USD Football 1991

Palmolive• Softest Hands A Six-Part Series Saluting College Football's Greatest Receivers

SOFT-HANDED UPSETS

By Bert Randolph Sugar The word "upset" is defined by Noah

1939 version of the same game when a Duke team that was undefeated, untied and unscored upon went into the Rose Bowl to face a Southern Cal team that had lost two games during the '38 season. Duke came out on the short end of a 7-3 score when, with less than a minute to play in the game, reserve quar- terback Doyle Nave hit reserve end Al Krueger ith a 14-yard touchdown pass. But the greatest "upset" of all time, hands down---0r is that soft hands down?---occurredback in 1947 when little Columbia faced a mighty Army team, proud possessors of a 32-game undefeated streak which had seen them score an average of almost 40 points a game while holding their opponents to fewer than five points a game. True to their press clippings, the Cadets jumped off to a 14-0 lead. But with Columbia quarter- back Gene Rossides

Webster as: "To defeat unexpectedly." And so, the word "upset" has been appropriated by the world of spons; and nowhere has the usage been invoked more than in the world of collegiate football. Take the 1961 Texas-TCU game, for instance. Texas was on the verge of becoming the first national champion from the Southwest Conference since 1939, a 25-point favorite to beat outmanned and outgunned TCU. But even though the Horned Frogs were outmanned and outgunned, they weren't outgutted, as quarter- back Sonny Gibbs and end Buddy lies proved. The story line of the game was, simply stated, that TCU made the big plays and Texas didn't, including one plumb-per- fect flea-flicker of a play in the second quarter. The play saw Gibbs take the ball from center and hand it off to halfback Larry Thomas, who, in turn, tossed it back to Gibbs while end Iles feinted a block at

throwing and left end Bill Swiacki catch- ing, the Lions came to life, and by the end of the third

some orange-jerseyed Texas lineman and scurried off downfield. Gibbs retreated, far behind the original 50-yard line of scrimmage and managed to release the ball some- where in the general direction of Iles before he was slammed to the turf by an orange blur ofjerseys. Iles, streaking downfield, engulfed the perfect spiral, shook off the last desper- ate attempt by the defender and tum- bled across the Longhorn goal line with the only score of the game safely cra- dled in his soft hands for a 6-0 TCU "upset." College football has produced other never-to-be-forgotten "upsets." There was UCLA's unbelievable "upset" of unbeaten Ohio State in the 1976 Rose Bowl after losing to the Buckeyes 41-20 during the regu· lar season, as quarterback John Sciarra and receiver Wally Henry combined for two crucial TD's to beat the Archie Griffin-led Buckeyes 23-10. And then there was the

ing game.

Rossides and Swiacki teamed up for a 28-yard touch- down pass, made possible by a div- ing, acrobatic catch by Swiacki, to move Columbia to within six, 20-14. Then, with the sand in their hour-

glass beginning to dwindle, Lion quar- terback Rossides found a twisting, turning Swiacki far downfield. Looking for the pass over his right shoul- der, Swiacki turned his head and body at the last minute and reached out in the opposite direction for the ball, which he snared just as it began to tumble groundward. The jubilant Lions rode the strong arm of Rossides and the soft hands of Swiacki for a total of nine catches and I48 yards to beat Army 21-20 and pull off the "Upset of the Century" by anybody's definition.