Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1037156
52 OCT. 15, 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI I n any countdown of college football's greatest single-season teams, Nebraska's 1971 outfit of- ten is listed No. 1. One reason why is head coach Bob Devaney's Cornhuskers defeated the teams that finished No. 2 (Oklahoma), No. 3 (Colorado) and No. 4 (Alabama) in the final Associated Press poll. In fact, Nebraska slaughtered 11-0 and then-No. 2 Alabama 38-6 in the Orange Bowl to clinch the national title. Only one other college football team defeated opponents that fin- ished Nos. 2-4 in the same year — head coach Frank Leahy's 1943 na- tional-champ Fighting Irish. Now, here's something else to con- sider: During Nebraska's 13-0 cam- paign in 1971, the Nos. 2-4 finishers were the lone Husker foes to place in the final poll. Conversely, not only did Notre Dame's 1943 edition defeat No. 2 Iowa Pre-Flight, No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 Navy, it also toppled No. 9 Northwest- ern, No. 11 Army and No. 13 Georgia Tech — and lost in the closing seconds of the finale to a semi-pro outfit, Great Lakes, that finished No. 6. It is the lone unit in college foot- ball history to lose its regular-season finale, not play in a bowl and still finish No. 1. Never was an exception as deserv- ing as that 9-1 Notre Dame squad. TOUGHEST SCHEDULE EVER? Seven of the 10 teams the Fighting Irish faced that year finished in the top 13 of the AP poll. Even the three that didn't — Pitt, Wisconsin and Illi- nois — had respectable traditions. Pitt was the "Team of The 1930s" under head coach Jock Sutherland, Wiscon- sin finished No. 3 a year earlier, and the Illini came in at No. 15 in 1944. Furthermore, only three of the 10 games played by the Irish in 1943 were at home. Whether it was the toughest ever at Notre Dame remains open to in- terpretation, especially considering the parameters in the game back then and what was going on in the country during the middle of World War II. • The 1929 national champs that finished 9-0 under Knute Rockne played all their games on the road while Notre Dame Stadium was un- der construction. • There were other Irish outfits that saw opponents finish with a bet- ter overall winning percentage — the 1978 and 1985 outfits were at .709 and .707, respectively. • Finally, the 1989 team that played 13 games saw more opponents (eight) finish in the top 18 of the AP poll than the 1943 edition. But when you combine every el- ement of judging a schedule's de- gree of difficulty, none rivals Leahy's first national champs. Unlike six of Leahy's 11 teams at Notre Dame, the 1943 unit didn't finish unbeaten, but none of the others faced such a gauntlet in one season. The four consecutive unbeaten squads from 1946-49 (36-0-2) com- bined to face five programs that fin- ished in the top 13 of the AP poll. The 1943 team confronted seven in one year. Increasing the schedule's challenge in 1943 was the United States was in the middle of World War II. That re- sulted in 1) the temporary elimination of football at many universities and 2) the proliferation of semi-pro teams such as Iowa Pre-Flight, Great Lakes, Del Monte P-F and March Field, all of which finished in the top 10 that year. The rosters of the semi-pros were comprised of college stars who were in training for military service, pros, and many others who had either com- pleted college eligibility or had aspi- rations to attend college after the war. For example, Emil "Six Yard" Sitko, who would lead Notre Dame in rush- ing each season from 1946-49, played SCHEDULE OF BENEFITS Notre Dame won the 1943 national title despite playing, perhaps, the toughest slate ever Head coach Frank Leahy guided the Fighting Irish to wins over six teams that finished in the final Associated Press poll, including No. 2 Iowa Pre-Flight, No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 Navy — one of only two times ever that a school defeated all three teams that finished Nos. 2-4 in the final Associated Press poll. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS