Bio: Carl, Harland (Hard luck Story - 1953)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Carl

----Source: Greenwood Gleaner (Greenwood, Clark Co., Wis.) 12 Nov 1953

Carl, Harland (Hard luck Story - 1953)

The story of Harland Carl has been one of hard luck and injuries for the University of Wisconsin football fans, who expected great achievement from him during his collegiate career. Here was a youth possessed with speed and trickiness, and destined to become of the school's finest breakaway runners, but each season it was the same -- Carl sidelined iwth injuries. He missed the entire 1950 season due to a fractured thumb, and in the 1951 spring drills suffered a knee injury, recurrences of which have prevented him from ever performing to the best of his ability for the Badgers.

Yet, Carl, when he has been physically able, has been one of the Badgers main weapons on the attack, always posing a threat to the opposition, and football fans who saw him play in the last two Wisconsin home games against Ohio State and Iowa, can tell you just what a threat he presents to the opponent's defense. In both of those games he was on the receiving end of passes from quarterback Jim Miller that moved the Badgers into scoring position.

Against Ohio State he snagged two passes that needed 35 yards in the Badger's 75 yard desperation march down the field in the 2 1/2 minutes of play in a great surge that culminated in the missed field goal, by inches, that would have produced a fine victory. Again, last week, Iowa discovered the value of Carl to the Wisconsin offense, as a fourth quarter march that covered 62 yards in three plays featured Carol on the receiving end of two passes, good for 61 years, the last one being good for 39 years and the games winning touchdown.

In the games that Carl has been able to play in during his two previous years on the varsity, he gained 575 yards in 80 rushes, an average of 7.1 yards per attempt. He caught 18 passes during that time for 259 years and four touchdowns.

Last season though, missing half of the games, he scored 7 touchdowns to tie Alan Ameche and Jerry Witt for scoring honors for the year. His spectacular catch of a pass for a touchdown against Iowa last weekend gave him the distinction of counting a touchdown against the Hawkeyes in each of his three season with the varsity. Surely, that score last week will rank as the most gratifying one he ever tallied for the Badgers.