Pillars of the NFL: knute Rockne

Friday, September 5, 2014

Pillars of the NFL and Notre Dame Connections --Second in a Series

Chicago Lithograph Image of Notre Dame-Library of Congress

Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships is published by Sporting Chance Press and written by Chicago Bears Senior Director Patrick McCaskey. The Pillars themselves are the greatest coaches in NFL history--determined strictly by the number of championships. Ten coaches have won three or more championships: George Halas, Guy Chamberlin, Curly Lambeau, Paul Brown, Weeb Ewbank, Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, and Bill Belichick.

This is the second post in which we recall the greatest coaches in the NFL connections to Notre Dame. It is taken from Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships.

Chicago Bears Training Camp at Notre Dame, 1933 Season

George Halas picked up Notre Dame graduates early and often in his career coaching and managing the Chicago Bears. In the last post, we discussed Hunk Anderson and George Trafton. In 1933, Halas had a very good team and he held the Bears Training at Notre Dame in 1933. That year the Bears won the West Division with a 10–2–1 record and played the Giants in the first scheduled championship game. It turned out to be the most spectacular game of the season featuring a trick play by the Giants early on and one by the Bears late in the game. It would also feature six lead changes.

On a damp cool foggy December 17, 26,000 fans showed up at Wrigley Field to see the championship battle. In the early goings, the Giants center Mel Hein reported as an eligible receiver. Harry Newman took the ball under center from Hein and handed it right back to him with a slight of hand. While the defense watched Newman fall back as if he was going to pass, Hein hid the ball under his jersey and quietly started to make his way up field. Not a particularly good actor, Hein got anxious and began to run. The Bears tackled him on the 15-yard line and although the play worked beautifully, the Bears held and the Giants did not score on that series.

The contest swung back and forth and late in the game the Bears found themselves behind 21–16. It was time for the Bears’ trick play. Fullback Bronko Nagurski faked a run and threw a 14-yard jump pass to Bill Hewitt who was attracting Giants. Hewitt lateraled to Bill Karr who then made his way to the end zone. The Bears won 23–21 to take top honors in 1933.

Chamberlin’s Big Day at Notre Dame, Knute Rockne

In at least one way, the Notre Dame connections to the Pillars of the NFL even predated the NFL!

Perhaps the most obscure Pillar is Guy Chamberlin. Chamberlin came off a Nebraska farm and played tremendous football for two Nebraska schools –Nebraska Wesleyan for his first two years and then the University of Nebraska to finish off his college years. In the 1915 season, Chamberlin and the Huskers started out strong by clobbering Drake, Kansas State, and Washburn on their way to a showdown with a strong Notre Dame team coached by Jesse Harper. On staff for Notre Dame was Assistant Coach Knute Rockne who would go on to a legendary head coaching career starting in 1918. Rockne had famously scouted the Huskers. Notre Dame’s defense was instructed on apparent weaknesses in Chamberlin’s running game that Rockne had discovered. Rockne also noted that Chamberlin licked his fingers before any passing play. Rockne’s scouting report did not help—Chamberlin displayed no weaknesses at all. Long after the game, Rockne laughed when he recalled his predictions on Chamberlin’s play. Chamberlin joked that he licked his fingers regardless of what he was going to do with the ball, but on that day, he fingered a wet sponge that he somehow affixed to his uniform to fight off the dryness. The Nebraska-Notre Dame game was a tight match from beginning to end, but Nebraska prevailed 20–19.

During the game, Nebraska fans across the state gathered at railroad stations to hear the latest game news read by telegraph operators coming over the wires while the contest was being played. Chamberlin scored on two end-around plays and he passed for another touchdown. Notre Dame missed two extra points while Nebraska made two of three.

Chamberlin moved on as a player-coach in the pro ranks where he won two championships with the Canton Bulldogs and one with the Cleveland Bulldogs, and one more with the Frankford Yellow Jackets—all in the 1920s. None of Chamberlin’s teams have survived into the modern era, which may be why most modern sports analysts rarely mention him in debates about the greatest coaches.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Curly Lambeau Outline Against the Sky of Notre Dame Football

Pillars of the NFL, Sporting Chance Press Publisher

Chicago Bears Senior Director Patrick McCaskey's Pillars of the NFL, examines the football lives of the 10 greatest coaches in NFL history--those who won three or more championships. One of the most interesting "Pillar" is Curly Lambeau. Many football fans do not realize that Lambeau had interesting connections to some of the Notre Dame legends although he only attended the school for one year.

In 1918, Lambeau shared the backfield with George “Gipper” Gipp, the storied back who would lead the team in both rushing and passing from 1918-1920. Lambeau played under new head coach, Knute Rockne. Like Lambeau, Rockne was a fan of the pass and in South Bend, Lambeau learned the Notre Dame box, a formation based on the commonly used single wing.

During Lambeau’s stay in South Bend, World War I was raging, but it was a flu epidemic that shortened the football season. Notre Dame posted a 3–1–2 record. In one tough game against the Great Lakes Naval Station, Lambeau faced future rival and Chicago Bears founder, George Halas, who played end. The teams tied.

As a freshman, Lambeau had a supporting role in the Notre Dame backfield. He was no threat to superstar Gipp who among other astonishing feats, held the ND rushing career mark of 2,341 yards for more than 50 years. Tragically, after his senior season, Gipp developed a strep infection and died. On his deathbed, Gipp’s last conversation to Rockne was quoted as:

I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy.

Rockne would famously use the deathbed story to motivate his underdog Notre Dame team against Army in 1928. The quote would also make its way into movies and politics.

The Fighting Irish player roster described Lambeau as flamboyant, an excellent blocker, and a good short-yardage runner. After the football season, Lambeau had a bout of tonsillitis. Recuperating at home, he decided not to return to South Bend, and subsequently quit school for good. Although Lambeau had a brief career at Notre Dame, he would be called an “ex Notre Dame Football star.” He was proud of the connection. Lambeau did not forget Rockne. The two corresponded and Lambeau occasionally recommended a high school player to the Notre Dame coach and he encouraged the student to head to South Bend.

Lambeau’s practice of recommending Green Bay players to his old coach created yet another Notre Dame legend. One player who would go to Notre Dame on Lambeau’s recommendations was Jim Crowley. Crowley would become one of the fabled Four Horsemen of Notre Dame—christened and made famous by Grantland Rice, a poetic sportswriter for the New York Herald-Tribune in an era when such craft was appreciated.

Four Horsemen of Football, Library of Congress Photo

After Notre Dame's 13–7 victory over Army on October 18, 1924, Rice penned one of sports journalism’s favorite passages:

Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again.

In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.

Notre Dame student-publicity aid, George Strickler, who would become the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, had a photo shot of the four ND players on horseback, which was picked up by newspapers across the country. The photo memorialized the passage, the players, and the team.

Crowley “recovered” from the notoriety and later coached at Fordham University. At Fordham, Lambeau’s work would come full circle. One of Crowley’s players by the name of Vince Lombardi would go on to coach the Packers in one remarkable decade.