1943 College Football National Championship

Notre Dame 1943

The Players

Notre Dame returned just 2 starters from the previous season, but boy did they reload! Their depth was greatly aided by the presence of a V-12 Naval Training Program on campus, as the rules allowed teams with such programs to use trainees as players even though they were not attending the school. Notre Dame supplied 5 of the 11 consensus All Americans for 1943, and 4 of their players are now in the Hall of Fame (Purdue fielded 1 consensus AA and 2 Hall of Famers). An obscene 24 players from Notre Dame's roster would be drafted by NFL teams over the next 2 years (Purdue 7). Notre Dame's Hall of Famers were quarterback Angelo Bertelli, halfback Creighton Miller, quarterback John Lujack, and tackle Ziggy Czarobski.

Angelo Bertelli (pictured above at left) was the star and won the Heisman Trophy this season, despite being called to boot camp by the Marines after only 6 games. In 1941, Bertelli had been a passing specialist tailback in the single wing, leading the nation in passing accuracy at 56.9%. Leahy switched to the T formation in 1942, and Bertelli blossomed as a quarterback. He threw for 1039 yards and 10 touchdowns, including 4 in a game against Stanford, and this season he completed 69% of his passes and tossed another 10 touchdowns. For his career he totaled 2470 passing yards and 29 touchdowns.

Halfback Creighton Miller (pictured above at right) finished 4th in the Heisman voting, scoring 13 touchdowns and leading the nation with 911 yards rushing. He was the 7th member of the Miller family to attend Notre Dame. His father Harry had been a halfback and captain of the 1908 team, and his uncle Don was one of the Four Horsemen in 1924. Creighton was named after the university where his father had been coaching when he was born. He rushed for 151 yards in a 27-20 win over Notre Dame in 1942, which remained a school record until 1974.

John Lujack started the last 4 games at quarterback in place of Angelo Bertelli, but the Irish were just exchanging one Heisman player for another, as Lujack would come back from the war and win the Heisman in 1947. As of this writing, he is the oldest living Heisman Trophy winner. Lujack threw for 525 yards and 4 touchdowns this season, and he added another 191 yards rushing.

Ziggy Czarobski played the same years Lujack did, 1942-1943-1946-1947, the duo winning 3 MNCs together. Ziggy was never a consensus AA, but he did make some first team AA lists as a senior in 1947.

The other consensus AA players this season, joining Bertelli and Miller, were guard and team captain Pat Filley, tackle Jim White, and end John Yonakor.

Notre Dame's Season

Michigan

Notre Dame and Michigan had an odd relationship, as they were bitter long time rivals that rarely played each other. The issue dated back to a Notre Dame upset of Michigan in 1909, Michigan's only loss that season. Notre Dame was coached by Shorty Longman, a former player of Michigan's legendary coach Fielding Yost. Shorty still lived in Ann Arbor, so he spent the whole off-season lording it over his former mentor. Yost became so embittered that he canceled the next year's game with Notre Dame at the last minute, and refused to play them ever again. Moreover, he worked tirelessly to keep Notre Dame out of the Big 10, and to convince other Big 10 teams not to play them. He wanted to strangle them in the crib.

But Notre Dame grew from babe to giant anyway, and one by one, the other Big 10 schools scheduled and played them. Interest in a Notre Dame vs. Michigan bout was keen even among Michigan fans, but Fielding Yost held firm throughout his 40 year career at Michigan, first as coach, then as athletic director. Finally, he relented to the keening, putting Notre Dame on the schedule for 1942 and 1943, then retiring in 1940. The 1942 game in South Bend was the first game between the two elites of college football in 33 years, and Michigan won 32-20.

This season, Michigan looked to be every bit the juggernaut Notre Dame was. Like Notre Dame (and Purdue), Michigan had a V-12 program on campus that lent them players who had starred on other teams in previous years. Michigan's star and one consensus AA, big fullback Bill Daley, had been drafted away from Minnesota. Halfback Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch (pictured above carrying the ball in this game) had been drafted away from Wisconsin. Both are in the Hall of Fame, as is their tackle Mervin Pregulman and coach Fritz Crisler.

Michigan was favored, and 86,000 fans came to watch their Wolverines sweep the 2 game series. But that was not to be. Creighton Miller put the Irish on the board first with a 65 yard touchdown run in the opening quarter (pictured at the top of this page). He also had a 68 yard touchdown run negated by penalty in the 2nd quarter. Michigan drove to the Notre Dame 9 in the first, but they were stopped there. Bill Daley had a great game for Michigan, rushing for 135 of Michigan's 188 yards on the ground, and he also snagged an interception, returned kicks, and chipped in 24 yards passing. He led Michigan to a touchdown in the 2nd quarter, but they missed the extra point, so they still trailed 7-6. That's when the floodgates opened on them.



Notre Dame had one 2nd quarter drive to the Michigan 1 that came up empty, but Angelo Bertelli hit reserve halfback Fred Earley for a 69 yard touchdown pass, and his arm also set up a touchdown plunge for fullback Jim Mello (Mello is pictured above carrying the ball in this game), giving Notre Dame a 21-6 halftime lead. Early in the 3rd quarter, Notre Dame halfback Julius Rykovich (a V-12 trainee who had played for Illinois in 1942) returned a punt 38 yards to the Michigan 31, and the Irish scored a touchdown 4 runs later. The capper was a 16 yard touchdown pass from Bertelli to Creighton Miller (Miller is pictured below carrying the ball in this game). Michigan was stopped on a drive to the Notre Dame 23, and in the 4th quarter, they were stopped just 6 inches from the Notre Dame goal line. However, Bill Daley returned the punt-out to the Notre Dame 22, and Michigan hit a 4th down touchdown pass to save a little face and make the final score 35-12.



Notre Dame outgained Michigan 420 yards to 299, and they turned the ball over just once, Michigan 3 times. It was a surprising rout, and served notice that this Notre Dame team was special. Michigan romped on all the rest of their opponents, finishing 8-1 and ranked #2. Their big win came 21-7 at 6-2 Northwestern (#6, only other loss came to Notre Dame 25-6). But Michigan's crushing home defeat to Notre Dame this season sent them into an even bigger pout than the loss to the Irish in 1909 did, and these 2 teams would not play each other again until 1978, 35 years later.

Navy

Notre Dame cruised in their next 2 games, 50-0 over Wisconsin (1-9) and 47-0 over Illinois (3-7), and then it was off to Cleveland for their next big game, against unbeaten Navy (coming in ranked #3 in the AP poll). 82,000 filled the neutral-site stadium to watch Notre Dame pull away in the 2nd half for a rout. This was Angelo Bertelli's last game before heading off to boot camp, and he threw 3 touchdown passes. Navy was held to negative 7 rushing yards.

Bertelli hit halfback Julius Rykovich for a 49 yard touchdown to open the scoring in the first quarter, and he hit his other halfback, Creighton Miller, for 52 yards for another touchdown in the 2nd. Navy came back with a drive resting on 3 big passes, the last for a 29 yard touchdown, to cut the lead to 13-6 at half. That was the only time they advanced the ball inside Notre Dame's 25 until the game's final minutes.

Notre Dame opened the 3rd quarter with another touchdown drive, fullback Jim Mello getting loose for 37 yards and Creighton Miller for 24. Later in the quarter, Mello returned an interception 47 yards to the Navy 7 to set up yet another touchdown. The substitutes came in for the 4th, and Vic Kubitski (a military trainee who had played for Minnesota) took a run 72 yards to the Navy 7. They pushed it to the 1, then Angelo Bertelli was sent in to score on a quarterback sneak. His farewell to college football.

That made the final score 33-6. Notre Dame outgained Navy 455 yards to 181. Both teams turned the ball over a lot-- Notre Dame 5 times and Navy 6 (Creighton Miller is pictured above intercepting a Navy pass near his own goal line). This was Navy's only loss on the season. They defeated 8-1 Duke (#5), 8-3 Georgia Tech (#7), 6-2-1 Penn (#14), and 7-2-1 Army (#8), finishing them at 8-1 and #3 in the final fixed AP poll for 1943.

The Navy game was just the start of 5 consecutive games against top 10 caliber opponents for Notre Dame. They next went to the Bronx to dispatch Army 26-0, then got a big 2nd half to win 25-6 at Northwestern. Army finished 7-2-1, tying 6-2-1 Penn (#14) and losing to Navy in their finale. They are rated #8 for 1943. Northwestern finished 6-2, losing to Michigan and beating 10-2 Great Lakes Navy 13-0. GLN would be the team to upset Notre Dame in their finale, and they finished rated #6 in the original AP poll. Northwestern is #6 in the fixed poll.

Game of the Year: Iowa Pre-Flight

Upset Loss to Great Lakes Navy

Purdue 1943

Purdue last contended for an MNC with an 8-0 campaign in 1929, the start of a terrific 5 year run for the program. They went 36-4-2 and won 3 Big 10 titles 1929-1933, but after that they sank back into the swamp of mediocrity from which they had arisen. After going 2-6 and 2-5-1 in 1940 and 1941, Purdue moved Elmer Burnham (pictured at left) from coach of the freshman team to coach of the varsity. Burnham had been a successful coach at South Bend Central High School 1919-1934, going 118-30-8, and he had been coaching the Purdue freshmen since then. His initial campaign as head coach of the varsity resulted in Purdue hitting bottom, a 1-8 finish in 1942. But 1943 would be an entirely different story, and obviously one of the great one-year turnarounds in college football history.

Only 1 starter returned from the 1942 squad, which is just as well considering how poor they were. But Purdue was one of the schools that hosted a V-12 training program this season, and no school's football team benefited from V-12 trainees more than Purdue did in 1943. 33 trainees were available that had played for other 

The Players

Two of the best players from this team had played for Illinois the previous season. Guard Alex Agase (pictured above at left) was Purdue's one consensus All American, and he is in the Hall of Fame. Fullback Tony Butkovich (pictured above at right, and also carrying the ball in the picture at the top of this Purdue section) was a nonconsensus AA. He led the team with 833 yards rushing, and his 16 touchdowns this season are still the school record. He was killed in action in Okinawa. Surprisingly, he is not in the Hall of Fame, but he likely would be if he had played for Notre Dame.

Backup fullback Chalmers "Bump" Elliott is in the Hall of Fame, but that's because he played at halfback for Michigan's unbeaten 1947 team when he came back from the war, and was the Big 10 MVP that season. He later became head coach at Michigan 1959-1968, going 51-42-2 with 1 Big 10 title. Bump Elliott became the starter for Purdue this season after Butkovich was called to boot camp.

Halfback Boris "Babe" Dimancheff had previously played for Butler. He didn't make AA lists, and is not in the Hall of Fame, but he was the team captain and MVP, and went on to a 7 year pro career. Guard Dick Barwegan was similarly unheralded, but he went on to a terrific, if short, pro career, making 4 pro bowls.

Purdue's Season

Purdue's schedule was the polar opposite of Notre Dame's, and it was essentially just a one game schedule. That one game was their opener at Great Lakes Navy (pictured above), the team that beat Notre Dame in their finale. Only military personnel and the media could attend, so 22,000 sailors watched this one. GL Navy was composed of former college and pro all-stars, and had won the "service national championship" the previous season, but this year they had an all-new cast of all-stars. Much like Purdue.

Purdue fumbled the ball away on the second play of the game's opening possession, and Great Lakes Navy threw a touchdown pass for a quick 6-0 lead. On their next possession, Great Lakes returned the favor by fumbling the ball to Purdue at their own 42, and Purdue marched to a Butkovich touchdown to take a 7-6 lead. In the second quarter, Purdue drove 75 yards to make the halftime lead 13-6. A field goal bumped that lead to 16-6 going into the 4th quarter. Great Lakes came back with a short touchdown drive to close the gap to 16-13, but that's as close as they got. Later in the final quarter, Purdue returned a punt 33 yards to the GL Navy 12, and soon afterward they scored to make the final 23-13.

Great Lakes Navy also lost to Northwestern (6-2, #6), but they upset #1 Notre Dame in their finale to finish 10-2 and ranked #6 in the final AP poll (though I don't rank military teams in the fixed poll). This was the only rated team Purdue played this season, and in fact, the only other winning team Purdue played was 5-4 Minnesota.

Purdue rolled easily over mediocre opponents after that, but when some of their players were called up to boot camp November 1st (known nationally as "Blue Monday," as a lot of teams lost key players that day), including stars Alex Agase and Tony Butkovich, things changed dramatically. Purdue had 2 games left on the schedule, road trips to 5-4 Minnesota and 4-4-2 Indiana (both unrated), and both games ended up being very tough battles for Purdue.

Limping to the Finish Line

Notre Dame vs. Purdue

The Bigger Picture

Pictured above are 11 former college football players, now Marines at boot camp in Parris Island. Standing furthest to the left in the back row is Notre Dame quarterback Angelo Bertelli. Purdue guard Alex Agase is kneeling 3rd from the right in the front row, and Purdue fullback Tony Butkovich is standing 2nd from the right in the back row. It's a reminder that there was something vastly more important than college football going on in the world at this time, and in that battle, these guys were all on the same team.

Awards Ceremony

Grading the Selectors