Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Notre Dame's 1943 national champs set the standard The Toughest Schedule Ever ka's 1971 outfit often is listed No. 1. One reason why is the I n any countdown of college football's greatest single-sea- son teams, Nebras- Cornhuskers defeated the teams that finished No. 2 (Oklahoma), No. 3 (Colorado) and No. 4 (Alabama) in the final Associated Press poll. Only one other col- BY LOU SOMOGYI 3 (Michigan) and No. 4 (Navy), it also toppled the teams that finished No. 9 (Northwestern), No. 11 (Army) and No. 13 (Georgia Tech) — and lost in the closing seconds of the finale to No. 6 (Great Lakes). That 1943 team is the lege football program has accomplished that feat — head coach Frank Leahy's 1943 national champion Fighting Irish. During Nebraska's only one 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 de- serving as that 9-1 Notre Dame unit. 13-0 campaign in 1971, the 2-3-4 finishers were the lone Husker opposi- tion in the final top 20. Conversely, not only did Notre Dame's 1943 edition defeat No. 2 (Iowa Pre-Flight), No. Notre Dame faced that year finished in the AP top 13. Even the three that THE WINDS OF WAR Seven of the 10 teams didn't — Pitt, Wisconsin and Illinois — had re- spectable traditions. Pitt was the "Team of The 1930s" under coach Jock Sutherland, Wisconsin finished No. 3 a year earlier under former Notre Dame Four Horse- man Harry Stuldreher, 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. Unlike six of Leahy's 11 teams at Notre Dame, the 1943 outfit didn't fin- ish unbeaten, but none of the others faced such a gauntlet. The four consecutive unbeaten squads from 1946-49 (36- 0-2) faced five programs combined that finished in the AP top 13. The 1943 team confronted seven in one year. Increasing the sched- ule's challenge in 1943 was the United States was in the middle of World War II. That led to 1) the temporary