Legends of the Pen: Previous Invitations

John Fox's Legends of the Pen Archives:
Nov. 18: Big and Tall Shop
Nov. 4: Clear The Deck For Football
Oct. 14: The Syracuse-Pittsburgh Rivalry
Sept. 23:The Syracuse-Colgate Rivalry

Becoming the 'home team' in the new Yankee Stadium's first bowl game was an invitation that Syracuse University -- its chancellor, its athletic director, its coach and players -- couldn't refuse.

Surely not chancellor Nancy Cantor, more surely not AD Daryl Gross.... no way different, the receptiveness of Coach Doug Marrone, whose Bronx high-school launching pad was 10 minutes from the stadium, nor by any means his roster of hungering career-UNinvited players.

But the cast of characters and proceeds were different a half-century ago, when Syracuse's invitation was to the old Yankee Stadium's first bowl game: As representive of the East in the proposed first Gotham Bowl, a March of Dimes benefit, against a willing Oregon State. The matchup would have pitted the next two seasons' Heisman Trophy winners -- non-pariel running back Ernie Davis for the Orange, single-wing tailback Terry Baker for the Beavers.

Ben Schwartzwalder's Syracuse team was defending national champion, No. 3 in the polls more than halfway through the schedule. Its regular-season winning streak had reached SU's continuing-record 22. Bigger bowls than the Bronx loomed. Then back-to-back losses, despite holding Pitt and Army to a combined 19 points -- but generating only a point-per-20-minute pace itself. The latter by 9-6, in a Yankee Stadium drizzle, where the night before I was introduced to the primary Gotham Bowl promoters Bob Curran and Bob Reidy.

My game-story lead mentioned the old GI mutter about there being three ways to handle a given situation, "the right way, the wrong way and the army way," adding need to rewrite it, to "right way, wrong way, Army way, and the Syracuse way." That performance dropped the ranking from ninth to 18th; notwithstanding, Orange Bowl selection chairman Jess Yarborough was in a scouting box as SU completed its schedule under Miami's lights.

At about 10:15 that Friday night, the phone rang in our Binghamton home.

It was Gotham Bowl director Bob Reidy's wife Ann, by chance a Binghamton native of my acquaintance. She related that another mutual friend was sitting in their living room, "and says you have the game on TV up there. What's happening?" "Only radio", I told her, "but Ernie just ran for a tiebreaking touchdown, so Syracuse has a 21-14 lead with about eight minutes left."

Reidy cut in abruptly and said, "If you don't mind, just set down the receiver next to the radio."

The Hurricanes would threaten again, to as deep as the 6. Reidy issued a heavy sigh at the finish. While I was out of the room for Bromo-Seltzer relief, he heard in the recap that Ernie had carried only three times in the first half. He ended the long phone connection, with feighned innocence: "Incidentally, what are they saving Davis for?"

When the media heard nothing Sunday night from Syracuse's administrative board for athletics, there was speculation that word from the Orange Bowl was being awaited.

But the next morning, Syracuse chancellor William P. Tolley was heard from. He released the "unanimous recommendation of the administrative board for athletics that the Syracuse football team will not accept any post-season invitations." In view of all the factors, he said, the 7-2 season had been long enough.

Athletic director Lew Andreas agreement: "Syracuse has played under unusual pressure. We had an outstanding season, and will stand on it."

Schwartzwalder expressed the same mind: "Whatever is best for the University is fine with me and my staff," Schwartzwalder said.

When Reidy received the unwelcome news, he announced that cancellation of the Dec. 11 game was now likely. He said he was still hoping to interest Notre Dame or the Army-Navy victory -- with chances slimmest and none: Notre Dame hadn't accepted a bid since 1924, Army none ever, and Navy destined for the Orange Bowl against Missouri.

In Miami, Schwartz said he might conduct a player vote after return. None ever was made public.

Seniors had participated in the 1958 season's Orange Bowl and the following national-championship Cotton Bowl, both in more attractive weather. At least five already had been chosen for one of the all-star games in which athletes with eligibility expire could accept cash reward. Other teammates may not eagerly awaited the extra weeks of Coach Ben's unrelenting pre-bowl practices.

Each Gotham teams' guarantee was $30,000. Today's, New Era Pinstripe Bowl rivals are promises in the $1.6 million to $2 mil range. In 1960, only nine bowls existed, two of them new the previous year. Today, there are 33, not counting the three NCAA divisions' playoff bowls and NAIAs'.

Only one other is as daringly northern as Syracuse's next week -- indoors in Detroit. Outdoors, the closest is in Washington, D.C., at the Redskins' Stadium. Contrary to Pinstripe ticket sales reportedly well past two-thirds of Yankee Stadium's 54,251-seat football capacity, attendance in previous Northeast attempts hasn't been promising. The Garden State Bowl's four seasons at Giants Stadium were an exception , averaging more than 44,000 attendance with a 55,493 high for Temple-California in 1979 -- but extinct three years later.

Reidy and Gotham partner Bob Curran moved their 1961 site to the nearby Polo Grounds, Baylor beating Utah State, attendance listed at 15,000. Moving back to Yankee Stadium, in 1962, a Nebraska-Miami 36-34 game went virtually unpublicized by metropolitan newspapers' strike. The generous-at-best announced attendance was 6,166. Over and out!

A year after its Gotham nix, Syracuse beat Miami in the third Liberty Bowl's freezing Philadelphia setting, before a listed 15,712. Two years later, it moved indoors, averaged 7,200 in two tries, and moved South. When Syracuse, 7-and-2 with Larry Csonka a 1967 senior, was invited to the Liberty again, athletic director Jim Decker replied in a firm negative, "They still owe us from the first time."

Syracuse University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos