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Nov 1. 1913 : Army - Notre Dame 13-35.
Nov 6. 1920 : Notre Dame - Army 27-17. What happend in the games:
Nov 1. 1913 : Army - Notre Dame 13-35.
What happened on November 1st 1913, is a single incident that in American footballs annals is separated as both a highlight and a turning point in the development of the sport.
It was of course not many spectators at West Point when saturday came the first day in November. Maybe a bit strange since the Army team fielded four All-Americans. When comparising the two teams man to man the cadets were about 14 pounds heavier than the guests, so they planned to use their regular tactics which was to stop the oponents with short passes, pile driver and raw force.
Rockne wispered to Dorais: "OK, now we´re gonna show them" - The half ended 14-13 to Notre Dame.
Between the second and the third half Harper said to Dorais:
- "You gotta go through on that ball, because they are playing an old style defence". - "I´ve tried too, but they didn´t go", replied Dorais. - "Keep throwing", Harper told him.
When full time came the scoreline was Army 13 - Notre Dame 35.
The newspaper Baltimore Sun had a 6-columns headline which said: "Notre Dame shows the most sensational football the nation have ever seen".
Notre Dame wasn´t a hidden university in the mid-east anymore. For months after, the 3-half was referred over and over again all over the country in newspapers and magazines. The war college wasn´t only beaten by something new in the sport. And it was not only that the ball had been throwned across the field and caught with the arms raised. No! A new conception was "born", which other sports could learn from. The contents of the conception was: Calculation, perfection and intelligence.
The game against the Army at West Point, when the Dorais to Rockne forward passes startled the eastern football world may be regarded as Notre Dame´s first appearance in the "big league".
The Army players shook their heads in bewilderment at the Dorais to Rockne combination. They completed 14 out of 17 passes, and when the game was finished the final score was Army - Notre Dame 13-35. The Dorais-Rockne pass combination made headlines on every sports page. They had put across something new and different, something that the critics in the East could not fathom.
How the game came about. It started with that West Point because of misunderstandings and canceling suddenly had a day without no opponents in the middle of the season. The war college had for many years been the top team within the college football, and it was alway about to find worthy opponents. But on this day they were all unavailable.
So the school figured they should send out a circular to the teams a cut below the best. But still no available teams. But one day there came a handwritten letter. It was from a man who, at the time, was still the head coach at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. His name was Jess Harper. He was going to report at Notre Dame at the end of the school year as their new head coach.
The Army team needed some opponents, so to make sure the Army coach, Charles Daly said: "get ´em, they´re not a bad team and it´s a fair enough price for a good win". So the offer was accepted!
And on April 18th 1913 there was a short piece in the New York newspapers announcing Army´s schedule for the coming fall. The notice showed that one of Army´s homegame would be versus Notre Dame. Sports fans hardly paid the notice any attention. Who and where was Notre Dame?
Jess Harper reported in at Notre Dame before his squad dispersed for the summer. The first person he met was Knute Rockne, the team captain.
- "We´ve got a game with Army. How do you feel about that?", Harper said.
- "Do you have to ask?", Rockne replied. And he dashed off to tell the news at a squad meeting he was going to. After this meeting Rockne and Dorais came to Harper privately.
- "We´ve got summer jobs at Cedar Point, Ohio, on the lake. And we´re going to do some special practicing. Can we take a couple of footballs with us?" Rockne asked.
Harper raised an eyebrow. "Well yes, but what´s so special?"
To find out what they did that summer at the seaside hotel, Cedar Point, Ohio, read the "Knute Rockne at Cedar Point".
Nov 6. 1920 : Notre Dame - Army 27-17. The Army game, played on November 6, 1920, was up to that time classified as one of the greatest games played by any Rockne teams. As it happens, it was entirely proper that this achievement should happen on the same field where Rockne had reached his greatest hights as a player seven years before.
ninety six more were his by virtue of the deadly accuracy of his passing.
"Everything that fellow did was just the way you wanted it done if you happend to be part of the play that followed or preceded his part in it. When Gipp left that game, as he did shortly before it ended, the stands, amazed at his performance were fairly stunned into awed silence. You might think that it seemed strange there wasn´t the volley of applause that usually greets the departure from a star player after doing his work well. Our reaction was that any sort of noice then would have been almost a sacrilege. That´s how Gipp´s play affected everyone", says Roger Kiley (one of his team-mates that day).
Carried along by the inspiration of this greatest of all Notre Dame players, his team-mates; Mohardt and Wynne, ripped and tore through the Army Cadets for repeated gains. And in front of them as stout a line as Rockne had yet deve- loped at Notre Dame fought the forward wall the Army side into bewilderness. Frank Coughlin, the captain, "Buck" Shaw, Maurice Smith, "Hunk" Anderson, Roger Kiley and Eddie Anderson were all heroes in the game that Gipp and Notre Dame played that day.
The offensive of this team was a revelation to the football critics of the East, who hadn´t been paying much attention to Rockne since he and Charley "Gus" Dorais had mystified the Army back in 1913. But at the end of the game all eyes editorial eyes were on Rockne.
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