The 1954 College All-Star Game
The
coach of the 1954 All-star team was Jim Tatum of Maryland and the task
before him was to somehow face the Detroit defensive line with his
college team. He forced college football’s substitution rule, which was
an attempt to spare his offense from the likes of Lions’ anchor Les
Bingaman, who weighed in at 300 lbs. Lion’s head coach Buddy Parker
responded to the ruling by withholding Hall of Famer Bobby Layne (who
sat on the bench all night as a spectator in a white linen suit and
two-toned oxfords). Parker then started his defensive line with his
offensive backfield and gave charge of all to his back-up quarterback.
He then stuck to his plan all night. Parker claimed he was saving Layne
for regular season play. Back-up quarterback Tom Dublinski piloted
Detroit to its 31-6 victory before 93,470 fans on the night of August
13, 1954 at Soldier Field in Chicago. Dublinski showed that he could
pass and run in sparkling style.
The All-Stars had in their line-up Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lattner
of Notre Dame, big end Carlton Massey (MVP) of Texas and back Veryl
Switzer of Kansas State. They also had the sharp passing of quarterback
Zeke Bratkowski of Georgia. But the Stars were bottled up most of the
night by the big Detroit line. The scoring began in the first quarter
when a fumble by the All-Stars set up a fast 46-yard field goal by the
Lions’ Jim Martin. Two long scoring drives by the Lions in the first
quarter and no scoring by either team in the second quarter made it 17-0
at halftime.
Johnny Lattner of Notre Dame scored the only touchdown for the Stars
early in the third quarter, which came on a fumble by Dublinski that was
picked up by Jerry Hilgenberg of Iowa. On the second down, Lattner ran
around the defensive right end for
the
score. The extra point attempt was blocked. A response by the Lions was
quick in coming. After a 32-yard drive, aided by a couple of Dublinski
passes, the Lions’ Lew Carpenter scored from the 2-yard line. Later, in
the fourth quarter, Jim Doran returned an All-Star fumble 37 yards for
another Detroit touchdown. The game ended at, Lions 31 and the All-Stars
6. Other tallies on the night included $445,650 collected for the
Chicago Tribune Charities and, as for substitutions, the collegians used
48 players and the professionals used only 25.