Evening star., 1942-11-09
Hanken Solves Puzzle
That Non-PIussed
Strong Teams
Colonial Ends, Keymen
Perform Brilliantly
To Break Up PIoy

George Washington not only re-
versed the tables on Clemson for
the first time in the history Of
their five-game series last Saturday,
but in so doing stopped Clemson's
famous reverse play. And therein
lies the tale of the Colonials' ability
to hold the Carolina Tigers score
less and to score one OF the big
upsets of the Southern Conference
season.
This narrative opens some seven
or eight years ago when Jess Nicely,
now head coach at Rice, started
Clemson on the highroad to grid
iron glory with the first OF several
good teams he produced there be-
fore moving on to more fertile
fields at Houston.
Neely's pet ground gamer was
q deep reverse play and he bumped
of such highly touted teams as
Tulane, Navy, South Carolina and
North Carolina State before moving
into the Cotton Bowl on January
/, 1910, to beat Charley ORourke
and his Boston College pals, 6-3, IN
O'Rourke's Junior year.
Play Nearly Invincible.
The fame of this play spread
throughout Dixie and though fore
warned, few of Clemsons oppo-
nents were able to stop it. This
was true particularly OF G. w.
which felt the sting OF Shad Bry-
ants brilliant running on this re-
verse play to the tune OF 26-0 IN
1888 and 1876 the following fall.
Every time the Tigers needed
Ground, they fed the ball to Bryant,
the fleet wingback, and he carved
out great hunks of yardage through
the Colonial line and secondary.
The same state of affairs con-
tinued last year when the teams
resumed their series after lapse
In 40. It was 1910 for Clemson.
The Colonials, having bad season,
offered unexpected resistance Tor
a time, but the Tigers soon re.
sorted to their old standby ana
presto, a touchdown for the Caro-
linians on a 35-yard run by Butch
Butler. Yes, it was on that same
reverse play.
This fall End Coach Ray Hanken,
former G. w. and New York Giant
star. sick of the legend about Glenn
sons reverse, began to mutter about
it and to plan a way to stop 1t long
before the Clemson game came up.
Ends Play Mighty Game.
He decided that G.. w. must crash
its ends on every play against the
Tigers and allow the line hackers
and defensive halfbacks to play
several steps wider to close in quickly
for the tackle after the ends had
spilled the interference.
This plan. coupled with a five
man line which seemed to disturb
the Tigers blocking setup, certainly
accomplished the desired result. Ed
Czekaj John Misiewicz and AL
Romasco, three terrific ends that
day. more than carried out their
instructions. They not only spilled
the interference, but many times
dumped the ball carriers for big
losses.
All told, Clemson lost A yards
from scrimmage, most Of it in using
their old favorite, the reverse. The
Tigers were unwilling to believe
that they could not gain with it, and
continued to use it, much to the
Colonials delight.
Czekaj, Misiewicz and Romasco.
and the two other ends. Don Nc
Nary and Myron Week, to see serv-
ice, turned in what was called the
greatest exhibition of end play ever
seen on a Clemson field"
Much to the delight of Ray Hanken
and Head Coach Johnny Baker, they
proved that Clemsons reverse could
ha efNryai