Syracuse Series
October 18, 2004 01:48 PM | General
October 18, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Jim Carlen once said when he took the West Virginia job in 1966 that his team only had two players good enough to play at Syracuse. In the late 1950s and 1960s, Syracuse was the measuring stick for all Eastern football programs and the Mountaineers often times found themselves on the short end of that stick.
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| Chris Henry caught six passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns in last year's West Virginia victory in the Carrier Dome.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Thursday night Syracuse and West Virginia will square off once again for the 52nd time since first meeting in 1945 (a 12-0 Syracuse victory). The Orange own a 30-21 advantage in a series that has sometimes ebbed and flowed throughout the years.
One witness to all 51 games is long-time sports reporter Mickey Furfari, who says his most striking memories of the Syracuse series are rough, physical football games.
“(Coach Ben) Schwartzwalder’s teams were just tough,” Furfari recalled. “If his team needed a couple of yards they usually got five. I really remember their fullbacks more than their tailbacks. Their style was to just overpower you.”
Certainly Furfari’s memory was clear on 6-foot-2, 220-pound fullback Jim Brown, who burned the Mountaineers for 165 yards in a 27-20 Orange victory that helped them land a spot in the Cotton Bowl in 1956.
West Virginia got its first look at one of football’s best-ever running backs in 1955 when Brown accumulated 188 all-purpose yards in a 20-13 Syracuse victory. In an effort to prepare his team for Syracuse a year later, West Virginia coach Art Lewis practiced his team longer and harder than usual.
“Chuck Howley broke his jaw in practice before the Syracuse game because Lewis wanted to make sure his team was ready for their toughness,” Furfari remembered.
After playing the Orange surprisingly close in 1958 the roof caved in on West Virginia in 1959 against top-ranked Syracuse, which went on to win the national championship. Behind the running of All-American Ernie Davis, SU piled up an insurmountable 30-0 halftime lead that prompted a disgusted Lewis at halftime to tell his team not to get hurt in the second half.
Blowout losses ensued in 1960 and 1961 before West Virginia managed to surprise Syracuse, 17-6 in 1962 on the determined running of Tom Woodeshick, who finished the game with 93 yards on 19 carries. Later, Schwartzwalder mused that West Virginia was the only opponent that season to thoroughly outplay his Syracuse team that season.
He didn’t make the same statement in 1964.
Syracuse barely escaped West Virginia at Archibold Stadium in 1963, downing WVU 15-13 when Jerry Yost’s two-point conversion pass late in the game fell incomplete. The Mountaineers managed to stay in the game despite accumulating only six first downs and 161 yards of offense.
In 1964, Syracuse came into Morgantown for the regular season finale with a 7-2 record and a bid to the Sugar Bowl already in hand. Prior to the game, the school issued a press release announcing that it had accepted a bid to play LSU in the 1965 Sugar Bowl and also included a victory over West Virginia in the announcement.
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| Bob Dunlevy hauled in this pass from Allen McCune for a 50-yard touchdown to beat Syracuse in 1964.
WVU Sports Communications |
West Virginia won the game when Bob Dunlevy caught a fourth-quarter pass from Allen McCune for 50 yards and a touchdown. A sharp 12-mile per hour wind and 25-degree temperatures forced more than half of the 20,000 at the game to find out about Dunlevy’s catch in the newspaper Sunday morning.
The next three seasons saw Syracuse physically whip the Mountaineers by scores of 41-19 in 1965, 34-7 in 1966 and 23-6 in 1967.
Bobby Bowden, then Carlen’s offensive coordinator, specifically remembers the 1967 game.
“I believe it was (Larry) Csonka’s last year and they just beat us to death,” Bowden was quoted recently in the Syracuse Post-Standard. “They knocked our quarterback out, we had running backs knocked out with broken jaws. That was the meanest bunch of guys we ever saw.
“We couldn’t leave afterward until they let all of our injured guys out of the hospital. We joked about that game for years … said we didn’t leave town, we were evacuated.”
Csonka ripped off 117 yards in the 1967 game, just a faction of what he did to West Virginia as a sophomore in 1965 when he tore up the Mountaineer defense for 216 yards in Morgantown. Halfback Floyd Little was just a step behind Csonka with 195 yards as Syracuse piled up a staggering 431 yards rushing.
But Carlen was able to close the gap and by 1968 his team beat a 6-2 Syracuse team 23-6 on the road. Carlen’s 1969 squad overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to down Syracuse 13-10 in the season finale to finish the regular season 9-1.
Bowden took over the West Virginia job in 1970 and kept the Mountaineers’ winning ways against Syracuse going by beating SU 28-19 in Morgantown.
Syracuse came into West Virginia on a five-game winning streak that included a win over Penn State and were looking for a Gator Bowl bid. “It rained and stormed like crazy and we couldn’t fly down there,” remembered SU running back Roger Praetorius. “We had to pile in a bus, got there all tired and everything. We were the favorite and they beat us.”
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| Schwartzwalder |
Bowden also beat Schwartzwalder, a WVU graduate and a member of the WVU Sports Hall of Fame, in his final game coaching Syracuse in 1973, 24-14. As was typical of most of the games at Archibold Stadium in late November, the contest was played in ankle-deep mud. The Orange lost five fumbles, four in the first quarter.
One of West Virginia’s most stinging defeats to Syracuse came in 1975 at Archibold Stadium after the Mountaineers had already accepted a bid to play North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl. West Virginia fell behind 17-0 in the first quarter and relied on quarterback Dan Kendra’s arm after that. Kendra threw for 293 yards and fired a third quarter touchdown pass to Tommy Bowden. In the fourth, Ron Lee ran for two scores including a three-yard plunge in the game’s waning seconds to pull WVU to within one, 20-19.
Bowden went for the two-point conversion to win the game and after a Syracuse pass interference penalty, Lee was stopped just short of the goal line on West Virginia’s second try.
“I believe the line judge that made the call was a circuit court judge from Pittsburgh,” Furfari dutifully pointed out. Lee said after the game that he thought he crossed the goal line.
“I was running forward and on impact I didn’t really see anything,” he said. “I felt I was over and then they pushed me back.”
Bowden agreed: “I did think Lee was in on the final conversion.”
Six years later Syracuse once again played the role of spoiler for West Virginia. Coach Don Nehlen was hoping to cap off a remarkable turnaround season in 1981 with a Peach Bowl invitation following his team’s game against Syracuse in the newly constructed Carrier Dome.
The Mountaineers were 8-2 and it seemed a mere formality that Nehlen’s team would dispose of 3-6-1 Syracuse and secure their first bowl bid in six years.
Syracuse had other plans. Joe Morris, as he had done previously in Syracuse victories in 1979 and 1980, ran all over West Virginia to the tune of168 yards and a pair of touchdowns to stun the Mountaineers, 27-24 before an ABC regional television audience.
Not only had the Mountaineers lost, but their bowl bid also was hanging in the balance. West Virginia University athletic director Fred Schaus was concerned that the Peach Bowl may have a change of heart and instructed members of his staff to find Peach Bowl representative Art Gregory who was at the game. There were rumors circulating that the Peach Bowl might instead select South Carolina. Gregory did find his way down to the locker room claiming there was a mix up in communication and extended the bid to a dejected West Virginia team in the locker room.
“I thought maybe they were backing out after the way we stunk up the place in the second half,” Nehlen grumbled after the game.
Six years later in 1987, West Virginia’s post-game dejection turned into jubilation when, mainly on the performance of freshman quarterback Major Harris, the Mountaineers were extended an invitation to play in the Sun Bowl when Ohio State backed out despite finishing the year 6-5 and losing 32-31 in a cliffhanger to Syracuse that wasn’t decided until the final play of the game.
Harris had 266 yards of total offense and scored two touchdowns, flanker John Talley caught four passes for 113 yards and running back Undra Johnson had 119 yards in a remarkable all-around offensive performance. But Syracuse was protecting its undefeated record and used a 22-point fourth quarter to erase a 31-24 Mountaineer lead. Quarterback Don McPherson fired a 17-yard touchdown pass to pull Syracuse to within one, and on the two-point conversion Michael Owens outraced WVU linebacker Donnell Warren to the flag to give SU its perfect regular season.
West Virginia exacted a small measure of revenge in 1988, beating Syracuse 31-9 in its regular season finale to post its first undefeated, untied regular season in school history. The Mountaineers also topped Syracuse, 24-17 in the Carrier Dome in 1989.
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| The television cameras capture the beginning blows of the fight that marred West Virginia's 1992 game against Syracuse.
MSN |
Three years later the West Virginia-Syracuse rivalry turned downright hostile. No. 14 Syracuse defeated No. 23 West Virginia, 20-17 in a game marred by a bench clearing brawl and the handling of the situation by the officials during the game has made it one of the most bizarre losses in school history.
Afterward, Nehlen used the word ‘crime’ six different times to describe the fight during his post-game press conference. The fight was triggered by Syracuse quarterback Marvin Graves, who fired a football at West Virginia defensive back Tommy Orr for what he perceived to be a late hit out of bounds. A Syracuse coach grabbed Orr and then players from both teams began throwing punches. The West Virginia team ran across the field and after several minutes order was restored.
The officials finally sorted out the mess and determined that West Virginia starting defensive end Tom Briggs, starting strong safety Michael Collins, and nickel defensive back Leroy Axem should be ejected. From the Syracuse side, reserve offensive lineman Ken Warren, who wasn’t even on the Syracuse roster in the game program, was disqualified. It was a trade Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni could easily stomach.
Syracuse won the game late in the fourth quarter when Graves hit tight end Chris Gedney for a 17-yard touchdown. The bad blood boiled over for West Virginia in 1993 when the Mountaineers served their revenge cold in a 43-0 beating in the Carrier Dome – one of Syracuse’s worst ever home losses. West Virginia actually had a chance to put 50 on the board but Nehlen instructed backup quarterback Darren Studstill to take a knee at the Syracuse goal line as the clock expired.
More recently, West Virginia was able to turn around a sinking 1998 season with a 35-28 victory over No. 15-rated Syracuse in 1998. It was West Virginia’s only victory over a nationally ranked team during a four-year period from 1998 to 2002.
Pasqualoni led Syracuse to wins in 1999, 2000 and 2001 before new coach Rich Rodriguez’ system took hold in 2002. Rodriguez led West Virginia to a 34-7 victory over Syracuse in 2002 and pulled off an exceptional, 34-23 win at Syracuse last season.
Thursday night, the 52nd meeting between these long-time Eastern rivals will pit two teams undefeated in Big East play looking to set themselves up in the driver’s seat for the conference title and its BCS berth.
ESPN will televise the contest nationally.
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Top Performances |
| West Virginia Rushing |
| 198, Robert Walker (1993) 195, Eddie Silverio (1968) 189, Amos Zereoue (1998) |
| West Virginia Receiving |
| 209, Chris Henry (2003) 139, Milt Clegg (1964) 118, Bob Dunlevy (1964) |
| West Virginia Passing |
| 360, Oliver Luck (1981) |
| Syracuse Rushing |
| 216, Larry Csonka 1965) 195, Floyd Little (1965) 192, Joe Morris (1980) |
| Syracuse Receiving |
| 213, Marvin Harrison (1995) 196, Kevin Johnson (1998) 151, Johnny Morant (2003) |
| Syracuse Passing |
| 336, R.J. Anderson (2003) 308, Donovan McNabb (1995) |
