La Salle College High School Football: in Retrospect
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La Salle College High School Football: In Retrospect NOTE: This is the sixth of, I hope, many retrospectives highlighting some unique history of the football program at La Salle. The topics to discuss seem endless at this time. Hope you enjoy these. Bill Wasylenko, ‘69 Issue Number Six: Single-Platoon Football, and the Chinese Bandits of 1960 I may have a tough time tying this all together, but please bear with me. Several of the players from the 50’s often talk about the days of single-platoon football, when “men were men”, and many players played the whole game both ways, like the Eagle legend Chuck Bednarik. I never had found out enough of the history of single- platoon football, so I Googled and came up with the following. The early days of football had very limited rosters to begin with, and substitutions were infrequent, with most players playing both ways for the whole game. But in the college game, rules were relaxed from 1941 to 1952, with unlimited substitution offering new strategies for creative coaches. In 1945, Michigan coach Fritz Crisler used only 3 players both ways in a game versus Army. Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik, was impressed, and, being an “Army guy”, coined the term “platoon” to describe the large groups of players who specialized on just one side of the ball. And certain players, especially quarterbacks, got to focus on their specialty, and didn’t have to go both ways anymore. Blaik brought these concepts back to West Point. In the late 40’s, Red Blaik had a young assistant coach named Paul Dietzel, who took the Blaik innovations to a new level. Dietzel left for additional assistant coaching positions, including one under Bear Bryant, before becoming head coach at LSU in 1955. Meanwhile, at La Salle in the early 50’s, John “Tex” Flannery ‘40 was hired as an assistant to head coach Jim Gallagher ‘43. Tex was also a devotee of Red Blaik’s offensive schemes, and brought many of those schemes into the La Salle playbook when he took over as head coach for the 1956 season. Well, back to the rules. By 1954, the unlimited substitution rules were rescinded, and single-platoon football was re-inforced, mainly for financial reasons (this stayed in effect until after the 1964 season, when unlimited substitution was re-instituted, and continues to this day). Teams with thin rosters were no longer overwhelmed by those with larger rosters. This certainly benefited colleges with smaller football budgets, or, as in the case of high schools in the Catholic League, teams with a smaller student population, which was La Salle’s situation in the 1950’s. Though the specifics about limited substitution varied a little, the basic rule was that a team was only allowed to substitute one player per play. A sub-rule was that if a player was in the game at the start of a quarter, he could be replaced and then return only once in that quarter. For the most part, the high schools followed the college rules, and it’s probably not just coincidence that the first Golden Age of La Salle football (1955 to 1964) happened to be in the single-platoon era, where the Explorers could match up their best 15 players against anyone in the Catholic League. In 1955, Dietzel took a lot of his ideas to LSU, and, though LSU had 3 mediocre seasons from 1955 to 1957, Dietzel developed a three-team platoon system that would take advantage of the limited substitution rules in ways that no one could imagine. His first string was called the White Team, which had his best two-way offensive and defensive players. The Gold, or “Go” Team had the second-string backs and the third- string linemen. This team were comprised mainly of offensive specialists, and used to run regularly against the third team in practice. The undersized third team had the second-string linemen and the third-string backs, and were considered defensive specialists. To rouse up the players on this team, Dietzel baptized them with the name of “Chinese Bandits”. A popular comic strip at the time was “Terry and the Pirates”, which had a military setting in the Orient. In the comic strip, the Chinese Bandits were known to be the most ruthless, vicious, and ferocious fighters on the face of the earth. Dietzel’s idea was to fire up the third team so when they got onto the field, they would have a mental edge that would overcome any of their physical shortcomings. Now, remember the details on that substitution rule. Early in the 1958 season, LSU took on a great Alabama team. Toward the end of the first quarter, the Crimson Tide was pushing the LSU White team down the field, and had first and goal at the 5 when the first quarter ended. Dietzel, sensing that his White team needed a breather, sent in the entire team of Chinese Bandits, figuring that Alabama would score anyway against the Whites. Well, the Chinese Bandits played with such ferocity that they held Alabama to a field goal, reversing the momentum of the game, and LSU went on to win that game, 13-3, and go on to an 11-0 record and the national championship. After that Alabama game, the Chinese Bandits developed a national following, and a famous picture was taken of the Bandits in masks for LIFE magazine. THE 1958 LSU “CHINESE BANDITS” The Chinese Bandits of the 1958 LSU team took great pride in their platoon, and their popularity almost exceeded the team, and its successful quest for a national championship. Nowadays, the Chinese Bandits are commemorated with a riff by the LSU band every time the defense either creates a turnover or forces a punt. A celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1958 team occurred in 2008, and the mystique of the Chinese Bandits became known to a new generation of Bayou Bengal fans. An LSU legend is that nose guard Tommy Lott of the Chinese Bandits was quite upset when he was promoted to the Go team. Dietzel continued at LSU until taking the Army head coaching position prior to the 1962 season. And yes, he brought along the Chinese Bandits to West Point, where they thrived, although Army did not beat Navy until 1964, spoiling Roger Staubach’s senior year. All right, so we can tie Flannery to Blaik, Blaik to Dietzel, and Dietzel to the Chinese Bandits, but how do we get back to La Salle and Flannery? Well, in browsing through Wisterians from 1960, my eyes lit up when I saw the following article in the November 18, 1960 issue of the Wis: Now, I don’t know why columnist Lawrence Walsh baptized the 1960 La Salle team with a Chinese Bandits connection; I cannot find any other reference in my research so far. And this article was written about a game on October 30, Mischief Night. But, indeed, it seems certain that the Chinese Bandits roamed McCarthy Stadium and other local gridirons in 1960, and, like their namesakes at LSU in 1958, contributed to an undefeated season (9-0-1) and championship, as La Salle won both the Catholic League and City Titles in that great year of 1960. Now, here we are 53 years later. Could this possibly be the year that the Chinese Bandits return to the La Salle sideline, waiting for the call to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting offense? Please let me know if you know more about La Salle’s Chinese Bandits of 1960!! I welcome your comments, corrections, and additions. Go La Salle!! Bill Wasylenko, ‘69 [email protected] August 28, 2010, revised April 19, 2013 .