Mud Marks Spring Football Finale

Lloyd Jordan and the 60-odd members of the spring football squad showed a fine contempt for the exceedingly inclement weather Saturday by holding a full hour game scrimmage on their fenced in field. It was the final workout of the spring practice season and probably the most important, movies were taken of the entire proceedings.

The score was 7 to 6, in favor of the Reds, T-quarterbacked by Phil Isenberg, over the Whites, quarterbacked by Carroll Lowenstein.

But for a complete account of what happened during the game, one will have to see the movies. The entire field was covered with six inches of mud when the Reds took over the ball in the first quarter. Four plays later the field was covered with five inches of mud, and the players sported the other inch.

Thereafter it was impossible either to tell who the players were, or for which team they were playing. From the sidelines, the angle was such that you could never recognize more than one team by position, and line play was absolutely incomprehensible. In addition, it was raining hard for most of the game.

The White team scored first, about three minutes from the end of the second quarter. After taking the ball on about their 42-yard-line, where a Red kick went out of bounds, the Whites unleashed a determined ground attack which culminated in a two yard touchdown plunge by freshman Jerry Blitz. All the key yardage in this drive was made by Blitz, a 188-pound fullback, in sprints around left end, and by '53 wingback John Ederer in strong side plunges.

The 6 to 0 White advantage lasted less than a period. After a fumble on an attempted punt play, the Reds recovered the ball deep in White territory, where-upon Isenberg passed the waterlogged ball to end Dike Hyde for the score. A two yard plunge by Johnny West gave the Red team both the extra point and the margin of victory.

It is impossible to make any comment whatever on the line play in the final scrimmage, other than to note that freshman tackle Dick Holdtmann was the one who hit punter Gil O'Neill and caused the fumble which set up the Red score.

However, it seemed to this observer that the White backfield of Lowenstein, Blitz, Edorer, and O'Neill, had the edge over the first string Red quartet of Isenberg, West, Warren Wylie, and Bill Healey. Blitz especially was outstanding, exhibiting both speed and agility in his end sweeps and drive in his line plunges.

The starting lineups:

Reds: Hyde, lo; Culolias, lt; Fallon, lg; Lewis, c; Rosenau, rg; Heidtmann, rt; Ravreby, re; Isenberg, qb; Healey, lhb; Wylie, rhb; West, fb.

Whites: Stargel, le; Nichols, lt; Kanter, lg; Lemay, c; Toepke, rg; Sedgwick, rt; Britton, re; Lowenstein, qb; O'Neill, lhb; Ederer, rhb; Blitz, fb.