The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1945-11-01
BEHIND
HOME PLATE
BY DOUG STEWART

Navy was terrible, navy was
lousy" Navy was lucky"
Those were just few of the ex-
pressions used by sports writers
throughout the country, in describ-
ing the game between Navy and
Penn on Saturday afternoon, which
Navy won IA to Z.
But that's nothing new, for all sea-
son, Navy, despite the fact that it
has played a schedule just about
twice as tough as Army's and is
still one of the few undefeated
major teams, has had a bad press
after every game. By the same token,
1 suppose, if the Annapolis lads
should happen to beat Notre Dame
on Saturday and l think they
will they will be called lucky,
whether they win by one point or
twenty.
Now let's get back to the Penn
game for a minute.
Admitting that NavyS offensive
game begged down badly, due to
the inability of their backs to hang
on to the ball, that very fumbling -
Penn recovered no less than seven
fumbles, all practically within the
shadow of Navy's goal line - prov
ed, in my book at least, that Navy
is one of the great football teams of
the country.
It would be only natural to ex-
pect that any team as strong as Penn
and remember that up to last
Saturday no one had been able to
cross their goal line - would have
been able to capitalize on at least
three of those seven fumbles, but
what happened? Just this. Penn
couldn't convert even one of those
recovered fumbles into touchdown,
or even a field goal. If that doesn't
mean that Navy has one of the
greatest defensive teams in the
land, what does?
And what about Nays two
touchdoWns? Some writers said they
came as the result of desperation"
passes. The truth is that they came
as the result of cleverly executed
plays, beautifully timed AS a mat
ter of record, the winning touch
down, with only ninety seconds left
to play, came from not one pass,
but from series of plays, each one
timed to the split second. Here's
what happened:
Taking possession of the ball on
their own 20-yard line, Hunchy
Hoernschemeyer dropped back as if
to pass, but Minisi had slipped be-
hind him, almost unnoticed, and TAX
ing the ball on modified Statue of
Liberty play, skirted PENIS right
flank for a first down on the So.
On the next play, Hunchy slipped
a lateral to Pistol Pete Williams,
who went round PENIS right end
for another first down on PENIS At.
Hunchy, still taking all the time in
the world, although there was only
As seconds left to play, then tossed
a strike to Duden, who promptly
lateraled to Williams, for another
first down on the Penn %. Then
with just thirty seconds left, Hunchy
faded back, waited just long enough
for Minisi to get into position, and
tossed the pass that won the game.
If that was luck and desperation
passes, then I'm like the Navy's
head coach, who, at a Touchdown
Club luncheon in Washington last
week, commenting on the bad press
his team has been receiving all sea-
son, said that if blocking a kick was
just luck and scoring touchdowns
on recovered funbles was just luck,
he'd take his lucky team and go
on winning games as long as he
could.
When Coach Paul Bear" Bryant's
Maryland University team faces Will
liam and Mary at Byrd Stadium,
College Park, on Saturday after
noon, it will mark the second time
the Terrapins have faced the Indi-
ans The first time they met was in
1905.
Maryland won that one, 40 and
the star of the game was a curly
topped 17-year-old lad. Maryland
rooters cheered him on with Come
on, Curly" He's still plugging hard
for Maryland against William and
Mary or anybody else The 17-year-
old 1905 football star is now DR.. H.
c. Byrd, president of the university.