Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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slightest percentage points. While Williams was battling some health issues during that 2009 sea- son, we called him to ask about his thoughts about his amazing record finally having a chance to be broken. "That's about 50th on my list of things I think about these days," he said with a chuckle, while expressing surprise that he still did hold the mark. He recalled how when he was 13-of- 16 passing for 177 yards in a 34-21 win at rising power Michigan State that year, his performance was deemed an "aerial circus." "That was considered a lot of passes in those days — and now 16 might be thrown in the first five minutes," said Williams, who also scored on a 40-yard touchdown run versus the Spartans. "The game has changed so much." Second, Williams' name arose in 2012 when sophomore Everett Golson won his first 10 starts at quarterback before the 42-14 loss to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game. Williams still holds the school record by winning his first 11 starts at QB. Not one to bring attention to him- self, Williams always emphasized a gratitude toward World War II vet- erans still on the 1949 team for ac- cepting him as a 19-year-old starter, who eventually capped the season with a game-winning march at SMU for a thrilling 27-20 victory win to capture the national title. On that winning drive, the 6-4, 245-pound Hart was used at fullback while Williams calmly led the Irish down- field, including faking a hand-off to Hart up the middle before pitching out the ball to Billy Barrett for the winning tally. "Leon wasn't all that familiar with the fullback plays," Williams recalled. "In the huddle I'd just tell him 'go to my left' or 'go to my right' so I wouldn't get killed." DIFFERENT ERA The way Williams ended up at Notre Dame and the way he left an NFL career manifested how different his era of football was. Today, football recruits often com- mit before their senior year in high school, and even prior to or during their junior campaign. Williams had no idea what to do even during the summer after his senior year at Balti- more's Loyola High, where he starred in football, basketball and baseball. His older brother Harold graduated from Notre Dame in 1938, when Bob was 8 years old. He wanted to follow big brother, but … "Notre Dame showed no great in- terest," Williams said. "It was kind of a 'We'll get back to you' situation. After high school, it got into the sum- mer, and I still hadn't heard anything. "Notre Dame was the only place I wanted to, go and I didn't know what I'd do if they didn't take me. The call finally came when I was just about resigned to not going anywhere." He later would learn it was only be- cause the top quarterback they were after opted to go elsewhere. Scholarship cutbacks at Notre Dame (reportedly from 32 in a season to 18) that began around the time Williams enrolled in 1947 began to catch up in his senior season when the Irish fell to 4-4-1. Still, he was the No. 2 overall