By Bill Giunco – billgiunco@optonline.net
Rabble looks back on Army football yester-year
ArmySports.com
Posted Dec 16, 2004
Bill Giunco, better known as Rabble on the ArmySports.com boards, gives us a look back on yester-year when the Army football team was the best in the nation and the stadium facilities at West Point left a lot to be desired.
My name is RABBLE. Well actually, that is not my real name of course. The name I really use is Bill Giunco. I live in a small seashore town along the New Jersey coast named Manasquan, a name that means from an old Indian name RIVER ON THE ISLAND OF SQUAWS (Algonkin Indians who first settled the area). We are situated about 7 miles south of Asbury Park. Most of you know about Asbury Park especially if you are a Bruce Springsteen fan. Bruce got his musical start in Asbury Park in a little club called The Stone Pony, which still stands today, a block from the Atlantic Ocean. Bruce has never forgotten his roots. Occasionally he will make a surprise visit to The Pony on a busy Saturday evening to entertain the busy summer crowds that flock to the Jersey shore and to The Pony. There he will sing a few songs that made he and the E Street Band so very famous. As an Army fan for over 60 years now, not only of their football program but of all the intercollegiate sports that West Point participates, I have over this period of time collected nearly a thousand Army Football game programs and 25,000 individual newspaper clippings of the Army Football games plus much more memorabilia of academy football down thru the years, media guides, pins, pennants and much more. I guess you could say it has been a lifelong hobby of mine through the years. I have seen many, many, games over this span of time not only at Michie Stadium, but many away games and neutral sites spanning mostly the eastern half of the nation.
I am not a graduate of West Point as some of you might think but just an Army fan ever since my mom and dad took me to an Army game way back many decades ago at Michie Stadium when the Cadets at the time were amongst the very best football teams in the land. I fell in love with the team and have been a dedicated fan and supporter since that very first day when my dad drove me thru South Gate a long time ago and introduced me to West Point and West Point football.
Of course, for many years previous to that, one of my first remembrances of Army football came over our 10-inch RCA television screen during the 1947 football season, which my dad had just purchased a month before the season, began. Those were the days of “snowy” black and white “images” that we described as a television “picture broadcast” and signaled from an antenna fixed on top of the Empire State Building in New York City. Army had their home games televised from Michie that first year over WNBT (National Broadcasting Television, channel 4), Columbia had their games televised on WCBS (channel 2) and Notre Dame had a few games relayed somehow from South Bend, Indiana, on the DUMONT Television Network (channel 5). This was well before the NCAA put their infamous ban on televising college football save for one game a week.
I recall one particular game that season and naturally I would have remembered that one. It was the first one that Army had lost in 4 years since the Navy game in 1943. Yes, most of you will remember that one from the record books—Columbia 21 Army 20.
Previous to that, I recall listening to Army football games (never missed a game) on the radio with commentators such as Bill Stern and Ted Husing calling the Army action. In those days, Army NEVER lost so the experience of actually “seeing” Army lose a football game was very traumatic for me back then even in 1947 when we lost to that Columbia Lions team who was so superbly coached by that “Morningside Heights” immortal, Lou Little. Of course, we had our own immortal coach too on our sideline, Earl Henry “Red” Blaik.
I remember Michie Stadium in those days too. Seating 27,500 fans, I usually sat on the bleacher east stands then as I still do today even though today those bleacher seats sit on solid concrete. I used to lose my program a couple times a season as it would fall through the seats and to the ground where I promptly would scurry around underneath the stands to retrieve anything I happened to drop.
And that old press box. Not the one that was demolished before the present Hoffman Press box, the one before that one. Six open slots surrounded by concrete that I would assume were not too comfortable during a November football game. Howze Field was a practice field south of the Stadium but on game day, it was a parking lot loaded with cars. Can you imagine that being a parking lot today with the present security measures in place?
There was no Holleder Center in those days, no Kimsey, not much of anything. As a matter of fact, Don Holleder for which the Holleder is named, was just an infant then. Just a wooded area surrounded the west side of the Stadium area.
No protection from the elements for any seat in the house back then. No second deck on the west side. Everybody got wet on a rainy day, except maybe the Supe and his small party who I’m sure got a tiny space in the “protected” press box. Small scoreboards on the north and south end zone, manned by cadets holding numbers that would fit into slots indicating the score and downs. Lusk Resevoir, before it was reconfigured seemed to almost touch the Stadium Gates on the NE side. Concession stands were only underneath the concrete stands on the south end zone areas after the tunnels were removed from the 50-yard line to the north side for additional seating. Actually, the original Michie held only 17,000 fans until the temporary stands on the north side of the field were erected bringing the capacity up to 22,000.
The field itself was natural grass in those days but by November, the grass was pretty well chewed up and missing between the hash marks and on a bad day, the players were covered with mud making their black jerseys even blacker. The gold helmets became black by the fourth quarter too.
As I recall, after an afternoon of cold or rain and sometimes snow when the game was over in almost complete darkness (the games did not start until 2 p.m. in those days), before we left for home we would walk down the hill to Smith Rink (now the site of Herbert Alumni Hall) to take in an Army Hockey game where we would get even colder sitting in those seats or we would trudge over to Gillis Field House down by the river to see the Army Basketball team win a game.
Those were the days, maybe taking in a game was a little more difficult to endure and experience than today but back then the final score on that old scoreboard made that experience maybe a little easier to make that four hour trip back home to Manasquan at that time. The two-hour trip today seems longer when we are on the short end on our new electrified scoreboard.
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Oct 24, 2003
Army vs Citadel, 1964 – Army defeated Citadel in 1964
In 1964, Army opened its 75th season of intercollegiate football by hosting The Citadel at Michie Stadium at West Point. It proved to be an easy one for the Cadets as they easily won the game, 34-0.
ARMY SMOTHERS THE CITADEL, 34-0
By Barney Kremenko
The New York World-Telegram and The Sun (now defunct)
GAME AT A GLANCE
APMY (34) The Citadel (0)
13 First Downs 11
315 Yards Rushing 142
62 Yards Passing 63
15 Passes Attempted 22
7 Passes Completed 12
75 Yards Lost, Penalties 5
WEST POINT, N.Y., Sept. 19, 1964 -Army went for the long ball as it opened its 75th football campaign by outclassing The Citadel, 34-0, before 17,500 at Michie Stadium this cloudy and somewhat chilly afternoon. Big slugger for the Kaydets was “Rollie Stichwelh”, their senior quarterback, who reeled off three touchdowns runs of 7, 29 and 94 yards in that order.
The 94-yarder, came early in the fourth quarter, in which the Long Islander, he’s out of Williston Park – first cut to his right, then veered to the left to break into the clear and race home free. This was the only score of the second half after Army had trotted off for the intermission with a 28-0 lead.
Stichweh however wasn’t alone in distance running today. A likely-looking sophomore, “Fred Barofsky” from LaGrange, Ill., opened the fireworks with a 72-yard scamper on the second play from scrimmage to give the Black Knights of the Hudson a quick sendoff. This payoff sprint marked the first time that Barofsky had ever carried the ball in his varsity career which must be termed a pretty good debut.
The fifth and remaining Kaydet score was made by second string quarterback “Curt Cook”, covering a modest three yards to climax a 43-yard drive 11 seconds from halftime. A hint of things to come was given by Stichweh right at the kickoff. He tucked the ball away on his 25 and high-stepped his way the full 75 Yards ahead to cross the enemy goal line.
ARMY STARTS OVER
However, this one was nullified via a clipping penalty, forcing Army to start all over again from its 22. It didn’t matter, though. Two plays later Barofsky, on a reverse over left tackle, made it the rest of the way for his 72-yarder and a 7-0 lead. When less than three minutes later Stichweh returned a Punt for his 73-yarder, “Paul Dietzel”, who was launching his third year as Army coach, decided that was no way to make friends and influence people and used subs literally from thereon.
STICHWEH HIGH
Nevertheless the Kaydets piled on two more touchdowns in the second quarter, the first on Stitchweh’s 29 yard trot to cap a 66-yard push, and the other, via Cook’s three-yard plunge after a 14-yard cook to Barofsky had set it up.
That was it until Stichweh unlimbered from the Army six-yard line and got out of everybody’s reach at 2:40 for the final quarter.
For Stichweh it marked his scoring high, topping his previous best of two touchdowns against Navy last year.
The Citadel had one genuine scoring opportunity. This came midway in the second quarter on a recovered Army fumble only nine yards from the promised land.
Mike Lane, the visitors’ fullback, battered his way two yards through the Army front defense to put the ball on the seven. But that’s as far as the South Carolina military school could get.
CITADEL RETREATS
From then on it was a case of retreat as the West Pointers mace surging through. When The Citadel finally gave up the ball, they had been pushed back to the Army 29.
In first downs, the statistics show the teams close, with Army having no more than a yardage the difference becomes noticeable, with the Black Knights charging 375 yards against 142 for the enemy.
Army tried 15 passes for seven completions and a total of 62 yards gained, but its overhead attack came late and appeared to be nothing more than target practice.
The Citadel, in fact, topped Army in the air with 63 yards, doing it on 12 completions in 22 tries.
Army 14 14 0 6 -34
The Citadel 0 0 0 0 – 0
Army–Barorfsky 72 run (Nickerson kick);
Stichweh 74 punt return (Nickerson kick);
Stichweh 29 run (Nickerson kick);
Cook 3 run ( Hawkins kick);
Stichweh 93 run (kick failed).
The Citadel– 0
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Jun 30, 2003
Army vs Air Force, 1965 – Falcons get first win over Cadets
After the Irish loss on October 9th, 1965, the Cadets on successive weeks beat Rutgers at Michie (23-6), lost to Stanford at Palo Alto (31-14) and were rudely shocked by Colgate in a huge upset at Michie (29-28). The next test was the game in Chicago’s Soldier Field where the embattled Cadets were defeated by the Air Force (14-3) what proved to be the Falcons first win over a rival academy football team, the first of many we could say —
AIR FORCE GAINS FIRST VICTORY OVER SERVICE ACADEMY, BEATING THE CADETS, 14-3
By The United Press International
CHICAGO, Nov. 6, 1965 (UPI) Soldier Field–Paul Stein, running for one touchdown and passing for another, led the Air Force to a 14-3 victory over Army Saturday, its first win ever over another service academy. The 21-year-old senior from Lansing, Mich., personally accounted for 182 yards, bringing his total for the season to 1244 and within range of Terry Isaacson’s school record of 1747 yards for a single season.
Stein rushed for 22 Yards and completed nine of 18 passes for 160 yards.
Stein ran five yards from the shotgun formation after his receivers had spread the Army defense for his first touchdown, It came at the end of an 80-yard drive which required 10 plays, On two Stein completed passes of 25 and 34 yards, the latter to Jim Schultz, who was downed on the Army nine.
The next tally came on a 68-yard march in seven plays. Stein hit three passes during the advance for 11, 28 and finally for 27 yards and the touchdown. The scoring play was called on a fourth and one situation. With the Army line bunched for a line play, Stein faded and threw deep to Carl Janssen in the end zone.
Army ——- 0 0 0 3 — 3
Air Force —– 0 7 0 7 –14
AIR-Stein 5 run (Radtke kick)
ARMY-FG Dull 36
AIR – Janssen 27,pass from Stein (Radtke kick)
Attendance -55,000
STATISTICS
Army Air Force
First Downs ——– 11 11
Rushing Yardage —- 132 127
Passing Yardage —- 34 159
Passes ————- 4-21 9-18
Passes intercepted by 1 1
Punts————— 10-42 8-41
Fumbles lost——– 0 0
Yards Penalized—– 25 65
After the Air Force game, Army returned to Michie to beat an outclassed Wyoming team in the rain, 13-0, which proved to be Coach Paul Dietzel’s last victory as head coach of Army Football. Army sported an unimpressive 4-5-0 record heading into the Navy game two weeks later.
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Jun 19, 2003
Army vs Navy, 1965 – Army and Navy fought to a 7-7 tie in 1965
A throng of over 100,000 packed John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia to watch Army and Navy battle to a 7-7 tie on a late November afternoon in 1965.
COMES THE DAWN
By Bob Stewart
November, 1965
You can’t rob Peter to Paul indefinitely. Peter ultimately calls the cops, or he runs out of money. Paul Dietzel has found that out this season, although the lesson is not a new one for the Army coach. Circumstances constantly force his hand to a degree he never experienced at Louisiana State, where football players grow on trees. At the Point, Dietzel has discovered over his four years that when a player is lost to injury, to the books, or to the stringent discipline rules, there is too often no one of comparable skill on hand to take over.
Dietzel’s flamboyant entrance to Michie Stadium succeeded in getting the entire corps out of uniform at one and the same time. The wild Peter Gunn oriental music ran up and down spines as Dietzel’s greatest publicity stunt, the Chinese Bandits, tried to take up residence at Army. Only the Bandits didn’t, and by season’s end, in the crushing 34-14 defeat administered by Roger Staubach and the Navy, the concept of the Bandits had been abandoned, just as the Cadets had shed their red coolie hats. Only the music remained.
Depth at LSU, and the rules, had made possible the Bandits. The Go-Ho kids were, Dietzel always admitted, his third best unit. He had stressed that his Regulars were the best football players he had, either way. His Go unit comprised the second best offensive men he had. The Bandits, glamorized as they were, were in reality learning their gridiron trade, with stress on defense. Not even the most modern, revamped system of arithmetic could make the number of players come out to less than 33 … and Dietzel soon learned West Point could not offer him 33 full-fledged players.
Thus began adjustment to situations dictated by expediency. In the spring, and in the sultry early September days, Paul would speak of offensive and defensive units. And then, relentlessly, he would find that to even hold the fort, he had to have those men with the greatest natural ability go both on attack, on defense. Meticulous plans had to be junked, and the games began to become one long struggle to keep the strongest and best out there as long as physically possible.
It was that way in 1962, Paul’s first year, and it Is that way today, on the eve of another Army-Navy game. Dietzel tasted that sweetest win of all a year ago, because of Carl Stichweh, his manufactured quarterback, and Sonny Stowers. Stowers was rated by the Middies as a guard as good as Jim Carroll of Notre Dame, the same Carroll who is today one of Allie Sherman’s bright prospects. There is some, but little similarity to the team Dietzel had prepared to meet Tennessee in the opener on Sept. 18. The blue- penciled charts have been cris-crossed with arrows, daggers, red ink.
Three men will try to play both ways in Kennedy Stadium against Navy-Pete Braun, John Carber and the redoubtable Sam Champi, who also was on Navy’s All-Opponent unit team a year ago. Army has become a patch- work quilt, but the overwhelming emotion of this Holy War has made and will continue to make young men play beyond their skills. It is that which Dietzel will have to count upon in great measure.
THE BIG GAME CARRIES AN ODD EDGE
By Sandy Grady
The Philadelphia Story
It is the only circus that charges the clients $8.50 for a whiff of the sawdust. It is The Place To Be, the dressiest discotheque in the East for Main Line dowagers and Locust St. bartenders, pickpockets and plainclothesmen, debutantes wearing Persian lamb stoles and politicians wearing fifty-cent Coronas.
It has to be a pageant to dress up the old S. Broad St. slab of cement. It is a loud lagniappe of hip flasks, hot, dogs, tubas, blimps, mules, and goats, tangled bumpers, drunks, heroes, tears, roars, all ringing a striped pasture painted pretty for the TV sets. Somehow Army-Navy has endured all this pagan ritual for 65 times.
And some years it has a strange edge. This is one of them. It is a low, nagging bass beneath the manic horns in the grandstand, It is what is happening. In Viet Nam, because for the 4,500 Cadets and Midshipmen here it can be the next piece of business more serious than spectacles.
They all think about it, even the actors in the pageant. Sonny Stowers, Army’s best runner, has the telegrams tacked on his wall at West Point. They are the usual “Beat Navy” exhortation, but two are from Joe Ed Schillo and Dick Novak, who played with him last year.
“Like a lot of others, the wires are from Viet Nam,” said Stowers. “Sure, it’s on your mind. It’s what we’re trained for.”
Former Classic Stars in Action
Others have made the trip John Hopkins Navy’s 1955 captain, has flown 117 helicopter missions in three months. Pat Donnelly, the good fullback, is a Seabee officer. The list of ex-Army Players grows: Pete-Dawkins To Blanda, Bill Carpenter, Dick Eckert, Glenn Blumhard, Monk Hilliard, all in Viet Nam And there was Bob Fuellhart. Maybe not all the buffs among the 102,000 will remember the name quickly, although he came three times to Broad St. pageant. He was a lean-jawed, solid kid who grew up at Tionesta, a village in the bear and deer country of Western Pennsylvania. He had been a hurdler and broad jumper at Kiski Prep before going to West Point.
Because of his fine speed, Fuellhart played the “Lonesome End” behind Bill Carpenter his first season at Army, It was ironic. Carpenter an advisor in Viet Nam for 13 months when few people could even find the Mekong Delta on a map, was wounded twice. He is now an instructor at Fort Knox, KY. and wears the Bronze and Silver star.
Fuellhart’s trips to Philadelphia were not cheerful ones. His teams lost three times to Navy. The last one was in 1961, a day memorable because Of John Kennedy’s halftime promenade across a blustery, cold field without a topcoat. Navy took that one, 13-7, although cramped by injuries, was a rangy, bitter figure on defense.
That’s how they later remembered him in Viet Nam. His Vietnamese troops called Fuellhart “The Long One,” and not only because his six-foot height towered over the 100-Pound natives. With a long cigar and the red beret of the 44th Ranger Battalion, Fuellhart was not hard to spot and he astonished the Vietnamese by standing up in battle to direct air strikes.
Large Target, Big Courage
He did it at least twice. Once he climbed out of a water-filled ditch to Point out Viet Cong targets for striking fighters. He was a large target, and Viet Cong fire shattered a banana tree over him showering leaves and debris. “It took a lot of courage ” ,said an American captain who recommended the Bronze Star, “especially for an officer in his first combat.”
On Aug. 12 Fuellhart’s jungle fighting unit ran into strong Viet Cong fire near a hamlet of thatched shacks called Phung Heip. The Viet Cong had armored carriers and an American machine gun, and it was taking a toll.
“Not as much fire at my end,” Fuellhart radioed to Capt. Jerry Devlin. “Maybe we can move in.” “Wait for another air strike”, said Devlin. Fuellhart, standing up in the mud with the radio strapped to his back, was talking to the helicopters as they hit the tree line. He went to his knees, struck by a bullet. He died a n hour before his wife, Jan, home in Tionesta, gave birth to a girl.
It is 8,000 miles and several worlds back to John F. Kennedy Stadium where the pageant happens again tomorrow. The actors in the Army and the Navy suit are kids now, but they may be professionals in a bad year. It adds an edge.
Nothing Won, Nothing Lost in Dull Game
By Tom Sargeant, Staff Writer
PA Times Advertiser (noe defunct)
PHILADELPHIA – It’s been a long year for Army and Navy and yesterday it was a long football game. The two service academies were no more successful with themselves for four quarters than they had been against everyone else. The 66th meeting of the schools was a grim standstill. Navy, which was favored to win, moved the ball for only a total yardage of 140, and Army managed only 2~5 yards with its “shotgun” offense and tight-T. The final score was 7-7, two surprise touchdowns early in the contest, and ended the college football season in the East before the usual 100,000 at John Kennedy Stadium. It was a grand day for the game, matching every fine fall football afternoon this season.
Made Up In Spirit
The game was not a good one for the Cadets or Midshipmen but they made up in spirit what they lacked in inspiration. It was fierce, crashing, gang-tackling on defense by both teams and neither offense went anywhere. There were only seven first downs in the second half, two by penalties, and 12 punts during the last two quarters. There were 19 punts in the game, 10 by Navy.
Whatever kind of standoff the two teams caused, the academies will be glad to accept the outcome. A win in the Army-Navy game is fine but a loss is unthinkable. It can ruin a season. They’ll take the tie. For Sad Bill Elias, whose Navy team finished with a 4-4-2 mark, it could have been worse. Losing would have spoiled his first year at Annapolis.
Paul Dietzel didn’t show much disappointment, either. Amy ended 4-5-1 after a terrible mid-season losing streak. Dietzel has one win over Navy in four tries while Elias, as coach at Virginia a year ago, beat Army.
Charles Stowers, Army halfback, scored the first touchdown of the game in the first quarter on a 25- yard run following a fumble recovery. It was the longest rush from scrimmage in the game and Stowers, the Gray’s leading gainer, had only 45 yards total in 12 tries. His teammate, Fred Barofski, got off a 24- yarder in the same quarter, running out of the shotgun.
That was about it for Army, which rushed for 178 yards total. Navy had 84 yards gained and 68 yards lost in 34 rushing plays. Passing they had 13 completions in 26 attempts with John Cartwright throwing.
So it wasn’t much of a game except for the bugle charge led by Townsend Clarke of Army, who Dietzel calls the best defender he has ever coached. Don Downing was Navy’s best lineman.
Navy scored in the second quarter on a series of successes and failures through the air, finally reaching the end zone on an eight-yard pass from Cartwright to Halfback Terrence Murray, a sophomore promoted from the jayvees. An interception set up the drive.
Last Game For Carber
John Carber of Langhorne, the big Army tackle, played most of the game going both ways in his last game for West Point. He came out only in fourth down kicking situations by Navy.
A former player at Neshaminy High School now weighing 225 pounds, Carber has been in three Army – Navy games but saved his best performance for the last one. He was in on many of the tackles as the Cadets piled up the Midshipmen with only three first downs rushing and 16 total yards on the ground.
Watching his first inter-service game on the Army side was cadet Gary Steele of Levittown, who will be certain to be playing next year.
Steele was the outstanding member of the Plebe team at West Point this season, performing mainly at offensive end. He is expected to move into the starting lineup of the Cadets next year with his exceptional pass catching ability.
Best On Plebe Team
Army fielded its finest frosh team in many years this fall, a 6-1 record losing only to Syracuse, and Steele was the best. The 6-5 former Woodrow Wilson High School football and basketball star spent a year at Manlius Prep in Syracuse before attending Army.
Steele is also playing basketball at the Point this winter. In his first practice he went in for a lay up and dunked the ball in his familiar way.
Coach Bob Knight stood at the sidelines in surprise. “Was that a dunk?” he asked Steele.
“Yes sir.” “Well that’s the last time you make one at West Point,” said Knight. “We don’t play that style here.
Steele, when he joins the Cadets football team this Spring, will become the first Negro athlete to play varsity sports at West Point.
HOMETOWN KID
By Red Smith
The New York Herald tribune (now defunct)
PHILADELPHIA.
Midshipman John Cartwright, an old gentleman of 19 from suburban Sharon Hill, returned to the scenes of his youth yesterday and he was in a tearing hurry. Along with 98,991 others, his folks were in John F. Kennedy Stadium to watch him play quarterback against Army. They had no time to waste.
John’s kid brother, a cadet at Pennsylvania Military College of Chester, Pa., was playing last night in the “Little Army-Navy Game” against King’s Point in Atlantic City’s Convention Hall and the family had to get there, too.
In the first quarter here, it looked, as though the Cartwrights could leave at halftime and not miss a thing. Chances, are son John, a first rate athlete but only a sophomore, had as big a case of buck fever as you’d expect a rookie starting the biggest game he’ll ever play.
Though it was largely because of his skill at running the quarterback option that he took the job away from Bruce (my mother is a sportswriter) Bickel early in the season, Cartwright stowed the Navy deep into the barrel the first time he tried it yesterday.
Starting to his left from his own 31-yard line, he found 6-foot-3 Jim, Schwartz of Army staring intently down his throat and he hastily tipped the ball, backwards with none but Army’s Sam Champi there to receive it.
The Dealer
The phantom flip gave West Point a first down on Navy’s 31, and three plays later the Cadets were haring happily, along on the scent of their 32d victory In 66 football battles with their salty service foes.
Sonny Stowers, a reformed guard playing tailback, got ’em 6 points on a velvety bit of execution, curling around Navy’s left side and running a sweet, unobstructed slant of 25 yards to the end zone. When Andy Dull converted from placement it was 7-0 with less than five minutes gone.
-Army continued to run the show through the first quarter, reaching the Navy 12 on its next advance, but Dull missed a field goal from the 17 and there was no score.
Then the teams changed goals and Cartwright started dealing. Navy had the ball for 28 plays in the second period, compared with nine for Army, and on 19 of them the quarterback passed. Hidiously harrassed by Schwartz and Champi, the Army’s ends, he completed only seven but one was a perfect strike to Terry Murray, halfback, who hid got clear of West Point’s Joel Pigott in the end zone. Felix Bassi’s placekick left it 7 all for the half.
Dealers Choice
Cartwright ran a gaudy game of dealer’s choice before Navy cashed in. On fourth down and two, he risked a fake punt in his own territory and it worked. In the same situation he passed to Al Roodhouse- a halfback, not a tavern -for first down on the Army 31.
An interception by Pigott balked him on that foray, but he came right back gambling when Duncan Ingraham’s 47-yard punt return gave him a start from the Army 27. Champi and Schwartz were still giving him fits, but on fourth and three he passed to Reb Hester, his right end, for a first down on the 7.
Again his plans were cooked by Army’s intractable defense. Three plays lost nine yards, and Bickel came in to hold the ball for a field goal attempt by Chris Hoch. A high snap from center skimmed off Bickel’s paws. Hoch fielded the ball on the bounce but the slavering Champi dragged him to earth at the Army 36 and Cartwright had to start all over again.
This time he made it. One big play on third down was a pass to Murray for a first on the 21. He passed again to Phil Norton on the 8. Two plays later his touchdown shot closed out scoring for the day.
Charley’s Loss
The sixth tie in the Army-Navy series, the first in nine years, struck more than a few flat notes, with the defenses generally dominating play and forcing a dismal total of 19 punts. Even so, It was far better entertainment than a dirty morning of rain and fog had promised.
Shortly before noon the foul weather blew away and where the Corps of Cadets came hup-hupping into the playpen behind the Brigade of Midshipmen, bright sunshine lay like honey on the peopled slopes and dyed green turf. Temperatures in the mid-50s made it a kindly day, even with a brisk west wind.
It wasn’t a bad day for Bill Elias, getting his feet wet as the Navy coach. He is the fourth civilian coach at Annapolis, and none of his predecessors got licked in a debut against Army. Neither did Bill, thanks largely to Cartwright.
More will be heard from that young man, though he has no gift for talking about himself. He’s a shy blond, a trim six-footer good at all games. A three-sport athlete in high school (football, baseball and basketball) he declined a bonus to catch for the Kansas City Athletics. Since then he has switched to the outfield because he feels that a catcher’s snap throw creates habit patterns that are bad for forward passers. It’s tough on Charley Finley, but Paul H. Nitze got a good boy.
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Jun 16, 2003
Bill Carpenter- A Soldier’s Valor – Bill Carpenter won the Silver Star Medal in Vietnam
“I want a man for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player.”- General George C. Marshall, United States Army World War 11. Truer words were never spoken concerning a soldier from our country in another war and another time. That man was one of the finest football ends ever to wear the Black, Gold and the Gray. That man was Bill Carpenter, the original “Lonesome End” of West Point–
A SILVER STAR AFFIRM’S BILL CARPENTER’S VALOR
By United Press International (now defunct)
Tau Morong, South Viet Nam, June 12, 1966 (UPI) -Freshly-shaved and wearing a clean uniform, Capt. William Carpenter received the Silver Star today for his daring in calling down a U.S. napalm attack on his own position when it was being overrun by Communist troops.
He mumbled a shy word of thanks to Gen. William C. Westmoreland, chief of U. S. forces in Viet Nam, who had flown to one of the war’s bloodiest battlefields to decorate the young hero.
Carpenter, 28, West Point football’s first and most famous “lonesome end ” has been recommended also for the Congressional Medal of Honor.
The War-Goes On
Artillery fire boomed throughout the brief ceremony. U.S. big guns were still trying to soften up an estimated two North Viet Namese regiments in the jungle from which Carpenter and his surviving men had emerged.
Westmoreland grinned when Lt. Col. Henry (The Gunfighter) Emerson, of Carpenter’s 101st Airborne, called out, “We’re not through yet.”
“You’re damned right, you’re not,” Westmoreland replied.
Expects Big Offensive
“So far this has been a very successful operation,” Westmoreland said. The tall general, his sleeves rolled up past his elbows and the familiar olive drab fatigue cap shading his eyes from the sun, told newsmen he and his staff had known for some time that the Communists had at least, a regiment in this jungle 300 miles north of Saigon.
The general said he expected major Communist offensive action throughout the country and in the central highlands as the monsoon rains pick up.
Too Old? Not This Sarge
During the ceremony Westmoreland spotted Carpenter’s first sergeant, Master Sgt. Walter J. Sabalauski, 55, of Palm Bay, Fla., still nursing an arm seared by the napalm. The big, gruff sergeant won loud praise from his company for ignoring Communist ire and standing upright in the battlefield to direct his men.
“Sergeant,” said the general, you’re too old for this.”
“No sir” replied Sabalauski. Westmoreland grinned. “Every time I see you, You look tougher and meaner.”
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Jun 12, 2003
Army vs Navy, 1964 – Army wins a defensive battle, 11-8
It’s 1964. It’s the Army-Navy game. It’s Stichweh vs. Staubach. Both seniors. Both the starting quarterbacks. It’s the game they both want to win for it is their last game for their respective schools and they wanted to go out as winners. The last game. The game they will remember forever—
ARMY AIMS TO PUT NIX ON SIXTH NAVY VICTORY
1963 ‘Race With Clock’ Provides Incentive
by Jim Ogle
The New York Telegram (now defunct)
PHILADELPHIA- November, 1964—With bitter memories of last year’s controversial “race with the clock” providing extra incentive, a desperate band of Cadets will attempt to put the Nix on Six and end Navy’s five-game winning streak against Army.
The usual crowd of around 100,000 will be at John F. Kennedy Stadium this afternoon for the 65th Service classic, but no championships or bowl bids on the line today. Perhaps most noteworthy feature of the game is the fact that it marks the final appearance of Roger Staubach, the Navy’s all-time greatest in a Middie uniform.
While the Cadets shout “nix on six” the Middies will have a rallying cry of their own, “even the score in ’64,” to spur them on. It the Navy can win an unprecedented sixth straight today, the long series will be all deadlocked at 30-30-5. Neither team has ever won six in a row.
Army can match-Navy in the glamour boy department since Rollie Stichweh, the Cadet quarterback, has just as impressive credentials as Staubach. Elsewhere, however, Army lacks the firepower of Navy although both clubs have been hit hard by injuries this season. Stichweh is Army’s big hope and he Is determined not to leave the Academy without one Navy scalp.
Paul Dietzel hasn’t beaten Navy in two tries, but it is unlikely that a third straight loss will “get his scalp” as it did his predecessor, Dale Hall. Dietzel expects to be at Army for a long time and ultimately expects to take the upper hand.
Not a single one of the 2700 Cadets now at the Point has ever cheered a victory over Navy, but there is a feeling of confidence on the Plain this week. The team is as high for this game as it has ever been, but must guard against too much emotionalism.
One thing in Army’s favor is the fact that Dietzel will be able to start his regular backfield for a change. Don Parcells, of Oradell, will be at fullback with John Seymour end Johnny Johnson at the other backfield posts with Stichweh. It is the first time all season that the quartet will be operating 100% physically and it could make a difference.
Staubach in contrast, will operate with three sophomores in Danny Wong, Cal Huey and Tom Leiser. It is the first Army game for all three and perhaps inexperience will cause a mistake or two. Wayne Hardin, who has never lost to Army, plans to use Pat Donnelly and Ed Orr strictly on defense but Dietzel will not be surprised to see them offensively.
Army also expects to see Staubach operate from the shot- gun formation quite frequently, but the Cadets have been working on a variety of defenses all week. This is more than a game for Army. It is practically a crusade because of the humiliation of five straight losses.
Neither team has had a successful season, but a victory today will erase all memories of the defeats. Navy Is 3-5-I while Army stands at 3-6 going into the game, but against common opponents the Middies show a big edge. Figures mean nothing, however, when these two teams swing into action against each other and upsets are not rare.
Dietzel, WHO has been plagued by injuries in his Army tenure, not only has had a problem preparing his troops to stop Staubach. He has had an even bigger problem in getting his troops on the move, but the return of the regular backfield could help in this department. The Cadet offense has been weak all season.
Whatever ground Army has gained, Stichweh has done most of it either running or passing. Rollie is the greatest ground gainer in Army history and this year, despite the Cadets’ poor record, he has out-gained every opposing back he has faced this year except against Boston College. In that game Rollie played only 10 minutes due to an injury.
The Middies and Cadets will start marching at noon, then the kick-off comes at 1:30 and Army will be off on its crusade.
In this epic battle of two outstanding quarterbacks, Jesse Abramson of the New York Herald Tribune aptly describes the action where Army denied the Navy from winning 6 straight games against Army’s hard-fighting football team—
ROLLIE STICHWEH’S CADETS MANHANDLE NAVY AND ROGER STAUBACH, 11-8
By Jesse Abramson
of The New York Herald Tribune Staff
1964
PHILADELPHIA, With the whole-souled cooperation of an old-fashioned Army team that disdained platoons and free substitutions, “Rollie’s Redemption” played a smashing one-stand performance before a full house of 100,000 In John F. Kennedy Stadium yesterday.
Army and Carl Roland Stichweh, its indefatigable captain, quarterback, top runner, passer and defender, finally caught up with Roger Staubach and Navy and beat them, solidly, convincingly and as decisively as one can in an 11-8 score.
It was the first time in 30 years that the service game was decided by a field goal. In 1934 Slade Cutter’s placekick was the only score as Navy won.
The grim and resolute underdog Cadets, getting even with tormentor Staubach in his varsity farewell, harrassed, harried and hopped on him first to last. They wrenched a safety from him in the first 53 seconds of the ball game by chasing him 13 yards into the end zone and mobbing him. They dominated the action of the first half for 20 minutes, swiftly marched 54 yards to a touchdown on John Seymour’s two bolting runs and Stichweh’s five-yard pass to Sam Champi; opened the door to Navy’s tying points 25 seconds before halftime on an egregious holding penalty on a Middie punt, then marched 77 yards to set up sophomore Barry Nickerson’s deciding 20-yard field goal in 5:30 of the fourth period.
This bare skeleton of the scoring provides the outline of the important story on the scoreboard but fails to flesh out the tension and drama of the 65th service battle.
Fumble-free in its execution, and great on defense, Army gave Navy ail the chances to win by violations that brought drastic penalties in critical spots. It was a holding penalty on a Navy punt that restored possession to the Midshipmen and enabled them to mount their only sustained drive of the day, their only first-half invasion of Army territory and their only touchdown on sophomore Tom Leiser’s fourth down, one-yard tackle slant.
Staubach was penned and cornered and tackled like he never has been by Army and rarely by others in his three varsity years. He wound up with minus 22 yards on the day, but he was always dangerous passing (completing 12 of 20 for 110 yards) and he made the two-point play with Champi draped around his neck and, other Cadets clawing at him by getting the ball to Phil Norton in the end zone, with Norton making a falling catch. That made It 8-8 at halftime.
OLD ARMY WAY
After Army drove so far to regain its lead, the Cadets stopped Staubach again and forced Navy to punt from midfield. But-big John Carber, Army tackle, trying desperately to block the kick, slammed through Tom Williams to give Navy the ball again for another shot at Army’s 38. It did not seem possible for Army to keep inviting d1saster with one hand and hold it off with another. It was like sitting on a time bomb ready to explode.
But this Army team, and particularly 14 seniors, had ruled out platoons and convinced Paul Dietzel they could win it the old fashioned way by playing offense and defense in this Age of Specialization, They recovered from that rouging-the-kicker situation by smearing Staubach twice for losses of 11 and 13 yards. Five or six Cadets mobbed Roger the Dodger, though it was linebacker Don Dietz, then tackle Bill Zadel who pinned him down and knocked out of his reach any chance of either a winning TD for a tying field goal.
Unlike a year ago when the clock ran out on Army on the 2-yard line with a fourth down coming up, leaving a gallant Stichweh as the goat- holding a huddle and holding the ball- the clock now was Navy’s foe. So was Army, which had to give Navy one more series, but creamed Staubach and Co. at midfield.
SLOGANS’ END
The triumph, Army’s first in the series since Red Blaik said farewell with Pete Dawkins’ unbeaten 1958 team, wrote finis to Navy’s slogans. “Six And Even” just didn’t come off. Navy foundered against Army’s rock-ribbed defenses in its drive for a record sixth straight victory in this series, and it did not pull even with Army in the series, which now stands 31-29-5.
It was the bleakest and grayest of days, but the sun phone bright in the hearts of long-suffering military men everywhere-from generals down to buck privates.
As the clock hands came to zero in the semi-darkness under the inadequate stadium lights, more than half the corps of. 2,700 gray-coated cadets made it from the stands to the field in a whoop and a holler.
They mobbed the cadet heroes, as the cadet heroes had mobbed Staubach, but with joy in their violence. They rode Dietzel, target of so many Wayne Hardin barbs, off the field on their shoulders, and as many of the cadets as they could swing aloft in the subway crush of swaying moving gray-clad bodies.
The cadet who deserved to ride highest was ten-foot-tall Rollie Stichweh, 20~year-old Long Islander from Williston Park. Rollie had the last word in his quarterback duelling with Staubabh, his pal on exchange visits between the academies.
“What,” Navy’s Rip Miller had asked, is the name of the Army quwrterback?”
This was before the Navy game a year ago, and Navy was having a ball. No one had to ask who the Navy quarterback was– a QB who has accounted for 35 Navy touchdowns passing and running, and directed the Middles to eight touchdowns in two successive victories by 34-14 and 21-15.
To carry out the gag, if that’s what It was, the Navy announcer yesterday stumbled over Stichweh’s name, pronouncing it “Stee-witch.”
Stichweh, or Stee-witch, played more than 55 minutes (as did four mates; Zadel and wingback John Johnson -went 60 without relief).
Rollie, who had asked for this job after being a defensive man, as a sophomore, directed all of Army’s attack which, on the ground, crushed Navy, 215 to 31 yards. He ran, 13 times on pass options for 64 yards, second only to John Seymour’s 104, completed three of eight passes for 53 yards and a touchdown and was brilliant in his running and passing in the 77-yard march to the winning field goal. He also punted, a new chore, from shotgun formation, a switch from the quick-kick, and he played safety and ran back kicks and tackled.
PLENTY OF HELP
The sequel was Rollie’s redemption. He had all the help he needed from three senior backs – Seymour, Johnson and Don Parcells- who, through injury never had a chance to play a game together. They had their last chance and didn’t muff it.
Sonny Stowers and Pete Braun, offensive guards and on defense, linebacker and middle guard, respectively, also went more than 55 minutes to star on the valiant Army line with Zadel, Ron Butterfield, Champi, linebacker Townsend Clarke and others.
Army decided to play this game straight all the way, old-fashioned on the field, staid off the field. The Cadets were sedate in the stands- no sight gags, no bedsheets, no banners, no slogans. They merely roared defiance at the Midshipmen, who had all the slogans and jibes until the game started.
ARMY’S PRO BLITZ INTRODUCES ROGER TO STADIUM TURF
By SANDY GRADY
The Philadelphia Bulletin
PHILADELPHIA, If they weren’t so busy, a lot of guys might send tokens of condolence to Roger Staubach today – a get-well card from Y. A. Tittle, a posy of flowers from Ed Brown, a note of sympathy from King Hill.
Roger was initiated yesterday into the I-Spent-The-Day-On-My-Back Quarterback Club.
If he never knows the glories and delights of a professional quarterback, Staubach can always say he has tasted the breed’s miseries and bruises.
Army struck Roger with a raging, pro-style blitz to dominate this dark, glowering day, 11-8. To pro fans among the 102,000 sardines, it looked like Sunday came a day early.
“We had one idea–keep pressure on Roger or he’d kill us,” said Army linebacker Townsend Clarke, who called the defensive tune. “We’d rush once, then cover receivers next, anything to keep him guessing.”
Only a switch by Wayne Hardin foiled Army’s blitz long enough for one 69-yard Navy drive.
Hardin spread three pass catchers on the left side, rattling Army’s poise. “We had to forget the blitz and it shook us up,” said Clarke.
Only Penn State Rushed Harder
Otherwise, Army was hitting Staubach with everything but the Mule and Don Burroughs.
“In my first two Army games, I was dropped twice,” said Staubach ruefully. “I don’t know how many times it happened today. That was the hardest rush I’ve faced except for Penn State.”
When Paul Dietzel came North from the Bayous, he brought a glossy smile, a reputation for defensive genius, and a quiet, middle-aged, man named George Terry.
Maybe all three came in one package- because it was Terry, Paul’s defensive thinker, who laid the ambush for Staubach yesterday.
“Coach Terry set up what we call the 40 defense, something like the pros use,” said Sonny Stowers, the chunky kid who dogged Staubach all day. “We had four men up front, two middle linebackers, two outside men and Clarke would yell, ‘move’ signaling one side to blitz.”
That pro-style stampede put Staubach on his britches for two points before the customers had their flasks out. Clarke, sensing Roger would throw on a first-and 15 situation sent six guys blowing down Roger’s neck. Stowers did everything but rope-and-brand Staubach with an “A” for a 2-0 lead.
Mistaken Signal on Quick-Kick
“I couldn’t miss him,” said Stowers, who played 55 minutes despite leg cramps. “I just hit him at the belt buckle and held tight.” Dietzel was so impressed with his blitzing marvels he seemed to be sitting miserly on his 2-0 cushion-he quick- kicked twice on early downs.
“No, the second one was a mistake- Rollie Stichweh heard me yell a play and thought I meant kick,” said Dietzel. “Staubach is the hardest man to defense I’ve ever seen. I didn’t want to give him the ball.”
For a few, Middie- maddening minutes, Dietzel, seemed right about Staubach.
Army had an 8-0 lead, thanks to two devastating scissors plays by John Seymour and a rollout pass by Stichweh.
Then Roger cranked up a 19-play drive, smashing the middle with the gimpy Pat Donnelly, and throwing a circus two-point pass to Phil Norton. “Everybody had his arms around Staubach on that play but me,” said Dietzel. “How did he get it off?”
Nervous Nickerson Decides It
Now enter the game’s unsung hero, the Nostradamus of JFK Stadium, the best horse handicapper in captivity. He is Dietzel’s young assistant, Bill Rowe, a center on the ’59 team. As Army left its concrete boudoir for the last half, knotted 8-8, he put an arm around Barry Nickerson.
“Keep your head up, Barry,” he said to the Miami kid who had flubbed Army’s extra-point ‘try. “You’re going to kick one to win the game.”
It was a great feat of precognition with the sky turning coal-bin dark and 9 and 1/2 minutes left, Nickerson hit a 20-yard field goal to break Hardin’s five-year hypnosis of Army. “I had told the guys I’d kick one,” said Nickerson, who had beaten Iowa State the same way. “But sir, I have never been so nervous in my life.”
Staubach still had some bullets to fire. But too often he was shooting toward the gray, jagged clouds, with Army rushers doing handstands atop him.
On the last series of his college life, the unhappy dodger lost 10, then 13 yards, and when the Army cannon boomed the final play, Roger was buried like a turnip under soldier flesh.
“We came here,” said Dietzel, who was spouting a platitude a minute, “to finish what we started last year.”
Happy Day for Cadet Ray
But the happiest kid in the Army chambers was an unknown sophomore, David Ray. When the West Point commandant, Brig. Gen. Michael Davison, jumped on a table to congratulate the Cadets, he said all penalties for rules infractions were suspended, The cheering cadets yelled, “Ray, Ray. What about Ray?” “Oh him, too,” sighed the brasshat. “Boy, ol’ Ray was supposed to walk the area with a rifle for weeks,” said a Cadet. “Hey guys, we beat Navy for Ray, huh?”
Whatever the incentive, Army gave Staubach a dreary farewell party. Only guys such as Tittle and Brown and Hill are inured to the special kind of hell Roger knew on his, last, doomed day.
MIDDIES MISSED MANY GOALS
PHILADELPHIA, The motif, set by Navy, was “Even The Score In ’64” and even though the Middles did not their goal in the 65th game with Army yesterday at John F. Kennedy Stadium, they did achieve the edge in the extra-game activities that makes the Army-Navy a colorful extravaganza.
Navy provided all the color, both before the game and between the halves. Army, in fact, seemed, to disdain such activities as immaterial, for the Corps of Cadets one seated not even bothering to form the traditional lane through which Its team runs out on the field.
The Middies, on the other hand, were busy with cute gimmicks, electrically and manually. First, they put up electric signs on two buildings outside the Stadium reading “Go Navy and “Beat Army.” Inside the grounds, they erected another electric display that would have done credit to Times Square. It blinked “Six And Even,” wishful thinking that their team would even the series at 30 victories each (five having been tied) and take their sixth in a row from the Cadets.
Then, among other displays there was group clad in the national costumes if there are such of several foreign countries. Each Middie carried a banner which read, “Beat Army, Neighbors,” Inscribed in the native language of the country including a banner printed in Hebrew.
With President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara engaged with the unpleasantness in Viet Nam and the Congo, the highest- ranking member of the Washington brass present was Cyrus R. Vance, Deputy Secretary of Defense. But Secretary of the Army Stephen Ailes and Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze, air well as Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor, were on hand representing the Cabinet.
It is to be hoped, however, that the brass had a little less trouble getting into mammoth John F. Kennedy Stadium than did the common folk. The traffic crush approaching the arena was worse than the Long Island, “messway” on a sunny Sunday afternoon when the Mets are playing and the World’s Fair operating.
It took 90 of the Jersey pike minutes to traverse the 80 miles from midtown Manhattan to the Walt Whitman Bridge exit and almost the same amount of time to cover the four or five miles from the bridge to the park.
Why, oh why, will people insist in driving to the Army-Navy game when public transportation is so much more convenient? The public address announcer, who is the assistant plebe crew coach at Annapolis, called him “Stiwich,” and this after some hesitation, when he introduced the starting Army line-up. One the game got under way, however, he pronounced Stich–often.
On the first play from scrimmage, the Middles were so anxious to get moving, their tight end, Jim Ryan, was past the Army defensive secondary even before the ball was snapped. His bit of eagerness, however, cost Navy five yards for being offside.
Navy had the ball for only six plays from scrimmage in the second quarter when it was given a life by an Army penalty for holding. So, instead of giving up the ball to Army on the Cadet 40, to which their Tom Williams had punted, the Middies got it back with a 15yard bonus, and from there drove to the touchdown that tied the score.
Between halves Philadelphia’s cavernous Municipal Stadium was officially re-named John F. Kennedy Stadium by Mayor James Tate.
IRVING T. MARISH. Staff Correspondent- N.Y. Herald Tribune.
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Jun 10, 2003
America’s Game – Jack Clary, long-time New York Telegram columnist, wrote quite a bit
Jack Clary, long-time New York Telegram columnist, wrote quite a bit of print about the great football rivalry that is Army-Navy over his career. The following is one of the many he wrote about the history of the game and what it has meant to the collegiate football world. It appeared in the New York Telegram the week before the 1964 renewal of that great series–
AMERICA’S GAME – ARMY vs. NAVY
The Nation’s Football Rivalry
By JACK CLARY
The New York World-Telegram and The Sun (now defunct)
On a cold, clear early December afternoon in 1899, a workman climbed to the top of Franklin Field’s wooden stands in Philadelphia and hurled a huge batch of tickets to passersby walking below. He yelled to them to pick them up and come in and see Army and Navy play football.
Two years later, 25,000 persons jammed into the same wooden stands. Most were there by receipt of a printed invitation but many paid scalpers from $25 to $50 per invitation to watch the Army-Navy game.
Times have not changed much in the ensuing 63 years. Tickets for the Army-Navy game are just as hard to get as ever, even this year when both teams have a losing record. But never is the apparent tide of battle to be gauged by a team’s season record.
History has proven a stern teacher.
In the series’ second game, Navy had a 6-0 record and Army, in its first full intercollegiate season, was 4-1. Yet the Cadets lacked the experience of the Naval Cadets who had won 24-0 the previous year. Final 1891 score at Annapolis: Army 32,Navy 16.
In the most recent game, Navy, ranked second nationally and with its finest team in history, was a 13-point favorite to beat the Cadets last year in Philadelphia. After 59 minutes and 58 seconds, Army finally succumbed to a roaring cauldron of noise from 102.000 persons, a cruel clock and a tough Navy defense to lose 21-15 in what many consider the most exciting finish in the series’ 64-game history.
Exciting? Absolutely. But this is the heart of the Army-Navy history- -thrills, color, pageantry, military precision and an indominatable desire to do the impossible.
The 1948 Navy team had not won a game when it faced unbeaten, untied Army. But a pair of old hands who had almost beaten the great Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis juggernaut of 1946-also to be stopped by a clock brought the Middies a 21-21 tie.
Seven years later, an All-American named Don Holleder entered Municipal Stadium as a beleagured, badgered and much- criticized quarterback. He threw only two passes that day missing both-but brought the Cadets an astounding 14-6 victory over a once-beaten Navy team that had won in the Sugar Bowl the previous New Year’s Day.
Upsets, surprises are as commonplace in the series as astounding individual enterprise. Take the field goal kickers. In Navy’s 1910-11-12 victories, Jack Dalton and Babe Brown scored all the Middies points on field goals. Clyde King did the same thing, 6-0, in 1919. Slade Cutter booted what many feel is the most famous field goal in the series’ history for a 3-0 Navy victory in 1934, its first since 1921. Ed Garbisch did an about-face for Army with his four goals in 1921 and a 12-0 victory in Baltimore.
The all-time football performers from each school took particular delight in each renewal, starting with Red Emerich who scored a series’ record 20 points In the 1890 opener, to Roger Staubach and his unbelievable passing and running heroics the past two years.
Army’s Lou Merillat paced two victories in 1913 and 1914 and Elmer Q. Oliphant scored Army’s points a 14-0 victory the following year and nine of 15 in a 1916 victory. During the Roaring Twenties, Army rode to victory behind Light Horse Harry Wilson and Chris Cagle in 1927 after Wilson had he1ped the Cadets to a 1925 victory. Both combined to ho1d Navy’s national champions to a 21-21 tie in Soldiers Field in 1926.
Blanchard, Davis, Arnold Tucker & led the Black Knights from a five-game losing streak in the series from 1943-46 after Middie stars such as Ben Martin, now Air Force Academy coach, Hal Hamberg and Bill Busick, present Navy athletic director, had led the Middies resurgence.
Since the erd of World War II, the game has stayed in Philadelphia where Bob Zastrow led Navy’s amazing 14-2 upset in 1950; where Red Blaik brought his team from the shadow an alleged cribbing scandal; in 1951 to a 20-7 victory in 1953; where the 1954 Team Named Desire put Navy in the Sugar Bowl; where Pete Dawkins and the Lonesome End Bill Carpenter got Army’s last win in 1958; and where Joe Bellino and Staubach have ruled since.
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Jun 5, 2003
The Sanctity of a Contract – Paul Dietzel was released from his contract at LSU to come to Army in the early 1960s.
One more article on the move of Paul Dietzel from Baton Rouge to West Point. This writeup by Anthony Marenghi concentrates on the sanctity of a contract or the lack of it when it concerns a college football coach.
FROM PILLAR TO POST
By Anthony Marenghi
GIVE A YELL FOR SANCTITY!
A minor catastrophe resulting from the cynical or practical approach (take your choice) dividing coaches between loyalty to college or cash may be the end of the hallowed frivolity known as the dressing room pep talk.
Imagination creates a scene in which a coach is pulling all the tear-jerkers while exhorting his team to an inspired effort. At which point a bored senior impudently interrupts: “What’s the pitch, coach, you got a better offer some other place if we win?”
Moralists currently are exploring the nuances of Paul Dietzel’s shift from Louisiana State to West Point. He had four years remaining at $18,500 per on his contract.
College jumping is a nancient practice but it’s sharply limned now by the prestige of West Point’s code of honor. If there’s any stigma attached, college presidents share it by coolly bidding for another college’s character-builders while still under contract.
Tampering in baseball brings immediate penalty. Even in boxing the practice is deplored via a slug on the snoot. Army denies any breach of manners. In the furor over the switch, Rep. F. Edward Hebert (D-La.), described as long a significant figure in Louisiana sports, spoke to West Point officials and reported they said they had done nothing unethical in that they “had talked to LSU.”
We are not fault-finding either way. We are sure Dietzel wrestled with himself before making his decision. Before arriving at it, he said:
“Any decision will not be something I jumped at. It will be something I have thought over many hours and many days.”
The AP quotes Dietzel in addressing an alumni banquet a few months ago: “I love LSU, and I’ll never leave for another coaching job.”
In the crticism among some LSU board members Tom Dutton said:
“Frankly, I don’t believe Paul will break his contract. I don’t believe Paul will be happy in joining the fiddle-footed coaches who walk off the Job and have no respect for the sanctity of a contract.”
Dutton declared he would oppose release from the contract but it was granted on the grounds that refusal would leave a disgruntled employee in the ranks.
Shot board member C. J. Dugas: “It’s time these coaches realize they have moral obligations as well as character building obligations. Most of them regard contracts as just another piece of paper to scratch on and it’s time somebody takes a stand against them and teaches them of these moral obligations they assume when they sign a contract.”
Dietzel reported that he had a year left on a previous contract at Army when LSU offered him the post as head coach. He brought out this point, he said, to answer LSU criticism. Further:
“Members of the board of supervisors at that time knew I had a contract with Army and there are a couple of members of this present board who were members then.”
The barb is timely but the circumstances were different, plus the fact two wrongs do not make a right. He was an assistant to head coach Col. Earl Blaik when the latter was asked to relieve Dietzel. Blaik replied he would not stand in the way of Dietzel’s promotion. Manifestly, he, too, did not desire a disgruntled employee.
The request for release has been proven in other cases to be perfunctory. Contracts could be fought in, court, of course, but who wants a coach who wants out?
Dietzel is taking four LSU assistants with him to West Point. All of which, to repeat, may hereafter drain conviction from future dressing room tirades, to the distress of a delightful bit of Americana.
In time these may reach the climactical let-down of a famed baseball talk in which the manager was warning his young batterymen on the perils of letting Johnnie Evers steal second.
“Evers is so smart that if he gets on second where he can look at the catcher, he will steal every signal you got.” Then noticing that a veteran pitcher was sitting on the floor with has cap visor over his eyes, half asleep, he snapped: “You don’t seem interested in what I’m saying, Pete.”
Pete spoke up: “You just let me pitch, boss, and that guy won’t get on first to steal second.”
There are those who will question the morals involved in Dietzel’s jump and more practical others upholding better financial returns against the sanctity of contracts, and it soon will be forgotten.
But college presidents and athletic boards, responsible for their coaches’ action, will continue to give consent by silence to the race for another institution’s winning coach and hence a better box office. Presumably, they see no violation of ethics.
The Dietzel case was a sports page topic mostly all of last week and undoubtedly was known throughout the country. But on Saturday the AP carried this story out of Lincoln, Nebraska:
Nebraska today tapped Robert S. (Bob) Devaney as the man it wants as new Cornhusker football coach, but held up formal action until Devaney is released from his head coaching contract at Wyoming. Devaney is being offered the job and wants to come.
“Athletic Director Glenn J. Jacoby indicated Devaney would be released from his five-year contract but possibly not until Feb. 2, when the Wyoming board of trustees meets. Devaney would succeed Bill Jennings, released after five losing seasons at Nebraska. Nebraska’s new athletic director, William Dye, and Chancellor Clifford M. Hardin tried to reach Wyoming administrators by telephone this morning in the hope of getting a quick go-ahead to hire Devaney. But the call could not be completed.”
Did Wyoming really have a choice, and will it now rephrase the state slogan: “Stop roaming, come to Wyoming?”
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May 27, 2003
Army vs Navy, 1963 – A look back at the 1963 Army-Navy game.
In years gone by, there were many great Army-Navy Football Games. There were some so-so games that were interesting but largely forgettable and a few that were forgettable. One game that stands out in RABBLE’s mind could be characterized in the great category. It remains one of the great ones in my opinion, a game that was nearly never played at all.
Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, the general consensus of opinion was that the game should be cancelled that year due to the death of the commander-in-chief just 8 days earlier. At the request of the Kennedy family, it was decided to play the game but it was rescheduled a week later than originally intended to be played.
In this trilogy of articles, one can relive the excitement and the greatness of the 1963 game as one of the truly finest in this most storied of rivalries—
ARMY’S BIG JOB-PLAY OWN GAME
By LEN ELLIOTT
Sports Editor
Newark Evening News (now defunct)
WEST POINT-“Don’t push the panic button.” That is not one of, the signs in Army football headquarters up here on the wintry Hudson. But from the way Coach Paul Dietzel talked yesterday about Navy’s Roger Staubach, it is very much on his mind. You can be sure it has been impressed on the Army players, as a part of the psychological preparation for the service game in Philadelphia Saturday.
Dietzel was being pressed yesterday about Army’s plans to stop the guided missile of the Severn. He would not, of course, be specific but he did say:
“You have to remember that nobody has stopped Staubach. Our Jim Valek has been scouting Navy all year and he has heard some funny conversations among scouts at their games. One scout told another that his team was going to put the heat on Staubach; that was the only way to stop him. Against that team Roger set a new Naval Academy record for offense.
The next week another scout said the first one had the wrong idea entirely. His team, he said, was not going to rush Staubach, but lie back and cover receivers. “We’re going to let him pass but we don*t want him to run.” Against that team Roger set another academy record for passing over 300 yards.
“The point is,” Dietzel ‘ continued, “that you’re probably not going to stop him. The important thing is that you play your game. You’ve got to expect him to complete some passes and make some runs. When he hits his first pass you can’t push the panic button and decide your defense is hopeless.”
Psychological Pressure
This could be important. Staubach has been built up to such ominous proportions-and rightly so-that he exerts at heavy psychological pressure on all opponents. When a team spends a week getting ready for him (three weeks in Army’s case) and he still bombs them in the first quarter, either running or passing, it’s easy to become demoralized and fall into a “what’s the use” attitude.
Obviously Dietzel doesn’t want any such collapse Saturday. The pressure on Army is extremely heavy, though, and so is the sense of frustration. The Cadets have lost four games in a row to Navy, two of them by big scores, and the situation is insufferable up here. No one is sure what the repercussions of another bad beating might be. It could come, too, if Army becomes demoralized Saturday.
Visible signs of determination to throw off the Navy chains are few here. The death of the President and the official 30-day period of mourning have muted the usual pre-game manifestations. Only one sign hangs from any building. It adorns the front of Grant Hall and it reads simply:
“We must. We can. We will.”
On the bulletin board in the equipment room of the gym, where the boys put on their shoes before going out to practice, there are some reminders, such signs as:
“Mothball the Fleet.” “Crumble Crabtown.” “The Time has Come.”
Most significant is a picture in the center of the board. It shows a Navy player with the number 12 on his white Jersey, running through three Army tacklers. Under it is the caption:
1 December 1962
Navy 34, Army 14
Remember Staubach!
On the physical side Dietzel says the team is in its best shape since the Air Force game Nov. 2. All the wounded who can recover have done so. This means the only boys not available are Tom Smith and Johnny Johnson, backs. It also means that Rollie Stichweh will start at quarterback, Ken Waldrop and Don Parcells at the halves and Ray Paske at fullback. If Army kicks off Saturday, Bill Chescavage will start at left end. Sam Champi of South Orange will be in if Army receives. Otherwise the first line will be what it has been practically all season-Bill Sherrell at the tight end, Ed Schillo and Bill Zadel at the tackles, Tom Cunningham and Dick Nowak at the guards and Lee Grasfeder at center.
Cook Will See Action
Curt Cook, a passing quarterback who was operated on before the season started but who was used in the last quarter of the Pitt game, is very likely to see considerable action. There are two reasons for figuring Cook will be in there: (1) he is Army’s only good passer and, (2) Dietzel intimates that Stichweh will play some defense. The talented Stichweh is one of the best defensive backs Army has but he hasn’t been used on defense this year because he has been running both the first and second units as quarterback.
The only time he got any rest was when the other team had the ball, at which time Jim Beierschmitt was wild-carded for him. If Cook does some quarterbacking this week, Stichweh can help the Army defense as a safety man. In the event of casualties to either, Frank Cosentino will get the call.
Despite the snow of the last few days, which has turned the rugged highlands here into a scene of dark, wintry beauty, Army has been working outdoors daily this week. The old plains field is clear, being covered at night and uncovered just before the boys come out the next afternoon.
There will be a rally tomorrow night but it won’t be the lavish production of other years. The squad will leave by bus Friday morning for Philadelphia and loosen up in the stadium in the afternoon.
FIVE FOR NAVY, 21-15
by RED SMITH
The New York Herald Tribune (now defunct)
PHILADELPHIA– SILENT In the sunshine, 100,000 citizens stood with heads bared as 100 cadets from West Point and 100 midshipmen of Annapolis drew up In 18 alternate ranks at the north end of the green-dyed field. In flawless alignment, the ranks moved to midfield, halting there to face a color guard from the other end zone.
Cadet Rithard A. Chilcoat, first captain of the corps, made the simple announcement: The cadets and midshipmen dedicated this game to the memory of our late commander-in-chief, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
First captain of the midshipmen, Walter W,. Kesler asked for a minute of silence.
The West Point band played the National Anthem. From that moment on, nothing seemed less important than football, yet seldom in the 73 years since cadets and midshipmen first butted skulls in fun has an Army-Navy game furnished more captivating entertainment than this 64th Installment of the series.
Seldom has there been a keener match than this rouser between the heavy favorites from Annapolis and the victims of four consecutive conquests by the sea arm.
The way Army fought for this one, only the clock could have stopped the rabble’s rush, and only the clock did, 21-15.
Maybe it was the calculated insult embroidered on every fetching Navy playsuit which brought out them beast in Army. In recent years the midshipmen have turned this meeting into a fancy dress ball, decking themselves out in uniforms of unaccustomed splendor just for the Army game.
This time they turned up all regal shimmering gold from helmets to the cunning half-socks above their two-toned booties. Across the withers of each gob read the words, “Drive for Five,” an exhortation in Navyese, a galling reminder to the Cadets that they had lost four in a row.
Whether Army took this as a goad or whether the team was operating under forced draft even before the kickoff, the delegates from up the Hudson simply smashed Navy flat the first time Army had the ball, going 65 yards on a pounding running game for the opening touchdown.
Navy had held the ball for only three plays, and was in the bucket, 7 – 0.
Not many teams contain the wonderful Staubach for 24 minutes and nobody does it for 60. In the 10th minute of the second period he steered Navy to the 2-yard line and sent the 200-pound fullback, Pat Donnelly, in from there for the tying touchdown.
Then In the third quarter with Staubach passing and Donnelly running, Navy went 90 yards to take the lead, and in the fourth two 15-yard penalties for roughing helped Annapolis pad the margin to 21-7.
Before Navy’s third touchdown, Army had been stopped on fourth down with inches to go for a first on the Navy 7. After the touchdown the Cadets went 52 yards and weren’t stopped until Carl Stichweh, the quarterback, got his cleats in the end zone turf. Stichweh ran for a two- point conversion, too, so now Navy’s lead was a mere 6 points at 21-15.
Army did the obvious thing and did it perfectly -a carefully aimed 11-yard kickoff which Stichweh captured for West Point, to begin a drive to the threshold of victory as the ball game ticked away.
1963 New York Herald Tribune Inc.
Dietzel’s New Bandit-Stichweh
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ROLLIE THE ROBBER BARON ALMOST HEISTED VICTORY
By SANDY GRADY
CLEVER DEVIL, that Paul Dietzel. They outlawed his Chinese Bandits, so the Army inventor hauled a new gadget to Philadelphia Stadium-a lone German bandit named Carl Roland Stichweh, who almost pulled the boldest daylight heist since the Brinks job.
When this shimmering, blue-eyed day began, there was only one quarterback in the Army-Navy game-Roger Staubach, who had gotten hotter notices in the sporting print than Khrushchev draws in Pravda. By dusk, there were certainly two quarterbacks on the scene. Stichweh vs. Staubach had given this cold, concrete barnyard its closest, toe-to-toe war since Marciano vs. Walcott.
Rollie the Robber Baron almost swiped everything but Navy’s mustard-yellow britches- indeed, he came within one play of stealing the Middies’ 21-15 victory. Army may forever remember the 1963 game as Dietzel’s Unfinshed Symphony, the clock catching the Cadets two yards from a walloping upset, but the controversy should not obscure Herr Stichweh’s heroics.
“Stichweh was the best quarterback on the field,” said, Dietzel of his pale, wheat-haired Teutonic marvel. Well, what about it, Wayne Hardin? “Stichweh didn’t surprise me,” said Hardin. “He’s a helluva football player. A lot of guts.”
Herr Rollie Lives Up to Name
IN GERMAN, Stichweh translates as “sharp, pain” and Herr Rollie certainly gave one to Navy right in the neck. If statistics mean anything in such a fluid, see-saw afternoon, Stichweh measured against Staubach like this: He was a better runner (10 yards to 55 yards), but not so sharp a passer (three for 25 yards). It is as impossible as comparing sirloin steak with pie a la mode.
“We’re different types,” Stichweh said,”his cheeks coloring when questioned about Staubach. “Staubach is very capable. I’d better leave it at that.”
Staubach had a victor’s warmth toward the vanquished: “Rollie’s great. He’s just a terrific runner.” It was a year ago that Stichweh busted the No. 1 rule of every buck private: “Never volunteer.” On the bus leaving Philadelphia Stadium, Rollie leaned over to Dietzel and said, “Sir, I know we’re losing all three of the quarterbacks and I’d like to give it a try.” A defensive back, Rollie had been a fair passer at Mineola High, L. I., but he was the swiftest bloke on Dietzel’s squad as Navy discovered repeatedly on Stichweh’s rollouts.
Grabbing the spotlight away from Staubach, of course, is tougher than stealing a scene from Jackie Gleason. Stichweh did it the hard way – “he played 55 minutes, going both ways,” reminded, Dietzel. There were raw, red welts on Rollie’s back as testimony to the ordeal.
“I’m just sorry we couldn’t win it for the 14 seniors on this club,” said Stichweh, draping his sinewy, 6-4 frame in Army gray, “I guess I’ll never forget the end of this one. I was yelling to the guys, calling Waldrop to run a power sweep off tackle, but they couldn’t hear me for the crowd noise. Then the referee picked up the ball and handed it to Navy’s (Tom) Lynch and I knew the game was over.”
Damp-eyed Cadets filed by Stichweh’s locker, all of them shaking his hand with a variation on the same comment: “Rollie, you were the greatest on the field.” Maybe the only trophy they could take away, though, was Hardin’s gracious admission: “It was unfortunate for Army, because one more play would probably have taken them in for the victory.”
Even for Army-Navy, the head- banging was usually fierce. “I’ve never played against a team that hit that hard,’ said Staubach. “Whew, they were racking us up. We couldn’t play our real game because they were knocking us over our feet.” And as Roger noted, two defensive plays were pivotal moments Army stopped Navy early on its goal, and Navy later bashing in Army four-and-one on the eight- “I called a bad play,” Dietzel moaned.
Stichweh and Dietzel came with one thought: ram the ball down Navy’s throat on the first drive, control the ball, never let up the pressure. It was a simple as repeatedly conking a guy on the temple with a ballpeen hammer- Stichweh would roll right or left, and then Waldrop would burst to the right on a weakside reverse. With those two plays, Army jammed 65 yards to score and kept Navy in 60 minutes of trouble.
Cadets Wouldn’t Give Up
If Staubach was less impressive than usual, Hardin knew why. “We didn’t have the ball enough,” said Hardin. And Staubach said to his dad, eyebrows raised in disbelief, “Why, I didn’t get my hands on the ball but one time in the last quarter, those guys wouldn’t give it up.’
A tough ground-slogger named Pat Donnelly, who scored three times, probably saved Navy’s hide. “He’s the next All American at Annapolis,” crowed Rick Forzano, the guy who recruited Staubach.
Indeed, Navy didn’t lead until Donnelly thrashed into the end zone with 37 minutes of action gone. Then they moved ahead, 21-7. Bang, Army fought back to make it 21-15 – “A magnificent effort,” said Dietzel -but incredibly Army could not go 49 yards in six minutes to win it. You would think they were freezing the ball.
“Gee, we went 80 yards against Air Force in less time than that,” mourned Stichweh. “I couldn’t believe we wouldn’t make it. No, I didn’t want to pass out-of-bounds and stop the clock because we needed the downs. The time outs were gone. At the end I sort of hugged Skip Orr of Navy -he and I were high school friends -and he said, ‘Sorry Rollie.'”
So Hardin’s “drive for five” policy paid off, and you couldn’t blame Dietzel for one chagrined needle.
“How did Navy ever beat Pitt?” be wondered out loud. The question for scholars now, though, is: Can Navy beat Texas? “We’re going to put it to them, said Staubach of the Cotton Bowl opponent. “They can’t hit any rougher than Army did. Nobody can.” Maybe it will be Dietzel’s time to drum up the slogans now: “Off the Floor in ’64” maybe. Or “Nix on Six.’ Or “Gun for One.”
Pleasantly for the 102,000 buffs, both Stichweh and Staubach will be on the stage again. With these guys around, you pay $8.50 to see a million-bucks worth of quarterbacking.
1963 Philadelphia Bulletin
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May 21, 2003
Army vs Navy, 1956 – A look back at the 1956 Army-Navy game.
One of the most exciting Army-Navy games in history took place in 1956 and resulted in a 7-7 tie.
Army and Navy fought to a 7-7 deadlock today in their fifty-seventh football meeting. An overflow crowd of 102,000 at Municipal Stadium and a nationwide television audience saw the midshipmen score in the fourth period to match a third quarter tally by the cadets.
The stalemate left both sides feeling somewhat letdown. Favored Navy announced the receipt and refusal of a Cotton Bowl bid after the game. The invitation was rejected because Naval Academy officials did not feel that the team’s record of six victories, one defeat and two ties justified a post-season appearance.
Army’s disappointment came from its failure to reap a greater yield from a derisive statistical superiority. Eight fumbles, five of which were lost, proved ruinous to the cadets’ hopes of matching their 1956 triumph. The touchdowns each came an the follow-up of breaks forced by the hard
hitting defensive play that marked the bitterly fought contest. Bob Kyasky, the game’s most effective ball-carrier, slashed over Navy’s right tackle from four yards out for Army’s touchdown at 3:57 of the third quarter. Dave Bourland’s 5-yard pass interception run put the
ball in position for this thrust.
Follows Fumble Recovery
Dick Dagampat, who distinguished himself in many ways for Navy, rammed thru the middle of Army’s line from point blank range at 7:35 of the fourth period for the midshipman’s score. He went over on the seventh play following John Kanuch’s recovery of an Army fumble on the Army 27-yard line. Dick Murtland’s successful conversion place-kick for Army was matched by Ned Oldham of Navy.
Army, on the march through much of the game, out gained Navy from scrimmage, 237 yards to 132, and made twelve first downs to Navy’s five. The play figures, which show seventy-five plays for the cadets to fifty-one for the midshipmen, further reflect the offensive superiority of the Black Knights.
But all this good work was undone by Army’s repeated fumbling, a habit that has plagued the cadets on previous occasions this season. They bobbled away the ball on Navy’s 30 and their own 20 in the second period, and on their 39 and 27 and Navy’s 27 in the fourth quarter.
In addition, recovered fumbles interrupted the continuity of several promising Army marches. The cadets also were held for downs on Navy’s 20 in the first period and were brought up short by a pass interception after reaching Navy’s 27 in the third period.
Navy, known as a ball-control team, was so stymied by Army’s defense that it crossed midfield only once under its own momentum, that penetration occurring on a long punt return late in the second quarter. However, in moving to their tying touchdown, the midshipmen made one of the most impressive marches of the contest. They actually covered 32 yards, rather than 27, having been set back five yards on a backfield in motion penalty on a play that produced an apparent touchdown from the 2-yard line.
The huge crowd, which gathered early in order to witness the colorful pre-game parades of the corps of cadets and the brigade of midshipmen, had anticipated a more open game.
However, it was soon established that this was to be a grim, bitter offensive duel in which breaks probably would prove decisive-as they did. Army hammered away effectively at the tackles from its T-formation inside drive series, and with quick straight ahead thrusts by Kyasky, from fullback and Murtland and Mike Morales, from the halfbacks.
Spikes Army’s Guns
But the cadets were unable to produce many of their hoped-for long gainers against Navy’s rugged line and the alert midshipmen secondaries spiked Army’s guns when it attempted to go overhead. Many tried to spread Army’s defense by using varying flanker alignments but could make no consistent progress on the ground or in the air. Only once besides on its scoring march were the midshipmen able to put together two first downs. They made only one first down in the first
half. The temperature was 36 degrees and leaden skies, later to lighten, and a capricious wind compounded the seeping chill as the game started. Army won the toss and elected to receive. Morales bobbled Bob Reifsnyder’s deep kick-off into the end zone but recovered and brought the ball
out to the 10.
With Kyasky, Murtland and Morales alternating on drive series plays, the Cadets clicked off two first downs. But as they approached midfield, a pass missed connections and they had to kick.
Kyasky Breaks Loose
Navy could make no progress and Army soon had the ball again on its 40. Kyasky and Murtland drove to a first down on Navy’s 48 but the midshipmen dug in on their 41 and forced Army to kick again. Once more, Army pinned Navy deep in its territory and regained possession on its 43. It appeared that Navy had the cadets stopped at midfield but with three yards to go on fourth down, Kyasky broke loose for 22 yards to Navy’s 28 on a fake kick sweep around his left end.
Three thrusts at the line by Murtland, Kyasky and Bourland picked up eight yards but Navy’s line smothered Kyasky on fourth down and the midshipmen took the ball on their 26. Chet Burchett broke away around left end for fifteen yards to give Navy its first substantial gain but the midshipmen were obliged to punt after reaching their 43.
Army again moved the ball. From their own 32, the cadets clicked off three first downs. A pass by Bourland to Art Johnson with whom he a also had connected earlier on the march, put Army on
Navy’s 35. But after Kyasky had gained two yards, Murtland fumbled under the jarring impact of a tackle and Tony Anthony pounced on the ball for Navy on the 30.
Forced to Kick Again
There was an exchange of punts, then Navy had to kick again, from its 38. Earle Smith, Navy’s captain and right end, who played much of the contest with a broken bone in his right hand, got off a long boot. Kyasky elected to let it roll, but Johnson dropped back from end to block, took a swipe at the ball and touched it. The omnipresent Dagampat recovered for Navy to set the midshipmen up on Army’s 20.
ARMY (7)
Left Ends -Johnson, Warner. Left Tackles- Reid, Wilmoth. Left Guards
-Fadel, Bishop. Centers -Kernan, Svetecz. Right Guards -Slater, Rowe.
Right Tackles -Goodwin, Melnlk. Right Ends -Stephenson, Saunders.
Quarterbacks -Bourland, Darby. Left Halbacks -Murtland, Roesler, Kennedy. Right
Halfbacks -Morales, Cygler. Fullbacks -Kyasky, Barta.
NAVY (7)
Left Ends -Jokanovich, Kamuch. Left Tackles -Anthony, Meisel. Left
Guards -Stremic, Caldwell. Centers -Whitmire, McElwee. Right Guards -Hower,
Fritzinger. Right Tackes -Relfsnyder, Martinez. Right Ends -Smith,
Ruth. Quarterbacks -Forrestal, Flood. Left Halfbacks -Oldham, Hurst. Right
Halfbcks -Burchett, Swanson.Fullbacks -Dagampat, Monto.
ARMY 0 0 7 0-7
Navy 0 0 0 7-7
Army scoring – Touchdown: Kyasky (4, run)
Conversion: Murtland.
Navy scoring – Touchdown: Dagampat (1-foot plunge)
Conversion:Oldham
Referee- Albert J Booth Jr. Yale.
Umpire- Leonard Dobbins Fordham
Linesman J. Walter Coffee Rutgers
Field Judge- Howard C. Fyth Carnegie Tech
Electric Clock Operator -Robert E. Owings Johns Hopkins
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May 14, 2003
Army vs Navy, 1955 – RABBLE takes a look back on the 1955 Army-Navy game.
1955 was the year of Red Blaik’s “Great Quarterback” Experiment. Faced without a proven quarterback since Pete Vann had graduated earlier that spring, Blaik remained in a quandry. “Who do I play at QB for my team this season?” The Master came up with the idea that he would take his best athlete on the team and place him at the position. That job fell to All-American End Don Holleder. Was Holleder up to the task? He was most certainly up to that task.
Sailors cold until the game was in the bag. They solved Navy’s new defense for this game, a wlde 6-2. And they hammered Navy’s weak spots relentlessly.
Heroes on both sides were numerous. Besides Uebel, Holleder and Lash, there was Dick Murtland, who piled up yardage on the dive play; Chesnauskas at right end, Flay Goodwin and Stan Slater at the guards and Dick Stephenson at tackle.
For Navy, it was Welsh, as expected, who overshadowed his teammates with his passing. His 18 for 29 and 176 yards was a great effort. Ron Beagle was tremendous at left end. So were John Hopkins at left tackle, Dick Guest at fullback, Wilson Whitmire at center and Ned Oldham at halfback.
Navy’s Score
At the outset Navy looked like even more than the one touchdown favorite it was. The Sailors won the toss, received the kickoff and went all the way without giving up the ball. Welsh threw his first pass from his own 30-yard line to Beagle and it brought a first down on the Navy 38. Even a 15-yard penalty couldn’t stop the Tars. Welsh more than made it up by throwing to Gober, moving the ball to midfield.
Gober, Guest and Oldham ran to the 35, from where Gober got away and in two efforts reached the Army 12. With the running game momentarily clogged, Welsh threw to Guest in the flat for a first down on the 1, and on the next play sneaked over through guard for the touchdown. With Welsh holding the ball, Oldham’s’ kick for the seventh point went to the left of the posts and it was 6-0.
At the moment that missed point didn’t seem important, but it grew larger as the game went on. Navy fumbled and Slater; recovered for Army on the 21.
From there the, Soldiers battered and smashed their way to the clinching touchdown in four plays. Uebel, Murtland and Holleder took the biggest bites until Uebel reached Navy’s 23-yard line. At that point Lash started inside Navy’s vulnerable right tackle, slid around when the hole jammed, and went all the way.
Only 3 minutes, 45 seconds were left at that time, and when the final whistle shrilled with Army again on the march, Cadet elation knew no bounds. A wave of gray surged on the field, engulfed the Army player and swept them to the Navy side of the field. When It reversed, it bore Holleder on its shoulders, then Uebel, then Chesnauskas, and all but carried them to the dressing room exit. This was the 29th Army victory in the series, to 23 for Navy and four ties.
ARMY
LE-Johnson, Saunders
LT-Reid
LG-Slater, Bishop
C–Szvtecz, Kernan
RG-Goodwin, Shannon
RT-Stephenson
RE-Chesnauskis, Butterfield
QB-Holleder,Mericle
LH-Murtland
RH-Lash, Zeigler
FB-Uebel
NAVY
LE-Beagle
LT-Hopkins
LG-Dander, Mohn
C–Whitmire, Wood
RG-Stremic, Hower
RT-McCooL Royer
RE-Owen, Smith
QB-Welsh
LH-Oldham, Malynn
RH-Burchett, Gober
FB-Guest, Monto
NAVY 6 0 0 0 – 6
ARMY 0 0 7 7 – 14
ARMY- – Touchdowns: Uebel (4-yard Plunge) ; Lash (23-yard run)
.Conversions: Chesnauskas 2.
Navy- – Touchdown: Welsh (1-yard sneak)
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May 5, 2003
Arthur Daley on Dietzel – Paul Dietzel left LSU for Army in the early 60s.
Here is another article, this time by the sports editor of the New York Times Arthur Daley, written in January of 1962 on the incoming coach of Army Football, Paul Dietzel.
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
by Arthur Daley
The New York Times
January, 1962
NOT THE OLD ARMY GAME
The athletic authorities at West Point obtained a football coach of high competence in Paul Dietzel, a superior craftsman who hardly can miss returning the Black Knights to the glory days of Red Blaik. But was this move worth the price?
In order to get Dietzel, Army had to woo him from Louisiana State, where this enormously successful young strategist had four years left on his contract. It may seem like a quaint reaction in this cynical, materialistic world to regard a contract as a solemn obligation that’s binding on both parties. Still, did anyone expect that West Point, a bastion of honor, would disregard such a pledge.
Despite a surface obeisance to morality, colleges seem to have few compunctions about raiding other colleges for the key men they want. Sometimes the inherent nefariousness of this deed is softened when the school holding the contract yields to pressure and gives its man his quick release. This is a mere ungent to salve the conscience.
Reluctant Tigers
The Bayou Tigers were so delighted with Dietzel however, that they didn’t want to let him go. There even was angry talk at Baton Rouge of taking the young coach to court if he jumped the contract. But in the end he was given reluctant release and Army had the man it wanted and needed.
It is true, of course, that Army first sought permission from Louisiana State authorities to sound out Dietzel. Yet it seems here that this does not negate the sanctity of a contract. When colleges break an agreement and dismiss a coach, they at least pay him off. When a coach breaks his signed pledge, the college has no redress.
It’s a sorry business to see an institution of higher learning persuade a man to violate his legal obligations. It’s worse when the action comes from a school like the Military Academy, with its rigid code of honor. That other schools do it constantly is no excuse.
There even was the instance a few years ago of the coach who used the Cadillac he had received from grateful fans at one college to drive off in acceptance of a better job from another. He broke no speed laws en route. The only thing he broke was his contract.
It doesn’t come easy to rap the knuckles of a school as admired and as respected as West Point or of a coach as admired and respected as Paul Dietzel. Perhaps it is better now to try and forget, rejoicing in the certain upsurge that will take place on the Plains.
Coming Full Cycle
By this time, Paul probably is beginning to think that this is all a design of fate. The one thing that probably will convince him is that Louisiana State yesterday selected Charlie McClendon, his first lieutenant at Baton Rouge, as the new head coach. If it hadn’t been for this close friend, Paul never would have got to Baton Rouge in the first place.
Dietzel was serving his apprenticeship at West Point as an assistant coach to the master, Blaik, when he learned that Louisiana State was undergoing a coaching housecleaning. Fearful that his buddy, McClendon, would be swept out of a job in the shake-up, Dietzel phoned him.
“If you need a job, Charlie,” said the anxious Paul, “I know a couple of spots where you might move.”
“I don’t want to move at all,” said Charlie. “I like it here. But there’s a big opening as head coach. Why don’t you apply for it? “.
“I might at that, said Paul, suddenly smitten by the idea”.
He went to work. Biff Jones, a one-time coach at both Army and Louisiana State, began to pull wires and the Biffer has few equals as a wire-puller. Blaik himself came through with flowery endorsements of his protege, speedily offering to cancel the second year of a two-year contract Paul had with Army. So Dietzel got the job at the tender age of 31.
McClendon stayed on. He’s still staying on. He’s the new head coach at L.S.U., much to the delight of his pal.
Paul was no instant sensation, but as soon as the rules committee relaxed the strictures on substitutions, the imaginative Dietzel plunged through the opening and scored big.
The Chinese Bandits
He picked his varsity eleven, which he called the White team. Then he assembled a batch of offensive minded youths and called this group the Go team. To a third unit of defensive-minded characters he gave the fancy tag of the Chinese Bandits. They became the glamor boys of the squad and they combined with the others to make their glamour boy leader, Dietzel, the coach of the year in 1958.
Since then he has gained steadily in stature, advancing to top rank. Army, meanwhile, had reached a point of desperation, presumably goaded by Pentagon brass who regarded football failures as a reflection on national prestige. So the West Pointers went after the best man they could find, regardless of previous condition of servitude. They sure picked a dandy. Paul Dietzel not only is matchless in getting talented material, he knows how to use it to greatest advantage. Army is ready to roll again.
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Apr 30, 2003
Tailgating – A look at Tailgating at West Point long ago.
Tailgating has always been a big part of the fun of a West Point autumn football Saturday as can be seen by this story that appeared in the New York World-Telegram and The Sun 40 years ago. Capacity back in those days at Michie was about 31,500. The new stands on the east side had been completed just the year before but the second deck on the west side was yet to be built.
Those were the days when temporary stands were erected on the playing field. Today however, this is no longer the case as the second deck at Michie more than accommodates the fans on most football Saturdays nowadays-
FOOTBALL TAILGATE SET DISCOVERS WEST POINT
By Irving T. Marsh
The New York World- Telegram And The Sun (now defunct)
October,1963
Football’s tailgate set, armed with moppets of all sizes and ages as well as fancy food and martinis, has a new Saturday afternoon haven, or perhaps it should better be said that more members of the set have discovered it this year than ever before.
That haven is West Point, N. Y., on the days Army’s football team plays at The Plain. For two Saturdays in a row now, picturesque Michie Stadium has been sold out to its capacity of 30,000 plus and last week’s game attracted a record crowd of 31,200.
This despite the fact that the two opponents–Wake Forest and Washington State -didn’t figure to provide much competition and didn’t. But weather, lovely surroundings, the glamour of Army football and the new interest of the younger young set will make 1963 the best season at the gate Army ever has enjoyed at home.
There’s one more game left at Michie, with Utah two weeks hence. It’s almost two-thirds sold out now. And that one shouldn’t be too much of a test for the Cadets, either.
Yet the boys and girls and their offspring are descending on The Plain in ever increasing numbers.
This new found affinity of the devotees was merely an item dropped casually at the weekly Football Writers Association Food and Gabfest yesterday at the Hotel Manhattan but it provided the stimulus for a little further investigation.
In four home games last year, Army drew 101,330 to the Point. It should go over that figure by about 25,000 this season.
Curricularly, however, the Cadets are slightly more interested in their game this week, with Air Force Academy at Chicago. The good news for that one, according to Capt. Chuck Lytle, associate plebe coach who was yesterday’s emissary from the Point, was that Tommy Smith, the sophomore left halfback, will be completely ready for action against the Falcons and that can mean considerable to Army’s ground attack.
Smith, from Kinnelon, N. J., has been hailed as the most exciting runner Army has had since Glenn Davis. He was tremendous in his first real effort against Cincinnati in September, but was injured in that one and didn’t play until the Washington State game last weekend. He participated in one play against the Cougars and was hurt again. But not seriously. He could have returned to action but he wasn’t needed. So he sat on the bench the remainder of the game to await the battle with the Air Force.
Altogether, according to Capt. Lytle, Army is in fine physical shape and only Curt Cook, sophomore quarterback who was hurt in pre-season, and Johnny Johnson, halfback are on the wounded list.
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Apr 26, 2003
Football: 1963 football preview – A look back at the 1963 football preview
1963. Its Coach Paul Dietzel’s second year as Head Coach of West Point Football. In this pre-season report, Jesse Abramson of the New York Herald Tribune gives a detailed description of the Black Knights and a new quarterback by the name of Stichweh–
The day after Army took that pasting from Navy for the fourth straight year, Paul Dietzel and his troops stopped for lunch on the mournful drive back to West Point. In a Jersey roadside restaurant the business of finding a new quarterback, some kind to answer to Roger Staubach, began.
“It wasn’t a happy lunch,” recalled Dietzel yesterday. “Every detail of that horrible debacle was, still is, firmly engraved on my mind. Rollie came to our table and said, ‘Coach, I think I can do the job at quarterback; can I have a try at it?’ And I said, ‘You’re dad-burned right you can have a try.'” The next day Carl Stichweh of Williston Park, L.I., who is Rollie, began warming up the arm which had been rusty since he quarterbacked Mineola High. On a handball court through the winter he played pitch-catch with Cammy Lewis, one of the three graduating quarterbacks and in the spring Rollie hammered down his claim to the job, proving he was a passer, completing 85 per cent (no one is that good in a game) and taking off as a runner on options.
As a plebe he had been converted to halfback for his speed; as a yearling last year he played defense with the Chinese Bandits while Army’s offense sputtered (averaging only one touchdown in major action) for want of a Grade A passer. Stichweh, pronounced Stitch-way by all except Dietzel who rhymes it with that-a-way, is a blond six-footer of 185 pounds, the Phys Ed champion of the Corps. He may not be the complete answer to Navy’s Staubach, but the QB problem is the one Army has to lick with new men.
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In a Capsule New quarterback and health of ends are keys to improved offense, while Dietzel dotes on middle of interior line. Formation used: Flip-flop-split-end T with wingback. 1963 Schedule: Sept. 21, Boston U.; 28, Cincinnati. Oct. 5, at Minnesota; 12, at Penn State; 19, Wake Forest; 26, Washington State; Nov. 2, Air Force at Chicago; 9, Utah; 16. at Pittsburgh; 30, Navy at Philadelphia.
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The Black Knights have, as an alternate who directs the second unit, another good runner with a fine arm. He is sophomore Curt Cook, square first name Shannon, a 6-1; 187-pound Oklahoman. With these quarterback rookies, plus seasoned hands everywhere else on the first team (some in new positions), Dietzel contemplates greater progress in the second year of his mission on The Plain. The first civilian non-graduate in the football chair at West Point knows that winning football games from Penn State, Pitt, Minnesota, the Air Force et al, is desirable but means nothing if the Navy game is lost. Since Red Blaik’s unbeaten 1958 season, Army hasn’t had a losing season, but it hasn’t beaten Navy. The schedule is being improved, too. Army will be tougher, smarter, faster, vows Dietzel.
His chief concern besides quarterback is at end, not because he lacks talent there but because four of his top six ends missed spring drills and the first-string pair was re-injured at Camp Buckner before the squad of 70 returned to the academy this week. Army had trouble mustering sound ends last year. “Our offense, basic and simple last year, will be enlarged by half again as much,” said Dietzel. “We’ll throw more (Army averaged only 11 passes a game) and more successfully. Instead of a slot T, we have a flip-flop split-end T with wingback, the split-end and wingback always the same, left or right formation, which explains flip-flop.” Gone are the Regulars, Go Team and the exotic Chinese Bandits with their coolie-hatted rooters, as two-way football, to Dietzel’s regret, replaces three-team platoon operations now banished by 1963 rules.
Stichweh and Cook figure to get more backfield aid. Ken Waldrop at tailback is a walloping 198-pound ball carrier now running with authority. Rounding out the heavy-weight foursome are fullback Ray Paske and wingback John Johnson, solid, steady performers, Johnson a crack receiver and all strong on defense, a first requirement under Dietzel.
The breakaway runner Army has needed may have arrived in Tom Smith, tailback behind Waldrop, a 188 pound yearling from Kinnelon, N. J., outstanding athlete in New Jersey In his last year at Butler High. “He’s like the good Army backs of years gone by,” said Dietzel, recalling Bobby Jack Stuart and Gil Sptehenson from his earlier coaching stint under Blaik.
Dietzel’s pride on a formidable line is the middle trio center Lee Grasfeder, guards Tom Cunningham and Dick Nowak, the line-backing stalwarts of the Chinese Bandits, now geared for two-way action. Cunningham had been a fullback. Nowak now deploys in the line of defense. They are tackling terrors.
At 202 to 214 pounds, they are not Goliaths, but, notes Dietzel, “they are as good as we’ve ever had and will match or outmatch any one we play.” Ed Schillo, shifted from guard, and Bill Zadel, head a tackle corps that includes Chet Kempinski, Tom Kerns
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Three-Deep ( Lettermen in Caps)
LE-CHESCAVAGE,Champi, Pfeifer
LT-SCHILLO, Carber, KEMPINSKI
LG-CUNNINGHAM, Stowers, Dusel
C–GRASFEDER, BUTTERFIELd, Braun
RG-NOWAK, VAUGHAN, White
RT-ZADEL, KERNS, Casillo
RE-SHERRELL, HENNEN, Koster
QB-STICHWEH, Cook, BEIERSCHMITT or Cosentino.
LH-WALDROP, Smith, PETERSOn
RH-JOHNSON, SEYMOUR, Hawkins
FB-PASKE, PARCELLS- Abraham
(Kick specialist-HEYDT)
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and sophomore John Carber (6-4, 225), outstanding plebe lineman last year.
Bill Chescavage, coming back from a springtime knee operation, is the split end, Bill Sherrell, ex-tackle, the tight end. Both have to prove they can stay sound of limb. Dietzel has made a number of switches and is happiest over the shift of John Seymour, Army’s top rusher (539 yards) from tail to wing- back, and Sonny Stowers from wingback to guard behind Cunningham.
“Spectacularly successful” Dietzel says after a week’s appraisal. “Stowers will be really great as a guard.” Another newcomer besides Smith, Cook and Carber who will be useful is Sam Champi, from Seton Hall Prep, at split end.
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Apr 20, 2003
Army vs Air Force, 1963 – A look back at the 1963 Army- Air Force game.
The following is the storyline on the 1963 Army-Air Force Football game played at Soldier Field, Chicago. The entire Corps of cadets attended the contest in which Army prevailed, 14-10, winning in the last minute and a half, a close and hard-fought game between two new rivals—
ARMY WINS
Army Grounds Air Force 14-10 Steve Waldrop Scores 2 TD’S
GAME AT A GLANCE
ARMY (14) AIR FORCE (10)
16 First Downs 10
246 Yard, Rushing 73
45 Yards Passing 96
5 Passes Attempted 6
4 Passes Completed 5
83 Yards Lost Penalties 20
CHICAGO, November I, 1963— Halfback Ken Waldrop’s spectacular broken-field running, capped by a 17yard touchdown dash with just 81 seconds to play today brought Army back from behind to a 14-10 victory over Air Force.
Waldrop starred in the second service spectacle ever played in Chicago’s vast Soldier Field.
Even though President Kennedy canceled his appearance at the last minute, the classic drew 76,660 fans to watch the 2,500 corpsmen from each school in 45-degree temperature under sunny skies.
Army put on the show, but it took Waldrop’s brilliant running in the final half to give the favored Black Knights their sixth win-against one loss. It was the third defeat against four wins for Air Force, which has yet to beat another service academy.
HEYDT MISSES FG
Waldrop, Army’s leading ground-gainer sparked the Black Knights from behind with a 78-yard punt return to the Air Force one with only five minutes left in the third period. He got the touchdown on a one-yard plunge.
After Air Force retaliated to go ahead again, Waldrop powered a 65-yard drive for the Cadets. He carried four times for 34 yards, including the 17-yard touchdown jaunt.
Dick Heydt, Amy’s placekicking specialist, converted after both touchdowns. But he missed his first field-goal try in six attempts in the-first period in Army’s best scoring effort until Waldrop took charge.
Air Force’s Terry lsaacson completed a 47-yard pass to Fritz Greenlee to set up a one-yard scoring plunge by Isaacson for the Falcons’ only touchdown. Bart Zoladay kicked a 36-yard field goal for the Falcons’ other points.
AF STALLS
Air Force got across the 50 into Army territory only four times, one drive, stopping on the Cadets’ 40, and the other on the 39 when Ray Hawkins intercepted Isaacson’s pass.
Carl Stichweh, Army’s signal-caller, had one pass intercepted, by Joe O’Gorman, before Holaday’s field goal. But he gained five yards on four completions in eight attempts while Isaacson hit only five of 16 tries for 86 yards.
Army’s rushing line limited the Air Force to only 73 yards on the ground while Waldrop, who carried 76 yards in 15 tries, and his mates crashed through the Falcons for 246 yards.
Army 0 0 7 7-14
Air Force 0 3 0 7-10
SCORING-AF-FG Holaday 36. Army-Waldrop I plunge Heydt kick. AF-Isaacson I plunge Holaday kick. Army-Waldrop 17 run Heydt kick.
Attendance: 76,660.
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Apr 14, 2003
The Lonely end – RABBLE helps us take a look back at Blaik’s new offensive formation.
In the 1958 football season, Earl Blaiks last season as head football coach and athletic director at West Point, the colonel came up with a new offensive formation called the “lonely end” as it was dubbed by the nations media. It was a new “gimmick” created to keep opposing defenses confused and off-guard and as the article says, to create scoring opportunities. That it did.
by seasons end, Army had an undefeated season and was ranked number 3 in the national polls behind LSU and Iowa and finished 8-0-1 being tied only by Pittsburgh.
Joe Williams,columnist for the Buffalo, N.Y. Evening News wrote this article on October 20th of that year writing about Blaiks adeptness at creating what he described as “turmoil”—
ANOTHER ARMY ODDITY
SHY, MILD BLAIK ADEPT AT CREATING TURMOIL
by Joe Williams
Special to The Buffalo Evening News
NEW YORK, Oct. 20 1958 -For a mild-mannered, reserved gentleman who abhors turmoil and industriously shuns the spotlight, Col. Earl Blaik has demonstrated a strikingly anomalous talent for the controversial and the spectacular in college football. In the early ’40s it was two-platoon football. You’ll recall there was one team for offense, an entirely differ- ent one for defense, and whenever the occasion beckoned, there were one-play specialists to kick, pass, sprint, fake or impersonate MacArthur. Notwithstanding that the unlimited substitution rule which made this type of football possible had considerable support, there was dissent from responsible quarters, and as the antis increased in volume, if not in number, the Army coach made one of his rare appear- ances before the press.
By then platoon football had been on display long enough for the fans to get fully oriented. Most of them seemed to like it. Blaik’s chief contentions were (a) it made for a better, faster game (which it did), and (b) it gave more boys a chance to play (which was also true).
A vigorous, unremitting opponent was Gen. Bob Neyland, Tennessee coach, and fellow West Point alumnus. This had developed into a fight in which the old school tie and family loyalties carried no weight. Dave Camerer also enlisted with the rebels; Dave had starred in the line for Blaik at Dartmouth in the ’30s, and was “one of his boys.”
A central role in a public debate, which was not always held to a temperate key, was the last thing Blaik bargained for. Still, as has been noted, he didn’t hesi- tate to stand up and fight back. And it may be he was right all along. Each year the rules committee makes it easier to substitute. Soon all restraints may disappear again.
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The most widely publicized and engaging formation of the season is a thing called the “lonely end.” This is a Blaik creation. If it were just another flanker, as Notre Dame’s Terry Brennan likes to argue, it would not have aroused the curiosity it did, professionally or otherwise. The extreme distance from which the end is separated from the rest of the line is what makes it different. Five to 10 yards is the conventional distance. The “lonely end” is out 20 to 30. So far out, in fact, he never joins his teammates in the huddle and gets his signals by visual radar.
The basic purpose of the “lonely end” (as in all such gimmickry) is to keep the defense off balance and increase scoring opportunities. Although not abundantly stocked, Army has an uncommonly diversified arsenal, including right and left- hand passers, a bevy of fine receivers, two tremendous ball carriers, good team speed, a fullback you don’t hear much about, but who is made to order for the quick openers . . . and, for the first time in aeons, a quarter- back who can make the plays. Currently . . . for what it’s worth . . . Army is rated as the No. I team in the country.
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Apr 10, 2003
Army vs Navy, 1962 – Navy defeated Army 34-14 in 1962
In this three-part storyline from articles by Red Smith, Joe Williams and Gus Steiger, one can read how the 1962 Army- Navy Football game was all Navy, witnessed by a former Navy Lt., President John F. Kennedy. A year later less about a week, Kennedy was assasinated in Dallas, Texas, on that fateful day in November, 1963.
STAUBACH DAZZLES – THE HERO OF 34-14 WIN
By Gus Steiger
The New York Mirror (now defunct)
PHILADLPHIA- DECEMBER 1, 1962—“Today is ours,” the West Point Cadet Corps declared to the crowd of 98,616 in Philadelphia Stadium by means of a placard demonstration before the 63rd annual Army-Navy game got under way this summery, sunny afternoon. The young men from West Point were wrong, quite emphatically.
Led by Roger Staubach, a sophomore quarterback, Navy rode roughshod over Army to win by a lopsided 34-14 score in what was considered a toss-up engagement.
Thus did Paul Dietzel close out his first season as West Point coach in virtual disaster, while his opposite number, Wayne Hardin, registered an unprecedented achievement. Hardin scored his fourth straight triumph over Army, a first-time accomplishment for a Navy coach.
Before President Kennedy, assorted Washington officialdom and squads of military, Navy moved into the lead after 4 minutes, 21 seconds of play and never let go of its advantage on this 63-degree day, a day in stark contrast to previous service game inclemency.
To show a profit, Army knew beforehand it had to contain the youthful Staubach, 20-year-old, 6-2, 190-pound Cincinnati youngster. The Cadets fell far short of that requirement with dire results.
Staubach, a third-string back for Navy’s first three games this season, had a hand in scoring four of the winners’ five touchdowns. He ran brilliantly for two tallies, one two yards and the other 20, and passed twice for six-point aerials, for 12 yards to Neil Henderson and 65 yards to Nick Markoff.
Staubach had gone to the bench when Navy tallied its final TD on a five-yard toss from Ron Klemick to Jim Campbell.
Staubach dominated this contest in the manner of a Joe Bellino of recent Annapolis vintage.
The slender Ohioan completed 10 out of 12 passes for 204 yards. This in itself was a shining achievement but several times he got off throws when trapped and hurried behind the 1ine by Cadet defenders.
He gained 54 yards rushing, the best of any back on the field but he also was tossed for losses of 20 yards when seeking to pass for a net of 34. Closest to him was Army’s John Seymour with 43 yards rushing. On this afternoon’s spectacular note, Staubach finished a really brilliant season with 68 completions out of 97 throws for 982 yards and seven touchdowns. This was practically all gained after he attained varsity status for the last seven contests. His two six-pointers today gave him seven for the year.
As Casey Stengel might say, an amazing record for a sophomore back. Army did not look so bad in the statistics, but where so much was expected in this climax game of the Eastern college campaign, the Cadets looked lamentable indeed. Their supposedly crunching ground attack left much to be desired and their aerial defense was inadequate, to put it mildly.
They left Navy receivers completely unattended in the open, a glaring example being Markoff on his touchdown.
Army’s first tally came on a one-yard plunge by Don Parcells late in the second quarter following a 54-yard Cammy Lewis aerial to Bob Wright that put the ball or the two. That left the Cadets trailing by 15-6 at the half.
Far in arrears in the fourth quarter, the Cadets tallied again on a 64-yard, nine-play aerial drive with Lewis tossing out of the shot-gun aerial formation rather the “T”. Cammy hurled to Seymour from the two for the score and again to Joh Ellerson for the two conversion points.
The Cadets lost no time in falling in arrears and this was a matter of their own doing. After Pat Donnelly had caught them asleep with a 53-yard quick kick, LE Grasfeder passed far over Dick Peterson’s head when the Cadets dropped back to kick from their own 16. The toss sailed into the end zone and over the end line for an automatic safety.
Well along in the quarter, a 36-yard kick return by Joe Blackgrove got the soldiers on the move but, thwarted on the rival 20, Dick Heydt attempted a placement from the 27.
Navy’s response was an 80-yard, nine-play touchdown move, featured by a Staubach – Ed Merino 40-yard aerial and closed out by a Staubach toss to Henderson on the goal line from the 12.
Roger started Navy’s second touchdown advance with a 15-yard toss to Campbell and finished it off the 62-yard, nine-play march with a brilliant 20-yard dash wherein he avoided numerous efforts of the inept Cadets. Army then got on the scoreboard after Lewis’ 54-yard aerial to Wright.
Army sought to run the ball on fourth and five midway in the third on Navy’s 33-yard line. This was another Army error, for Navy took the ball on downs and a moment later Staubach ran to his left, stopped and tossed to Markoff, all alone in the right flat ten yards beyond the scrimmage line, for a 65-yard tally.
Late in the third frame, Campbell took a Staubach toss right out of the hands of Cadet Bill Clark, seeking to intercept, for a 53-yard play as the first gesture in an 89-yard, nine-play drive that culminated early in the fourth on Staubach’s two-yard run around end for his second six-pointer.
Army’s aerial touchdown drive followed the ensuing kickoff. But having scored again, the Soldiers gave it right back. After Navy had downed a Joe Ince boot on the rival four, Walt Pierce intercepted Lewis and ran back 10 yards to the Army five. Klemick immediately tossed to Campbell for the final score.
ARMY 0 6 0 8 – 14
NAVY 8 7 7 12- 34
STATISTICS
ARMY NAVY
First Downs 13 17
Rushing Yardage 120 102
Passing Yardage 138 220
Passes 8-13 12-15
Passes INT. by 0 2
Punts 2-31.5 5-45.5
Fumbles Lost 3 1
Yards Penalized 35 55
NAVY RAN THE SHOW LIKE CAPT. BLIGH
By Red Smith
The New York Herald-Tribune (now defunct)
December, 1962
When the corps of Cadets had marched onto the painted field, bright young scholars in the ranks lifted their hats to reveal white beanies covering their intelligent knobs. Studiously spaced, the yomulkas formed the letters: “Today is ours.” The first visit was to flip a coin for the kickoff, and formed the letters: “Today is ours.” The spelling was exemplary and the sentiment laudable. The date couldn’t have been more wrong.
As it turned out, there are some pretty fair spellers down at Annapolis’s, too, who decorated Navy’s glossy gold football helmets with Chinese characters reading, “Beat Army.” That the Midshipmen did, with swift, efficiency and sure confidence in the 63d renewal of their holy war with the men of West Point. Army’s elegantly arrayed platoons had the sartorial splendor but for the fourth year in a row Navy had the men and the muscles to take command of this football game at the outset and run the show with the hard-fisted tyranny of Capt. Bligh.
Except for a half-dozen Cadets who were Plebes in 1958 and are still in the Academy due to academic delays, there isn’t an undergraduate at West Point who has rooted Army in victory over its service rival. For that matter, there isn’t a President in the White House who has either. That old torpedo boat skipper, Lt. John F. Kennedy (ret.) sat bareheaded and coatless in the bitter winds of last November while Annapolis wrestled the military down, 13-7. He took a more active role in the proceedings Saturday in Philadelphia Stadium, twice making his appearance on the field.
The first visit was to flip a coin for the kickoff, and he spun the silver dollar as though he owned it. Navy won, and Steve Hoy, captain of the Annapolis team, got the Presidential silver. After watching the first half from Navy’s side of the field, Lt.
Kennedy crossed to the sunny Army Stands, with an honor guard of Cadets and Midshipmen making an aisle for him. When he was halfway across, a weaving character wearing an olive-green sports shirt burst through the uniformed ranks and was almost within arm’s reach of the President when Secret Service men grabbed him. Chances are the guy was only trying to make a touch, and at the moment it offered an object lesson in the un-wisdom of giving away dollars in public. As cops hustled the bum away, however, a small shudder swept over 100,000 witnesses: with a sudden chill of horror, they were realizing what could have happened if the stranger had been “loaded” in a mote literal sense than he was.
In a football sense, it was the Midshipmen who were loaded to the teeth. They had more weapons than Army and bigger ones, and the biggest of all was Roger Staubach, their sterling sophomore quarterback. That strapping young man from Cincinnati threw passes for two touchdowns and ran for two others before retiring to watch while his colleagues scored a fifth. (Five visits to the Army end zone, two conversions and the safety which opened the scoring made up the final score of 34-14.) It wasn’t as though Army hadn’t heard of Staubach. Thoroughly briefed on the young man’s gifts as a passer, the Cadets rushed him hungrily, hounding him all over the field. But this is a boy who dotes on abuse, then rises to strike back swiftly.
He would scoot and scamper and duck and dodge, gambling many yards by retreating, then suddenly circle away from pursuit and throw a strike. He may not have been the deciding factor, for Navy held all the winning cards of this game, but it was Staubach who made it a rout.
This was Navy’s first encounter with Paul Dietzel’s three widely advertised platoons-the regulars, the go team and the exotic Chinese Bandits. On the field, the men of Annapolis handled all three units with impartial brusqueness, and in the Navy stands there was gay derision of the Dietzel theatrics.
The Oriental lettering on the Navy headgear was meant derisively, of course, and whenever the Bandits went into action, the Annapolis cheering section flowered with tiny American flags suggesting that homegrown brigands were good enough on the Severn River.
NAVY SOPH ANOTHER RED CAGLE
By Joe Williams
The New York World-Telegram and the Sun (now defunct)
December, 1962
For the first time in the history of the Army-Navy brass-and-gold series, Navy football players were identified last Saturday by names stitched to the back of their jerseys. This was designed as a spectator service and as such was commendable.
There was one Navy player, however, who needed identification about as much as does the Statue of Liberty. This was a 20-year-old sophomore, name of Roger Staubach, who just might be the best college quarterback of the year.
The Cincinnati youngster stole the show. He even took the play away from President John F. Kennedy. It probably would have been the same even if the nation’s Chief Excutive had been accompanied by the glamorous Jacqueline and button cute Caroline.
Realistically, there can be no such thing as a one-man team in any sport, but this 6-2, 190-pounder came very close to being precisely that. Certainly, he was decidedly the difference as Navy backed up Army for the fourth successive year.
Besides his passing and running, which were superb, the dazzling Dutchman performed feats of sorcery that left the Cadets gasping in disbelief. They could have him completely surrounded, only to find when they closed in that he had magically evaporated into the shimmering Philadelphia sun.
“I never saw anything like that boy since Red Cagle,” said Col Earl (Red) Blaik after the Cadets’ latest frustration.
Blaik would know about Cagle. So would some of us other old- timers. Blaik was the Army backfield coach during Cagle’s tenure. Cagle also ran, passed and cut exceedingly well. And like the precocious Navy hero, he also was an astounding escape artist.
I still retain a vivid montage of a wildly implausible breakaway Cagle executed at the expense of one of Pop Warner’s Stanford teams in Yankee Stadium before 88,000 fans, believed to be the largest crowd ever to see a football game in New York.
The play may have started as a pass. Anyway, it soon became a crazy mixed-up run, with all of the Stanfords in pursuit. Cagle, rushed, ran backward, then from one sideline to the other, eluding tackler after tackler. Finally, apparently hopelessly trapped, he sifted through a wall of straining arms and churning feet and, incredibly, was off for 60 yards. All told, he must have covered 200.
Blaik’s comparison is perfect. Staubach is a carbon-copy Cagle, spectacular, mercurial, practically ectoplasmic.
What makes Staubach tick? A large part of the answer is football instinct plus a rousing zest for the game. Add to these attributes the essentials of skills and physique, and the total is something extra special.
At the post-game press conference, no one was unkind enough to intrude on Wayne Hardin’s joy by asking the young Navy coach why he had waited until the fourth game of the season to exploit Staubach, prior to then little more than a silhouette on the third team.
All the youngster did when Hardin turned him loose against Cornell was drive the Middies to six TDs, score two himself, complete 9 of 11 passes and weave through a half-dozen Big Red tacklers on a 68-yard gallop.
Like all coaches, Hardin probably was reluctant to entrust the steering wheel to a sophomore.
In losing, the Cadets gave it all they had. It was far from enough not with the day the dazzling Dutchman was having. The Cadets were desperately eager to win this one; if they failed, it meant an entire generation of West Pointers would graduate without having once seen Army beat Navy.
The tension showed in frequent off- sides and the Chinese Bandits did not live. up to their awesome’ billing. And it wasn’t until late in the game, with hope all but gone, that the Cadets settled down and began to play with poise and precision.
No one could have been more disappointed than coach Paul Dietzel, who has done so much to fire the enthusiasm of the corps. He had replaced Dale Hall, dismissed after losing three in a row to Navy. Tacitly, his No. 1 assignment from the brass was to beat the ancient enemy . . . and, if Hardin had waited until next season to discover Staubach the star back, the new coach would almost surely have been able to report “mission accomplished. Sir.”
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Apr 8, 2003
Paul Dietzel – Paul Dietzel coached Army in the early 1960s.
One week after the hiring of Paul Dietzel as the new head man at West Point, the furor attached to him leaving the LSU Tigers as their head coach with time remaining on his contract was starting to subside. The Board of Trustees at LSU had given coach Dietzel his unconditional release and the fans were starting to accept the fact that the coach who led their team to a national championship in 1958, was no longer going to be their coach.
New York columnist Dan Daniel, wrote the following article expressing his opinion that Dietzel was the right choice to succeed Dale Hall who had been fired three weeks before with a year to go on his contract with Army.
Thus Paul Dietzel, former assistant to Red Blaik at the academy became the first non-graduate of West Point to take over the reins of head coach in more than half a century
ARMY WAS RIGHT IN GRABBING DIETZEL
By Dan Daniel
N.Y. World Telegram-and The Sun
January, 1962
For the past week I have been trying valiantly to digest sports page comment on the case of the fleeting football coach. With four years to go on his contract with Louisiana State University, where he received an annual salary of $18,500, Paul Dietzel asked to be released to shift to West Point at a similar salary. West Point joined in his plea.
Dietzel, with house rent-free and marketing facilities at PX prices, is $5,000 better off than he was at Baton Rouge,La. Once again, reviewing the job which commentators did on Dietzel’s flight from the Bayous, I find there was a lot of pussy footing and dodging. Many writers feel impelled to give the military academy a tanning for going after a coach under contract. But they threw cream puffs.
I don’t believe Army did anything reprehensible. Having fired Dale Hall because he had lost three straight Navy games, and having decided to abandon the ancient system of picking West Pointers as its football coaches. Army went after the best man for the job and grabbed Dietzel. Contracts with football coaches actually bind only the colleges involved. If a coach is fired before expiration of his pact, he must be paid off. If on the other hand, he wants to leave before his term runs out, holding him captive would hurt his coaching, and his team.
I condone Army’s stealing Dietzel because I agree with Pentagon brass that West Point should have the greatest football team and the best in coaching. Annapolis, too, should be thus equipped but the urgency for top position there not quite so great as it is at the Point. Russia may not give a damn about the class of Army football teams. But we cannot afford to have West Point elevens kicked around and Soviet attention called to the situation.
Now let us take a look at Dietzel. Many of the sports page reviewers have gone out of their way to stress his manly beauty. Most of the pieces referred to him as handsome. Be that as it may, Paul will produce or get heaved even, as was Dale Hall, handsome or ugly. I did not class Knute Rockne and Pop Warner as matinee idols. Red Blaik was passable. But they all had to win. I know one of the greatest surgeons in the country and he looks like Dracula.
Of course, in getting away from Baton Rouge, from LSU recruiting duties and the LSU gridiron furor, Dietzel did himself a lot of good. But in accepting $18,500, Paul made a sucker deal and Army stuck to a cheap policy.
Coaching at the Point could produce ulcers. The responsibilities toward the Cadets, toward the Pentagon, toward the great American football public, are greater than those besetting a coach in any other institution in the college field. Its tough to get into West Point and it’s extremely difficult to stay in, especially since those cribbing scandals. Having been an assistant to Red Blaik, Paul took the post with complete awareness of the strains involved.
Inducements offered to qualifying young men by the academy are attractive enough. But they don’t begin to compare with the grants-in-aid and other financial arrangements, in addition to curriculum easements, which are thrown at gridiron material in the LSU area of competition. LSU’s chagrin over having lost Dietzel already has worn off. From an Associated Press story out of Baton Rouge, it would appear that Army grabbed the wrong man and should have taken Charlie McClendon, his assistant, who has landed Paul’s job.
The dispatch hollers: “Charlie McClendon, the man who built Louisiana State’s unyielding defense,” etc. The next paragraph shouts: “McClendon long was believed to be the man behind the scene in LSU’s football success.”
In short, West Point left the power behind the LSU throne at Baton Rouge.
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Apr 7, 2003
Army vs Navy; 1957 – Navy defeated Army 14=0 in 1957. Here’s what happened.
A soggy mess met both Army and Navy for their 1957 encounter in Municipal Stadium, Philadelphia. The sun only shined on the Navy team that rainy afternoon as the Mids rode rampant over the Cadets showing no mercy by cruising to an easy 14-0 victory before the usual 100,000 plus crowd. A long day for the Army team–
STRONG LINE PLAY HALTS CADETS, 14-0
Middies to Face Rice on Jan. 1 In Dallas
PHILADELPHIA — Ned Oldham, hobbled by a knee injury since midseason led Navy into the Cotton Bowl on a 14-0 victory over Army Saturday. The Middies will meet Rice in the New Year’s Day classic at Dallas. The decision to accept the bowl bid was made on a ballot by the Middies in their dressing room.
Rice Saturday trimmed Baylor, 20-0 to win the Southwest Conference championship and an automatic invitation as host team.
Oldham drove through a host of defenders on a six-yard touchdown: run in the first period and ran 44 yards on a punt return for the second score early in the fourth period.
Converts Twice
Just to keep things in the family, the 21-year-old captain of the Navy team from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, also converted twice. Navy’s two-deep line and sturdy defense contained Bob Anderson and Pete Dawkins, the halfbacks who had scored in every previous Army game. It was the first time the highs coring Cadets had been shut out all season.
While a crowd of 101,000 watched on a gloomy, rain-soaked afternoon at Municipal Stadium, Navy took charge of this 58th renewal and never let up. The going got a little rugged after the second Navy touchdown when Navy’s Bob Reifsnyder and Army’s Bill Melnik were ejected for tossing a few left hooks. Navy had intercepted an Army pass on the play but it was nullified by the balancing penalties.
Oldham, who was hurt in the Penn game and saw only limited action in recent weeks, made up for that enforced “vacation” by his brilliant offensive and defensive play.
Real Story
But the real story Of this ball game was the rock and sock play of the Navy line and the tightly knit defense that made the Middies second in the nation on total defense.
Army made one serious march early in the second period as they drove all the way to the Navy 9 before a mix up in the backfield resulted in a fumble that Navy’s Bob Caldwell finally recovered on the Navy 10. On the play the Army backs appeared to miss a count and the team was off sides before Dave Bourland took the ball.
Although the Cadets intercepted two of Tom Forrestal’s passes in that frantic second period, the Navy held twice for downs in its own territory.
Army had another chance to score in the third period when a long, booming punt by Vin Barta was fumbled by Harry Hurst and recovered by Melnik on the Navy 19.
On a fourth down and six to go situation, Bourland’s pass was intercepted by Forrestal in the end zone for an automatic touchback.
Don Usry, the Army left end, had maneuvered into position behind Forrestal but the Navy quarterback leaped into the air to pick it off. That was the ball game. Heavy rains in the morning which slackened by the kickoff but picked up at times during the contest were a definite factor. The field remained covered until game time but the traditional parade of the cadets and midshipmen was cancelled.
NAVY 7 0 0 7-14
ARMY 0 0 0 0- 0
Navy scoring–Touchdowns: Oldham 2 (6-yard run; 44-yard punt return.) Conversions: Oldham 2.
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Apr 6, 2003
Johnny Lujack – RABBLE talks about Notre Dame great, Johnny Jujack
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Mar 31, 2003
Army vs Penn State, 1961 – ArmySports.com takes a look back at Army’s 1961 win over Penn State.
ArmySports.com takes a look back at the 1961 classic meeting between Army and Penn State through the eyes of the now defunct Newark Evening News. Army won 10-6. It was a huge upset win for the Cadets because the Army team had been crushed at Ann Arbor against Michigan the previous week by a score of 38-8.
By Len Elliott
Army’s Stutter~ Option to Short Side Bothers Penn State
ARMY detonated the big surprise of Eastern football Saturday, when it beat Penn State among the fog-topped mountains of central Pennsylvania, Army didn’t do it on a fluke either; the Cadets looked like the hotter team and they were.
Army won this one for several reasons. One was a piece of ingenuity by Coach Dale Hall, one which should strengthen our faith in the armed forces. A second was the high resolution of the team, which was smarting from its humiliation at Michigan the, week before; seven of the starting eleven were Pennsylvania boys too, and were playing before families and friends. A third factor was Penn State’s inability to-make its attack move consistently without its top quarterback, Galen Hall.
The first Hall, Army’s Dale, did two things last week which had a decisive bearing on the game. First he moved Joe Blackgrove, who had been alternating with Dick Eckert at quarterback, to left half. He put Blackgrove there to give Army some running speed to the outside.
Blackgrove, redheaded son of an Army sergeant, has speed, elusiveness and surprising drive, considering that he weighs only 168 pounds. He had been used last year almost solely as a specialist to run back kicks. Turning the Short Side ALL’S other accomplishment was to ‘devise a way to get around the short side of Army’s unbalanced line without using the undersized Blackgrove as a blocker. He did it by coming up with what appears to be a new maneuver in offensive football. It was new to Penn State, anyway. the play could be called a delayed, or stutter, option. In this it differs from the belly option, the Faurot option and the rollout option, although it is closer to the Faurot than anything.
Army worked it this way. The team, for instance, would line up in right formation, with the lonely end far out and the line unbalanced. Blackgrove, the left half in the solid T, goes in extended motion to the right, or strong side. As he gets the ball from the center, Dick Eckert fakes to Al Rushatz, the fullback, who goes in as though on a fullback trap play, and a guard pulls. Eckert fakes to Rushatz, delays slightly with a couple of stutter steps, so the guard can get ahead of him, and then sets sail to the short side with the right halfback going with him as the pitch man.
Then the option develops. If the end, or the corner man if there is one, goes for Eckert, he pitches out to the right half and the latter turns the corner with the pulling guard in front of him. If the end softens to the outside for the pitch man, Eckert keeps the ball and goes inside him.
Fake Deceived Lions
ECKERT made the play beautifully against Penn State. He pitched out to Pete King once for 25 yards, to Ray Paske once for 30, to King again for nine. The long one by King almost went for a touchdown, only a lastditch tackle by Pete Liske averting it. King’s big gain put State in a bad hole, however, from which the Lions never recovered until Army had scored.
Apparently, as it was explained, the moves that make this option work are the fake to the fullback inside and the guard pulling. It looks like a trap and thus holds the linebacker and the tackle, and has the general effect of delaying pursuit. Anyway, it worked against Penn State and looked like a good way for the unbalanced T to get around the short side.
Going to the strong side Army uses the usual belly option and Blackgrove and Eckert ran this very well. Eckert got the touchdown drive started with it and Blackgrove’s running got the Cadets into range for a field goal. With Blackgrove at halfback Army crossed up everybody by practically refusing to throw the ball. Out of 70 offensive plays, only seven were passes-and six of them complete. So the Cadets now appear to have the balance, when they want to use it that will make them even more dangerous.
Galen Hall Missed
PENN STATE apparently needs Galen Hall at quarterback, badly. Neither Liske, essentially a defensive player, nor Don Caurn could get the team moving for more than two drives. The first of these ended with an interception and so would the second, if offsetting penalties had not canceled the play.
The Lions had a big chance early, when King fumbled away a fair catch on the Army 29. But State tried to run the ball, then missed a pass on third and six and had to settle for a field goal try. Had they scored then the game might have been different. As it was, they never got into a threatening position again until late in the third period. Penn State must be given an accolade for one move. The ground crew was routed out of bed at midnight, soon after the rain began, and had the field covered before 1 a.m.
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Mar 30, 2003
Army vs Navy, 1959 – A look back on another season in which Navy pounded Army.
The 1959 and 2002 Army-Navy football games have a lot in common. Army scored 12 points in each game and Navy won big. The 1959 game saw the Midshipmen come away 43-12 winner on a day in which nothing went right for the Cadets.
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
By ARTHUR DALEY
The New York Times
November, 1959
NAUTICAL BUT NICE
The midshipmen who handled. the side show gimmicks for the Army-Navy game let themselves be carried away beforehand by a wave of optimism that seemed to border on the ridiculous. Their plans called for the release of a balloon whenever the future admirals scored a touchdown. And each balloon would waft with it into the atmosphere a West Point jacket. If these nautical stage directors had listened to the experts, they would have made ready one or two jackets at most. But they let themselves be swept into the emotional tide of the “Beat Army” fervor that saturated Annapolis last week and rashly brought with them five coats of cadet gray, a wildly extravagant estimate.
Thereupon Navy scored six touchdowns in its rout on the Black Knights. What had appeared to be sheer presumption was nothing of the sort. So the last balloon arose without a cargo. By that time few noticed and none cared. The middies had given the cadets a record trouncing, 43 to 12, as stunning a result as this old series has produced.
The Rout
Once upon a time football was strictly a team game, with responsibility shared by each of eleven men. But the T-formation has so distorted values that the quarterback now is two, or three or ten times as important as anyone else. When the quarterback has a bad day, it invariably means trouble.
It isn’t pleasant to point the finger at one young man and pin the blame on him, especially when he’s an amateur who plays on one of the most amateur college teams in the land. But there is no way to avoid facts.
Joe Caldwell of Army is certain to get considerable mention for all-America honors this season and deservedly so. He has been one of the finest collegiate forward passers in the land. He went into his final game with a record of ninety-nine completions in 165 attempts for 1,228 yards and an efficiency mark of 60 per cent.
But he started in stumbling fashion against Navy and never regained his equilibrium until the last couple of minutes, when he completed four aerials for 69 yards. Toss that out of consideration. It was too little and too late. The true statistics and the ones that had direct bearing on the result were the ones that were compiled earlier. Here’s the horror story in chronological detail: Six incompletions, a touchdown pass for 29 yards, five incompletions, an interception, an accidental completion for 18 yards after a Navy defender deflected the ball, an incompletion and an interception. This strains credulity.
Luck, All Bad
Caldwell just had one of those incomprehensible days that will befall every football player. Cruel fate ordained that it would come against Navy. But Lady Luck buffeted Army all afternoon, especially Caldwell. He is a competent punter. On Saturday, he uncorked one kick that skidded off his foot for 11 yards. He’d boot the ball and the playful pigskin would refuse to roll, but would stop dead or bounce backward. It was a day of almost total frustration.
Navy was no help to Army in its time of dire need. The middies clamped on the pressure early and never relaxed it. Their line hounded Caldwell as he had not been hounded all season. The fleet backfield defenders convoyed the receivers so tightly, that the cadet passer had difficulty In finding targets. When he found them, his hurried throws invariably overshot their marks.
Not only were the sailors rock-ribbed on defense, but they also were afire in every direction. On the offense they tore and slashed almost at will. Joe Tranchini was the quarterback Caldwell was supposed to be but wasn’t.
He was a sharp shooting passer and as mystifying as he was adroit as a ball-handler. For much of the game he didn’t have a fullback but had three halfbacks behind the line with him. He exploited them shrewdly, especially Joe Bellino and Ronnie Brandquist.
Bunko Game
When the cadets keyed two backers-up to halt Bellino, the alert Tranchini sprang Brandquist for big gains. Then he’d whipsaw Army, using one as a decoy, popping through the other. He faked beautifully on the ride series and Army would converge on a halfback who didn’t have the ball. Tranchini would be back to pass against confused defenses. Once he bootlegged for a touchdown.
It was a stunning exhibition of one team getting stronger as it progressed and the other crumbling before an inexorable pounding. The corps of Cadets watched with growing dismay and disbelief.
Wayne Hardin, the Navy coach, thus engineered one of the great upsets of the series. If he coaches at Annapolis for the next hundred years he’s unlikely to have a finer hour.
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Mar 25, 2003
Army-Navy, 1952 – A look back at a classic Army-Navy game, played over 50 years ago, which the Midshipmen won 7-0.
Army fans have seen a great deal of good and spirited football played by their team over the last 50 years. Many great games have been played by the cadets over that post- war span to fill many a book but none of which for the most part captured the rich tradition and history of the Army’s biggest game of any year, The Navy Game.
50 years ago last fall Army played one of those interesting, tough and competitive games with their arch-rival that will be long remembered, not so much for the quality of that contest, but the closeness of the final score in which the Mids prevailed by a touchdown.
The following is an article describing that game—
SPORTS IN THE NEWS
By Hy Goldberg
The Newark Evening News
November, 1952
Cadets, Midshipmen Follow President’s Example in Battle of Fumbles
PHILADELPHIA— President Truman set the pattern for the 53rd Army-Navy football game in vast Municipal Stadium yesterday. For the remainder of the bright, frosty afternoon, the future admirals and generals followed closely the example of the man who will not be their commander-in-chief by the time they are commissioned officers.
Not many persons in the crowd of 102,000 were in a position to observe the President as he flipped a coin in the presence of the two team captains, Midshipman John Gurski and Cadet Al Paulekas. The President tossed a silver dollar into the air and, as it came down, it eluded his grasp and he was forced to fumble around on the ground before he tried it again and determined that Army preferred to receive the kickoff.
If it’s good enough for the President, it’s good enough for us, the Middies and Cadets must have said to themselves, for they proceeded to stumble, fumble and, throw erratic passes all over the field of play. The Navy won, 7-0, but it wasn’t because their opperatives didn’t make a noble effort to present the West Pointers one opportunity after another. By the same token, the Navy, established by pre-game appraisers, the superior power, went through some remarkable maneuvers in an attempt to disprove it. That was true right down to the final whistle.
Perfect for the Bookies
Coach Eddie Erdelatz and the vociferous brigade of midshipmen in the stands were happy enough to win by any score, but those final seconds and last few inches were a mortal blow to any one who risked a few bob on the boys from Annapolis. The bookmakers had established a spread of six and eight points, which means the man who wagered on Navy gave eight points and any one who liked the Army took six.
The seven-point margin cut the spread right down the middle and the bookies pocketed most of the money. Or aren’t there any betting “agents” left in the land these days?
As the ball squirted continually out of the hands of the young men in the moleskins, a baseball fan in the gathering. bellowed, “Let’s examine the ball.” That’s a favorite practice of the big league managers when they suspect the pitcher of tampering with the pellet and considering how clear and dry the day was, the pigskin was a remarkably slippery object.
Before the contest was a minute old, both sides had proved they were badly in need of the electric blanket President Truman uses to keep himself warm when he encounters bona fide football weather. Mario De Lucia fumbled the ball away on Army’s first play from scrimmage and Fred Franco followed suit the first time the Middies tried to run a play.
Overpowered Only on Paper
Watching in startled disbelief, the spectator was apt to murmur to himself, “Well, the boys must be given a little time to get their bearings”. But, If the Cadets were overpowered- as they were supposed to be on piper-the Middles must have using a defective compass. Except for the closing minutes of the first period, when Phil Monahan plunged over for the lone touchdown, and final seconds of play, they invariably moved in the wrong direction.
When Franco and Monahan endeavored to run with the ball, they invariably encountered a couple of Cadets named Ed Weaver and Ron Lincoln. If they met the defending Army boys with a sufficiently hard jolt, they and their fellow backs obliged by dropping the ball.
Each of the succeeding three periods started very much like the opening quarter. As the second chukker opened, Don Fisher, Navy halfback, fumbled and Weaver recovered for Army. Before the half ended, Don Cameron had fumbled the ball away for Navy. Bob Mischak had done likewise for Army, John Weaver had intercepted a pass thrown by Pete Vann, Franco had lost the ball back to the Cadets and Attaya immediately had returned it to the Middles in the same fashion.
Navy’s outstanding lineman all season has been Steve Eisenhauer, a guard from Sheffield, Pa., who-believe it or not-is known as “Ike.” The crowd cognizant of the presence of the current resident in the White House, waited patiently for the public address system to give forth, “tackled by Eisenhauer,” an announcement that could have been good for a slight chuckle.
Alas, the opportunity presented itself only on rare occasions largely because the Cadets didn’t give the Navy defenders much chance to tackle them. They had possession of the ball four times in the first period-only once for as many as four successive plays.
Three Out of Four
Navy’s interceptors had a better average than that during the third period. The Cadets had the ball for a total of four plays during the first 12 minutes and three Army aerials were intercepted, two of Vann’s and one of Dick Boyle’s. The latter’s throw was snared by Charley Sieber, who had just entered the game but got the idea immediately.
Of course, the Middies weren’t completely idle during that stretch. Frank Adorney fumbled the ball away once and Tony Correnti, who intercepted one of Vann’s passes, promptly lost his hold on the ball-but his teammate, John Weaver, recovered with the loss of a mere 20 yards. Dean Smith, one of the Navy backs, likewise committed a miscue, but he was too close to the sidelines and. when the ball bounded outside, Navy was ruled the possessor, since Smith was the last man to touch it.
During the brief lapse between third and fourth periods, coaches of both teams must have anointed hands of the athletes with glue-or perhaps they surreptitiously skipped up to the press box on the rim of the stadium for a peek at the statistics. The figures would have been enough to shock them into deadly determination, for they showed that the Navy had lost the ball five times on fumbles, the Army thrice, that the Middies had intercepted four passes and the Cadets one. At any rate, there was no more of that nonsense. The Cadets reached Navy territory for the first time under their own power before the Middies stopped them on the 40 and Navy went charging right back.
Thus ended the annual service battle, with the 102,000 spectators finding more and more excuses in the chill twilight to reach for the hip and the athletes convinced that the football does, indeed, take peculiar bounces.
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Mar 24, 2003
Army vs West Virginia, 1961 – A look back at the 1961 Army vs West Virginia football game.
ACCORDING to both of New York’s eight-column morning-papers, and maybe the tabloids, too, which are out of reach at the moment, West Virginia has a “hard-bitten” football team. It is not clear whether this was a reference to the fact that before upending Army on Saturday 7-3, the Mountaineers had been bitten by Richmond, 35-26; Vanderbilt, 16-6; Syracuse, 29-14, and Boston University, 32-6.
Spectators in Michie Stadium were mildly entertained to learn that the men of Morgantown are not only hard-bitten but also hard-of-hearing. The discovery Provided the livelie few minutes in the whole long, lovely, tedious afternoon in the hills above the Hudson, where every prospect pleases and only the football is vile. Or was this day.
In the first quarter West Virginia lined up in the slot T on its own 40-yard line, fourth down and a yard to go. Urgently the corps of Cadets in the west stands called upon the defense to stop the running play and take possession, Fred Colvard, the West Virginia quarterback, lifted widespread arms and flapped his hands for silence. The howls of the Military increased. Apparently unable to hear the quarterback’s signals, West Virginia straggled back into a huddle while the officials stood around helplessly, letting the clock run.
After a while Colvard carried the ball and either did or did not gain the yard required for first down. The referee gave, him benefit of the doubt, which was fair enough considering that the rules provide a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct by non-players.
Tbey Also Serve
Two Plays later the auricular indisposition of the mountain X men again brought proceedings to a halt, and again the officials set an example of fearless irresolution. At length the non-combat troops, having had their fun, left off hooting and mocked their visitors by shooshing in chorus, sending up a hiss like escaping steam.
As the teams changed goals for the second quarter, a voice over the public address system warned that a 15-yard penalty would be imposed unless there was quiet during the signal-calling. The Cadets jeered, but behaved themselves thereaf ter.
This was unimaginative of them, for now Army had the ball, If they had drowned out the signals of their own quarterback, Dick Eckert, the house dicks in knickers presumably would have slapped West Virginia for 15 yards.
It would have been Army’s smartest play of the day, and just about the biggest single gain. Lord knows , the West Point offense needed all the help it could get.
Big Boy from Bartmiarsviffe
It was a very bad football game and it left the witnesses wondering how on earth Army managed to beat such a menace as Penn State and, for that matter, what magic West Virginia employed to knock off Pittsburgh.
The only highlight was the powerful running of Glenn Holton a richly endowed athlete from Barboursville, W. Va., who is only 19 and a sophomore. This tall fullback, now a little under his listed weight of 193 pounds, rushed with shocking violence through Army’s middle, held his feet well and changed directions sharply. He appeared to have good speed in addition to his resolution and strength.
Indeed, all the West Virginia backs seemed considerably faster than Army’s. Joe Blackgrove, nearest approach to a breakaway runner in the West Point backfield, couldn’t get loose and Eckert’s passes were wildly inaccurate, although up to this game the quarterback’s .652 percentage of completions led the country.
The charitable view would credit West Virginia’s persistent defenders-some of whom were also conspicuously potbelliedfor smothering the Army attack, and applaud the West Point pursuit and gang-tackling with special mention of the rush against West Virginia pass plays. The truth is, though, that New York cops give bookmakers better protection free than the West Virginia quarterbacks could buy from their colleagues.
Playing Slow and Loose
T is also true that the game was thrown away rather than won, that every point was a gift and neither team has scored yet on merit.
A fumbled kick-off starting the second half handed Army the only opportunity Army seized. Recovering on West Virginia’s 32-yard line, the military made one first down but then fell back, settling for three points on a 40-yard place-kick by Dick Heydt.
Whenever Army was in punt formation, the center had trouble getting the ball back to the kicker. At length a fourthdown snapback eluded Dick Peterson altogether, rolling to the West Point 13 where it was West Virginia’s ball.
On first down the invaluable Holton went four yards on a slant to his right. On second down Colvard threw into the end zone where Army’s Al Rushatz and Pete King were playing Indians to Ken Herock’s Custer. “Enough of this nonsense,” said Holton, taking the handoff on third down and setting sail.
He made it with a starboard tack and a reach to port. The autumn foliage was magnificent.
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Mar 21, 2003
Army’s So-Called “Soft” Schedule of 1961 – Army’s 1961 schedule caused some flak.
1961 TV Guide promoting Army-Navy game. By RABBLE
Posted Mar 21, 2003
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RABBLE takes a look back at the 1961 season through the eyes of The New York Daily News.
INSIDE SPORTS
by Gene Ward
New York Daily News September 24, 1960
College Football fans know how lucky they are to have the Pitt Panthers in their hometown playing a rough, tough schedule season after season This year the followers of Pitt will be able to watch the Panthers in home matches with Baylor, West Virginia, Navy, Notre Dame, USC and Penn State, a lineup which turns a New Yorker green with envy.
Big town fans, who once feasted on the strong Saturday fodder dished up by Fordham, NYU and Manhattan against standout intersectional opposition-and Columbia, used to have an attractive menu before the Ivy league went anemic- now are starving. They’ve been reduced to an acceptance of television’s watered- down version of the great fall pastime, which is like settling for soda pop over bourbon.
The situation is worse than that this year. Army, one remaining big league college team in the metropolitan area, has fallen afoul of panty waist scheduling with the weakest and most unrepresentative schedule in the Academy’s athletic history.
This year the once glamorous Black Knights have hit bottom with a schedule which includes six Peter Popover rivals and only four true caliber teams of major league caliber.
Only 4 Worthy Opponents on Slate
The Cadets picked on little Richmond last Saturday and this week play host to Boston U.; another breather. The rest of the home slate reads: Idaho, West Virginia, Detroit and William & Mary, not a top-30 team in the batch. This leaves only Michigan, Penn State, Oklahoma and Navy as worthy opponents.
If the Cadets won every game it’s doubtful Army would be ranked among the first 10 in the nation, You don’t gain prestige by clobbering your little brother.
The standard gag going the rounds is being put in question form: “How come Army missed scheduling the White House touch football team?” Coach Dale Hall and his staff, as well as the athletic brass at West Point, have been subjected to this form of ribbing for weeks now, and they’re earing a little raw, Td say Army is en-ibarrassed would be putting it mildly. It borders on humiliation because the always-touchy subject of Academy pride is involved.
We certainly would hate to be in the brogans of any Army adherent attempting to defend this Little Lord’ Fauhtleroy program against a Navy man.
Although the Annapolis Sailors aren’t playing quite as tough a schedule as usual, it still makesthe Soldiers’ slate look like sandlot outings. Navy opened with Penn State, a team ranked No. 1 inthe East, faces Miami next and on its 16-game schedule only William & Mary. Cornell and Detroit can be called soft touches.
Starting Oct. 28, the Sailors go against Pitt, Notre Dame, Duke and’Virginia before moving into the Annual battle in Philadelphia against Army.
It could just be that the Naval Academy’s tough schedule policy has been a factor in the.team’s success against Army in recent years. They have knocked over the Cadets four tinies in the last seven seasons as against two setbacks and a tie.
Blaik Disclaims Blame for Situation
Who’s to blaine for the sorry situation? The brass at West Point isn’t saying but, at the same time, it is refusing to accept the knocks. The office of Col. Hank Adams, in his third year as athletic director, points out that scheduling is done anywhere from five to 10 years in advance, so it couldn’t be the Colonel’s fault.
Not the fault of the present super, either, because it was most pointedly pointed out by a spokesman that Maj. Gen. W. C: Westmoreland has been in office less than two years. This would seem to place the blame for the snafu squarely on Earl (Red) Blaik, who resigned as head coach, athletic director and chairman of the athletic board at the close of the 1958 season. These pushovers were signed while Red was at the lielm, but he, too, is refusing to be made the goat.
Blaik, now chairman – of the board of Aveo Corp. in New York, left many fine things to his successor, Dale Hall, but he claims this embarrassing 1961 schedule was not one of them. In fact, on one of his several visits to West Point for practice sessions last spring, Red told Hall the sorry schedule was none of his doing.
It was just at the time that the current slate was being booked that Blaik’s troubles with Lt. Gen. Gar Davidson, then the West Point super, began to boil. Blaik found his control of the athletic department, which included the final word on schedule making, was being taken away from him and by the end of 1958 he had fought it, up to here.
All of this buck-passing doesn’t change the situation. New York fans still have lost, for this season at least, the only metropolitan area team
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Mar 13, 2003
Army-Navy 1946 – A look back at the 1946 Army-Navy game.
by Glenn Davis
14 Years after Glenn Davis played his last game for Army, he wrote an article exclusively for the Associated Press recalling one of the greatest Army-Navy football games in its long and storied history. The following is that story. Dateline—October, 1960.
GRID EXPERTS TALK
DAVIS CANT FORGET 1946 ARMY-NAVY GAME
By Glenn (Junior) Davis
3-Time All-America At West Point (1944-45-46) Heisman and Maxwell Trophy Winner ( 1946) College Football Hall of Fame)
This was the final football game of my college career and the one I shall always remember. It was the Army-Navy game, 1946.
The Army record for three years was 33 won, one tie and no defeats. If we could get by Navy it would be the most successful three years in modern college football. On the other hand, if we lost we might go down in the recod book as “just another team”.
Our team, was confident. Weren’t we playing a Navy team that had lost its last seven games? Hadn’t the newspaper so made us a solid 21-point favorite? Navy kicked oft, Army went right down the field and scored in fact, the first three times we got our hands on the ball we scored.
At half-time,the score was Army 21, Navy 0. In our dressing room you could hear such remarks as, “let’s make it 50-0,” and “they couldn’t break a paper bag the way they’re blocking today.” During the balf-time break, Col. Earl Blaik and the assistant coaches were trying to correct first half mistakes and make some new plays for the final two quarters. But no one was really paying much attention.
Running through our minds was a single thought, “how I will the papers play up a 50-0 game?” Army kicked off to Navy for the second half. The Middies marched right down the field and scored, but missed the extra point to make tht score 21-6.
Not much later a pass ihterception gave the Middies the ball deep in our territory and Navy went on to score, but missed the extra point again. It was now 21-12. Early in the fourth quarter on fourth down and one yard to go on our own 40 we elected to go to It. Doc Blanchard carried off-tackle.
There was no hole. Navy held. Eight plays later Navy scored its third touchdown. The score moved up to 21-18. Things were getting serious. Our three-year record was in jeopardy. Now Navy had the momentum and our chins were dragging on the ground. Navy was moving the ball easily and we couldn’t stop them.
With only five minutes to play Army fumbled and Navy recovered. Again the Middies started a drive. There wasnt much time remaining when Navy was on our 10- yard line. An off-tackle smash moved the ball to the 4 and only seconds remained. It was 2rd down and we stopped them for a gain of one. On the next play, Navy was stopped for no gain.
Time ran out before they could get off another play for the 4th down. The game was over. We had won 21-18. I shall never forget the game or the great lesson it is for all football players. Over-confidence can really ruin a great football team or individual star quicker than anything else.
Hadn’t we just seen what happens when you wake up to the fact that you are really in a dog fight out on the field only to find that you are playing a gang of supercharged Tigers? Sure, we won 21-18. But wernt we the 21-point favorites? Ill never forget it.
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Mar 11, 2003
1960: Army vs Navy – A look back at the 1960 Army-Navy game.
The following article was written the day after the Army team took the Navy down to the wire in a most thrilling Army Navy games of that era. Navy prevailed that year, 17-12. Described by the Dean of New York sports writers, Red Smith (1905-1982), he aptly describes the exciting action in his exclusive column.
RED SMITH
The Slasher
Philadelphia, November, 26, 1960—–The first time they gave Joe Bellino the ball, Armys John Ellerson leaped upon his sternum and spread him out like apple butter 14pon the painted meadow of Philadelphias Municipal Stadium The second tim, he faked a quick-kick, spun to run to his left, and was hit from behind by a runaway beer truck named Bob McCarthy.
On his third try he did no better, and up in the press box aan said, “Army’ll beat this team.” Just then Bellino took the ball again. He shot through a gap near the middle of Army’s line, veered to the left on a long slant through the secondary, and raced 58 yards before George Kirschenbauer hauled him down on the Army 42-yard line. Navy was off and rolling in the 61st engagement of its Seventy Years’ War with the football paladins of West Point.
That first daring dash by the swift and stumpy marauder from the Severn didn’t lead directly to a score, but in one stroke it changed the complexion of the struggle from Gray to Navy Blue. Taking the opening kickoff, Navy was smashed flat by the same clamoring Cadets who had smeared the dangerous runners of Syracuse and Pitt earlier this season. Then a punt by Army’s Paul Stanley pinned the Sailors down a yard from their own goal line.
There was Navy staring glumly down the throat of a howitzer, and then Bellino busted loose. Before the first quarter was over, Navy was in front, 6-0. At intermission the score was 17-0, and 98,616 witnesses had a premonition that this might degenerate into another rabbit-hunt like Navy’s 43-12 gambol last year.
Early Errors Nobody could foresee the heroics which the second half would produce, the wild excursions and alarums, the mounting tension as Army came clawing back in a frantic struggle against the stubborn foe on the field and the coldly impartial clock hung up against a bright blue sky.
At halftime it seemed a shabby show, in spite of the mildest, loveliest weather this production had enjoyed in years, in spite of all the elegant trappings of traditional pageantry, in spite of the exciting presence of the admirable Bellino.
Army had messed it up early through mental and mechanical error. After the Cadets smothered Navy’s first action and forced a punt, Joe Blackgrove unwisely tried to field the bouncing kick with his back to an advancing horde. Smashed from behind, he fumbled away Army’s first chance to attack.
Stanley’s fine punt, repaired that damage, and after Bellino’s long run took the ball into Army territory, the military braced and Navy tried a fourth-down field goal which Greg Mather missed. So it was still a scoreless game, but on the very next play Al Rushatz, the West Point fullback, fumbled the ball back to Navy, Needing 23 yards for a touchdown, Navy got ’em fast, Bellino slanting over for the last four wearing Kirschenbauer like a stole across his shoulders.
Up off the Rug
THERE never was another one-piece play like Bellino’s big run, but in the second quarter he was a constant menace, butting the middle for short yardage and slipping outside the tackles to wriggle like a brook trout through congested traffic. With Joe running and Hal Spooner passing handsomely, Navy pushed down into scoring range again and Mather made the score 9-0 with a 26-yard field goal.
As the first half sifted away, the Midshipmen put on still another foray, once more with Spooner passing and Bellino carrying. With 17 seconds remaining, the quarterback threw to Jim Luper, who fell across the goal line with Bill Sipos hanging on. Trapped trying to pass for two extra points, Bellino flipped the ball back to Spooner, who ran for the 16th and 17th points.
Navy seemed In complete control. The Army attack, such as it had been, offered little to cheer the 2,400 Cadets in the stands. West Point backs couldn’t seem to get traction on tile dyed green grass, kept falling before they reached the line of scrimmage. Even the fire of the Army defense seemed damped after Navy’s first touchdown.
Something happened between halves, though. The third quarter opened, and it was a different game. With Tom Blanda’s passes complementing the rushes of Rushatz, Glen Adams and Kirschenbauer, Army drove for one touchdown and almost immediately set out after another. Again misfortune balked the Cadets; a penalty for having an inengible receiver downfield on a pass play slowed one drive, and the score was still 17-6 when the last period began.
Last Curtain
The jubilant Midshipmen on the stadium’s west slope had just about had it. Now and then they whooped and brandished white caps aloft, but mostly they sat transfixed, watching and praying, Dick Eckert, Army’s second quarterback, engineered a solid advance that Rushatz consummated with a dive into the end zone. Now it was 17-12 with nine minutes remaining for Army to chew at a five-point lead. Navy stopped a drive, then fumbled, Rushatz recovered for Army, 17 yards from victory. Yard by yard, cudgelling the line for short gains, Army ground ahead to the 6-yard line. There a hasty lateral got loose, rolled back to the Navy 20. Blanda passed and missed, passed and missed again. The clock showed 1:55 remaining when his last throw fell incomplete and Navy took the ball.
The contest was over, needing only a final theatrical flourish. There was a guy on hand to furnish just that. Guy named Bellino. Unable to run out the clock, Navy punted to midfield. Blanda wound up for the last prayerful shot, took aim on Blackgrove and fired. Bellino got in front of the receiver, picked off the ball on the goal line and went swrirling 45 yards back to safety as the curtain came down.
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Mar 4, 2003
You Have to Pay the Price – Another Glance – NY Times Book Reviewer, John R. Tunis reviews Blaik’s book.
One more glance at Blaik’s book, “You Have to Pay the Price.” This time courtesy of a November 1960, New York Times Book Review by John R. Tunis.
“YOU HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE” By Earl H.Blaik with Tim Cohane. Illustrated. 430 pp. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. $4.95.
By John R. Tunis
This is far from the usual ghosted job of an athletic star who never sees the book until printed. It is the interesting life of a vital American. Col. Earl “Red” Blaik, coached intercollegiate football thirty four years, twenty-five as head coach at Dartmouth and West Point. During that quarter of a century, his teams were on top or close to it every autumn.
Colonel Blaik states extremely well the case for big time winning football, as well as the purpose and values of the sport for those who believe in it. He suffered when his teams took the field, died a hundred deaths when they lost. Certainly he was one of the greatest football coaches since Knute Rockne of Notre Dame.
What kind of man is he, this Scotsman? He is a complex human being, honorable, intelligent, a worker who always began the season by calling a coaches meeting at 8 in the morning on New Year’s Day. He does not trim in this book his strong likes and dislikes, and isn’t in the least afraid to express them – – thus he contain his enthusiasm for Frank Pace Jr., one-time Secretary of the Army, now Chairman Of General Dynamics; Gen. Lawton Collins, formerly Chief of Staff; President Franklin D. Roosevelt; military analyst Hanson Baldwin; besides various critics of football such as historian Henry Steele Commanger, Robert M. Hutchins, former president of the University of Chicago, and Yale’s president A. Whitney Griswold.
Whom does he like? The majority of sportswriters, above all Stanley Woodward of The New York Herald Tribune, and Arthur Sampson of Boston, once a coach and now “one of the truly ranking sports experts in America.” He likes Ernest M. Hopkins, former president of Dartmouth; Gen. Douglas MacArthur, a friend of old Army days; and, above all, his coaches, principally those who followed him from Hanover to West Point.
For all his players and for his great stars: Felix “Doc ” Blanchard, Glen Davis, Bill Carpenter, Don Holleder and Pete Dawkins among others, he shows great affection. The ninety cadets expelled from West Point for cheating in 1951, were, he believes, scapegoats.
Colonel Blaik does not enjoy losing and has no use for a good loser. Coaching football, he believes, is a thinking job. He calls it “violent chew.” Nobody should coach after 50 is his conviction, and this is one reason he resigned as head coach of the Army in 1959.
In this book he seems to be an undertaking, conservative and rather humorless cavalry officer. Then you read along and wonder. He concurred entirely in the decision to break relations with Notre Dame, feeling the game had got out of hand.
As chairman of a committee to investigate plebe hazing at West Point, he managed to abolish the custom of forcing cadets to do splits on the point of a bayonet. He stopped the punishment of refusing food to cadets, but reports that as late as 1959, this abuse was still prevalent.
Although occasionally he betrays a kind of army stuffiness, he continually surprises the reader. When it came time to change from the single-wing to the modem T formation, he did so without hesitation. He improved football with new ideas and techniques, among them the lonely end–one of the few really novel formations introduced for some time.
The book could have stood considerable trimming and cutting of the description of games, and even a West Pointer and a devout football fan like President Eisenhower will bog down over details of the Army-Michigan game of 1949, but the picture of an individual comes through sharp and clear.
To win, Blaik worked hard, long and late every day all year. Vacations he did not know. He makes this single-mindedness of purpose, this devotion to the ideal of victory seem admirable, and he is a successful exponent of that ideal. But is it a coincidence that as competition in a business society has invaded every aspect of our national life from kindergarten to the grave, the population of our mental clinics and hospitals has grown by leaps and bounds?
One might as well expect Chris Chataway or Herb Elliott to run a six-minute mile as expect an American to regard a loser with anything save pity and contempt. Colonel Blaik has paid the price for victory. Only in his deep heart can he say whether or not the price was high.
A veteran sports writer, Mr. Tunis critically surveyed the state of athletics in “The American Way in Sport.”
(A note from RABBLE: Please note the price of Blaik’s book at the time
of publication in 1960 – – $4.95. Imagine buying a sports book today with 430 pages of text for that price. Times they have a-changed, havn’t they?)
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Mar 1, 2003
Another Look at You Have to Pay the Price – NY Sports columnist, Frank Graham takes a look at “You Have to Pay the Price”
The following is another article written at the time that Blaik’s book was being published entitled, “You Have to Pay the Price.” This time the view is from famed NY sports columnist, Frank Graham.
GRAHAMS CORNER
BY FRANK GRAHAM
November, 1960
EARL BLAIK’S STORY
“You Have to Pay the Price,” written by Earl Blaik in collaboration with Tim Cohane and published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, is a fine and forthright book in which no punches are pulled and no holds barred. Anyone acquainted with Blaik knows that this is the only kind of book of which he could be capable, for in all matters, great or small, through all his life, he has scorned evasion, stuck to the truth as he has seen it and fought for it with a Spartan spirit.
The choice of the title was an excellent one, for if Earl demanded sacrifice
on the part of the football players he coached, he matched their sacrifice with his own. Football to him never was a game to be played half in earnest, half in jest. Although he is not a humorless man, he could see no light side of the sport. He coached it as he had played it, never sparing himself, never consoling himself in defeat.
The story begins with his childhood in Dayton, Ohio, and ends with his resignation at West Point. In between are his progress as a player from high school, through the University of Miami in Oxford, 0hio, and the Military Academy, his brief service as an Army officer, his experience as an assistant coach at West Point and as head coach at Dartmouth and the Point. There were lights and shadows all the way, but triumphs never softened him, nor losses never depressed him overlong.
Notre Dame … the Expulsion … the General
There is no intention here of telling the story. He’s already told it superbly. Buy the book and read it and tell your friends about it. There is everything in it that you could expect. The younger readers will find inspiration in it. The older ones will come upon nostalgic touches that will warm their hearts.
But, just by way of pointing up some of the high spots, there are the break in relations with Notre Dame, the so-called “Cribbing Episode” at West Point , A TERM that offends Earl deeply and his friendship with General Douglas MacArthur, who wrote the forward to the book.
Of the Notre Dame break, Earl has written, in part:
“Let me emphasize at this point that nobody at West Point that I know of ever objected to that segment of Notre Dame’s ‘Subway Alumni’ whose devotion to the school is a spontaneous, natural and healthy thing, not infected by a fanatical demand that the tearn always be victorious. What Army did find sharply distasteful was that segment of the ‘Subway Alumni’ neither small nor quiet, which had, in the thirties and early forties, come to regard the Notre Dame-Army game in the Yankee Stadium as a sporting event only so long as Notre Dame continued to win, it.”
And of the expulsion from the Academy of 90 cadets his work demands its inclusion:
“because I realize the telling of the documented story can not, in the end, undo what was done, can not negate the tragedy. United States Army and West Point archives, however, include only an official and selected version of what took place. I never was permitted to place my own substantial record of the affair In the library of the Military Academy.”
From there, Earl, mercilessly but justly slugs the Army brass at West Point and in Washington.
The First Meeting With MacArthur
Earl first met Gen. MacArthur when he was a cadet and the General, recently returned from World War I, in which he was wounded twice, decorated between times and cited seven additional times for extreme bravery under fire, became the Superintendent of the Academy in 1919. Now he was receiving representatives of the first class.
“This was a formal annual ceremony, calling for full-dress, including white gloves, with Cadets salutIng upon, arrival, standing at attention, and saluting before leaving. On this occasion, however, formality was cast aside by the General. ‘Sit down, gentlemen,’ he greeted us, and offered us cigarettes, Fatimas or Melachrinos, as I remember.
‘That gesture did more to break the ice and endear him to our class than almost anything else he rnight have done. It was, as usual, MacArthur doing the unusual.”
Through the years a friendship between Earl and the General grew and flourished: but for a letter from MacArthur to Earl being delayed in transit as Earl resigned from the Army, Earl never might have become a football coach.
“I got home to Dayton on March 17. The next day, I received a letter that had been forwarded from Fort Bliss. It had been sent there by General MacArthur. He was concluding his tour as West Point Superintendent in June and was then to be assigned to the Phillipines. He wanted me to go with him as his aide. If the General had written it a day earlier, I would have withdrawn my resignation and stayed in the Army.”
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Feb 27, 2003
You Have to Pay the Price – Earl (Red) Blaik – You Have to Pay the Price – Earl (Red) Blaik on the Cheating Scandal at West Point
In 1960 Earl (Red) Blaik, the former head football coach at West Point, wrote his biography with the able assistance of his good friend and writer, Tim Cohane. It is the story of Red’s life from his early childhood, through his years as a cadet, as an officer in the military, and through his coaching duties, both at Dartmouth and at the Academy.
The book published in 1960 entitled, “You Have to Pay the Price” was reviewed by many authors and sports reporters–one being Arthur Daley of the New York Times in the autumn of 1960 in his column, SPORTS OF THE TIMES, written exclusively for that paper. In it, Blaik writes about the most disapointing and discouraging time in his life and the experience he was forced to endure–The Cheating Scandal in West Point in 1951.
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
By ARTHUR DALEY
The New York Times
November, 1960
The Price Came High
When Earl (Red) Blaik was a 16 year-old schoolboy
in Dayton, Ohio, the turbulent Miami River broke
through the levees and inundated the city. The Dayton
flood was his introduction to catastrophe and the
retired West Point football coach uses it as the taking-
off point for his swift-moving, long-awaited
autobiography, “You Have to Pay the Price,” written
with the unobtrusive ghostly assistance of Tim
Cohane.
“Thirty-eight years later,” says the still scarred and
tormented redhead, “I was to know catastrophe and
desolation again, of a different sort, but carrying the
same kind of shock of a world torn asunder. That was
the expulsion from West Point of ninety cadets for a
breach of the Honor Code. The ninety included almost
my entire football team; among them was my own
son, the expulsion, in one sense, was the greater
tragedy.”
If Blaik speaks with bitterness, he also speaks from
knowledge. For the first time, this ugly and unhappy
incident is presented in its proper perspective. Not for
an instant is any phase of the code violation
condoned, but the heading of that most rewarding
chapter makes clear Red’s feelings. He calls it “The
Ninety Scapegoats.”
Political Football
“My objection,” he writes with undisguised resentment,
“is to the inept, callous, and sometimes evasive
manner in which some of those in authority handled a
most complex problem.”
To him the punishment never fit the crime.
“I shall always believe,” he continues, “and not
without good reason, that if football players had not
been involved in such wholesale numbers, the
violations would have been internally resolved.”
Although this cause celebre attained the tag of “the
cribbing scandal,” there never was any cribbing, per se,
involved. In 1951, West Point authorities stupidly
gave the same examinations to half a class on one day
and to the other half of the class on the next day. The
repetitive-writ system they called it. Human nature
being as it is: there were leaks from the first group to
the second.
There was no cheating in the classroom at any time.
Some of those expelled took these illegally given tips
to shorten their work load. Others tutored less bright
cadets, but accepted no aid themselves. Still others
knew about the scholastic hanky-panky, but did not
report it. Ninety were men enough and honorable men
enough, to admit It. Some admitted nothing and stayed.
The ninety were dismissed.
Whetted Axes
“Certainly, ninety fine young Americans of good
families and records,” writes Blaik, “do not suddenly
become ‘men without honor’ unless sornething basic in
a system Is wrong and extraordinary conditions and
circumstances are affecting them.”
The entire affair was handled in such Draconian
fashion that it rankles the redhead as much now as it
did then.
“The involvement of so many prominent athletes,
especially football players,” he recounts, “provided a
vindictive few on the Post a relished opportunity to
whet their blood-axes. From these came fantastic tales
almost too grotesque to recite. For example, one
officer assisting the investigatory group said, ‘They
probably threw the Navy game.” Dignity went out the
window.
“Although I had the opportunity to present my views
to the superintendent of the academy, at no time
during the investigation was I called on to appear
before the Tactical Board. Nor was my request granted
to appear before the Academic Board. I had requested
that I be permitted to place all the information in my
possession before this board. This I was never
permitted to do. The recommendation of dismissal was
devoid of mature thinking.”
Eventually, the matter went before George C.
Marshall, the Secretary of Defense. “Marshall’s
services to his country are unquestioned, says Blaik, but his
enthusiasm for West Point, on the record, is not.”
end
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Feb 21, 2003
1959 Substitution rule – A look back on a substitution rule in 1959 that almost ruined college football.
Earl Blaik explains the disadvantages of the substitution rule that’s – plagued – the game as he said, during the 1959 season—–
SPORT ANGLES
By Col. Earl H. (Red) Blaik
Asbury Park N J Evening Press
October, 1959
Offered for Friends
New York – Last Saturday, I returned to West Point and suffered for two old coaching friends, Penn State’s Rip Engle and Army’s new coach Dale Hall caused a – traffic-jam by the new “wild-card” substitution rule.
The traffic-direction handicap almost cost Penn State the game. The “wild card” rule also prevented an Army team, seriously depleted by injuries to key men and without depth in many positions to begin with, the use of its vital passer, Joe Caldwell, in the crucial closing minutes of the first half. Caldwell had used up his two charged entries for the second period.
Late in the first half, with Penn State leading,, 10-3, a pass interference penalty gave the Nittany Lions a first down on the Cadet four-yard line. But before they could put the ball in play, they were penalized 15 yards to the Army 19 for an illegal substitution.
Confused by Rule
Apparently, Engle had become understandably confused by the “wild-card” rule – as many other coaches have and will continue to be, until it is rescinded. Rip was unaware that halfback Dick Hoak, the man he sent in, already had used up his two charged entries for the period.
From its 19, State’s ace quarterback Richie Lucas tried a pass which he would not have attempted from the four. It was intercepted
By Cadet guard Mike Casp who ran it 69 yards to an apparent touchdown. Fortunately for State and Engle, Army player had been offside. Otherwise, Army would have trailed only 9-10, tied 10-10 or led by two at the end of the half, and probably would have gone on to win.
In other words confusion caused by the present substitution rule.
It would have cost Penn State a game it deserved to win, and earned Engle unfair censure.
Meanwhile, Hall had to keep Caldwell on the bench during this important phase.” With Joe in action, it is unlikely the pass interception by Penn State, which. originally gave the Nittany Lions field position before the pass interference, or the interference itself would have taken place. With star halfback Bob Anderson, left end Don Usry, and others incapacitated, Hall was further handicapped by an utterly useless rule.
It is true the substitution rule has been liberalized slightly this year. Last year, a player could return to the game once within the same period; in other words he was permitted two charged entries. This year he may return as many times as he wishes, provided he Is the only player on his team who is returning, time is out, and he has not used up his his second charged entry.
If all this confuses you, you are no more confused than the coaches and officials, It was not until several months after the change had been adopted and they had a chance to scrutinize closely the wording of the rule, that they became aware that it had a joker in it. The joker is that once a player has used up his second charged entry he cannot return again in the same quarter under any conditions.
Coaches, as if they didn’t have enough to do already, must keep track of the number of charged entries a gainst each player. At least one coach has experimented with three segregated benches, for players who have respectively none, one or two charged entries. How absurd can you get or, how absurd can the rules committee make you, get?. OfficiaIs are equally unhappy about the rule. They must keep an individual card for each quarter and mark a circle next to a player’s first entry and an X next to his second. The picture of a line of substitutes filing past the umpire or field judge to be checked off by the numbers, circles and X’s can only be likened to the 4 PM CLOCK SHIFT of guards in an insane asylum.
This process can slow up a game to the point of boredom. Army- Penn State, took three hours instead of the normal two hours and 20 minutes. The substitution process was responsible for the dragging out far more than the many costly penalties incurred by the Cadets.
Step Forward
The rule is-nothing but a false step in what must ultimately be a return to unlimited substitution, which permitted two platoons of separate units for offense and defense each time the ball changes hands to the advantage of the college game .
The colleges conceived the two platoon game and the high schools and pros copied it. The high schools kept it because it gives more kids a chance play and reduces injuries due to fatigue. The pros retained it because by keeping the best and fresher man for the next ‘play at all times. It makes for the fastest, most crowd pleasing game. Yet, the colleges abandoned it.
They must return to it not only for its benefits to the players but also offers the best chance to meet thee ever-increasing popularity
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Feb 18, 2003
Trans Con League? What’s That? – Earl talks of a College Super Conference
Earl “Red” Blaik gives his thoughts on the setup of a College Super Conference in sports commentary from over 40 years ago.
SPORT ANGLES
By Col. Earl H. (Red) Blaik
Favors Jet League
NEW YORK-The entire country is watching the development of the Syracuse powerhouse. The Orange now have won four out of four impressively and appears to have a line to match Southern California’s, Auburn’s or any you mention. ‘Coach Ben Schwartzwalder also has some fine backs in versatilp Gerhard Schwedes, veteran Art Baker, sophomore passer Dave Sarette, and his clever and hard-running classmate, Ernie Davis.
The forthcoming round-robin among Syracuse and those two other well-muscled Eastern independents, Penn State and Pittsburgh, will produce gavage-hitting football. Penn State, led by all-purpose quarterback Richie Lucas, now has won five out of five, including Missouri and Army. Pitt, somewhat uneven in its play, as the upset by West Virginia emphasized, can nevertheless be relied on to provide a feroious test for both the Orange and the Nittany Lions.
Out of this round-robin should emerge the Eastern champion, a rery respectable ranking nationally for two if not all three, and partipation by one or perhaps two in the Cotton, Orange, or Gator Bowls.
Despite their solid football set-ups, Syracuse, Penn State, and Pitt would like to be members of a conference, specifically a part of he proposed and much discussed Transcontinental Conference or Jet League.
Service Schools Not Intended
The Trans Con is a dramatic and not impractical concept and repesents the progressive thinking college football needs. It is a misake, however, to contemplate Army, Navy, and the Air Force in the League. They, feel that as national institutions belonging to the people everywhere, they should not become formally allied with any conference. Anyhow, I doubt they are indispensable to the idea.
Why not plan toward a 10 team conference of two five-team divisions, one West, one East? The West would be the already formed Athletic Assn, of Western Universities: UCLA, Southern California, Washington, California, and Stanford. The Eastern group would have Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Duke, Syracuse, and Penn State. A six-game, minimum would be required for championship participion, with each team playing four divisional and two intersectional opponents, the latter on an alternating basis. The divisional winners would play off the championship as the Rose Bowl game. The AAWU would be, in fact, the Western Rose Bowl representative beginning in 1961. Big Ten friends, who should know, advise me it will drop of the Pasadena classic after the 1960 game, thus opening the way for other eastern participation. Seven of the schools I’ve mentioned already are warm to the plan. Thee other three- Notre Dame, Stanford, and Duke- could be warmed over to it. With few exceptions, the 10 schools already have games with one another. They all share reasonably common standards in recruiting, aid, and academic screening. By forming a conference, they would gain at least psychologically, a position in schededule-making they now lack.
Would Not Hurt League
This proposed Trans Con League need not, in fact, must not, disband any existent conference.
Notre Dame is the key school to the success of the plan. Here are questions the Irish would want answered favorably: With a six-game conference schedule, would they retain sufficient ability to fit in the Navy annual, occasional home-and-homes with Army, Oklahoma, and the Air Force, and intermittent rivalries with Big Ten, Southwest, and Southeastern Conferences? With long range planning, I believe, they might be able to. Second, would Notre Dame lose any at the box office by playing Duke, Syracuse, and Penn State every year? They would gain at the office, if they scheduled Syracuse and Penn State into New York’s Yankee Stadium for certain sellouts. New York and some big college football games need each other badly. Army’s game with the Air Force, October 31, Oklahoma in 1961, and other futures do not provide the whole answer. Certainly, here is something for Notre Dame to talk about.
The main thing to remember is this. The college game needs the exposure that would come from such a colorful league. It would show that the colleges haven’t altogether lost the playing spirit that made their game great.
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Feb 14, 2003
Blaik discusses Ivys and Spring Practice – More on Army football history
In the following article, Blaik discusses spring practice and how the lack of it hurt the chances of the Ivy League teams those days being competitive with those teams that formerly were able to play with those schools.
SPORT ANGLES
By Col. Earl H. (Red) Blaik
Asbury Park, NJ, Evening Press
September, 1959
SPRING PRACTICE HURT ‘IVIES’
The Ivy League teams, especially Yale and Harvard, have done much through their football history to help fashion the game at West Point. They also exerted considerable influence on my own coaching career.
From its beginnings In 1890,, Army football was nurtured by games with Yale and Harvard and by the coaching of old Blues and Crimsons. Dr. Harry Williams, one-time Yale player and later an outstanding coach at Minnesota, was Army’s first outside coach in 1891. But the first great builder of football on The Plain, the Godfather of the game there in fact, was a Harvard as well as a West Point graduate, the late Col. Charles Dudley Daly.
Charlie Daly was, an ALL-America quarterback at Harvard just before and at the turn of the-century and at West Point just after. He and the late Ernest (Pot) Graves, another West Point graduate of fine intellect and fine purpose, were of inestimable value to the brilliant Percy Haughton when he built Harvard’s not to be forgotten gridiron empire which extended roughly from 1908 through 1915. It was by borrowing the best of Yale football, dominant from the dawn of the American game through 1909 and tailoring it, that Haughton, Daly, and Graves made the Crimson the scourge of the gridiron.
TAUGHT ARMY COACHES
In 1913, Daly and Graves returned to West Point and lifted up the game there. Their undefeated 1914 and ’16 teams were the best at the Academy through that time and for years later, Daly and Graves coached almost all of the later Army coaches including head coaches John McEwan, Biff Jones, Ralph Sasse, Bill Wood and myself. All of us learned from them basic values: defense, kicking, condition, spirit, toughness, subordination to team welfare and a fine measure of strategy mind tactics.
As an assistant at Army from 1927 through 1933, I enjoyed helping prepare our teams for Yale and Harvard games that were almost invariably close and exciting- and, I may add, sellouts.
As head coach at Dartmouth, I experienced the satisfaction of trying to match wits with a group of coaches it would be hard to beat, in any, section in any time: Princeton’s, Fritz Crisler, Columbia’s Lou Little, Harvard’s Dick Harlow, Cornell’s Carl Snavely, Brown’s Tuss McLaughry and, of course, Yale’s Ducky Pond and his clever aide, Earl (Greasy) Neale. You had to stay up late nights and still get up only to keep up with that crowd. After I returned to West Point in 1941, our teams gradually developed beyond the strength of the Ivy League and old schedule ties, which had been profitable in every way, were regretfully broken.
But I have always believed that if the Ivy League schools had not handicapped themselves by eliminating spring practice, and, as a natural consequence, otherwise diluted their approach to the game they once championed, they could have gone op playing good football with us. I feel Harvard and Cornell proved this against an undeftated 1948 Army team. Why, even without spring practice the 1955 Yale team upset an Army team that was good enough to upset Navy.
DARTMOUTH HAS EDGE
In a future article, I intend to devote more time to the Ivy League’s elimination of spring practice and to other phases of their football approach. For now, though, here is a quick size-up of this year’s race, which should again be most exciting.
To me, defending champion Dartmouth appears to have a slight but not conclusive edge, and can expect a good battle not only from Princeton and Cornell again, but from Harvard, Pennsylvania and possibly, Yale. I think Buff Donellis predominantly sophomore squad at Columbla, while still a year away from real contention, may be troublesome on occasion. The same Is true of the Brown squad in its first year under John McLaughry, former Amherst coach and talented son of my old friend Tuss.
I have gathered in traveling around the country that many foot folks outside the East labor under the illusion that there are no top pIayers in the Ivy League. Let me assure them that any coach in the country would welcome the following: Dartmouth backs Jake Crouthamel and Bill Gundy and center Ken DeHaven; Harvard quarterback Chuck Ravenel, backs Sam Halaby and Chet Boulris and Hank Keohane; Princeton back Danny Sachs, end Ed Kostelnik and center Frank Svetecz; Pennsylvania back Fred Doelling, end Barney Berlinger and center Ron Champion; Brown’s fullback, Paul Choquette, back Bob Carlin and tackle Tom Budrewicz; Cornell’s back Phil Taylor, and John Sadusky, tackle John Hanly and guard Dave Feeny.
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Feb 10, 2003
Earl Blaik assesses the 1959 team – Blaik writes of his former team in a 1959 column
The following was an article written by Earl Blaik assessing his former team in 1959 as part of his twice -a-week column for the AP syndicated for national distribution.
SPORT ANGLES======
By Col. Earl H. (Red) BLAIK
(Asbury Park, NJ Evening Press)
Cadets Look Stronger
I suppose if I were still coaching the Army football team and anybody even suggested I come out and, state publicly that the Cadets deserved No. 1 rank in the East and a fairly high place nationally, I would call loudly for a sedative. But I am not a coach anymore and I have to admit the whole thing looks somewhat different. Seriously, it is hard for any coach to take a completely objective look at his team. He is subject to so much pressure, much of it unreasonable, from his school and its followers that he develops, unconsciously in part, a certain built-in wariness and pessimism. At times, it may appear inordinate and even ludicrous. But he would be most unwise to adopt any approach other than to expect the worst and work like heck to avoid it, because football is our most unpredictable, as well as our finest team game.
Let me say this. There Is nothing I want to do less than in any way add to what is already a heavy load assumed by my successor, Dale Hall, and his very, competent staff. Dale was a great athlete at West Point.
I believe he and Doug Kenna were the greatest in the Class of 1945. Dale delivered many of the big, vital scoring plays in the Blanchard-Davis era and was also very good at basketball and tennis. He is a superbly grounded coach with a fine football mind and was my only recommendation for the job.
Face Tough Schedule
I believe Dale will have a strong team. If the ball bounces as fortuitously in the Army’s second “lonely end” year as it did in the first, and if there are not too many injuries In the line, It could well be the Cadets will successfully defend their Eastern championship and their high national ranking.
But they face a most difficult schedule. Boston College, Illinois, Penn State, Duke, Colorado State, the Air Force, Vilanova, Oklahoma and Navy pose a severe test for the Cadets, especially when you consider their exacting life with its tough engineering course for all and its rigid discipline.
Whatever the Cadets accomplish in the way of victories and defeats, I am sure of one thing: there win be no more colorful and exciting team on the gridiron. The “lonely end”, attack, with some of Dale’s own modifications included, will put much pressure on the enemy. The defense will be typically Army: quick, alert,with strong pursuit.
Let me re-emphasize, though, that any appraisal of the situation must be cognizant of an inadequacy of reserve strength from tackle to tackle and the serious problems, therefore, that injuries in that area precipitate.
Anderson Among Best
Bob Anderson, a truly outstanding all-around football player, one of the very greatest in West Point history, will head toward his third All- America year at left halfback. Joe Caldwell, a fine quarterback for us a year ago, will be even better. I understand there are strong fights on at right halfback between Steve Waldrop and Roger Zailskas for Pete Dawkins’ old job and John Eilson and Don Bonko at fullback. Frank Blanda will relieve Caldwell at quarterback from time to time. He had a good spring practice.
Capt. Bill Carpenter, “Mister Lonely End” himself, another top grade all-around player, and Don Usry, the so-called “sociable end” and a vastly underrated one, lead the wingmen, with adequate replacements in Otto Everbach, Russ Waters and Frank Gibson.
The line must be built around three strong 1958 reserves: guard Al Vanderbush, tackle Gerry Clements and center Bob Oswandel. The, quick development of some husky yearlings (sophomores), always a precarious operation, is indispensable to reasonable solidity here.
I felt that in fairness to our “brave, old Army team:’ I should give them an article to themselves. I shall, devote all of a subsequent piece to the other fine Eastern independents.
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Feb 8, 2003
Rumors of Army football de-emphasis (1959) – Rabble takes a look back at rumors of Army football de-emphasis
After Earl Blaiks retirement at West Point, there was apparently a feeling that after the long 18 year tenure of the colonel at the academy, it was time to “tone down” the emphasis of the football level on the spectrum of cadet life and the influence the program had on the national scene.
In the spring of 1959, a rumor started that West Point was in the process of actually beginning to follow a course of de-emphasizing the sport to a more eastern schedule of lesser-lite opposition.
The following two almost identical writeups forwarded to for syndication by the AP at the time showed how a ranking politician from New Orleans felt such a de-emphasis would harm not only on the academy itself, but the entire Army in general from a standpoint of pride in the service itself. His feelings were obviously inspired by the fact that West Point had rejected an invitation to participate in the Sugar Bowl that January of 1959 after Army had just completed an undefeated but once-tied season.
The politician, F. Edward Heberts home and constituency was in New Orleans and the state of Louisiana where the Sugar Bowl was held each January 1st.
ARMY PARING GRID STATUS, HEBERT SAYS
WASHINGTON (AP) -Rep. F. Edward ward Hebert (D-La) said yesterday he had been told the Army plans to de-emphasize football. Hebert, a chairman of the investigations subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee said this would be a tragedy. He added, in the Congressional Record. “We should alert ourselves against any change in policy which would make West Point second and inferior to other like institutions in the nation. “Today the Army is fighting for its life in the field of survival among the services. Unless the Army’s attitude in the athletic arena is changed it will find itself standing on the side of the road looking at the procession, led by the Navy and the Air Force, go by.”
BOWL POLICY HIT
Hebert criticized the Army for refusing to participate in post- season bowl games and added, “I am further concerned over reports coming to me that the Army is going to further limit its football program, placing it on an Ivy League status.”
Hebert later told a reporter he has information he considers reliable that the Army in the future “plans to play only four tough games a year and the rest will be in the class of Slippery Rock Teachers College and the Ivy League.”
He declined to name the source of his information, Hebert, whose home is New Orleans, site of the annual Sugar Bowl game, said he knows that Army could have played In a major bowl last year, but that an informal ihvitation was rejected.
ARMY DENIES ANY CHANGE
At West Point, an Army spokesman denied there has been any change in Army’s football policy. “We have a typical Army schedule for the next five years,” said the spokesman pointing out games against eastern and intersectional opponents of long standing.
The 1960 schedule includes California, Penn State, Nebraska, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Navy. Michigan and Oklahoma are on the 1961 schedule and Notre Dame returns In 1965.
DE-EMPHASIS FOR ARMY?
Sen. Hebert Criticizes Possible Football Limitation
WASHINGTON. (AP) – Rep. F. Edward Hebert (D-La) said yesterday he had been told the Army plans to de-emphisize football. Hebert, a chairman of the investigations subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee said this would be a tragedy. He added, in the Congressional Record: “We should alert ourselves against any change in policy which, would make West Point second and inferior to other like institutions in the nation.”
DENIAL ISSUED
At West Point, an Army spokesman denied there has been any change in football policy.
“We ‘have a typical Army schedule for the next five years,” said the spokesman pointing out games against Eastern and intersectional opponents of long standing. The 1960 schedule includes California, Penn State, Nebraska, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Navy. Michigan and Oklahoma are on the 1961 schedule and Notre Dame returns in 1965.
Hebert criticized tbe Army for refusing to participate in post-season bowl games and added, “I am further concerned over reports coming to me that the Army is going to further limit its football program, placing it on an Ivy League status.”
Hebert later told a reporter he has informition he considers reliable that Army plans to play only four tough games a year and the rest of the games will be in the class of Slippery Rock Teachers College and the Ivy League.”
He declined to name the source of his information. Hebert, whose home is New Orleans, site of the annual Sugar Bowl game, said he knows that Army could have played a major bowl last year, but that an informal invitation was rejected.
In his statement in the Record, Hebert said, “Refusal of the Army to participate in a bowl game has even been in defiance of a policy adopted by its own board of visitors in 1954 and also contrary to the desires of its own coaches and players.
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Feb 6, 2003
A Look Back at Earl Blaik’s First Column – Rabble takes us back in history to look at Earl Blaik’s first column.
When Earl Blaik retired as head coach and athletic director at West Point on his 62nd birthday in February of 1959, he left a legacy at the academy. This legacy would endure as long as the game of football and athletics in general remain on the scene at our nation’s military academy on the banks of the Hudson River.
However the colonel wasn’t finished with collegiate football. Along with his new duties as a vice-president of AVCO Corporation, the colonel agreed to write a column twice a week for national syndication. He would be writing about the game he so dearly loved. Not only was he active in forming the College National Football Hall of Fame in Kings Island, Ohio, but for a few years he wrote a national syndicated column for the Associated Press. The remuneration he received was used to set up fellowships for eight worthy college seniors who not only excelled in the great game of football, but also to recognize their abilities in the classroom.
During his entire coaching career, he consistently advocated the concept that a student could not only excel on the playing fields of friendly strife, but also could show the same qualities in their academic work as well. His concept of the true student-athlete was surely born out in the very first of many articles he wrote concerning the game he most certainly loved. This love stemmed from the joy that the game imparted to the player and also to the lessons learned from playing that helped the player cope with the problems and struggles of everyday life.
SPORT ANGLES By Col. Earl H. (Red) Blaik Former Football Coach and Athletic Director, United States Military Academy September, 1959 (as appeared in a column of September, 1959 in the Asbury Park, NJ Evening Press under the heading of SPORT ANGLES)
SEES COLUMN A CHALLENGE
When I retired from coaching last Jan. 13 and stepped down from my duties as Athletic Director in February after 25 years–eighteen at West Point and seven at Dartmouth as the football head coach, I said it was unthinkable to overstay a career. But it would be just as inconceivable for me to sever completely my connections with the greatest of American games, which has been inseparable from most of my 62 years. That is, why I was pleased and challenged when The Associated Press invited me to write two articles a week for the newspapers of the country.
While one is coaching, he Is necessarily preoccupied with the football problems of one school. Although he is aware that the college game, like any human operation of which the dollar sign is part, is not without its weaknesses and requires continuing revaluation and modification, the individual coach is in a position to contribute relatively little, much as he would like to do more. In this invitation, I see an opportunity to try to help college football, not in any one school or area or within one peripherized philosophy, but in a broad objective manner to help all colleges everywhere.
College football today, while not without some abuses, has reached a plateau of excellence in its general conduct, unmatched in any era of the past. This, emphatically bespeaks the love of and concern for the game by all its levels of administrators everywhere, and they deserve, therefore, every measure of encouragement and help. I hope to contribute in this way.
I WON’T DUCK CONTROVERSY
My articles will very frequently be of a controversial and critical nature. But I assure you the controversy will be real, not fabricated, and that the criticism will always be constructive. It will be directed never at an individual but at something I feel stands correction and improvement. I repeat, I am concerned with what is good for all the colleges, remembering that what is good and practical in one area is not always so in another.
The articles I am preparing to appear between now and Friday, Sept. 18, the eve of the first major Saturday of play, will appraise the strength of teams and players in various sections, but they will also speak of changes and trends, good and bad, affecting the game both on and off the field. Each Friday, beginning Sept. 18, I will analyze where I believe the strength lies in the big game of the next day, yet more often than not I plan, to include in the analysis a controversial or behind-the-scenes factor that has a relation to it.
Once the season is under way, the articles appearing Tuesday will deal with colorful and dramatic highlights, backgrounds and again, trends and controversies developing on the college scene, either nationally or from a sectional point of view that has some impact nationally.
ESTABLISHING FELLOWSHIPS
Whatever financial remuneration I receive for these articles will be used to help college football. I am establishing eight fellowships for post-graduate work. They will be awarded to eight boys, one from each of the N.C.A.A. districts, who have been adjudged as best meeting the following four qualifications:
They must be seniors.
They must be leaders in academics as well as football.
They must exert a fine influence on their campuses.
They must be staunch in their devotion to the welfare of amateur sports.
The fellowships will be administered by the National Football Foundations Awards committee, headed by Vincent Draddy. The Foundation Committee will be assisted by an awards committee from each of the eight NCAA districts, each nominating a candidate from its district.
These fellowships should help project what I believe to be a fact about college football, yet one seldom emphasized: that championship performance and superior scholarship are entirely compatible.
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Jan 25, 2003
The Irish Series and High Altitude Combat – Rabble gives us some history of the development the Notre Dame and Air Force series.
In the fall of 1958, the last year of Col. Earl (Red) Blaiks coaching career and also as Athletic Director at West Point, he was being questioned on two specific points by the media and the fans with a verocity seldom felt by the Master.
The first point was the feeling that after the home and home rivalry with Notre Dame and West Point just completed, that Blaik was the individual who wanted the traditional game to be permanently ended while mostly everyone else wanted to keep the rivalry going on an annual basis.
The second point was the colonels opinion that playing a game against the upstart Air Force Falcons in the rarefied air of Colorado would harm his own players performance. He opted for a home and home series with Army playing their home game at Michie and playing the Air Force game in Soldiers Field in Chicago. This of course was a more than a decade before of the now annual CIC trophy round robin which would pit the three major service academies playing each other on a home and home format.
The following column entitled INSIDE SPORTS was written by Gene Ward of the New York Daily News which appeared in that papers October 24, 1958 edition previous to Army battle with Pitt that year where the Panthers came from behind to tie the Cadets, 14-14, to mar an otherwise perfect undefeated season for the Black Knights. In this article, Blaik explains his position on each topic.
INSIDE SPORTS
by Gene Ward
Pittsburgh, Oct. 24.-We were an hour out of LaGuardia, winging for Pittsburgh and the make-or-break battle for this injury-riddled Army football team, when I asked Earl (Red) Blaik if he’d care to set the record straight on a highly combustible subject-the discontinued series between his Cadets and the Irish of Notre Dame.
West Point’s stern-visaged athletic boss has been blamed for the break in the storied rivalry. He is being burned in effigy by the subway alumni. And there have been rumors that even hard boot West Pointers are beginning to grumble. Blaik didn’t bat an eye. His answer came back as quick as Bob Anderson cutting for the hole. “There’s no question but what we will renew the series with Notre Dame,” he said. “I would guess that the contracts will be signed at the winter meetings coming up, which means a resumption of the rivalry in 1965.”
Only two weeks ago, when the Cadets polished off the Irish, 14-2, in South Bend, the series, had been interred forever by football’s most expert morticians. Many a lead filed from the press box that afternoon had stressed “the rude goodbye” which Army had bid its most famous protagonist. How come the abrupt about-face?
NEVER ANY THOUGHT OF PERMANENT BREAK
“It was no about-face,” Blaik said, “nobody ever bothered to ask me before. I always have been for continuance of the series with Notre Dame. Not on an annual basis, which doesn’t suit either school, but never in my mind has there been any thought of a permanent rupture.”
Blaik pointed out that in these streamlined times scheduling is done five and six years in advance. “If we had known a few months ago that the Air Force Academy was pulling out on us after next year, something might have been worked out for an earlier renewal with Notre Dame. As it stands now, Notre Dame is booked through 1964.”
We reminded him that some sources said it was he, Blaik, who pulled out on the Air Force Academy. The story had broken just after the Air Force team played Iowa to a stunning tie.
Disdaining the implication, Blaik said it might help to clear the atmosphere if he explained precisely what happened to the Army- Air Force Academy series.
“They were certain their team would be ready for major competition by next year,” he said. “It so happens they’re ready this year, with Ben Martin doing an outstanding coaching job. But the Air Force Academy was the aggressor in wanting to play Army and we agreed to give them the sixth Saturday every fall right through 1962.
“This was set up under the old regime at the Air Force Academy and, or so we thought, subscribed to by the new commanding general, Buster Briggs. But under no conditions were we to play out there in the rarfied air of Denver. That stipulation was put on paper.
The first game is at the Point next year, and the following year it was to have been played in Soldier Field, Chicago. The Air Force people picked the site.
“So, all of a sudden,” Blaik continued,’ “they insisted on a home-and-home arrangement. We had to refuse. Out to show our good will, we made them a large guarantee-the largest we’ve ever made and invited them to come to the Point in 1960 with an identical guarantee.”
Blaik shook his head. “They wouldn’t go along,” he said. “They fled off the series.”
HAVE NINE YEAR CONTRACT WITH COTTON BOWL
The insistence on playing Army every other year in Denver proved very puzzling to all hands at West Point in view of the fact that, just the other day, the Air Force Academy signed a unique nine-year pact to play in the Cotton Bowl once per season.
Blaiks refusal to take the Army team into high-level combat is a set policy. The Army Athletic Association has on file medical surveys which prove that change from low to high altitudes has an adverse effect on athletes if there is no period of acclamation. Because of the rigid academic schedule, Army just have time to make any lengthy adjustment.
It works just the opposite for athletes coming down to lower altitudes, the surveys show. Heavy air acts like a booster shot. Blaik has had some personal experience with rarefied air. He once played and coached a Fort Bliss cavalry post team in the high part of west Texas. “Never did get my second wind,” he said. Then there was the suffering of a great Randolph Field club, which included Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis–It went to Mexico City and was clobbered, 60-0, by a U. of Mexico eleven. Doc and Glenn never did catch their breath, nor anything else.
Anyway, the defection of the Air Force Academy from the original agreement left Blaik in a spot. It seems the Department of Army insists that the colossal Cadets show their wares in all sections of the country, and the gap resulting from the Air Force runout has proved most embarrassing. In fact, for 1960, Blaik has hustled up a game with Miami of Ohio, his Alma Mater.
As Army’s annual gridiron slate is set up, five games are played at West Point. Navy is opponent No. 6 and Air Force was to be No. 7. The other three dates are reserved
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Jan 21, 2003
Army- Notre Dame, 1958: a look back – A look back on one of the great games of the Army-Notre Dame series.
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Jan 17, 2003
Bob Kyasky – Rabble takes a look at the fastest player in Army football history who’s career was cut short.
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Jan 16, 2003
Army vs Navy, 1953 – Rabble takes a look back on the 1953 Army-Navy game.
mis-titled – actually 1957
In 1957, the Army football program was again on the rise as the Black Knights swept to an impressive 7-2 record but the two losses came against Armys two biggest rivals, Notre Dame and Navy. The team was 16 points away from going undefeated that season. A 23-21 loss to the Irish in Philadelphias Municipal Stadium and a 14-0 loss to the Mids . . .
. . .to close the season in that same stadium prevented the team from going all the way that year in Blaiks next to last season before his retirement the following year when he produced his last undefeated season at West Point. Only a tie with Pitt that year marked a spectacular 8-0-1 log.
Jimmy Powers was a respected columnist of the NY Daily News in the 1950s. The following column was written by him after the loss to Navy that season of 1957. His column was appropriately called THE POWERHOUSE by Jimmy Powers—-
THE POWERHOUSE
By Jimmy Powers
Philadelphia, Nov. 30, 1957 -Ned Oldham was the hero, of course. He scored all the points. But there was more to it than that. Navy was faster, more alert and had more deception in its attack. Navy ran its play crisply and there was no question, as the game wore on, that its diversified attack was just too much for the gallant Cadets to cope with. There were a few penalties for elbowing and piling on but flareups quickly subsided as the lads settled down to their assignments.
Navy used a variety of screened pass plays most effectively. Navy’s line switching constantly piled up ball carriers with almost ridiculous ease. The highly publicized Bob Anderson appeared sluggish in contrast to the speedy ends and defensive backs who hauled him down. Tom Forrestal kept the opposition off balance and Bob Reifsnyder played such an outstanding game he provoked a near riot in the final quarter when frustrated Cadets went after him with bare fists.
It was an exciting contest despite the drab, spongy, gray skies and cutting wind. And it was a delightfully colorful show to watch “live” as well as on TV.
TOUCHDOWN PUNCTUATES PERIOD
When Navy appeared in pastel jersey and pale gold numerals, half-drowned viewers amused themselves by trying to identify the exact shade of blue. It definitely was not the familiar rich dark navy blue. It was more of a Mediterranean blue bleached to a robin’s egg hue. It brought on quite a few whistles.
I had never seen a touchdown scored in the exact second that ended a quarter, but that’s exactly what happened when Navy marched 72 yards in 19 plays. The play was a peculiar one. Ned Oldham lunged off right tackle as the clock registered 15:00. He appeared to be smothered by several dark shirts scrambling to snatch at him. Oldham kept his feet, pivoted like a man going beserk in a revolving door, and next we knew he was dashing upright across the goal, running well into the end zone with a powerful leg drive. The Middies immediately broke out a gaudily painted banner… “We’ll beat Army black and blue in color.” How right they were.
Army came blazing back with Dawkins running wild, but just inside the 10 Navy’s Caldwell leaped upon a loose ball and drew it fiercely to his bosom, a timely recovery. A series of consecutive penalties caused a succession of huddles by the men in the candy-striped shirts and brought down upon their unheeding ears innumerable witticisms from the crowd.
Forrestal grew a bit reckless as halftime approached. A long pass was intercepted, but Navy’s line held on the 36 and took over. Army just was riot shaking any man loose for the long gainers that had distinguished its play on this same turf against Notre Dame.
As the second quarter wore on, the sky grew darker and, off to our right, the buildings of downtown Philadelphia faded from sight. Beneath us, the gray block of Cadets sat huddled morosely in ponchos. They stirred expectantly as, with 20 seconds on the clock, Army’s golden helmets conferred in a huddle resembling satellites. They whirled back to positions. A long pass was com- pleted. Then came the letdown . . . “Illegal receiver downfield.”
EVEN MULES FOUND GOING TOUGH
As the soggy athletes trotted ofF, Navy’s cheering section unfurled another alliterative command . . . “Mash the Mule.” One poor mule started across the green swamp. Following the urgings of its rider, it walked slowly downfield to join its assistant, another equally damp mascot.
There was a rather elaborate balf time parade of floats, faintly reminiscent of the early Pasadena or California collegiate school, then the third quarter opened. Army intercepted. a deflected pass, but again its attack fizzled. There was a rhubarb on the 4 when Anderson fumbled and had the ball stolen from him, apparently a fraction of a second after the whistle. The ball was as tenderly cared for as a baby, nursed and covered with a turkish towel.
Actually, more than a dozen balls were used, coming out of an assembly line dryer. Once, the wet ball squirted out of Harry Hurst’s hands, but the Navy got it back on an interception, thereby surgically re- moving goat’s horns from Mister Hurst’s noodle.
Then came the cruncher. Ned Oldham took Barta’s punt and made one of the prettiest broken field runbacks in the history of the series. He skidded to his right, reversed, used some tricky toe dancing and change of pace. After 44 thrilling yards, he crossed standing up, kicked the point and thus accounted for all of Navy’s 14.
Oldham figured in another interception. Army made a great goal-line stand, but when the lights came on and the rain shrank away to a few drops, you could see the silhouettes of Navys third team mirrored in the great lake of water that surrounded the gridiron.
When they were whistled in, in clean dry uniforms, to share in the final glory, you knew it was all over.
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Jan 16, 2003
WEST POINT MOVIE PACKS GRID THRILLS – A look at Army football in movies past.
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Jan 10, 2003
Army vs Duke, 1953 – A look back at a great game during the 1953 season.
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Jan 6, 2003
Don Holleder’s performance – A look back on Don Holleder and the Army team of 1955.
Here is a follow up to that 1955 Navy game with a short writeup taken from the Newark Evening News of November 27,1955—
HOLLEDER’S PERFORMANCE
The performance of Don Holleder was a complete vindication of Blaiks move this year in converting him from end. Holleder’s qualities as a passer never had much to do with the move. Blaik wanted him at quarter to run the team and as a “take charge” guy. This he did and was, and he was never better than against Navy.
Every grandstand quarterback in the country second-guessed Blaik. All they could think of was a T- quarterback who wasn’t much of a passer. They didnt realize that Blaik had decided early that this was to be a running, not a passing, team. Not only did it lack a good passer but it had no talented receivers either.
The critics were most vocal after the loss to Michigan. That night we talked to Blaik in Ypsilanti and mentioned the general reaction that he was making a bad mistake.
” I’m sure,” he replied with characteristic bluntness, “that there are lots of people who know more about running this team than I do.”
We said we didn’t care what he did, but that if he was going to move Holleder back to end, it was a matter of news and we wanted to know it.
” Well, I’m not going to move him back to end. He is our quarterback and that’s where he is going to stay,” was the answer.
Stay he did — and only the critics were confounded.
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Jan 4, 2003
Blaik’s folly of 1955 – How Coach Red Blaik converted a wide receiver into a winning quarterback
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Dec 31, 2002
How Army got Navy’s Goat – How Army Cadets succeeded in a mission to capture Navy’s Goat.
Lets go back to the third week of November,1953–
Two squads of West Point cadets set out from the Academy to do some “dirty work”. A secret mission was at hand. They left on two independent missions. They traveled some 300 miles and arrived at their destination in the dead of night.<p[>
One squad crept to a high fence at the edge of a sea wall, scaled it expertly. They waited until a jeep patrol passed, scurried into an empty stadium. Said the cadet leader,” It was pitch dark,and I didnt have any idea where he was, but I figured if he was around we would smell him. So we crept along in the dark until we hit it. He really stank.”
Swiftly, they roped him and started out. The captive did not resist. At the fence, the Cadets had trouble: The prisoner was too heavy to lift over. Then a voice called, “Hey!” The cadets were sure they were caught. But the voice belonged to the leader of the second Army group which had come by sea instead of by land.
Joining forces, they lowered the captive into a boat, moved him around the fence. Twelve hours later, their prize, Billy 12, the Navy football mascot, was in a cardboard cage at West Point. Sternly repressing any sign of satisfaction, The Points high brass ordered Billy returned, assigning a lieutennent colonel George McIntyre to assure him safe conduct to Annapolis.
The Navy swallowed its chagrin and hoped, unsuccessfully it turned out, to get back at Army in their annual football game.
Army won that year 20-7 with Army yearling halfback, Pat Uebel, scoring all three Army touchdowns.
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Dec 27, 2002
Bill Purdue leads Army to ’52 upset over Penn – Little known Bill Purdue comes off the bench to help Army to victory.
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Dec 23, 2002
Doc Blanchard outruns Army backs – A further look back at the 1954 Army football season.
Here is a follow up to the story I wrote earlier concerning Doc Blanchard who in 1954 was on temporary leave from the Air Force and who was assisting Blaik that fall as West Points Plebe coach.
DOC BLANCHARD STILL OUTFOOTS ARMY HALFBACKS
West Point, Sept.9, 1954
World- Telegram and Sun
Head plebe coach at Army this year is a rugged young man named Felix A. Blanchard… Doc still is in football shape from a game he hasn’t played since 1946. During wind sprints Coach Blaik sent Doc in to pace the
halfbacks–and Blanchard beat even Bobby Kyasky and Pat Uebel by three yards!
Another-
Richie Fadel, yearling guard from Elmsford.NY, is a former All-Met choice of the World-Telegram and Sun.
Another–
Backfield coach, in the spot left vacant by Vince Lombardi, who
went to the NY Giants, is George Blackburn, for several years assisstant to Sid Gillman at Cincinnati U.
One more–
Visiting the workouts daily is an old Army guard who played with Coach Blaik, Lt.General Blackshear M. Bryan, new superintendent of the academy.
NOTE:
The World-Telegram and the Sun,now long gone was a combination of three old dailey newspapers in the City of New York who merged to form one newspaper before it folded for good.
The NY World
The New York Telegram
The New York Sun
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D
Dec 23, 2002
1954- A year to remember – Rabble looks back on the 1954 season and shares a column by Gene Ward
Gene Ward was truly one of the great sports columnists of the 1950s. He wrote exclusively for the New York City Daily News in those days and I remember him well for his many articles on Army football for that great paper. He admired Army’s coach in those bright and glorious days when the Black Knights were tearing up the opposition– the coach–Earl (Red) Blaik .
This particular year however, Earl was in the process in the fourth year of rebuilding a team that only three years earlier was decimated by the now infamous cribbing scandal that rocked the very foundation of West Point in 1951. Although the Army team had won the Lambert Trophy the previous season of 1953, Blaik was still rebuilding his program on the banks of the Hudson. Here are excerpts from a Gene Wards column that appeared in early September,1954:
Tucked away in an isolated corner of the mighty military reservation at West Point,N.Y., is a mountain hideway known as Bull Pond. Here the Army Football coach, Earl (Red) Blaik, and his staff are soaking up rest and relaxation before the rigors of the gridiron season begin. It is here, in this bosky biviouack, that the stern-jawed colonel each year at this time contemplates the impossibilities of the tasks before him and directs his iron will toward their accomplishment. This sort of driving determination was the motivating factor behind the great teams of the 40s and now has bought back as a football power once again. The 1951 cribbing scandals, and the ousting of some nearly 40 athletes, all but wrecked the football structure at the academy. Only a man of great character could have survived the shock and bring order from chaos, credit from dishonor. He has done his job superlatively well.
We trecked our way to Bull Pond this bright summer afternoon for the purpose of finding out what the colonel had in store for New York football fans this fall, and it is plenty. A good thing too, what with the Ivy Leagues ridiculous de-emphasis policies, the ban on spring practice and the like. The gridiron pastime around our town has come on sad days and Blaik and his Black Knights are all that’s left in a sector which cradled this game of football.
Only 9 lettermen return from the 53 squad that finished 7-1-1. Captain Bob Farris is definitely out with a detached retina. He won’t see action. HB Mike Ziegler has disc trouble in his back and its 90% certain he wont see action. There are only two line regulars back and no centers or linebackers with varsity experience.
Still with Blaiks particular brand of genius, Army is going to have a good team and a great backfield, perhaps one of the best in the country. The colonel ranks QB Pete Vann one of the best passers ever to perform for the academy. Pat Uebel, leading scorer (10 TDs) and ground gainer (504 yards) last year has grown from 195 to 205 pounds without losing any speed and will be shifted from HB to FB. The Bronx’s own Tommy (Bowl em Over) Bell will handle one HB slot and the other will be occupied by a gifted yearling named Bob Kyasky from Ansonia, Conn., who may be another Glenn Davis.
But there are only a half a dozen good prospects up from the plebes, outside of Kyasky, so this is a squad with little depth. The loss of Farris has hurt more than Blaik will admit. Besides, he feels very keenly for the boy himself. The fact that Bob was elected captain before his senior year is testimony of his value as a team player. It was only the third time in Army history a second classman ever had been awarded the captaincy. But he will sit with Blaik on the bench, work with his teammates and do everything he can to be the teams leader. That’s the way Farris wants it and that’s the way the colonel wants it.
Football as played at Army has two objectives–to produce winning teams and to mold character. Unfortunately, too many of the big college coaches merely give lip service to the second of these goals. Blaiks success hinges on two highly developed talents–his organizational ability and his understanding of men. Without these qualities, Army football would be mediocre. For once the campaign starts, there is just an hour and a half a day, which can be devoted to football. That is all the time the rigid West Point curriculum allows a cadet for gridiron activity.
The colonel thinks things out in fine detail, and much of the advance planning is done at Bull Pond in talks with his staff, which now as a new recruit in Doc Blanchard, on temporary leave from jet flying. Actually, Blaik lives and loves football on a 12-month basis. Those close to him worry about his health but, in recent months he has started to play golf and some of the tense lines have eased from his face. As a personality, he makes a tremendous impression on the men he coaches, one which few of them ever forget. The colonel can give a resume of the careers of almost every player since they pinned on their 2nd lieutennant bars after graduating, Gus Dielens, who got shot up in Korea… Charley Gabriel, who came out of Korea and now is in Germany… and Trent, Drury, Galloway, Fuson, Kellum and all the other 17 football players who have given their lives for their country over the last decade.
Always the old players keep in touch with him, by mail, sometimes by phone or by using leave time to drop in on him. And those who were busted out in 1951, they write too. Those dark days of 1951, they were a constant source of inspiration for him. He told us that 17 of the ousted group had gone on to earn commissions via ROTC, and you could see he was proud of them and it somehow eased the pain of the whole sorry and misunderstood mess.
We had come to find out about Army’s football prospects and can report they are very bright indeed. After all, Army football is in the hands of a great coach and a fine man, Earl (Red) Blaik.
NOTE: Blaik’s Army team that season of 1954 finished with a record of 7-2 losing their opener against the Gamecocks of South Carolina (of which I was in attendance that day in Michie) and the season finale with the Navy which was one of the finest in the annals of Army-Navy football. That year Navy won, 27-20, behind a pretty good QB in George Welsh and beat out the Cadets for the Lambert Trophy, emblematic of Eastern football supremacy.
Army had 3 All-Americans on that 54 team–
Tommy (Bowl em Over) Bell HB
Ralph (Chester) Chesnauskas G
Don Holleder E – who years later gave his life in Viet Nam and for who the Holleder Center is named.
1954- a year to remember.
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A note from Bill —
You certainly have my permission to post it on your website at any time
you wish.
Yes, I do have every write up of every game Army Football has played
since 1952. From original clippings from every NYC, Newark, Philadelphia
and our local Asbury Park Press newspapers of the day since that date, I
have recopied every article on 8 by 11 individual sheets and placed them
in 3″ Black binders with Gold lettering on the front cover of each
binder with each season having a separate binder.
I have over a thousand football programs covering most of the games
since the early 60’s with many previous to that date, some duplicates of
course..
I have many reel to reel audio tapes of the early years of Army radio
broadcasts, the complete set of the printed Army Sportsletters that were
printed from the mid 60’s until they were discontinued when the internet
began with the GOARMYSPORTS. COM format.
All the media guides that were published since the 60’s to the present I
also have plus I put in book form the media guides produced
electronically since the printed guides were stopped 4 years ago. They
are also individually wrapped page by page in plastic page
protectors and also put in 3″ binders with exterior gold lettering on
the front of each binder indicating each as a media guide.
Autographs, pins, pennants and magazines of the past when there was a
article about West Point Football.
Included , I have collected every internet article on the football team
via internet since the middle 90’s to the present day. I average about
10 3′ binders per year covering the team and its complete activities
year round..
I built a separate room in my large cellar which I dedicated it my “Army
Sports Room” built with shelving throughout resembling your local
library. It is chronologically displayed with easy access to its
contents.
If you wish at any time to use my collection, feel free to ask me at any
time. I will do my best to send to you what you may desire.
This has been my hobby since I was a little boy and to this day (I’m 75)
I continue with it. It is most enjoyable to me as you may see.
One other thing I would like to ask you. Since I am getting up there in
age, I would like to donate my complete “treasure trove” to West Point
for their sports archives so other may feel free to peruse it while
visiting the academy. It would be a small gift to WP for the many years
I have followed and supported Army Football and all the other sports the
Academy offers.
Do you know anyone up at school I could talk to about donating all my
material to WP? I really do not know the proper channels to ask someone.
Thanks, Phil. Let me know what you may like amongst my collection for
you website.
For What They Gave on Saturday Afternoon 