One of my most vivid memories of my years at Syracuse U involved a football game between Syracuse and then archrival, Colgate, at open-air Archbold Stadium, the home field for the Orange until the Carrier Dome was built. The game, as usual, was played in late November of, I believe, 1948,during a snowstorm, not uncommon then or now at that time of the year.
As usual, Archbold Stadium, a classical college football stadium built in the shape of a bowl, was packed with a capacity crowd of about 35,000. The harder it snowed — to the point where the yard lines on the field were indistinguishable — the more the crowd seemed to get into the game, which was scoreless at 0-0 going into the fourth quarter. In that quarter, as I recall from what was then my freshman year, a Syracuse running back named Walter “Slivers” Slovenski, who was about 5-feet 8 inches tall and weighed around 150 pounds, took a pitchout from the Syracuse quarterback, Bernie Davis, and darted and slithered about 75 yards down the slippery snow-covered field for the game’s lone touchdown. The response by Syracuse students, alumni and most of the rest of the crowd was one of absolute pandomonium.
Had another SU player scored the touchdown, it’s unlikely the reaction would have been as strong. But Slovenski, like quite a few members of that Syracuse team — and a large portion of the student body — was a veteran of Worlds War II and, as I recall, was about 27 or 28 years old, not uncommon for college athletes who had served in the war.
I knew Slovenski casually, since the football team took its meals at Winchell Hall (probably long gone) during the season, where I waited on female students — not a bad job, I must say. I think Slivers also may have also been a waiter once the football season had ended, since most of the waitering jobs were held by athletes (yes, believe it or not, student-athletes had to work during their offseason for their room and board, as was the case with me).
With all due respect to the Carrier Dome, which seems to be a very popular sports venue on campus), there is no comparison to watching a football game played indoors in somewhat antiseptic conditions than sitting through a big, traditional game such as the one of yesterday between SU and Colgate, in a snowstorm. Indeed, had it not been for the snow, I probably would never have continued to remember that long-ago game at Archbold Stadium, a quintessential college stadium with, as I recall, concrete columns atop the grandstand behind both goal posts. Same thing is true of some memorable football games I’ve covered for The New York Times that were played in blizzard-like conditions, during which, quite often, I’ve had to write my stories on deadline while snow was being whipped into a press box.
If you sense an antipathy on my part towards domed stadiums, you sense right. But there were no domed stadiums in the 1940 and 1950s, and all college, and professional, games were played outdoors in stadiums like grand old Archbold. How glad I am that I was at Syracuse during an era when All-American players like Jimmy Brown and Ernie Davis –along with “Slivers” Slovenski had to run to glory on snow-covered fields like Archbold.
Walter “Slivers” Slovenski came to mind during the past year when I read of his death in the Syracuse alumni magazine. As I recall, Slovenski was from upstate New York, so running throug the snow on a football field probably came natural to him.
I have many pleasant memories of my days at Syracuse — as a student-athlete (and waiter) — but that Saturday afternoon when “Slivers” Slovenski ran almost the length of the field to score the only touchdown against archrival Colgate during a blinding snowstorm in grand old Archbold Stadium — where graduation ceremonies also were held — stands out as one of the most memorable.
