben was going to give a 214 pound sophomore named Roger Davis a shot.
A crowd of 30,000 fans was, (optimistically), expected. Syracuse was a one-touchdown favorite. Saturday morning’s paper had a headline “Big Red Guns for Upset”. Next to it was a picture of Ed Coffin helmetless in practice, holding a football to his belly with a caption describing him as “SU’s crushing fullback”. Opposite it was a helmeted Tom Skypack, leaping and throwing. For some reason, all of Cornell’s player portraits in this era have a black background. They must have made the pictures indoors, rather than on the practice field.
Bill Reddy took the “you never know what will happen in a game in this series” route, saying that “trying to call it in advance is a job for a fortune teller.”…This one should be one of the finest games in the long series and it can be a “make or break” game for either side.”
