Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/377020
BY LOU SOMOGYI N o rivalry in college football since the end of World War II has produced better quarter- back matchups than state ri- vals Notre Dame and Purdue. In a Nov. 18, 2012 article, The Wall Street Journal wrote: "Purdue may be the ultimate Quarterback U.," primar- ily because since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger the Boilermakers easily had the most starts among quarterbacks (724 at the time) in NFL games. Notre Dame's 543 were fifth, behind Wash- ington, Miami and USC. However in the Super Bowl era since 1966, only USC has produced more NFL starting quarterbacks than Notre Dame's 14 — and that doesn't even include national title winners Tom Clements (1972-74) and Tony Rice (1987-89), who did not play or start in the NFL. Purdue and Alabama are the only two schools that produced three Super Bowl-winning starting quarterbacks, but Notre Dame had five who played in a Super Bowl game, highlighted by Joe Montana and Joe Theismann win- ning back-to-back titles in 1981 and 1982. Purdue refers to itself as the "Cradle of Quarterbacks," but Notre Dame's nine signal-caller inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame are sec- ond to nobody. Hence, the state rivalry, which has been uninterrupted since 1946 has had famous quarterback matchups. Here are 10 of them, listed chrono- logically: 1947: JOHNNY LUJACK (NOTRE DAME) AND BOB DEMOSS (PURDUE) Heisman Trophy winner Lujack led the Irish to a victory over DeMoss' Boilermakers 22-7 and became the first — and still lone — quarterback in col- lege football annals to start on three national championship teams. DeMoss is listed as Purdue's first among its dozen "Cradle of Quarter- backs" — and he would help coach five others. 1950: BOB WILLIAMS (NOTRE DAME) AND DALE SAMUELS (PURDUE) As a junior in 1949, College Football Hall of Fame inductee Williams di- rected Notre Dame's national title run while posting a pass efficiency rating that wouldn't be broken until 60 years later by Jimmy Clausen. A CALL TO ARMS The Notre Dame-Purdue series has featured an unparalleled quarterback rivalry