Blue White Illustrated

State kicked off to Syracuse at 1:30 p.m., the Orange Bowl had zeroed in on Syracuse, and the Liberty Bowl des- perately wanted Penn State as the host team, while the Cotton and Gator bowls were still interested in both teams. Penn State shocked Syracuse in the first quarter, forcing the Orange to punt on its initial possession and then quickly driving into Syracuse territory. Facing sec- ond-and-11 at the Syracuse 45-yard line, Lucas found halfback Dick Hoak in the clear near the end zone, but the normally sure-handed Hoak dropped the ball, and the drive sputtered. Minutes later, guard Bill Popp stripped the ball from Syracuse's quarterback, and Lucas recovered the fumble at the Orange 45. Seven crisp plays later, Penn State had a touchdown on a surprising 17-yard fourth-down run up the middle by soph- omore speedster Roger Kochman, who dragged two tacklers into the end zone. Stellatella, a guard on the red team, ran in to kick the extra point. He had hit on 15 of 16 since taking over the prime place- kicking duties from starting end Henry Opperman during the VMI game, missing only at West Virginia the previous Satur- day. The kick was wide right and Stellatella is convinced it was a carryover from his miss against the Mountaineers. "My oldest sister had died a few days be- fore the West Virginia game, and I missed a day of practice for the viewing," he recalled. "It broke my chain of thought, my timing, and I got off my schedule. My timing was still off when I missed the kick against Syracuse, but I didn't miss any after that." Gordon White of The New York Times knew instinctively that the missed kick had changed the game. "With better luck the Lions would have come out of that period with a two-touchdown lead," White wrote in his coverage of the game, "and that would have put an entirely different complexion on the game." The missed extra point seemed to give Syracuse new life. The Orange dominated the game on both offense and defense in building a 20-6 lead with 11:20 left in the fourth quarter. It might have been worse if Hoak had not redeemed himself with an end zone interception after a 66-yard drive when the game was still scoreless. But the Syracuse defense forced a short punt following Hoak's interception, and that set up a 45-yard drive for the Orange's first touchdown in the second quarter. The Syracuse defense also helped set up the other two short touchdown drives of 56 and 41 yards in the second half. Here is where fate intervened for Stel- latella and almost turned Syracuse's left- footed kicker Bob Yates into the goat of the game instead. It started with another missed extra point, this time by Yates after Syracuse's third touchdown. What happened in the next few minutes were two of the outstanding plays in Penn State history, and they nearly cost Syracuse its national championship. Yates' kickoff was high and long. Kochman caught the ball on the goal line, and with a key block by Bud Kohlaas on Yates, he ran untouched for a touchdown as the crowd went berserk. Because of Stellatella's miss, the Lions needed two points, but Syracuse's defense forced Lucas to hurry a pass attempt to Hoak and the ball fell short. The teams traded punts, and when Yates went back to punt again from the Syracuse 9-yard line, tackle Andy Stynchula crashed through the line, slammed into the three- man protection, leaped with his knee planted in the back of a blocker and hit the ball with his right forearm. Syracuse's All-America tackle Fred Mautino reached for the ball but was belted by red team fullback Sam Sobczak, and end Bob Mitinger recovered at the 1-yard line. On the first play, Sobczak bolted in for the touchdown and the Lions lined up again for two points. This time, Lucas called the same play that gave Penn State its first touchdown, a fake to the fullback and a handoff to Kochman. Syracuse was ready and stopped it. The clock showed 4:15 to play, and that was too much time left for an onside kick. The crowd was still yelling when Syra- cuse's sensational sophomore Ernie Davis took the Lions' kickoff near the sideline and absentmindedly stepped out of bounds at the Orange 7-yard line. "If Penn State could hold again," White wrote in The New York Times, "there was still a chance for the Nittany Lions." "But here the Orange proved its great- ness, its gameness and its poise," Ridge Riley reported in his popular Alumni News Letter. "Under extreme pressure from Penn State and certainly somewhat shaken by the sudden change in the character of the game, Syracuse slowly and methodi- cally pushed up field for four consecutive first downs to run out the clock." Stellatella and his teammates were amazed by what happened as the teams trotted off the field to their respective locker rooms. "The crowd was totally silent at the end of the game, but as we walked off the field they gave both teams a standing ovation," he remembered. There had been much animosity between Engle and Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder throughout the 1950s, SAM STELLATELLA "The crowd was totally silent at the end of the game, but as we walked off the field, they gave both teams a standing ovation." Photo courtesy of Sam Stellatella

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