Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? recalled Mutscheller, who turned 82 this March 31. Notre Dame remained unbeaten in Mutscheller's freshman year in 1948 (9-0-1), and as a sophomore in 1949 he suddenly found himself thrust into the starting lineup in the second game of the season, a 27-7 victory at Washington. "Those were the days when we still took a train from South Bend to Seattle," he said. "It took two and a half days to get out there. I started that game on offense and remem- ber almost being in shock and thinking, 'What in the world am I doing here?'" One of the starting ends was Hart, and another future Col- lege Football Hall of Fame in- ductee, Jim Martin, was shifted from end to help get the rising Mutscheller into the lineup. said with a chuckle. "I played defense quite a bit that year, more than offense, and I was not that good at it." Notre Dame was still good enough to finish 10-0 to end a four-year run of 36-0-2 with three national titles. Mutscheller's fa- vorite memory remains the thrilling finale at SMU in which the Irish had to make a game-winning drive and a late goal-line stand to clinch the national title with a 27- 20 victory in Dallas' Cotton Bowl. Another epic contest would occur in his "I got demoted to defense," Mutscheller "I wanted to go to a Catholic school," career nearly a decade later. THE 1950S Mutscheller has spent the past 56 years working for the National Life Insurance Company of Vermont. Notre Dame's Golden Age of Football ended in 1950 when 1) all the World War II veterans had graduated and 2) the scholar- ship reductions that began in 1947 began to take hold. The Irish fell to 4-4-1 in 1950, but the junior Mutscheller set a single-season Notre Dame record for most receptions (35) — breaking Eddie An- derson's 29-year record of 26 — receiving yards (426) and touchdown catches (seven), while also lining up at defen- sive end. For his production and dedi- cation, he was selected the 1951 team captain. PHOTO COURTESY MUTSCHELLER FAMILY reinstated to about 30 per year, and the '51 Irish improved to 7-2-1. At that point, Mutscheller thought his football days might be finished, especially after being only a 12th-round pick in the 1952 NFL Draft. Scholarship quotas were "When I finished Notre Dame, I wasn't planning to play pro football," Mutscheller said. "It just wasn't a big thing then. They were good players and everything, but it hadn't become what it eventually became." Furthermore, he had obligations to fulfill when the Korean War broke out in 1950. "When I went to Notre Dame, the guys that were on scholarship were put in the Air Force ROTC," Mutscheller said. "I was JUNE/JULY 2012 110