Legends of the Pen: Big And Tall Shop

John Fox's Legends of the Pen Archives:
Nov. 4: Clear The Deck For Football
Oct. 14: The Syracuse-Pittsburgh Rivalry
Sept. 23:The Syracuse-Colgate Rivalry

The time was when the fellow bragging about all his 300s was a bowler. Y'know, ten-pins his target.

Nowadays, he instead may well be the offensive-line coach for almost any bowl-minded college football program. Present company included!

When Syracuse's 1959 unbeatens won the national championship, their media-guide roster showed second-unit tackle Gene Grabosky high at 250 pounds, with no close challengers. Different century! Today's Orange roster has six in the 300s and several others only a snack or two away.

Of course, the downside in becoming a 6-foot-5 300-pounder may be his body's increased number of square inches exposed to bodily harm. Whatever, Adam Rosner (326) and Ian Allport (6-2, 320) were off the depth chart after injuries.

Meanwhile, Connecticut's two-deep chart at the Carrier Dome showed four guards and tackles weighing more than 300 pounds, hefty factors in Jordan Todman being the No. 2 rusher in Bowl Championship Series ranks. All six other members of UConn's front fives in victory that day tilt the scales to the 290s.

This week, Boston College comes in with seven 300s in its tackle-to-tackle two-deep.

What a difference a half-century has wrought on mankind. When Syracuse won the national championship, sophomore Ernie Davis' nickname as "the Elmira Express" wasn't nearly as popular with the media as "the Sizeable Seven" for the line, its heaviest member 240 pounds, playing both offense and defense in the rules of the era. The alternate "Seven" was so nearly the starters' equal that rivals' yardage-per-carry remains the NCAA record for a season. Indeed, "yardage" overstates the statistic. The average advance was slightly less than 23 1-4 inches.

If Doug Marrone is after more hulk, it's height that Jim Boeheim just can't resists

Look at the current array: 7-foot, twice, 6-10, 6-9, 6-8, 6-8, 6-8, 6-7, plus an early Christmas to himself, newly-signed 2011 freshman Rakeem Christmas. California once his recruiting boundary. But this time he's tapped Brazil and Senegal.

Maybe because he was almost the tallest starter on 1960s' SU teams that never got far in post-season despite having a Hall of Famer in Dave Bing.

So, after coaching the 2003 NCAA champions with 7-foot, 6-8, 6-8 components returning in Craig Forth, Hakim Warrick, and Jeremy O'Neill -- who did he bring to join them? 6-11 Daryl Watkins, 6-9 Terrence Roberts, and 6-8 Demetrius Nichols.

When 6-foot-10 John Ludka arrived from Johnson City in the 1944 renewal of intercollegiate sports, he was told that there'd never been anyone as tall in SU basketball history. Two years later, he sits with the ball, front and center in the team photo of the school's first to reach post-season -- first-round 1946 NIT victim of, uh, Muhlenberg.

The first NCAA berth came in 1957, with rookie Jon Cincebox the center, reaching the regional finals against a North Carolina team that would complete its season 32-and-0. Cince and alternate center Maury Youmans (same 240ish tackle on the '59 football champions) both fouled out without scoring although Syracuse outscored the Tar Heels by seven field goals.

Before the season, a Syracuse senior of note named Jim Brown, who'd averaged double-figures off the bench as a soph and junior, decided on a parting of the ways with coach Marc Guley as a senior -- or else who's to say the Tar Heels would have been around for their triple-overtime championship-game victory win over Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain.

Today's Final Jeopardy question? Was it Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly, or Roosevelt Bouie who holds the varsity career record for the most rebounds per game?

Answer: No. It's Cincebox, by a wide margin -- both career and single-season. And he insists, media guides to the contrary, that he never grew beyond the 6-foot-6 of his arrival from Binghamton.

Syracuse University Athletics

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