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Tigers wrestle victory from No. 2 Cornell
By ROBBY LEWIS
sports@ColumbiaMissourian.com
The Missouri wrestling team
keeps getting big wins against
big opponents.
Sunday, it won 18-14 at
Cornell. Entering the match,
Cornell was ranked second
in the nation in USA Today’s
wrestling poll. Missouri was
ranked 12th.
The Tigers came from
To keep the NFL active during World War II and fill vacancies left by enlisted players, the Pittsburg Steelers and Chicago Cardinals combined to form the Car-Pitts shown here in 1944.
Pitted up against the odds
Johnny Grigas played home games in
two cities for the Car-Pitts in 1944.
Big Ben prepares to face former coach
By ALAN ROBINSON
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — Ben Roeth-
lisberger didn’t consider Ken
Whisenhunt to be a whiz when
the two worked together on the
Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense.
They won a Super Bowl
together three years ago, Roeth-
lisberger as the still-inexperi-
enced quarterback and Whisen-
hunt as the offensive coordi-
nator who mentored him. But
their relationship was about as
smooth as Heinz Field’s bumpy
playing field.
That became evident after
Whisenhunt left in January
2007 to become the Arizona
Cardinals’ coach, not waiting
to see if he would succeed Bill
Cowher as Pittsburgh’s coach.
What is uncertain as their
paths cross again in the Super
Bowl, this time on opposing
sides, is whether Roethlisberg-
er’s feelings influenced the
Steelers not to hire Whisenhunt
as Cowher’s replacement. Or if
Whisenhunt preferred going to
a less-successful team to prove
himself as a head coach, escap-
ing the better-win-now mental-
ity of Pittsburgh and a quarter-
SECTION B, Monday, January 26, 2009
behind to with a takedown in the final
win with Wrestling 15 seconds. MU coach Brian
victor ies Smith called the win the turn-
in the Missouri 18 ing-point of the dual.
last five Cornell 14 “This was his breakout big
matches of win for us,” Smith said by
the duel. phone. “It was a big pressure
Freshman Dorian Henderson situation. We knew we had to
earned the biggest victory of get that win. We didn’t tell
his college career, defeating him that, but he won and it
Cornell’s Justin Kerber 2-1 in was huge.”
the 184-pound weight class Henderson, who has been
Former Car-Pitts player Vince Banonis: “We got massacred every week.”
By BEN WALKER
The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. — They wore hand-me-down
jerseys, the little rips and tears widening with
every loss. The holes at quarterback and kicker
were more obvious.
The brief World War II merger of the Steel-
ers and Cardinals may have helped the NFL.
It sure didn’t benefit anyone who spent that
season shuttling to home games in Pittsburgh
and Chicago.
“We were terrible,” 91-year-old former line-
man Chet Bulger said. “You’d get beat so bad,
you’d cry.”
Long, long before the franchises reached this
year’s Super Bowl, they teamed together in
1944 to create a much different legacy.
At 0-10, the ragtag outfit got outscored by an
average of three touchdowns per game; threw
a record 41 interceptions; and set a league
mark that still stands for the worst punting.
Their nickname seemed inevitable: the Car-
Pitts. As in, every team walked right over
them.
“That was true,” recalled Vince Banonis,
who played two games while on weekend fur-
lough as a Navy lieutenant. “We got massacred
every week.”
MARK DUNCAN/The Associated Press
Ben Roethlisberger is trying for his second championship.
back who wanted to work with
another.
So far, Roethlisberger isn’t
Roethlisberger wasn’t that
complimentary two years ago,
when Whisenhunt said the
saying anything that might stir quarterback’s June 2006 motor-
up the Steelers’ Super Bowl cycle crash may have contrib-
opponent, or its boss. uted to his down season that
“It just makes it fun to play year. Partly because of Roeth-
them and see them across the lisberger’s struggles, the Steel-
field,” Roethlisberger said of ers started 2-6 after winning
Whisenhunt, assistant coach the Super Bowl and missed the
Russ Grimm and the other for- playoffs despite winning six of
mer Steelers coaches on Ari- their final eight.
zona’s staff. “Coach Whis is a Whisenhunt’s comments
great coach.” seemed innocuous — it was evi-
HALL SNUB
Ray Guy isn’t a finalist for
the Hall of Fame this year,
keeping the trend of punting
on punters. Page 3B
frustrated with his results so his time at MU is over. six-match stretch where we
far this season, said he attri- “I would love for us to be face all top-10 teams.”
butes a lot of his success to his national champions,” Hender- Smith said he hopes that
coaches. son said. “At the least, I want with this victory, more people
“They just told me to wrestle to be an All-American.” will show up on Saturday.
and relax,” Henderson said by The schedule doesn’t get any “We have bigger crowds on
phone. “They have helped me easier for the Tigers. They the road than we do at home,”
so much this season with my prepare to take on fourth- Smith said. “We’ve been in
confidence, technique and con- ranked Nebraska on Saturday the top 10 and people don’t
ditioning. I trust them a lot.” at the Hearnes Center. come out. It’s frustrating, but
Henderson has high goals for “We have a gauntlet coming we keep chugging along and
himself and his team before up,” Smith said. “We are in a winning.”
File photos The Associated Press
Beset by fights, fines and suspensions in a “Steagles” after military service left both
rough-and-tumble era, there was hardly a Ben teams short-handed, but the sides broke apart
Roethlisberger or Larry Fitzgerald among when the season ended.
them. Their lone ace, Johnny Grigas, threw “They were at each other’s throats, the way I
away his leather helmet heard it,” Banonis said.
and skipped town before it In April 1944, the
was over. “I can’t see too well anymore, NFL suddenly found
About an hour before the but I’m going to get up real itself with 11 teams
wrap-up, a 49-7 rout by the when the Cleveland
Bears at Forbes Field, the close to the TV to watch that Rams rejoined the
Car-Pitts discovered Gri- league and the Boston
gas already was on a train. game. Maybe we’ll win that Yanks entered. That
The former Holy Cross Super Bowl. Wouldn’t that be caused scheduling prob-
star left a note for his hotel lems, so commissioner
roommate. “This is the something?” Elmer Layden, one
end,” Grigas wrote, saying Chet Bulger of the original “Four
he didn’t care to finish up 91-year-old former lineman for the Car-Pitts Horsemen of Notre
on a frozen field. Dame,” asked Steelers
“I thought he’d gone owner Art Rooney and
to become a priest,” Bulger said. “He’d had Cardinals boss Charles Bidwell if they’d be
enough.” interested in a merger.
So had many of the guys. Most of them came The patriarchs of the families that still own
from the Chicago Cardinals — they were in the the franchises agreed. A few months later, the
midst of a 29-game losing streak, and only the combined club went off to training camp in
merger kept them out of the record book for Waukesha, Wis.
consecutive defeats by a single franchise. “We were all sitting there on the porch the
A few guys straggled over from the Steel- first day,” Bulger said. “We’re all just looking
ers. They’d joined Philadelphia in 1943 as the Please see merger, page 2B
dent Roethlisberger wasn’t the
player in 2006 he was during
the Super Bowl year — but they
apparently touched a nerve with
a player known for his competi- Tim
tiveness. Hightower
“I don’t agree with Whis. (34) has
There were a lot of things I been
didn’t agree with Whis about, integral to
and that’s another one,” Roeth- the Cardin-
lisberger said at the time. “I had als’ success
a bad year. I’m sure Whis had a this season.
bad year once in his career.” MATT YORK
Before the Steelers and Car- The Associated
dinals played early in the 2007 Press
Cardinals take flight
season, Roethlisberger said he
felt restrained in a Whisenhunt-
coached offense that he felt lim-
ited his passing attempts, espe-
cially his downfield throwing.
If Roethlisberger wants to
get back at a former coach he
believes held him back, here’s
with fifth-round pick
his chance. By ANDREW BAGNATO back before fading down the
Roethlisberger didn’t have The Associated Press stretch.
nearly the season statistically After losing his job to James
TEMPE, Ariz. — It’s been a
as he did in 2007 — 32 touch- in the playoffs, Hightower came
long season for Tim Hightower,
down passes and 11 intercep- up with three of the biggest
and it’s not over.
tions then, compared to 17 TDs plays in Arizona’s NFC cham-
Hightower started out as a
and 15 interceptions now — yet pionship victory over Philadel-
fifth-round draft pick out of
he could join Tom Brady as phia, which put the once-woeful
Richmond trying to crack the
one of only two quarterbacks Cardinals in the Super Bowl for
Arizona Cardinals’ roster.
to win two Super Bowls by the the first time.
Then he replaced Edgerrin
Please see steelers, page 2b James as the starting running Please see arizona, page 2b