Sport: Scuffling Cinderellas

“I hope that we will never again have an outstanding football team,” said President Robert Gannon of Fordham University two years ago. Under his rigid de-emphasis program, the once-powerful Ram shrank to an emaciated shadow of its old self. Then Father Gannon left Fordham.

This fall there were signs of sprint-legged life on Fordham’s playing field. Nobody paid particular attention when Fordham breezed through its early games against Kings Point (44-9) and Scranton (33-13), but when it bowled over Syracuse, 47-21, fans began to sit up and take notice. Then, fortnight ago, Fordham ran wild and smothered favored Georgetown, 42-0. The Fordham team, model 1949, began to evoke memories of the great Ram of old; the match between Fordham’s unbeaten Cinderella outfit and awesome, unbeaten Army began to look like the week’s big game in the East—even though nobody off the Fordham campus gave the Ram a chance to win.

Last week, with old grads running a temperature for the first time in eight years, Fordham set out for West Point. To avoid any misunderstanding, Coach Ed Danowski told his boys, “They’re going to hit you harder than you have ever been hit before.” The answer voiced by cocky, quick-witted Quarterback Dick Doheny: “We’re as rough and tough as they are.’

As 27,100 fans sat in West Point’s Michie Stadium in a steady drizzle and watched, the big game of the East degenerated into something vaguely resembling the semi-finals of a Golden Gloves boxing tournament.

For 26 desperate minutes, Fordham’s wrought-up athletes used everything but brass knuckles to hold Army scoreless. The Army gave back as good as it got, with elbows and clenched fists. In a frantic effort to keep the game under control, officials expelled two players from the game (one from each team). Army was penalized 147 yards, including seven 15-yard penalties for major fouls; Fordham was set back 131 yards, 120 yards of it for similar fouls. Even the 278-yard penalty total didn’t tell the whole story: over 100 yards of penalties were declined.

Nobody was sure who started the rough stuff. The important difference was that Army did not allow its own share in the Donnybrook to take its mind off such chores as blocking and pass defense. And slowly Army’s class began to tell.

Midnight struck for Fordham’s Cinderellas toward the end of the second quarter, when Army’s cool, detached Quarterback Arnold Galiffa began heaving touchdown passes—three of them in less than four minutes. In the calmer second half (only four major penalties) Army kept its command. Final score: Army 35, Fordham 0. Despite the score, the Rams had shown enough power to impress the experts; it looked as though Fordham would soon have an outstanding football team if it didn’t have one already.