USD Football 1994

125TH ANNIVERSARY

I I Champs for All Time continued how the San Francisco Examiner hailed Knute Rockne's 1930 Notre Dame squad after it had obliterated an outstanding Southern California team 27-0 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The 1924 team featuring the Four Horsemen received more publicity, but the 1930squad was undoubtedly Rockne's masterpiece, with anoth- er brilliant backfield featuring two-time All- Americans Marchie SchwartzandTony Carideo at halfback and quarterback, respectively, as

had fallen on hard times. The once mighty Tigers had limped to records of 2-4-1, 1-5-1, and 1-7 in the three years prior to his arrival from the University of Minnesota. But in Fritz Crisler's second season Prince- ton once again became a national power1 fin- ishing second only to Michigan in the final polls. The '34 squad was almost as good, though it lost to Yale. But in 1935, Crisler had his masterpiece, anchored by All-Americans Jack Weller, Gil Lea, and Ken Sandbach. "The 1933 team was largely a sophomore group, and the striking thing about it was its defensive greatness. Starting with defense as the basis, I began to build the offensive crew which culminated in the fine undefeated team of 1935 ... and the significant thing!about that team) was its great offensive strength." Continuing the trend of the '20s, the bal- ance of power continued throughout the coun- try in the 1930s, which saw some marvelous team s flourish in the southwest, including SMU, Texas A&M, and the fabulous TCU squads featuring Slingin' Sammy Baugh and Davey O'Brien. General Bob Neyland got things percolating at Tennessee late in the decade. USC and Stanford were strong on the west coast. There were Jock Sutherland's Pitts- burgh powerhouses; Bernie Bierman's great Minnesota teams; and the University of Chica- go1 featuring inaugural Heisman Trophy win- ner Jay Berwanger. Although Minnesota found itself atop most of the final polls in 1934, there was room for Frank Thomas's Alabama Crimson Tide to take its place amongcollege football's all-time greats. Led by the mercurial Don Hutson, tackle Bill Lee, quarterback Riley Smith, passing and running halfback Millard (Dixie) Howell, and end Paul (Bear) Bryant, Alabam a defeated Ten- nessee 13-6 on the third Saturday of October. "We really took off after the victory over Tennessee," Bryant said years later. "We start• ed clicking, which has been the case with so many Alabama teams over the years." The Tide went on to post an undefeated regular-sea- son record, and was invited to play Stanford in the Rose Bowl. With Howell, dubbed the 11 Human Howitzer" by Grantland Rice, leading the way by passing!he completed 9 of 12passes) and running for a com- bined 273 yards, and Hutson catching two touch- down passes, Alabama's aerial circus chewed up a highly regarded Stanford team 29-13, in the process earning acclaim as one of the premier teams of the '30s-orany other decade! Watch for part two of this feature in the next issue of Touchdown Illustrated. LARRY ELDRIDGE JR. IS THE ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY Of PITTSBURGH AND IS AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR IN THE CREATIVE SERVICESDIVISION OF NFL PROPERTIES.

well as halfbacks Jack Elder and Bucky O'Con- nor, and fullbacks JoeSavoldi and Larry Mullins. "The Irish blocking talent on that team," wrote Grantland Rice, "was the finest that ever stepped on the football field." After crushing Penn 60-20 at Franklin Field, Allison Danzig described the carnage. "With 80,000 spectators ... looking on in amazement, Knute Rockne's magnificent col- lection of backs went on a rampage. It left dazed onlookers wondering whether any team that ever stepped on a football field could have equaled this one in cyclonic speed and brute power of its runners, the annihilating force of its interference, and the almost matchless per- fection of its play in every detail." Rice saw that memorable performance too. 11 I thought the Notre Dame team I saw beat Penn so badly ... was the greatest I ever saw on a field," he wrote. "Football teams and football campaigns will come and go, but it will be a long time before there will be another 1930 Notre Dame team driving through such a schedule." Like Notre Dame, Princeton had many meritorious clubs worthy of inclusion on all- time greatest-team lists. The Tigers' 1933 squad, unbeaten (9-0) and owner of a victory over Rose Bowl champion Columbia, was one of those. But Princeton's 1935 squad, according to Head Coach Fritz Crisler, may have been the creme de la creme. Crisler, the first non-alumnusever hired to coach at Princeton, inherited a program that

Penn's 1894 squad began a remarkable run which saw the school capture 55 of 56 games over a four-year period.