Who Knew the HooDoo? (1935) | Syracusefan.com

Who Knew the HooDoo? (1935)

SWC75

Bored Historian
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
34,480
Like
67,095
1935

A Professor Crafter of the SU economics department, having witnessed the previous year’s riot, felt it was time to end the series with Colgate. “It would really be wisdom on the part of the authorities concerned to forgo for at least a year or two this so-called annual classic.” At the very least, he suggested no attempt be made to “defend” the goalposts, which he felt was the immediate cause of the riot. “They are only pieces of wood and not of as much significance certainly as the lives of our young students who are now crippled in the hospitals as a result of the riot.” He also decried the gambling and partying that took place in downtown hotels. “It has developed into nothing more than a low-down, drunken orgy, demoralizing the students of both institutions.” Crafter hopefully suggested “We do believe that Syracuse can place on its schedule a team that will bring in a fair amount of gate receipts and also enable us to avoid the many disgraceful features such as were exhibited yesterday evening and last night.”

But that was the problem. No game was the money maker for SU that Colgate was. The school made a profit of $40,000 from playing Colgate. They made $12,000 playing Columbia, $6,000 playing Cornell, $1,000 playing Penn State and nothing playing anyone else. The Colgate game was here to stay. Someone made a constructive suggestion: why not have a ceremony after the game awarding the goal posts to the winning team? The idea was accepted. In addition, a building was made available on the SU Campus to be “Colgate Headquarters” instead of one of the downtown hotels and it was arranged to have celebrations and rallies in Hamilton both before and after the game. There would be no parade of Colgate fans to the stadium. A steel barrier was erected around the Colgate section. Colgate students pledged to simply sing their alma mater after the game and leave the stadium within 5 minutes. Meanwhile the Syracuse police force was arranging to make themselves very visible in the hours before, during and after the game. There would be no riot this year.

Syracuse’s 1935 team was not the equal of the 1934 team. They lacked speed, and a passing game. But the end results were similar. They beat Cornell by 7 points instead of 13. They beat Brown by 19 instead of 33. They beat Penn State by 4 instead of 16. But they won. For the third time in five years, they were undefeated going into the Colgate game. Again there was talk of going undefeated and making it to the Rose Bowl. A couple of rival bowl games, the Orange Bowl in Miami and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, were now in business and the prospect of post season play was certainly there, if Chancellor Flint would allow it. And, if they could beat Colgate.

Meanwhile the Red Raiders had a setback when their “Will of the Wisp”, Marty McDonough, broke his leg. There were rumors he might be back for the Syracuse game but it never happened. Instead, he was replaced by a swift sophomore named Whit Jaeger. Still, the Maroon struggled, losing a then uncharacteristic three games. All three were close but Iowa, Holy Cross and Tulane had all triumphed, the last two in the two weeks before the Syracuse game. At long last, it seemed, Syracuse had the better team. In previous years, Colgate had a record as good or better than Syracuse’s but now they were going to be underdogs. Except the bookies didn’t buy it. They still made Colgate a slight favorite.

They may have been looking at the overall talent and depth on the Syracuse team, which was not that exceptional. Essentially, Syracuse was a one man team in 1935. That man was Vannie Albanese, a strong, handsome kid from Manlius, New York who was arguably Syracuse’s best football player between his coach, Vic Hanson and Jim Brown. He was the team’s best runner, passer and place kicker. He was a good punter but SU had a better one. He returned all the kicks. He rushed for over 100 yards in every game prior to the Colgate game and averaged over 200 yards including passes and kick returns, He scored all of SU’s points in three different games.

There was a full page of pictures of nothing but Vannie Albanese. “Noted for his line bucking and his fast cuts on the gridiron. But Syracuse University teachers point to him with almost as much pride as the football coaches. In his studies he hits the books and doesn’t cut his classes. He is well out in front in honor points and his coaches never have to worry about his eligibility. The pictures showed him at practice, studying, greeting SU fans and showing “the touchdown smile.” SU had come a long way from “Dink” Tisdale. Another new innovation was the Heisman Trophy, given out by the Downtown Athletic Club of New York for the first time that season. One of the pictures had Albanese straight-arming a phantom opponent, not unlike the statute that was being created for the first recipient.

Vannie’s most famous performance came against Penn State, where he, (it is often reported), carried the ball an incredible 19 straight times in one drive. Actually, it was “only” 18 of 19. Incredibly, Syracuse didn’t score on that drive. Vannie was stopped on fourth down at the Penn State four. The Nittany Lions were clinging to a 0-3 lead late in the fourth quarter when, according to Skiddy, “Mercury reappeared in Syracuse University’s Temple of Football atop Piety Hill yesterday afternoon, caught a bolt of lightening hurled by Jupiter in the closing minutes and sped across Penn State’s goal line for the only touchdown of the most thrilling game seen in that ancient edifice in years. Mercury wore the tog of Vannie Albanese whose iron legs and heart of Damascus steel won the adulation of 12,500 frenzied rooters as he flew by the valiant Nittany secondary and gave the undefeated Orange a 7-3 decision.”

Albanese caught a “pop” pass just over the line form the Penn State 17 with only 90 seconds left in the game and outran everybody to the goal line. He then kicked the extra point. On the first play after the kick-off, the Penn State quarterback threw the ball from his 30 to the SU 40 where it bounced off the hands of his receiver and into the hands of a teammate, who “led two hill backs on a 50 yard sprint for the end zone”. But the play was called back because one offensive player can’t tip the ball to another. Penn State argued that a Syracuse player between the two Penn State receivers had tipped the ball, which would have made a it a legal play. Who was the Syracuse player? Vannie Albanese, who seemed to be everywhere. The refs ruled in SU’s favor and the Orange remained unbeaten.

That was Penn State’s best team in years. They were very confident of knocking off SU. “Three deep at every position, better equipped with manpower than at any other time since he has been head trainer, (coach), Bob Higgins anticipates victory.” But SU owned Penn State in those days. The first game had been a scoreless tie in 1922. Then came four Orange victories in a row. State won 6-9 in 1927, got a 6-6 tie the next year and then a 4-6 win in 1929 and a scoreless tie the next year. But Vic Hanson’s teams had ripped off five more SU wins in a row since then to make the one-sided series tally 9-2-3 in SU’s favor. When you are having trouble beating one team, (Colgate), it’s nice to have a patsy of your own, (Penn State).

Syracuse then went to Baker Field in New York and handled Lou Little’s Columbia team, which went to an eight man line to try to stop Albanese who again ran for over 100 yards and once again scored all of SU’s points in a 14-2 win. After two straight losses to the Lions, beating Columbia was a big deal and the players decided to give their coach a celebratory “ride”. Vic Hanson remembered: “The players put me on their shoulders and carried me off the field. I hit my head on the concrete roof of the runway and went out like a light. They threw a bucket of water on me before the newspaper men could interview me.“ SU at 6-0 was now ready for 4-3 Colgate. The time to end the Hoodoo had come.

“The rather remarkable young men who comprise the Syracuse football team aren’t worried about Colgate or anything else. They’re still enjoying a laugh at the expense of any and all who didn’t take them seriously at the start of the season and they laugh more heartily at those who get serious about them. No team in football history has had a better time out of football than these kids have had. They have never had the jitters and aren’t likely to get them.”

But he warned that suggestions that “SU had a great team had to be withheld until after the Colgate game…Colgate this year is a team of great strength that has been foiled on three occasions. If the team of 1935 can beat Syracuse it will go down in history as a team that had hard luck. If it loses to Syracuse it will simply be a bad team that happened along to bring an end to many years of Colgate success on the gridiron.”

Andy Kerr was famous for his laterals but had tended to play Syracuse straight-up in past games, making them prepare for the unusual so the Orange was then less prepared for a conventional offense. There was talk he’d pull out all the stops in this game. “Kerr is in an ideal spot for radical football…(it) is likely he will uncover the greatest variety of lateral and forward passing plays that Archbold Stadium has ever known, perhaps the most elaborate program of aerial ball advancement ever attempted by a coach in America.”

The Colgate quarterback was a kid named George Vadis, who was nicknamed “Quo”, after a famous novel. “Quo Vadis” is Latin for “Where are you going?” or “What Next?” It was an appropriate reaction to a series of earthquakes that hit Central New York in the days before the game. It was also appropriate to describe the Hoodoo. Skiddy: “For ten years, Syracuse football teams have dragged weary forms off the gridiron after battle with Colgate, unable to boast of a victory. Twice, in 1926 and 1927, they did manage a tie. But not since 1924 has an Orange team won. Can the spell be broken today?”

The game was to be the reunion of the 1915 SU team, who ended a string of 7 winless games against Colgate with a 38-0 victory, the echoes of which still could be heard in the ears of long-time SU fans. (Also on hand would be baseball star Frankie Frisch, manager of the “Gashouse Gang” St. Louis Cardinals and an old friend of Kerr’s who would be sitting on the bench next to him.) A headline in the Sunday paper read “Mighty Orange team of 1915 watches battle.” They all looked pretty glum.

“Colgate’s Red Raiders continue to rule Central New York gridirons. Foes of early season battered Colgate out of contention for national honors but back in their home district, battling on Archbold Stadium field, which they have come to love so well in recent years, the Raiders defeated Syracuse 27-0 Saturday afternoon….It was the team Colgate expected to be when the season started, the team for which Colgate had Rose Bowl dreams in September…The Orange misfortune was that it met Colgate when Colgate was clicking…Syracuse made the mistakes of a green, inexperienced team, just had it had made mistakes in earlier games. All but three of the players were getting their first taste of Colgate fire. The difference Saturday as compared to earlier games was that it couldn’t overcome the mistakes.”

The Red Raiders used the wind to set themselves up on the SU 26 in the first period after a series of punts. Their quarterback, Irwin, pitched to Kern who found a former third stringer named Johnny Ritchko open behind the SU defense. Ritchko, making his first reception of the year, was downed at the SU one. Irwin plunged over from there for the first score, although the point was missed. The paper had an excellent shot of the pass to Ritchko. “Note how clear of interference Kern was as he made the pass and that all 11 Colgate players are shown in the picture, 3 on the ground and 8 on their feet.” The same could not be said of the SU players, who didn’t give Ritchko much interference, either. Colgate had lacked an adequate passing game all year and suddenly they had found a new star.

SU quarterback George Touchton was injured in the early going and was replaced by inexperienced back-up John Jamieson. Colgate pooched the kick-off after their first score and Jamison bobbled the ball with the visitors recovering at the SU 20. On third down from the 22, “Kern threw the prettiest pass old Archbold had ever seen” to Ritchko, who leaped high to get it, then lateralled to Oppenheimer for the score. This time the point was good and it was 0-13.

Whit Jaeger returned a punt to set up a second period score which made it 0-20. His one yard plunge in the fourth period was anti-climatic. After the first two scores, “Syracuse’s spirit was not broken. The team fought on but it was a fight in vain… Syracuse did well to keep the score down to 27 points.” They passed their own 40 yard line only once while being outgained 84-324. Colgate had 17 first downs to SU’s 4, (none in the first half). Syracuse fumbled not only the kick-off after Colgate’s first score but also the first kick off of the second half. They also fumbled a punt.

Vannie Albanese was held to 30 yards on 12 carries. He was “a fine back who didn’t get help from his forwards…Not once in the entire game was a hole opened for him. Usually his own forwards were tossed back into his path and after hurling them he was off balance and brought down with short gains.”

“Colgate’s backs ran faster and farther than Syracuse’s. Colgate’s passers tossed prettier and more effective passes than Syracuse’s passers. Colgate’s punters obtained greater distance….Syracuse bunched up to stop the run and tried to cover Ritchko on pass plays but Kern hit quarterback “Quo” Vadis to set up an Irwin plunge for the third score.“

There was no riot at the end of the game. There weren’t enough Syracuse fans to have one. They never got around to having a ceremony awarding the candy-cane like goal posts to the visitors. Their fans came down and removed them without opposition. There was a problem, however. “Victory fires, ignited by mischievous boys who were allowed to enter the stadium in the last half of the game, threatened to destroy the wooden stands in the north section and several spectators were endangered as a strong breeze whipped the flames.” Fire extinguishers kept in the press box were brought down and proved equal to the emergency.

Few of the threatened spectators were SU fans who had gone home wondering if better results could be obtained from a better coach. Vic Hanson had a splendid record of 32-8-4 against everybody but Colgate. But he was 0-6 against them.

Alas, the Hoodoo continued…
 

Forum statistics

Threads
171,935
Messages
4,983,128
Members
6,021
Latest member
OldeOstrom

Online statistics

Members online
107
Guests online
2,461
Total visitors
2,568


...
Top Bottom