Commentaries and Op/Eds
I believe that those of us who have had the benefit of foreign travel have an obligation to share what we
think we know with our fellow citizens. -- William Jefferson Clinton
I believe that those of us who have had the benefit of foreign travel have an obligation to share what we
think we know with our fellow citizens. -- William Jefferson Clinton
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HOW MANY PLAYERS DOES A FOOTBALL TEAM NEED?
Published July 13, 2010 by Huntington News Network
By Rene A. Henry
SEATTLE, Wash. – Coaches and administrators who believe a college football team must have 120
players and 85 scholarships should take a look at the successful winning and competitive team fielded by
William & Mary in 1953 with only 22 players.
That season W&M posted a 5-4-1 record with a team that could not even scrimmage because one of
the players was a 118-pound placekicker. Head coach Jackie Freeman’s team lost only once in its first
six games. W&M posted wins over Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, Richmond and
George Washington and tied a nationally-ranked Navy team.
As momentum and success increased, so did a multitude of injuries that finally caught up with the
team late in the season. A violation of the Honor Code by more than a score of student-athletes
decimated the football team from the previous season. The Honor Code was established first at William
& Mary in 1779 by then Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson who graduated from W&M in 1762. Walk-ons
came from the intramural touch football league who had never played football at the intercollegiate level.
Not all 22 players were on athletic scholarships.
Nicknamed the “Iron Indians,” which now the NCAA would consider politically incorrect, the players
competed without face guards and masks, and played both offense and defense and on all kicking and
receiving teams. The quarterback, Charlie Sumner, even called his own plays. The players had to be
versatile and flexible like Bill Marfizo who, during the season, played seven positions including center,
offensive tackle and end, and defensive halfback and linebacker.
Sumner passed for touchdowns, punted, rushed for 903 yards, scored 30 points and even intercepted six
passes. He went on to play eight years in the NFL as defensive safety for the Chicago Bears and
Minneapolis Vikings. During his career as a coach with the Oakland Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers and
New England Patriots many considered him the best defensive coordinator in the NFL. His last season
he was head coach of the Oakland Invaders of the USFL.
Jerry Sazio, a junior guard and linebacker, who went on to play several years professionally in Canada,
missed two games with torn knee ligaments, and in the season’s last game, broke his hand and
dislocated his shoulder. The following year Sazio was named first team All-Southern Conference, beating
out Sam Huff, West Virginia’s consensus All-American and Hall of Famer.
Fullback Bill Bowman and lineman John Bednarik were both named honorable mention to All-American
teams. Bowman went on to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions. Bednarik was the younger
brother of Penn All-American and Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik.
Today, most colleges facing the overwhelming challenge Jackie Freeman had with only 22 players would
cancel the season. I can think of only three coaches who would compete: the late George Allen, Penn
State’s Joe Paterno, and the current W&M coach, Jimmye Laycock. And not one of them ever was paid
$1 million or more a season to coach.
The 1953 William & Mary Iron Indians certainly make the case to bring sensibility to the skyrocketing costs
of college football with reduced sizes of teams and scholarships. I wonder if any of the players on the
teams that competed and lost to W&M would argue that the Iron Indians needed more than 22 players!
Selected Op/Eds and Commentaries
To access any of the following, click on the headline ...
More Is Less In Washington, published May 24, 2010 by Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter and Huntington News
Network
The federal government in Washington, D.C. is overflowing with employees. Departments and agencies
responsible for oversight and enforcement are doing neither these days. And Congressional staffs, paid for by
taxpayers, are larger than ever before. ...
Haiti Needs U.S. Housing Design and Systems Now, published May issue of Automated Builder and published
May 13, 2010 by Caribbean Net News and Huntington News Network
Since the disastrous 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12 that devastated Haiti and killed more than 230,000
people, millions of dollars have poured into the country for food, medicine, medical help, and relief. Today more
than two million people are homeless and hundreds of thousands of Haitians are living in 75 tent camps in and
around Port-au-Prince. Scores of relief organizations and charity agencies ...
SEC and Congress Knew About Porno Problems November 2008, published by Huntington News Network,
May 1, 2008
The furor in the news about senior employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission watching pornography
instead of doing their jobs is not new news. It was first disclosed in the semi-annual SEC Inspector General's
September 2008 report to Congress that was made public the day after Thanksgiving. ...
Government Spokesmen Are Paid to Speak, published by O'Dwyers Public Relations News, April 30, 2008
Government spokespeople have an obligation to the taxpaying public to speak to the media when asked to do so. ...
Will People Ever Trust Banks Again?, Published by Huntington News Network September 28, odwyerpr.com
September 29, and Caribbean Net News, September 30, 2009
Banking once was a trusted and respected business. Even after the multitude of bank failures during the Great
Depression of the 1930s and the savings and loan crises of the 1980s and 1990s, bankers were the pillars of their
local communities. What banking and financial institutions need today is a modern-day George Bailey, the role
played by Jimmy Stewart in the 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He had the respect and trust ...
Too Much Personal Information on the Internet Could Lead to Identity Theft, published by Caribbean Net
News and Huntington News Network, June 16, 2009
I don’t twit. I don’t even tweet. I un-linked from linked-in. After being Plaxoed, I unsubscribed. I resented being
tagged by Tagged.com. Instead of Facebook, I have my own website. These websites may work for many people
because it is a way to network and stay connected. However, I have found they are very quick to send out
information you may not want others to know. ...
Fight Back When Wronged
This is a three-part series about how to fight back when wronged or maligned, the aspects of libel and criminal libel,
and how the media have double standards of reporting when it comes to athletes, entertainers and celebrities.
Published by Huntington News Network and Caribbean Net News, May 4, 5 and 6, 2009, and Crisis Manager,
December 21, 2009.
Part 1 - When wronged or defamed, get an immediate correction
Part 2 - Libel: It's what you say and when and where you say it
Part 3 - Does the media have a double standard when it comes to athletes, entertainers and public figures?
Value of Higher Education a Bargain for West Virginians, published April 29, 2009 by Huntington News
Network
Everybody loves a bargain - especially in tough economic times. West Virginians are very fortunate to have
exceptional education values at two of their great public universities - Marshall University and West Virginia
University....
Ethics, Integrity, Loyalty Needed In Higher Education, published by Huntington News Network, February 19,
2008 and Caribbean Net News, February 20, 2008
Colleges and universities once were considered the bastions of ethics, integrity, loyalty and commitment.
Regrettably, too many presidents and chancellors today no longer embody or practice these qualities when it
comes to intercollegiate sports. Every year football and basketball coaches are proselytized and enticed to breach
their contracts at one institution so they can hopefully produce a championship season at another. It is greed and
to win at all cost. . . .
Writers Guild Missed Great PR Opportunity - Could Learn From Actors, published by Huntington News
Network, O'dwyerpr.com, and Caribbean Net News, January 9, 2007
The Writers Guild of America missed a great public relations opportunity this week when it forced the cancellation
of the annual Golden Globes event. The writers had an opportunity to make a statement, have the biggest names
in Hollywood tell their side of story on television and win big time in the court of public opinion. Hopefully, the Los
Angeles smog will not blur the vision of the members if they are thinking about creating a boycott or forcing the
cancellation of the 80th annual Academy Awards on February 24...
Dubai - The Country Built By American Consumption published by Huntington News Network, May 18, 2007
and Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter
In the 1930s when Yankee Stadium was built in the Bronx borough of New York City, a sportswriter labeled it “The
House That Ruth Built” in honor of baseball’s Babe Ruth. One visit to Dubai, with its virtually incalculable wealth
and obscene and blatant extravagance, and one could easily call this “The Country Built By American
Consumption.”
Why Can't the U.S. Learn From Other Countries?, published by Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter and Huntington
News Network, June 18, 2007
I just returned from a six-week trip with stops in Canada, Asia, Indonesia, Europe and the United Kingdom.
Members of Congress and those in the Bush administration in Washington could learn much from some of the
places I visited. It was very discouraging to read editorials and commentaries and see the political cartoons in
newspapers and magazines and listen to television commentators continually criticize the U.S. for our diplomatic
and foreign policy and being in Iraq.
Thank You DMA, For A No Junk Mail List, published by Huntington News Network, January 22, 2008
For years I have complained about getting too much mail I didn’t want. Especially catalogs. Some companies even
sent me two or three identical copies. And, even when I moved to another city they still found a way to catch up with
me and clutter my mailbox. For years I have advocated what I call a “No Junk Mail Registry.”
It's Time for a 'No Junk Mail Registry' published by Huntington News Network, November 5, 2006
If you're like me, you probably get too much junk mail. And this being a busy time of the year, with upcoming
holidays, you're probably inundated with gift catalogs. ...
Fact or Fiction? Television News, News Magazines and Primetime Dramas, published by Huntington News
Network, July 9, 2006, from an updated and revised guest opinion originally published May 8, 2002 in the
Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
We live today in an information society. The American public is saturated with information from the media and the
Internet. And, it is getting harder and harder to separate fact from fiction. ...
Higher Education Can Take A Lesson From WVU, published by Huntington News Network, May 7, 2006
America's colleges and universities could take a lesson from West Virginia University on the message that needs to
be communicated to the general public. Millions of dollars of free advertising time went to waste during the recent
NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament. If the NCAA, various conferences and colleges and universities
wanted to win public financial support for higher education, they lost. ...
Mr. Chertoff: Please Get Your Act Together!, published by Huntington News Network, October 17, 2006
Every time I fly, I question whether I am as safe as I was before 9/11 because of all of the confusion getting to my
seat on the plane. I pray that my flight crew and air traffic controllers know what they are doing better than the
security screeners. ...
Who Do You Want Running Your Company?, published by Huntington News Network, March 25, 2006,
If you are a CEO of a company would you want someone not qualified and not associated with the company to
dictate your future? And, if you own stock in a public company, would you want this person telling management
what it should and should not be doing? Unfortunately, this happens every day. It affects the trade price of public
stocks. Individuals in the research departments ...
Television Primetime Now a Market For Issues, published by PR Week, September 2, 2005
For years companies have sought to place their products on primetime television programs and in feature films. A
few seconds of exposure on a popular drama or comedy series can be worth as much as $500,000 based on the
cost of a 30-second commercial. ...
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