Irish Echoes: 1946 national champs rank among college football’s greatest
The Frank Leahy era at Notre Dame began in 1941 and by its third year, in 1943, Leahy had the Irish atop the college football world, winning the school’s fourth consensus national championship and its first as awarded by the Associated Press poll. Notre Dame was voted first despite losing its final game 19-14 to the powerful Great Lakes Naval Station team.
The next two seasons, Leahy served in the U.S. Navy himself, and Notre Dame posted records of 8-2-0 and 7-2-1 under Ed McKeever and Hugh Devore, respectively.
With his wartime service concluded, Leahy returned to guide Notre Dame in 1946, and he brought a plethora of military veterans along with him. The ’46 Irish were loaded with talented, experienced players, including:
• Tackle George Connor, a Chicagoan who played two years at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., earning second-team All-America honors in 1943 before serving two years in the U.S. Navy. He was selected by the New York Giants in the 1946 NFL Draft but chose to play at Notre Dame to be closer to his ailing father. He would become the first winner of the Outland Trophy after the 1946 season.
• End Jim Martin had joined the Marines upon graduating from high school in Cleveland, and served with the elite Fifth Amphibious Recon Battalion, earning a Bronze Star for his scouting work in the Pacific. Leahy had met Martin at Iwo Jima and recruited him to Notre Dame. Martin, a 22-year-old freshman, made an immediate impact on the football field.
• Tackle Ziggy Czarobski played for Notre Dame in 1942-43 before his two years of military service. He was a 24-year-old veteran when he returned to campus to star for the ’46 Irish.
• Center George Strohmeyer was a heralded blocker, linebacker and Golden Gloves boxing champ from McAllen, Texas, before playing freshman football at Texas A&M, then joining the U.S. Navy. He caught Leahy’s attention, earning Service Football All-America honors in 1944 and 1945. Like Martin, he was 22 when he joined Leahy at Notre Dame in 1946.
• Quarterback Johnny Lujack had become Notre Dame’s starting signal-caller as a sophomore in 1943 when the Marines activated Angelo Bertelli six games into the season. In 1944-45, Lujack served as an ensign in the U.S. Navy, on the lookout for German submarines in the English Channel. He was a consensus All-American in 1946, setting up his run to the Heisman Trophy in 1947.
• Halfback Emil Sitko went into the military directly from Fort Wayne Central High School, and starred for Great Lakes Naval Station, scoring a touchdown in the Bluejackets’ 1943 victory over Notre Dame. Leahy welcomed him in 1946 as a 23-year-old freshman.
• Future Notre Dame head coach Terry Brennan was a multi-sport star at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee and secured the starting left halfback spot as a sophomore.
• Guard Bill Fischer also won a starting position as a sophomore, sporting a 6-2, 230-pound frame to clear the way for Irish backs.
The Irish opened the 1946 season by crushing Illinois 26-6 before a throng of 75,119 in Champaign. The Illini would go on to an 8-2 season that included a 45-14 win over UCLA in the Rose Bowl.
Next came one-sided victories over Pitt (33-0), Purdue (49-6), No. 17 Iowa (41-6) and Navy (28-0). Leahy’s squad appeared unstoppable as it headed to Yankee Stadium for its Nov. 9 showdown against archrival, No. 1 Army.
The Cadets were led by their dynamic backfield duo of “Mr. Inside” Doc Blanchard and “Mr. Outside” Glenn Davis. Together, they would lead Army to a record of 27-0-1 in 1944-46, with national championships in 1944 and 1945. Blanchard had won the Heisman Trophy in 1945 and Davis would be the winner in 1946.
Army brought a record of 6-0 into the showdown dubbed “The Game of the Century,” with impressive wins against Oklahoma (21-7), No. 4 Michigan (20-13) and No. 13 Duke (19-0). The Cadets were averaging nearly 30 points per game and their 25-game winning streak stretched back to 1943, with their last loss coming to Notre Dame (26-0).
But on this day, before a capacity crowd of 74,121 that included military leaders, major politicians, business icons and famous entertainers, it was defense that ruled the action. The Irish held Blanchard and Davis to a total of 79 net rushing yards. On one series, freshman Martin tackled Davis on consecutive plays for losses totaling 17 yards.
There were 10 turnovers total, six by Notre Dame and four by Army. And another six times, the teams turned the ball over on downs, Army four times and Notre Dame twice.
Army had a great scoring chance early, recovering an Irish fumble at the Notre Dame 23-yard line. But the Irish stiffened and stopped Blanchard’s rushes on third and fourth downs. In the second quarter, Notre Dame drove from its 12-yard line 86 yards to the Army 4-yard line, but was stopped short by a fourth-down penalty.
The second half was an even tighter defensive duel, with neither team penetrating the other’s 20-yard line. Army’s Arnold Tucker made the second of his three interceptions to stop a promising Notre Dame drive. Then, on the next play, Blanchard got loose and raced down the sideline toward a likely score when Lujack came out of nowhere to make a touchdown-saving shoestring tackle. The drive ended when Brennan picked off an Army pass at the Notre Dame 10-yard line.
Leahy accurately summed up the afternoon as “a terrific battle of defenses.”
Army retained its No. 1 AP ranking and thumped No. 5 Penn the next week in Philadelphia. In its finale, though, it struggled with a woeful 1-7 Navy squad, barely nipping the Middies (21-18). Notre Dame, meanwhile, blanked Northwestern (27-0) and Tulane (41-0), then traveled west and throttled No. 16 Southern Cal (26-6) to finish 8-0-1.
Both teams could make a valid claim for the top spot in the polls. Army had beaten three teams that finished in the top 20 — Michigan, Penn and Oklahoma — but its strength of schedule was offset somewhat with wins over Villanova, Cornell and Columbia.
Notre Dame was more impressive in its victories, with an average score of 34-3 (against 29-9 for Army). The Irish were dominant in what we today would call “the eye test” and edged the Cadets in the final polling, denying Army its third straight national title, and giving Leahy his second in four seasons as Irish head coach. He would add to that list in 1947 and 1949.
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