'Victory with honor' campaign delivers

In 1947, Penn went undefeated and finished No. 7 in the Associated Press national rankings. In 1936, the "Destiny Backfield" led the Red and Blue to a 7-1 record and a No. 10 ranking. Nevertheless, the 1953 edition of the Quakers, a team which finished 3-5-1, may have been the greatest in Penn history. In 1948, former Minnesota governor Harold Stassen succeeded Thomas Gates as president of Penn. The University was plagued by post-war financial woes, and Stassen believed big-time football could serve as a quick fix for these problems. In 1950 he introduced a "Victory With Honor" campaign to boost Penn's football revenues while maintaining a high academic reputation. Stassen selected former sportscaster and Philadelphia Eagle Fran Murray, a member of the "Destiny Backfield" of 1936, to fill the role of athletic director and carry out the "Victory With Honor" plan. Though the 1951 schedule had already been settled, Murray quickly went to work scheduling top-notch competition for the Quakers. In 1952, he scheduled Penn State, Georgia, and Notre Dame, while in '53 he lined up Vanderbilt, Penn State, California, Ohio State, Navy, Michigan, Notre Dame, Army, and only one "Ivy" school, Cornell, in an effort to maximize gate receipts at Franklin Field. "Franny Murray's objective was to fill Franklin Field and make money for the University," George Bosseler, W '54, captain of the '53 team said. "He did a good job, scheduling big teams, but he never consulted George Munger, the coach, to say 'George, how would you like to play Ohio State, Michigan, etc.?' He just made the schedule." The major hitch in Murray's determination to maximize revenue came in the form of the slowly developing Ivy League. For years, sportswriters had referred to the somewhat disorganized collection of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale football teams as the "Ivy League." However, the league was merely an informal confederation of prestigious academic institutions. It was 1952 before even one of the "Ivy" schools scheduled a season with games against all seven other Ivies. Beginning in 1943, the presidents of these eight institutions began meeting annually to begin working towards a formal Ivy League. In 1952, they voted to ban spring football practice. However, the league was not slated to begin official round-robin play until 1956. Penn thus found itself in a predicament for the 1952 season. Having not practiced the prior spring, the Red and Blue finished the fall with a 4-3-2 record. Those four wins were all against fellow Ivy schools. Penn failed to defeat any of the opponents Murray had scheduled who were not similarly restricted by the spring practice ban. In 1953, Penn, bound by the Ivy's new spring practice ban, had to face an even more intense schedule from Franny Murray that included just one team, Cornell, similarly restricted from spring ball. To make matters worse, the NCAA instituted a new rule forcing teams to play 11-man, ironman football. "The NCAA changed the rules to cut down the number of players and scholarships per team," Bosseler, who played halfback and safety, said. "When you went in you played both ways, and if you came out you couldn't go in until the next quarter, except in the second and fourth quarters, when you could return for the last two minutes." Not only would Penn be facing a daunting schedule, eight of their nine opponents would have the advantage of spring practice to adapt to this new 11-man system mandated by the NCAA. Bosseler called a team meeting to discuss the situation. The team then voiced its concerns to 58 administrative officials and Trustees in the form of a letter. "I wrote a letter, and Jack Dern, the manager, cosigned it," Bosseler said. "All we were asking for was a few days to get together and prepare ourselves for the forthcoming season, like our opponents would be doing." In the letter, Bosseler and Dern stated that "We, the squad members, the individuals affected...write this letter for the sake of team morale and the general understanding of all concerned." The team criticized the schedule for having been created by Murray without the consultation of either Munger or the players. The Daily Pennsylvanian broke the news of the letter on March 6, 1953. Unfortunately, the DP interpreted the team as attacking the difficulty of the schedule. In reality, the team was upset that Fran Murray's schedule was not in the best interests of the team and that the ban on spring practice was unfair given the rules changes and the grueling schedule. In meeting to write the letter, though, the Quakers used the one no-contact spring meeting the Ivy League did permit. Fran Murray was outraged by the letter and called the captain and manager into his office. "Fran said, 'Bosseler, Dern, you blew it! You get one meeting and you used it up writing this letter!'" Bosseler said. "I apologized to Franny, but he didn't care whether we had spring practice." Acting President William DuBarry (Stassen had left Penn for an appointment in the Eisenhower administration) called a four-hour "harmony dinner" at the Rittenhouse Club in Center City to address the football team, the coaches and Fran Murray. Though the events of the meeting, held March 9, were supposed to remain secret, Fran Murray's speech, in which he attacked legendary Coach Munger and blasted the team's courage, managed to reach the press. "After we wrote the letter, the shit hit the fan," Bosseler recalled. "Fran Murray addressed us at the dinner and asked, 'Why are you afraid of the schedule?'" However, according to Bosseler neither Munger nor the team was afraid of the schedule; they merely wanted to be exempt from the Ivy League restrictions, since Murray had scheduled only one Ivy team. "After Fran spoke, Munger absolutely stood up and defended the team," Bosseler said. "He was standing up for the team, for the University, and for himself. As for Fran Murray, I can only say that he was standing up for himself." Murray's controversial attack of the team led to the demise of "Victory With Honor." On May 17, the University gave Murray, former star quarterback, campus hero, and 1937 Cane Man, his walking papers. One week later, Munger, who had led Penn to a 79-37-9 record in fifteen years, resigned amidst the befuddled athletic policy and prospects of a suicide season in 1953. But acting President DuBarry compelled Munger to return for one final season. "There was a real falling out between Munger and Murray," Ed Fabricius, who served Penn as Director of Sports Information from 1961-77 and sports editor of the DP during the 1954-55 academic year, said. "Penn was headed towards the Ivy League, and Fran Murray knew that he and his policies were on the way out." Stassen had brought Murray onto the scene for one reason, to increase football revenues. Murray successfully accomplished this by scheduling Notre Dame and filling Franklin Field. Penn, however, was on tenuous ground with the other Ivy schools, both academically and athletically. For years, many of those schools had refused to play the athletically-superior Quakers. "At first, the Ivy League didn't really want anything to do with Penn. Jerry Ford came along [replacing Murray] and he had a good relationship with the other Athletic Directors. He convinced them to say, 'Listen, we should give Penn a chance to obey the rules and join the Ivy League,'" Fabricius said. "Penn knew that they couldn't afford as an academic institution to not join the Ivy League. So they gave up big-time football." While the question of whether Penn would join the Ivy League now seemed answered, this did not resolve the issue of how George Munger and his 1953 Red and Blue football team would survive Murray's suicide schedule if they remained bound by the Ivy restrictions. The issue of what could be done was debated hotly. Tom Moorehead, Sports Director of radio station WFIL in Philadelphia, believed that "since the University went out on a limb for 1953 and is playing a non-Ivy schedule it should not have to abide by the 'no spring practice' ruling." Grantland Rice, one of the century's most noted sportswriters, stated that though Penn would definitely be at a disadvantage by the new Ivy rules, he did not know "what they can do about getting out of it." The Boston Traveller reported, albeit spuriously, that Penn met secretly with Army, Navy, Notre Dame, and Penn State about backing out of the Ivy League and forming a new conference, which would give Penn the freedom it desired. Munger and his team did not want a way out, though. They merely wanted time to prepare so that they could meet their opponents on even footing. With no change in policy, the team had just 20 days to adapt to the single, 11-man platoon before the first game. Miraculously, Penn beat Vanderbilt, 13-7 to open the season, and defeated Penn State the following week in a come from behind win. Newspapers stopped discussing Penn's "suicide season" and begin speculating about a national ranking for the 2-0 Quakers. On October 10, California rolled into town for Penn's third contest. "Cal was an aberration, they blew us away on costly mistakes," Bosseler said. "We prepared for the run, but they changed strategies and burnt us with the pass." Though Cal beat Penn, 40-0, the Quakers rebounded, fighting tooth and nail against No. 12-ranked Ohio State. In a game that could have gone either way, Penn fell to Howard "Hopalong" Cassady, the '55 Heisman trophy winner, and the Buckeyes, 12-6. Penn beat Navy, 9-6 in the final minute, on the first field goal of Ed Gramigna's career. A 158-pound quarterback, Gramigna found himself logging time at linebacker and thrust into the placekicking role under the NCAAs new "iron man" rules. A 24-14 Penn loss against tenth-ranked Michigan set the stage for a showdown between Penn and Notre Dame, the AP and UPI No. 1 team in the country. 73,644 fans packed Franklin Field to root on the Quakers. "I think we outplayed them. Take [Heisman Trophy winner] Johnny Latner away from them and we would've won, no question," Bosseler said. Latner returned Gramigna's first kick-off 92 yards for a touchdown and intercepted a Gramigna pass on the goal line, as the Irish won, 28-20. The Quakers lost to Army, 21-14, and tied Cornell, 7-7, to finish the season. In December, George Munger retired for good. "Unless a coach can wholeheartedly support the football program of his university, he should not be its coach," Munger said. "So I leave with no enemies. It's just a gentlemanly difference of opinion." "George was a good coach and a great person. He told us if anybody had a test or problem we could skip practice," Ed Gramigna, who in '53 received Penn's Football Club and Edgar Church Awards, said. "Could you imagine a major Div. I coach doing that in today's market?" The departure of Munger, the winningest Penn football coach of the Twentieth Century, to a role as Director of Physical Education at Penn, signaled the end of an era for the Quakers. From 1938 to 1952 he had not suffered a losing season while leading Penn to national prominence. Following the 3-5-1 season of '53, Penn would not win a single game again until 1956. Given the difficulties and restrictions the '53 team dealt with, many sportswriters have suggested that this 3-5-1 Penn team may have been the greatest in history. "We were a very talented team. We held our own with the likes of Ohio State and Notre Dame," Bosseler said. "We were hurt by the restrictions, because without all the scholarships to give like the big schools, we didn't have the kind of depth to put someone in an 11-man two-way platoon if a starter got hurt. "I would be hard pressed to say that there was a Penn team with more talent. We played our hearts out because we were playing the best." Forty-five years ago, Penn football found itself torn in two directions by an administration seeking to cure financial woes with big-time football while also aiming to gain academic prestige by joining the Ivy League. Amidst a University struggle which ruined the sports career of Fran Murray and brought about the resignation of George Munger, the '53 football team managed to beat Vanderbilt, Penn State, and Navy, and hang tough with Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Army. Given the surrounding controversy and hindering regulations, a cogent argument could be made that this team was the greatest in Red and Blue football history.