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By Roger Gara “WE WERE LICKED by a better football team on that day.” That was Len Watters’ sum mation of his Willams Col lege varsity football team’s Surprising 12-0 loss to Trinity College in the season opener. Len Was speaking before the recent meeting of the Monday Morn ing Quarter backs’ Club. He's an old favorite with the group. He started at Williams a decade ago about the time the club came into be ing. It was a painful discussion, but Len put the facts on the line. Trinity won that game, he sub mitted, because it made the few er errors. He declared the condition of the field was a big factor in the occurrence of mistakes, but ad mitted that Trinity had to play on the same surface. “We fumbled four times inside their 10-yard line,”’ he said. ‘And we dropped a pass in the end zone. You don't deserve to win when you do that.’ o—‘ SINCE THAT shocking result on opening day, Williams has been a strong team, both offen sively and defensively. It was loned Colby 46-6, Middlebury 31-3 and Bowdoin 35-6. It should beg in fine fettle for the all-important Tufts game at Weston Field Saturday. This meeting of small college football rivals from opposite ends of the commonwealth has become one of top games of the New Jeng land,season. Tufts.defeated Trin ity 20-6. If you should go by com parative scores, that would make Tufts a four-touchdown choice over Williams. That of course is crazy calculating. The game rates as a toss-up. “The team that wins is the one Which makes the fewest mis takes,’’ Watters said. ‘There are so many ways you can beat your self, it is frightening.” He listed a few. Among these were a fumble, an intercepted pass, a bad pass from center, a poor handoff, a collision between backfield teammates, a messed up block, failure of linemen to open a hole, and a penalty. These errors ruin the sharpest offense, an o WATTERS ATTRIBUTES his recent success to a drastically changed pass defense. A year ago, that was Williams’ glaring weakness. It had trouble with several opponents, because it was vulnerable to an aerial at tack. The change has worked. Wil ams recently was credited with having the best pass defense record ‘in the East. Up to the Bowdoin game Saturday,the opposition had completed only six of 32 and Williams had in tercepted six. Watters used 47 men in the Middlebury game. The first team played only about half of the game. Middlebury, one of the few single wing teams in New England, was held to 24 yards rushing and eight yards passing. On o WATTERS HAS an optimistic side. He frankly admitted, “We are deep enough in each position so that we can substitute a team intact. Our opponents haven't been able to do that, so we na turally have an advantage. “The rules have opened the thing up.”’ Len continued. We have more depth than we've had for years, and we're able to make use of it through the lber alized re-entry rule.”’ Yet Watters, like any’ self-re specting coach, doesn’t want you to conclude he has a powerhouse. He submitted that the pre-season stories on his club made it ap pear stronger than it was. “The report that we had 38 lettermen gave a false impres sion,’’ he contended. He explained that 50 letters were awarded last fall, because Williams had its first undefeated team in 40 years. ‘So we gave letters to some boys who didn't satisfy our re quirement of participating in 14 of our 32 quarters in a season. We made the exception, because of the undefeated year, ’ he said. Watters’ said that only 22 actually deserved letters under the standards the college has maintained for years. ‘So you see 38 doesn't give a true indication of our strength,’ he concluded. ‘Many of the let ter winners hadn't come any where near to meeting the re quirements.” 6 O0 CHIP IDE, his fleet halfback, was hailed by Watters as a young man who had made himself into a whole football player. He said Ideaswa sophomore couldn’t tackle. That was be cause he never had played de fensive football in preparatory school, he explained. “Ide worked hard to make himself a sound defensive play er,’ the coach continued. ‘‘He now tackles well and protects well against the forward pass. Of course he always was a sound ball carrier. Watters foresees a ‘lot of trou ble with Tufts. He also rates Wesleyan as “improved” and Amherust as ‘a strong club.” ON THE, BOSTON Red Sox this year had 176,000 New England residents as guests at their home Games at Fenway Park. Exact ly 161,300 were youngsters. These included members of the Little League, the Pony League, the Babe Ruth League, Boy Scout troops, Cub Scout packs, church youth organizations and altar boys, playground groups and grammar school grade children. Six thousand two hundred Gold en Agers also were admitted free, as were 1,000 patients at veter ans’ hospitals and 1,500 patients at state hospitals. On a SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY has a starting backfield composed exclusively of boys of German descent. Chuck Zimmerman is the quarterback, Gerhard Schwedes and Tom Stephens the halfbacks, ‘and Ed” Keiffer the fullback. ‘In fact, Schwedes was born in Germany, and lived there until he was L years old. Carrying out the German theme, the Syracuse coach of course is Floyd (Ben) Schwartz walder.
Newspaper Details
The Berkshire Eagle
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, US
Tue, Oct 21, 1958
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
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USA 22 Jul 2026
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