Editor’s note: In 1942, before Syracuse hosted North Carolina Pre-Flight, The Daily Orange sent a reporter to the Hotel Syracuse to track down former Cornell running back Lou Buffalino. The photos and caption are from the original story, which ran under the headline “Where Angels Fear to Tread.”

Ever try to keep a drooling hungry bear from his chow? Then you have a hazy mental picture of us blocking Lou Buffalino’s mad sweep around end to dining hall D last night in Hotel Syracuse. With four gold-braided sailors running interference, he would have made a first down if we hadn’t flung ourselves recklessly into his path.

“Sir,” we panted, as Navy men piled up on the carpet, “Are you happy to return to Syracuse?”

“Make mine steak,” shouted the frail 180-pound fullback to a passing waitress. We wondered if the energetic Mr. Buffalino, already bursting vitamins, would be primed by that steak for a neat massacre of Bill Orange.

“Sleepy Jim” Crowley strolled by and thumped Lou on back in a friendly fashion—such a thump would have cut a lesser man in half—but Buffalino took it like a true Navy man. Watching his coach disappear into the dining hall, Lou shrugged his shoulders and settled down for a cozy chat.

Battering Buff admitted that a 40-hour train ride wasn’t the best training for a football gam, but he had confidence in the stamina of his team. And why shouldn’t he be smug with those All-American ends and a choice assortment of Fordham Unpronounceables “to stand beside him and guide him?”

Sorry because all the Syracuse men he used to tangle with have graduated, the Swampscott gob was somewhat nervous about meeting the new Piety crowd miles away from Schoelkopf field. Buff recalled that Orangemen do not tender receptions for visiting firemen or ex-Cornellians.

With only a few million sailor fans to root for him, Lou feels lost without the rah-rah spirit us coeds are full of. Training at Chapel Hill differs somewhat from collegiate standards, too— breakfast starts at 6:10 and the boys don’t remember whether it was kris pies or crunches they munched, for only the number of calories mean anything to the naval dynamos.

For two week periods, sports training is crammed between 7:10 and 9:30 in the morning, while the varsity footballers are sent out for a two-hour swim before pigskin practice in the afternoon. Such a variety of activities keeps all muscles developing in equal proportions, Buffalino explains witha better smile. Our heart begins to bleed for this tired athlete.

Reluctantly, Lou admitted that the few boys who play football come from such unheard of schools as Temple, Fordham, Cornell, Boston College, Colgate, Tennessee, Columbia, Dartmouth, Alabama, ’n Pebble Hill prep. Len Eshmont, fastest back seen in these parts, is the only player worth mentioning, Buffalino confided.

Published on October 31, 2014 at 12:32 am