MAROON AND GOlL.
- IjULO
Elon Rallies To Top Catawba In Homecoming tTh
1
Spotlighting
The Fighting
Christians
By TOM CORBITT
action as EAois KLLLiEi) K) i)efp:a i CATAWBA | Wheless Passcs^ Runs
Elon To 22-17 Victory
A romantic is one who believes
in tlie fanciful, the improbable. Elon
College has become romantic.
Thf Elon College Fighting Christ
ians now have a 6-0 won-lost record.
The romantics tell us that Elon will
finish the season with a 10-0 record.
Other romantics talk of a national
championship, a bowl invitation for
Elon.
Others talk of a football stadium
for Elon College.
The NAI.^ National Standings
(National Asiociation of Intercol
legiate .\thleticsi of the week of
October 22 is material for romantic
thinking. Here are the NAIA Top
Ten Teams for that week:
1. Texas A. & I.
2. Findlay (Ohio)
3. Concordia (Minn.)
4. Prairid Visw (Texas)
5. Sam Houston State
6. Florida A. & M,
7. East Stroudsburg (Pa.)
8. Elon (N.C.)
9. Lewis and Clark
10. Hastings (Neb.)
The standings of the Carolinas
Conference offers further inticement
to romantic thinking. Here again
our heroes, the Fighting Christiana
are trying to make justice and
righteousness triumph over evil and
malice. In the Carolinas Confer
ence, the Christians are tops with
those villainous Bears of Lenoir
Rhyne College having lost to West
ern Carolina hst week 14-13.
What shall be the outcome of our
hopes? Shall the improbable, the
impossible occur?
At the ,'irst of the season, the
Fighting Christians played well
enough each game to win. One
week the Elon offense looked miser- j
able. Enter the Comancheros. An
other game the Christians of Elon'
running game collected 283 yards
rushing, while the game before the
Christians passed for a net total
of six yards.
Each game, the Fighting Christ
ians have improved. As a result of
the Carson - Newman game, the
Christians lowered their defensive
average from 129.6 yards per game
to 124.6 yards per game. At the
same tinie the Christians raised
their offensi'.e average to 297.4
yards per game, approaching the
300 yard mark, a feat which ,i. j
Carolinas Conference
team was
able to accomplish last year. These
figures place the Christians in the
top spot in the Conference in of
fense and defense.
Then came that nerve-wracking
win over Catawba last weekend,
when the Christians almost gave
their supporters heart failure be
fore coming back strong for that
22-point final quarter to topple the
Indians and make Homecoming a
success. Hie Indians gained quite
a bit of yardage, but the Elon out
fit continued to rank in the upper
echelons in both offense and de
fense.
Impressive as these figures are,
the way in which the Christians
win is perhaps more spectacular.
Throughout the course of a football
game, Elon will use six completely
different teams. These teams often
provide the key to victory. No one
player plays on all these teams.
The so-called “substitutes vastly
outnumber the regulars on four of
these teams.
The kickoff team consists of
Clark, Brewer, Metts, Wilson.
Burke, Carden, Ray, Ferrell, (Gent
ry, Jordan, and Clark.
On the punting team we find
Brewer, Carden, Wilson, Crabtree,
Broadway, Johnson, Ray, Foresta,
Pruette, Clark, and Dawson.
The punt return team consists of
Clark, Gentry, Pruette, Wilson,
Dawson, Brewer, Carden, Metts,
Broadway, Karriker, and Ray.
The kickoff return team lists
Carden, Metts, Johnson, Morgan,
Viilson, Brewer, Burke, Ray, Gent-
y Jordan, and Clark.
There are other important fac
tors to con.^ider in rating the foot
ball team, many of which are in
tangible. There is the esprit de
corps, the amazing unity which
characterizes the team. There is
the unselfishness, the concern of
the players for each other, the
kidding around in practice and the
seriousness in the game. Melodra
matic as these conditions may
seem, they exist, they are part of
the Elon success story.
We may say with much justifica
tion that the Christians could pos
sess the ability or qualities to go
all the way, to win all the marbles.
What then would the critics say to
romantics? i
Quarterback
First Score
El) VVHELESS (12) Lunges Over Goal Line in Fourth Quarter For
Of Comebacit that Netted Christians 22-17 Win over Catawba
Elon Uses Ground Power
"Surrender hell, we’ve just be
gun to fight!”
Such was the legendary reply of
John Paul Jones when an English
naval commander called on him to
surrender his sinking American
warship, the Bon Homme Richard,
and Jones and his men continued
fighting and sailed back into port
on the English battleship.
Never was the John Paul Jones
declaration of defiance more fit
ting than when the Elon College
Christians rallied from a 17-0 def
icit to turn back an inspired band!
of Catawba Indians 22 to 17 in
Elon •College's annual Homecoming
grid battle, played before more i
than 5,000 partisan fans in Burling
ton Memorial Stadium
i The Fighting Christians had
stumbled through fifty minutes of
futility, a period during which the
■invading Indians from Catawba had
struck for two touchdowns and a'
field goal and posted a 17 to o'
edge over Elon's undefeated Christ-'
lans, and then an Elon fumble and'
a brilliant 58-yard punt by Sam
Boyd, dead on the Elon three, had
I Igft the Chi istians almost literally
weltering and dying in their own
blood.
Suddenly, the Christians turned on
the total power for ten minutes,
and John Paul Jones could have
been no more icy calm as he di
rected broadsides of cannon balls
into the EnglLsh ship Serapis than
was Ed Wheless, Elon's strawberry-
• * * •
HOW IT IIAI’I'KNKI)
Klon (22) Catawba (17)
•>o
178
21
157
28
IS
158
;I45
2
15
2
38.0
tor 31-6 Win Over Eaj[les
ELON HAS FINE FKOSH
GRIDDERS ON ROSTER
By TOM CORBITT
With the winning of the Co
championship of the Carolinas Con
ference last year and with the
prospects of even greater success
this year, the theory has been ad
vanced that we are now witnessing
the “Golden Age" of Elon College
Football. An Elon “dynasty” com
parable to the eight years (1955-
1962) in which Lenoir Rhyne Col
lege ruled the Carolinas Conference
is said to be in the making.
Present indications are that these
hopes could well be true. The first
hypothesis in defense of this theory
is that only three members of the
present football squad are seniors
The Fighting Christians will lose
Ed Wheless and Rex Harrison on
olfenae via graduation next year
and captain Jerry Rowe on defense.
The rest of the 1964 squad should
return next year.
Secondly, and perhaps more im
portant to any anticipated football
successes in the future is the fine
group of Freshmen’ on the football
team this year.
Coach Tucker and staff concen
trated on recruiting after last sea
son, and their efforts have proved
fruitful. After losing eight senior^
last year, nineteei. freshmen were
added to the squad this year. '
This group has repeatedly been
called “the finest group of Fresh
men in five years” by the coaching
staff. These freshmen bring bring to
our campus an unprecedented array
of reccomendations and awards, and
are bigger and faster than an)
freshman group in recent years,
if not in the history of Elon (Al
lege.
Included among these 19 new
comers are three ends, three tack
les, three guards, one center, one
quarterback, one fullback and
seven halfbacks.
The vital statistics on these
Fighting Christians read as fol
lows:
ENDS: FR^\NK1E BRILEY —
Hgt. 6-2, W't. 210. Frankie's home
town is Washington, N. C., where
he attended Washington High
School. Briley lettered in football,
basketball, and baseball. In football
he was an .All Conference and 'I
East standout and played in the
.Vorth-South game in Greenville.
Briley is lal)eled “a very fine pros
,ject.”
RICHARD LEE — Hgt. 6-3, Wt.
190. Richard played his high school
football locally at Western High
School. Lee was All Conference in
fojtbalI in junior and senior years.
Sheer power on the ground and
quick thrusts through the air told'
the story as the Fighting Christians I
romped to a 31 to 6 victory ov'er
he Carson-Newman Ekigles in Bur-!
lington Stadium on Saturday night,'
October 17th, maintaining the Elori
undefeated record for the season
with a fifth consecutive victory.
HOW IT HAI’PKNED
Elon (31) Car.son-Newman (6)
>nilnueff jn T’acH (*ou'
21 First Downs 5
297 Yards Gain Rushing 56
9 Yards I,ost Rushing 16
288 Net Yards Rushing 40
14 Passes Attempted 14
6 Passes Completed 3
59 Yards Gain Passing 69
347 Total Yards Offense 109
3 0pp. Passes Interc. 1
73 Kunback Interc. Passes 0
3 Number Punts 6
34.7 Ave. Yards Punts 39.2
66 Kunback All Kicks 187
Fumbles Lost 0
45 Yards Penalized 65
SCORE BY PERIODS:
Elon 7 12 6 6—31
Carson-Newman 0 0 6 0— 0
Elon Touchdowns — Pruette (5-
run), Clark 2 (3-run, 5-run), Stew
art 2 (4-nin, 2-run). Extra Point —
Ferrell (kick). Carson - Newman
Touchdown — Medlin (30-pass from
Reeves).
* • «
The triumph, which gave Elon a
M edge o\er the Eagles from Ten
nessee in a three-vear series of
games, ran the Christian record of
constcutive victories to eight over
a two-year span, for Coach (George
Tucker's outfit closed out last sea
son with three straight wins.
The Christians' always potent
aerial threat, riding on the whip
like arm of Ed Wheless, had to
take a back seat in this game to a
driving ground attack that pro
duced 288 net yards on 66 plays, an
average of better than four yards
per carry for the Elon ball car
riers.
The Christians rolled 81 yards on
a sustained drive the first time they
got the ball in the game, the feat
ure play being a 21-yard sprint b>
freshman David Gentry that car
ried to the five. Sonny Pruette
raced around left end for the score,
and Bobby Ferrll booted good for
an Elon 7 to 0 lead.
There were two Elon touchdowns
in a big .second period. The first
came on a 93-yard sustained drive,
with WTieless tossing to Rex Har-j
rison for 18 yards as the feature
play of the drive, which ended with'
Lamar Clark driving three yards;
to pay dirt. '
(Jene Brewer, a clever defensive
end. grabbed an errant Carson -
Newman pass on the Elon thirty-j
five and returned it 57 yards to the
Eagle nine to set up the second
Hon TD of the period. Big Fred
Stewart got the score in two plung-
es from the nine. Elon's kicks fail
ed after each score, and the Christ
ians went out front 19 to 0 at half-
time.
(Continued od Page Four*
First Downs 12
Yards Gain Rushing 152
Yards Ixist Rushing 45
•Net Yards Rushing 107
I’as.ses Attempted 14
Passes Completed S
Yards Gain Pas.sing 143
Total Yard.s Offense 250
Op|). Passes Interc. 1
Riinback Interc. Passes 0
NumlM-r Punts 3
Ave. Yards Punts 29.J
63 Kunback All Kirks lOO
3 Fumbles l^st 4
■to Yards Penalized 14
SCORE BY PERIODS:
Elon 0 0 0 22—22
Catawba 6 8 3 0—17
Elon Touchdowns — Wheless Z
(2-run, 17-run), Harrison (17-pas»
J from Wlieless). Extra Points
I" errell 2 iplafeinent), tientry Z
(run). Catawba Touchdowns — Rob
bins (64-pass from Murphy), Mat-
Ih.'ws (8-run). Extra Points —
Scott 2 (run). Field Goal — Petters.
40-yard kick.
• • •
haired quarterback, a« he launched
pigskin bombshells into the Ca
tawba camp and directed the Ma
roon and Gold gridders to three
touchdowns in barely seven minutes
of elapsed play.
It was a fantastic comeback that
Elon's Christians rriade. Undefeated
and leading the Conference and
with visions of grid crowns dancing
through their heads, the Christians
had their dreams rudely shattered
when Marshall Murphy fired a 54-
yard scoring pass to Dave Robbins.
Then, all the sweet dreams turned
bitter when Itex Matthews barrellod
eight yards for a second Catawba
TD that set up a 14 to 0 Indian
lead.
The Elon ship was seemingly
f'onMnuert on Pag» Fouri
iVinnaxit
INTElilOK IJNE\IEI\ STAR IIV CHRISTIAN IM.AY
It has been the interior linemen, oft-times unhrmored, who have spearheaded the Elon drive to
nn hnnnrTf Th p ^ /''••.t ■ .T,e I,,,: S.' n, and the guards and tackles may well deserve the
top honors if the Fighting Christians wind up in po t-.sc;i.,o,T :>owl pl.iy this yj.ir
tioi: Fool ball
Kl'in 14, Kmory and Honry 6.
Klon 15, Guilford 6.
Flon 28. Appulachian 7.
Klon 9. Camp F^jpune 7.
Klon 31, CarsonA’ewman 6,
Klon 22, Catawha 17.
(Remafnint Games)
>ct. 31—West Carolina, away.
Nov. 7—Newberry, home.
Nov. 14—Lenoir Khyne, home.
Nov. 21—Frederick, away.
Tommy Mitchell, Tackle
Kandy Warren, (^nard
Joe l)aH8on, (wiard
Morris 7’homas, J ackie