THE BUILD-UP
Bill Reddy described the seasoning –ending game at West Virginia: “It’s a game against a strong foe that is itching to reverse recent Orange victories. It’s a game in which Syracuse, going nowhere after the season could ruin the Mountaineer’s Gator Bowl hopes. “ The ECAC grid standings at the bottom of the page showed why we were probably going nowhere after the season. There were only six major college bowl games in 1957 and there were too many contenders from the East: Army and Boston College were 7-1. Navy was 7-1-1, Penn State was 6-2-1 and had beaten Syracuse. The Orange were 5-2-1 and had gone to the Cotton Bowl the year before. The bowls were considered a reward for the teams and the feeling was that, all other things being equal, once a school had had its turn, a school that hadn’t been to a bowl in the longest time should get the chance to go. Also, only one team from the East would typically be selected. We were not the best and it was not our turn. The Lambert Poll for the best team in the East came out and showed Navy at #1, Army #2, the Boston College and Penn State with Syracuse fourth.
West Virginia was not considered an eastern team at the time: they were part of the Southern Conference, which had given birth to the SEC in 1930 and the ACC in 1953. They came into the game at 6-2-1 and had hopes of boing one of the 12 bowl teams. A win over Syracuse would be a nice feather in their cap. Late in the week a national article listing possible bowl teams had Syracuse on a long list of Gator Bowl possibilities but Lew Andreas, the SU AD, said he had received “no formal notification” from them, although he allowed that “the university would look favorably upon a bid if one should be forthcoming”. Another article mentioned Syracuse for the Cigar Bowl in Tampa - which never even took place.
Oscar Fraley, the Chicago sportswriter whose book “The Untouchables” came out this year and would soon be a TV series, listed his own version of the All-American team. There were no Orangemen on the team. What interested me was the sizes of the players: “The line is big, fast and mobile with a 207 pound average while the backs are meaty enough at a 198 pound average to make their own holes if somebody falls down on the job.” It was an era when backs were almost the size of linemen and some, (like Jim Brown) were bigger. Nobody runs their own interference today but they could back then.
The 1957 NCAA Guide says “West Virginia will thunder around the mountains and the Southern Conference if Pappy Lewis, (their coach), gets what he hopes from Whitey Mikanik and a sophomore, Dave Rider. Chuck Howley’s an ornery center and likewise Larry Krutko at fullback.“ Howley became a long-time linebacker for Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys. Street and Smith’s for 1957 said “Over in the Southern Conference, it shapes up into another two-school scrap between champion West Virginia and challenging Virginia tech. Our crystal ball picks the Gobblers to dethrone the Mountaineers despite the fact that the crucial game will be played on West Virginia soil.” West Virginia won that game, 14-0 but both finished behind Virginia Military, who went 9-0-1 that year but played neither the ‘Neers or the Hokies. The SC at that time had 10 teams in it and they played only 6 conference games. None of them got bowl bids.
Mickey Trimarki was the West Virginia quarterback. In 1956, he’s completed 33 passes to his teammates and 16 to the opposition. Chuck Simpson was going to challenge him for the positon. Larry Krutko was a fullback who had averaged 4.7 yards per carry in ’56. Noel Whipkey had topped that with 4.8. “Speedy Ralph Anastasio is the only letterman halfback. Whitey Mikanik, Dave Rider, George Stoffer, and Ray Peterson are other prospects. They had a big line with Tackles Bill Trozzo, Paul Sharkady, Jim Hillen, Dick Giuesman and Jim Pickett all weighed from 222-235. “Coach Lewis ranks guards Chuck Howley, 221 and Joe Nicely, 220, on a par with former Mountaineers Sam Huff and Bruce Bosley who are starring in pro football.”
Syracuse went through moderate drills, trying to avoid practice injuries. Except for center Charley Wink, they were expected to be full strength for the game. Charlie had injured his ankle in the Penn State game. “Gerry” Schwedes had won the right halfback positon. He had “looked reasonably good on defense and hopes to improve his offensive talents”. Jim Anderson became the #2 fullback behind Ed Coffin. Bill Reddy pointed out that SU now had three running backs averaging over 4 yards a carry: Coffin at 4.3, Stephens 4.2 and Schwedes 4.0.
“The Orange continued work on their passing offense which Schwartzwalder feels must be sharp if the Hillmen are going to loosen up the giant Mountaineer line to give the backs running room”. For that purpose, Chuck Zimmerman was once again the starter. Zimmerman to date had completed 45 of 80 passes for 673 yards and 5TDs in eight games. Ed Coffin was the leading rusher with 431 yards in 101 carries. Tom Stephens was the leading pass catcher with 13 for 189 yards. Dick Lasse was named to the All-East team at end. Overall, Syracuse had passed for 957 yards in 8 games, compared to 531 in the same number of games in 1956. They’d thrown for 7TDs with 6 interceptions, the same number they’d had in the previous year when they’d passed the ball 67 times compared to 105 in 1957. Zimmerman had completed 56.25% of his passes, which put him on a pace to set the school record, which was held by Bernie Custis with 52.2%, although Eddie Albright had completed 55.6% in a reserve role. Chuck was ahead of both of them going into the final game.
Despite the demotion, Kuczala was named one of the three captains for his final game, along with fellow seniors Mike Bill and Chuck Strid. That’s one more game captain than the team usually had and the Post Standard joked that Schwartzwalder was “hoping to out-man the West Virginians from the outset.”
“Syracuse has gotten fine punting this year from Tom Stephens and Ernie Jackson, who are averaging 35 and 33 yards per try from the line of scrimmage.” There were no specialists back then- and no Domes.
“One of Floyd (Ben) Schwartzwalder’s favorite football axioms is that you have to get the ball away from the other fellow in order to have any chance to win. In other words, defense is all-important. Yesterday, when the Syracuse gridders got in their first full-fledged workout of the week, drilling on Hendrick’s Field and in Archbold Stadium, the Hill grid coach spent plenty of time making the theory clear to his charges.”
“Defensively the Orange will again have to cope with a strong passing attack and speedy backs. Against Wake Forest Dick Longfellow, second string quarterback, threw three touchdown passes….The Mountaineers like to run the flanks on the ride series and will give the Orange ends plenty of action throughout the afternoon. They like to get their quick backs into the open where they can utilize their speed. Larry Krutko, a 6-1 210 pound fullback, given gives the West Virginians plenty of power up the middle. The line which is big and agile kicks out well on both offense and defense”. Longfellow was named Southern Conference back of the week. He completed 9 of 13 passes, three for touchdowns of 60, 20 and 7 yards.
Art “Pappy” Lewis told Bill Reddy “This year’s team is about the same as last year, or maybe a little better, because we’re getting more out of our halfbacks this year.” Ben Schwartzwalder told Reddy, “I hope we can change our pattern. So far we haven’t been able to put two good games together. We’ll need to do it this week, because if West Virginia is ‘up’ and we’re not the result could be bad…We’ve got to go all out in this one. This is a real good West Virginia team, an outfit that has won 6 of its last 7 games. They are going to be tough to move the ball on and I know we’ll have trouble stopping them.”
On Tuesday the news came down that Chuck Howley, who had fractured his jaw in practice before the Penn State game, would not be ready to play against Syracuse. Ben Schwartzwalder was shocked: “Gosh, he’s a great one. What a linebacker – quick, agile…he’s a true All-American.” But Rocky Pirro said “They’ve still got plenty of them. Their line is awfully big and they have good action, too. And they are real hitters. “ Schwartzwalder: “There’s going to be real tough. They have plenty of size and so many backs that you have trouble keeping track of them.“ The Post noted that Pappy Lewis had used three left halfbacks and went “at least two deep in the other three backfield spots. Six Mounties have logged 200 or more yards rushing this year.” Syracuse had only two such players, Ed Coffin and Tom Stephens.
The three West Virginia left halfs were Whitey Mikanik, Bill McGuire and “soph speedster” Ray Peterson, who was averaging 6.6 yards per carry. Against Wake Forest, he ran 44 yards for one score and caught a pass from 60 yards out for another. Of course Mikanik wasn’t doing so badly himself at 6.0 while McClures was ‘only’ 4.5. Pirro said that Peterson and McClure had as much speed as they’d seen from an opposing halfback all season. 6-1, 210 Fullback Larry Krutko was averaging 4.0 and his back-up Larry Shamblin was averaging 4.1. Noel Whipkey was third string. Ralph Anastasio, a “165 pound swifty” was the right half and the punter, backed up by sophomore Dave Rider. Both were averaging 5.6 yards per carry. Mickey Timarki, the starting quarterback, had missed three games with injury but 5-9 Dick Longfellow filled in and led the team to a victory each time. “Longfellow is a junior, a tobacco-chewing family man who works 25 hours a week in a filling station to support his wife and two children. Smaller and faster than Trimarki, he will run with the ball more frequently. On the split T option play, Longfellow cuts like a halfback. Trimarki, the experienced senior, is always a threat for a touchdown. He can throw the long ball from 30 to 50 yards. Interceptions have given him trouble at times but his completion rate is over 50%. “
“Forgetting himself for a moment in training camp, Coach Art Lewis admitted that West Virginia had two strong lines…week in and week out the linemen have done a pretty fair job….Even Chuck Howley’s absence for the last month of the season has not been an irreparable loss. Howley is merely the Mountaineer’s most valuable player, a guard that one enemy scout described as the best he’d ever seen. There is hope his fractured jaw will mend in time for the East-West game but no chance at all that he will play against Syracuse this weekend. In Bob Guenther and Joe Nicely, (Nicely?), Lewis still has two exceptional guards.”
Rider and Peterson were shown in Thursday’s Herald in large practice field shots, both with balls in their hands, advancing toward the camera with big smiles on their faces, apparently highly optimistic regarding their chances of reaching the goal line against the Orange.
An odd note: Bill Reddy noted that the secret behind Notre Dame’s upset of Oklahoma to break their 47 game winning streak may have been scouting. The Big Eight had a rule that opposing conference teams could be scouted only once by one coach and there would be no exchange of game films. But the rule did not apply to Notre Dame, who scouted all their games. Of course, I don’t know how much scouting was needed to determine how good Oklahoma was in those days.
Ben Schwartzwalder was named to the 1957 Sports Illustrated 25th anniversary All-America team, which focuses on player’s achievements after their college playing careers ended:
1932-57 MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
He’s listed second to last, about 4/5 of the way down the scroll.
“West Virginia FLOYD SCHWARTZWALDER Head football coach, Syracuse University Floyd Schwartzwalder learned his football playing center, a commonly unsung position, in the University of West Virginia line. As a football coach since then (his won-and-lost record: 67-33), Schwartzwalder has taught the lineman's virtue of being a "hard-nosed" team player. Coach Schwartzwalder has taken only one recess from football since college days; that was in World War II, when he signed up with the Army paratroopers, jumped into Normandy at the head of his company on D-day, ignored a flak wound in the arm, reached his objective. Later he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, parachuted across the Rhine, and received the Silver Star from the hand of General Matt Ridgway; also the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, a unit citation and four battle stars. Says Old Lineman Schwartzwalder: "I was just one of the boys, and lucky that nothing big hit me."
His alma mater was favored by 4 over his present team. 30,000 Mountaineer fans would be there to greet him. But Arnie Burdick warned: “Enthusiasm for Syracuse football dwindles after its traditional clash with Colgate, which took place last weekend so tomorrow’s skirmish with the deeper, larger and mentally sharper West Virginia is strictly and anti-climax.” It was hoped that slim chances at a bowl would motivate the Orange. “Coach Ben Schwartzwalder…is hoping that something will happen to pep up his Orangemen tomorrow.” Syracuse “hadn’t yet been able to put two games back-to-back” but was undefeated on the road and West Virginia was undefeated at home . Something had to give.
