Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/87622
UNDER THE DOME Anniversaries In Notre Dame Athletics History: Oct. 17-23 school-record 10 times at No. 9 Purdue. Five of them are by junior running back Johnny Lattner. However, Purdue coughs up the 60 Years Ago: Oct. 18, 1952 The unranked Irish fumble a ball 11 times. Notre Dame ends up recovering 15 of the 21 miscues — including Irish right tackle Joe Bush pouncing on a Lattner fumble in the Purdue end zone in the 26-14 Irish victory. In that same game, Lattner snares a 47-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ralph Guglielmi on the last play of the first half to give the Irish a 20-7 lead. On the ensuing Monday, Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy hands Lattner a football and orders him to carry it with him the entire week. "He said, 'If I see you around campus without this football, you'll lose your scholarship here at Notre Dame,' " Lattner said. "One of my teammates put a handle on the football to make it a little easier to carry around. I did that for a whole week. I went to classes with it, slept with it. … I didn't get a lot of snickers from the fellow students, but the professors thought it was pretty cute. "I carried it all week because I truly thought I might lose my scholarship. Leahy was a man of his word." Eventually, Lattner improved enough to become a two-time Maxwell Award recipient and the 1953 Heisman Trophy winner. After he and his teammates were sparked by the use of green jerseys, All-American tight end Ken McAfee caught two touch- downs passes and the No. 11 Irish routed No. 5 USC 49-19 in 1977. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS Dame's football history occurs when the No. 11 Irish return to the locker room after pregame warm-ups against No. 5 USC — and find new green jerseys hanging from their lockers to replace the blue they're wearing. 35 Years Ago: Oct. 22, 1977 Maybe the most surreptitious moment in Notre