My 1945 Army project

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Got a chance to buy a VHS tape of a movie made in 1947 called "The Spirit of West Point". Goofy movie, but it had a ton of real Army game film footage in it. Alot from 1944, 1945 and 1946. Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard both played themselves in the movie. Pretty stiff, almost comical acting.

But the gold in Dem DAR hills, was all the real game footage.

Watching the movie, on offense, they lined up often in a tight T formation. The two ends close to the line almost as extra offensive tackles on each side. Once the ball was snapped they did not do much rolling out with the QB. Those two ends, usually cut blocked once the ball was snapped. Occasionally I did see one of them motion to the outside presnap and stand up like a traditional WR outside, but that was rare. Usually, Tucker, the QB took the snap, and he was a big tall guy, took the snap then turned and did a bunch of fakes to the RB's and then gave it to one of them for an outside sweep run or an off tackle run. I saw plays where the QB (Tucker) would take the snap, then turn right and fake the pitch to the right halfback (McWilliams) , then fake the off tackle hand-off to the fullback (Blanchard) , then pitch it out wide left to the left halfback, then he (Davis) would run RIGHT a little bit, then he would PASS to one of those other two into the flats. Kind of funny watching all the fakes, and all the fake reverses, and all the fake HB passes, I mean, it was a lot of much ado about nothing, but all those fakes were obviously effective in that era, as they scored a ton of points and gained a ton of yards! But it seemed like on almost every play, they would fake something at least two times before they would actually run the play. The only time I saw a down-field pass was on a end around to the right where, after several fakes, the QB handed the ball off to Davis, going right, then he stopped and hauled it down-field to a wide open Blanchard, who after his fake, sprinted down the right sideline. Crazy stuff. There was a bunch of times, it was fake pitch left to Davis, fake hand-off up the gut to McWilliams, then the QB would spin around and hand off to the other off tackle fullback, Blanchard, up the same gut behind the blocker, for a huge gain. The offensive line did a lot of trap blocking and all kinds of guards pulling wide and my gosh, it was a Chinese fire drill, but then out of all those fakes and all that offensive line movement, bam, Blanchard up the middle for 19. Then, hike, same stuff all over again, but this time, Davis around the end, for 25. It almost looked keystone cop-ish, but I checked and the footage was moving at the right game speed. We're just so used to watching a much more slower paced deliberate offensive style today. Man, it was exciting. You didn't know who the heck had the ball!
Blanchard was an Adrian Peterson type. He was just knocking guys back, guys were grabbing at his ankles and legs , and he just kept churning and churning forward. His thighs and calfs looked bigger than normal. He kind of had that Jim Brown style. Fast and incredibly powerful. But not squatty. He was tall and ran upright. Nothing flashy about him. All power. Once he got to the open field, maybe a stiff arm or two, maybe a gallop over someone grabbing at this legs, maybe shake this guy off, then, whoosh, gone.
Glenn Davis was more flash and dash. He was smaller. Only 5'9 170. Although for that era, he did not look small on the field compared to everyone else. It was just that Blanchard was so much bigger. Davis reminded me of a smaller Gayle Sayers. Long strides, lot of jukes, where he would sweep around the end and the defensive player would follow outside on pursuit, then he'd fake, juke, cut back inside, sprint, fake, juke, cut back outside, then whoosh, gone. Occasionally I saw him shake a guy off but it was rare. There were mostly getting juked out of their socks and were grasping for air as he sprinted by. Both of them, were obviously, VERY fast for their time, and deceptively so. You can see the defense constantly taking bad tackle angles at them both. It was easy to see how they both averaged 12 yards a carry that year. I don't think many teams were used to making tackles in the secondary either. Once Blanchard and Davis would get in the defensive backfield, both of them, they were making the other teams LB's and DB's look silly. Blanchard just ran right over them, almost as though he was playing against high schoolers. Davis was juking and faking them out of their jocks. The O-line was dominant. After all those pulling guards and tackles and cut blocks, there were huge holes opening up all over the line and Blanchard and Davis had holes to run through that would make anyone look good, then they'd get to the linebackers and DB's and it was light out. They didn't pass much but when they did you could see why they were so effective. The defense had to stack everyone up in the box. I'm not sure if I saw the QB throw more than a couple of passes. Most of the time when they did throw it was off a end around HB or FB option. I guess they just didn't need to. They were crushing teams on the ground. The few passes I did see where all to the flats. Other than that one HB roll-out where Davis threw that bomb off the HB option to Blanchard. I think that ball they were suing in the 1940's was probably harder to throw too. Most of the passes seemed to be loopers. Spirals but loopers leading the receivers. What a different game back then.

On defense, it seemed to be a lot of three yards and a cloud of dust type of stuff. All the five defensive linemen were in down stances. Most of them looked to be two down, not in three point stances. Then the two outside corner-backs were standing outside the defensive ends, almost like Kevin Greene's, looking to run or cover or blitz. The two linebackers were standing behind the line of scrimmage off the DT's out shoulder wide, about 5 yards back, ready and reacting. Then way back, you had the two safeties and they were pretty spread out. On defense it seemed like Blanchard from linebacker or strong safety was making a ton of the tackles, and I also saw two or three deep interceptions and each time it was Glenn Davis and then a long interception return. The two of them were featured throughout the defensive highlights. Now, was this the norm, that they dominated so much on defense too, or were they actually just showing all the plays that these too made to hype their chances of winning the heisman? But Blanchard on defense reminded me of a Mike Singletary. All over the place, sideline to sideline and deep tackles too. That's what's got me to thinking he might have played more of a strong safety type. A Joey Browner type.
Glenn Davis was clearly a free safety and he seemed to play like a Ronnie Lott. Again, he was all over the place making a ton of deep tackles 8 and 9 yards from scrimmage area and also had those 30 yard from the line deep interceptions too. The two of those guys were all over the place on defense. It was obvious they were both incredible dominant two way stars.

[Orleanian In Exile]

I am going to be following this thread. I have a similar interest for shaping my own EF teams/leagues and I'd love to see how the figures come out.

I'll post unpainted figures once I get them back from Chris Fields before they go to Joel Pritchard for painting.
I'll keep posting research findings. Glad to help.

[Coach K-LO]

thanks for allowing us to share in your MF ride back into history.

Please due keep us posted along the way.....the work you're putting in before you actually have figures is a true testiment to how much this team will mean to you upon completion!

Look forward to seeing the finished product (details and bases combined) on the gridiron in 2008 somewhere.......

K-LO

me too!

Thanks for the encouragement.

EVERYONE has been so great to me here

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