Say the names Dave Mitchell and Joe Montana when talking about Notre Dame’s 1977 national title, and there is more involved than just the two being next to each other alphabetically on that roster.
The two were third-team players that year before they helped save a season — and national title — for the Fighting Irish when their numbers had to be suddenly called.
The 59-year-old Mitchell passed away at Memorial Hospital — where he had worked since 1986 as a respiratory therapist — this May 31 following a brief illness.
Mitchell came from St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix, Arizona, where he rushed for 1,913 yards as a junior but was sidelined as a senior with a serious knee injury — and again at Notre Dame as a freshman in 1976, when Montana likewise was out of commission all season with a separated shoulder.
Coming off a 9-3 season, the 1977 Fighting Irish were the overwhelming preseason pick to capture the national title with all 11 starters returning on defense and seven more on offense.
Meanwhile, the running back stable was loaded not only with halfback Vagas Ferguson and fullback Jerome Heavens — who would finish their careers 1-2 on the all-time Irish rushing chart — but also featured two captains in Terry Eurick and Steve Orsini (special teams).
Alas, the Irish offense sputtered out of the gate, losing 20-13 at Mississippi in game two and then trailing Purdue 24-14 at the start of the fourth quarter the following week. The national title dreams were all but gone.
Late in the third quarter at Purdue, Mitchell was inserted because of injuries and ineffectiveness in the backfield — but he fumbled at his own 30-yard line on one of his initial carries.
After Purdue missed a short field goal attempt at the start of the fourth quarter, another third-teamer, Montana came into the lineup. His first pass was end-over-end — and dropped by a Purdue defender at the Purdue 30-yard line.
Thereafter, Montana completed 9-of-13 passes for 154 yards and a score, and Mitchell remained in the backfield — tallying the game-winning touchdown with 1:08 remaining on a five-yard run through traffic.
Neither thought of the earlier fumble or the near interception. It was a carpe diem moment for both players who had been buried on the depth chart.
The next week against a stout Michigan State defense, Montana tossed three interceptions, but starting fullback Mitchell rushed for what would be a career high 91 yards and scored the game’s lone touchdown on a nine-yard run in the hard fought 16-6 win versus the Spartans.
Mitchell would be the blocking back for Heavens the next week when he rushed for a school record 200 yards in a win versus a 7-4 Army team, and then in the famous “Green Jersey Game,” a 49-19 trouncing of No. 5 USC, Mitchell opened the scoring on the initial Irish drive with a four-yard run.
Injured in the loss to Ole Miss, Ferguson — one of Mitchell's closest friends as a classmate since college — later returned to the lineup while Mitchell finished the season as the third-leading rusher with 303 yards and four touchdowns, plus he caught 10 passes for 106 yards and another score.
Ferguson and Heavens each reached the 100-yard rushing mark in the Cotton Bowl upset of No. 1 Texas to win the national title, while Eurick made the cover of Sports Illustrated with his two touchdown runs.
The following year, Mitchell would only carry 12 times, and his football career was ended in the 1979 Blue-Gold Game with another knee injury.
Using his economics degree, Mitchell entered the world of finance but had a life-altering moment when his grandfather was receiving treatment at Memorial Hospital.
“He was just so amazed how good his grandfather felt after the respiratory therapist gave him his treatment,” recalled Don Mikesell, an X-Ray technologist at Memorial Hospital who worked closely with Mitchell. “He said, ‘I kept watching that and I want to make people feel like that.'”
In addition to business, Mitchell taught at the Baylor School for Boys in Chattanooga, Tenn., but then decided to attend Bio Systems School for Respiratory Therapists in his native Phoenix before returning to Memorial, where he began his new career in 1986, the same year he married his wife of 32 years, the former Dorothy L. Allen, with whom they raised daughter Lauren and son David Jr. The two also were the owners of Mitchell’s Country Care for the Elderly in South Bend from 1996-2013.
One of his favorite moments came when one of his patients was long-time Notre Dame defensive line coach Joe Yonto. He joked with Yonto that it was "payback" time for all the times Mitchell was on the scout team's "hamburger squad" against Yonto's vaunted defensive lines.
“Just an amazing guy,” said Mikesell of Mitchell. “My father is a huge fan of Notre Dame and David was his favorite back. When I told him that he took an original photo of Joe Montana handing off to him on the touchdown against USC and signed it for him.
“I said, ‘Dave this is an original, it’s not like you have another one.’ He said, ‘I was there. I remember it. That’s all I need.’ He did it for my dad because he knew he was such a huge fan. It’s still in my dad’s living room to this day.
“He was such a humble guy. He never talked about his accomplishments, never took credit for anything. … He was a true son of Notre Dame. He was the epitome of what a Notre Dame man should be. Once a year he would get invited to a practice (with other alumni) and he would always talk to the guys. You could always tell the day after he had done it because he was on cloud nine.”
The Memorial Hospital community, as well as the local health community, has been devastated by the loss, with services to be held June 9.
“I only wish I could touch lives the way Dave did,” Mikesell said. “He was just a special person. You take it for granted that you’re going to walk into work tomorrow and you’re going to see him again, and he’s going to have a big smile on his face and he’s going to go out of his way to see how you’re doing. Mankind has suffered a loss with Dave’s passing."
The football numbers posted by Mitchell at Notre Dame were relatively modest with 341 career rushing yards. The impact he brought to help Notre Dame win the 1977 national title was not.
When most needed in a dire, tenuous situation, Mitchell responded for his teammates.
He would do that for the rest of his life beyond football. That’s what makes a champion for life, and a legacy to emulate.
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