Ben Schwartzwalder inspired decades of Syracuse football teams as head coach of the Orangemen from 1949 to 1973. What he did during retirement, though, proved just how strong his loyalty was to SU football. Schwartzwalder, a former West Virginia University player, came back to Syracuse to inspire SU teams before games against the Mountaineers.

He concluded his speeches the same way: by throwing his West Virginia letterman jacket (with its blue and yellow W-V) on the ground of the Syracuse locker room and stomping on it.

On Saturday at Yankee Stadium, Syracuse (8-5) and West Virginia (7-6) wrote yet another chapter in a rivalry that dates back to October 1945. The Orange holds a slight edge (33-27) in the overall head-to-head.

Former SU quarterback Don McPherson remembers games against West Virginia as some of the most hard-fought, nastiest games he played in during his collegiate career.

“Rivalries happen for a lot of reasons,” McPherson said. “Sometimes they’re regional, like the rivalry with Boston College, and the rivalry with Penn State was the biggest…but the one with West Virginia was the nastiest. When we went to their place, the student section was at the top of the stadium and they would throw Oranges down at us from up there; it was just a nasty rivalry. And for that reason it was probably the most fun.”

McPherson recalled the season finale matchup with West Virginia in 1987, when the Orangemen’s undefeated season was on the line. McPherson threw four interceptions and the Orangemen trailed 31-24 late in the fourth quarter. But with 10 seconds remaining, McPherson threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to tight end Pat Kelly. Trailing by one, SU went for a two-point conversion and the win. The gamble paid off, as Michael Owens ran the ball into the end zone.

“The last drive and that last pass to Pat Kelly was just as good as it can get in any sports career,” McPherson said.

Schwartzwalder died in 1993, and since then the winner of the annual regular season game between the two teams has been awarded the Ben Schwartzwalder Trophy.

McPherson noted the tight friendship between SU coach Dick MacPherson and WVU coach Don Nehlen.

“There was always this really cool connection with West Virginia,” McPherson said. “Maybe that game (in 1987) was more intense, but the games were always dog fights.”

College football historian Tex Noel said the Syracuse-West Virginia rivalry is underappreciated.

“While they may not be powerhouses such as Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame, LSU and others, each school has had their time when the college football world’s eyes were focused on them,” said Noel, the executive director of the Intercollegiate Football Researchers Association, in an email to The Daily Orange. “They’re two schools that have been a part of the history of college football for some time.

“Naturally, both schools having played one another when West Virginia was a member of the Big East they will bring to the game an opportunity to renew an old rivalry. Each school will recall something that will bring that time to memory and could use it to their advantage.”

As many analysts and websites have predicted, Noel predicted the Pinstripe Bowl will be high scoring and among this year’s best bowl games.

Just as the last-second come-from-behind victory saved an undefeated season in 1987, the Orange beat West Virginia in its only other undefeated season, 1959. Steven Novak was a linebacker on the 1959 team.

Novak doesn’t recall the exact game against West Virginia, in which the Orangemen routed the Mountaineers 44-0 at Archbold Stadium. But he does remember the great offensive line that year that paved the way to the undefeated season and Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis.

With West Virginia having left the Big East for the Big 12 and Syracuse heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season, this game could be the last time these two teams face each other for a while. The Ben Schwartzwalder Trophy will not be at stake on Saturday, but pride will.

“You think of the personalities of the states of the schools,” McPherson said. “The antithesis of Syracuse was West Virginia, and vice-versa. We were the northeast school with the New York City connections and they were the – we used to call them the ‘hillbillies’ and ‘folks from the hills’ of West Virginia. So it was that kind of nastiness.”

Published on December 29, 2012 at 6:04 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu