(Columbia Daily Tribune, Sept. 28, 1953)
(1954 MU Baseball players in BOLD)
The University of Missouri football team whipped up the best offense a Tiger team has displayed in years - some old-timers said five, seven or 10 years - to whip Purdue, 14 to 7, before a sun-blistered crowd of 19,000 in Memorial stadium Saturday afternoon.
The victory, a surprise to most Missouri followers and an altogether heartening one even for all of them, set the stage for M.U.'s Big Seven debut against Colorado at Boulder next Saturday and cast a decidedly brighter hue over the Tigers' prospects in the conference campaign.
The Tigers had about everything against the co-champions of the Big Ten, despite the fact that they were outweighed substantially by their Western conference opponents.
They reeled off first downs in amazing succession, first with Vic Eaton in the driver's seat and then with Tony Scardino calling signals. They intercepted passes. They blocked a Purdue kick at the goal line and quickly turned the play into the winning touchdown, and they showed fine blocking and powerhouse running which Purdue couldn't stop.
Bob Bauman, Skimp Merrifield and Bob Schoonmaker reeled off the yardage, with Eaton, starting his first game, calling the signals. Midway of the opening drive Bauman threw a spectacular block to clear the way for a 19-yard sprint by Schoonmaker around the left end that carried the Tigers to the Purdue 29.
The Tigers bogged momentarily, but Eaton's pass to Pete Corpeny was good for the first down on the Purdue 13, and Bauman and Merrifield went on the Boilermakers' six. Then, on fourth down Eaton passed to Corpeny in the end zone for what looked like a touchdown - but Alvin Portney, sophomore tackle, was downfield and the penalty for that was 15 yards and loss of the down.
And that gave Purdue the ball on the Boilermakers' 21.
The Tiger defense was stern and Purdue had to punt without making a first down, an and the Bengals started from their 41.
On the first play, Merrifield caught Schoonmaker's pass just across the midfield and went down to the Purdue 40 for the first down.
The Tigers took to the air...
"It was Simmons’ desire for excellence that made him a valued member of (Don) Faurot’s coaching staffs. {John "Hi")Simmons was known for his detailed scouting reports. They were concise and broke down every possible aspect of MU’s opponents.
"He was a heck of a football scout," (Ken) Kurtz said. "He knew everything about the other team. His reports were very humorous, but they got everyone’s attention and got the point across."
(Columbia Daily Tribune, October 4, 1999)
Tall in those days at 6-foot-3, Simmons lettered in three sports under Don Faurot.
Faurot hired Simmons to the MU football staff in 1935 and put him in charge of scouting.
``He always gave the report on Sunday afternoons,'' said his wife of 56 years, Jan. ``And from what I heard the boys say, he made it colorful.''
(Columbia Daily Tribune, January 14, 1995)
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