IOWA BEATS NOTRE DAME (College Football-11/17/40)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 11/17/40 | Allison Danzig, Arthur J. Daley, Lincoln A. Werden

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

During the last few seasons I have noticed that several of the games are written up by a reporter named Allison Danzig. I pictured this plucky dame grabbing players and coaches to interview as they emerge from the locker room and trading wisecracks with other reporters in the press box. So I did a search to learn more about her. Turns out Allison is a man’s name. (I think the same goes for Camille Cianfarra, who files news stories from Rome.)

Late Touchdown Topples Irish, 7-0 – 2
Georgetown Streak Ended by Boston College, 19 to 18 – 2-3
Navy, Columbia Scoreless in Battle at Baker Field – 4
Washington Beats U.S.C. Eleven, 14-0 * – 4
Alert Penn Team Routs Army, 48-0 – 5
Florida Winner by 46-5; Reen Makes 101-Yard Run – 5
Nebraska Defeats Pitt with Kick, 9-7 – 7
Wisconsin Victor over Indiana, 27-10 – 7

* Sorry, Fiji. You were right. This isn’t going to be the Trojan’s year. There is a brief mention of happier times for SC at the end of the Iowa-N.D. story.

[Fiji Hill]

This year’s USC Trojans are proving to be quite a contrast from last year’s national championship team—in fact, the 1940 Trojans are the worst team coach Howard Jones has fielded since he came aboard in 1925. In the Washington game, only Jack Banta’s quick kicks kept us from giving up even more points.

By the way, I wonder if such quick punts on third, second or even first down will still be in vogue 70 years from now?

We have a bye next week, but on the 30th, we face a formidable challenge in the form of the UCLA Bruins. Although the boys from Cal’s extension campus in Westwood have never beaten the Trojans, they will bring to the Coliseum a formidable backfield that includes tailback Kenny Washington, who led the nation in total offense last year, and wing back Jackie Robinson, a speedster who transferred to UCLA from Pasadena Junior College and ran up impressive numbers for the Bruins last season. A gifted athlete, Robinson excels in track and field and basketball—and he also plays baseball.

[iowamark]

Iowa's Heisman winner Nile Kinnick with Coach Dr. Eddie Anderson.

Dr. Eddie Anderson was hired as the 15th head football coach at the University of Iowa before the 1939 season. Iowa had a record of just 2–13–1 in 1937 and 1938 under Irl Tubbs, and the Hawkeyes had finished among the worst three teams in the Big Ten Conference standings every year in the 1930s except 1933. Iowa had won just one conference game in the last three years, and the team they beat, Chicago, announced that they would be dropping their football program following the 1939 season.

Anderson sought to change Iowa's fortunes immediately. He put the 85 football players who showed up for spring practice through an intense workout. Only 37 players would earn football letters in 1939 for Iowa. Anderson felt the 1939 team could be a good one if the starters played significant minutes. Before the first game, The Des Moines Register had a small note stating that "a set of iron men may be developed to play football for Iowa."

The 1939 Hawkeyes, nicknamed the "Ironmen", would become one of the greatest teams in school history and certainly the most romanticized. Led by Nile Kinnick, the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner, the Hawkeyes put together an 6–1–1 record, the best overall record in the Big Ten, though Ohio State edged out Iowa for the conference title. Many of Anderson's players played complete games during that season for the Hawkeyes. Anderson was named national coach of the year by several organizations. Jim Gallager of the Chicago Herald-American wrote, "It's doubtful if any coach in football history ever accomplished such an amazing renaissance as Eddie Anderson has worked at Iowa."

Anderson attended Mason City High School in Mason City, Iowa, before enrolling at the University of Notre Dame. He played for Knute Rockne from 1918 to 1921 and was a teammate of George Gipp. As a senior, he was named a consensus first team All-American and was the team captain of the 1921 Notre Dame football team. In his final three years at Notre Dame, the Irish had a record of 28–1. Anderson's only loss in his final three seasons was to Anderson's home state school, when Notre Dame lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes in 1921, 10–7.

Anderson coached at Columbia(later Clarke) College in Dubuque, Iowa, from 1922–1924, compiling a 16–6–1 record with one undefeated season. During that time, he was considered for an assistant coaching position at Iowa, but Iowa coach Howard Jones rejected the idea. Anderson served as a player/coach for the Chicago Cardinals (now Arizona Cardinals) professional football team in the early 1920s as well. He played on the Cardinals' controversial championship team in 1925. That same year, Anderson enrolled at Rush Medical College in Chicago. While in Chicago, Anderson coached football at DePaul University, compiling a 21–22–3 record from 1925 to 1932. He also coached basketball at DePaul from 1925 to 1929, guiding them to a 25–21 record. After graduating from Rush, Anderson took a job as head football coach at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. He had a record of 47–7–4 in six years at Holy Cross from 1933–1938, including undefeated seasons in 1935 and 1937. During that time, Anderson also served as the head of eye, ear, nose, and throat clinic at Boston's Veterans Hospital.

Dr. Eddie Anderson left the University of Iowa to serve in the US Army Medical Corps during WWII.

Nile Kinnick, himself the grandson of a Governor, spoke before the Young Republicans and introduced 1940 presidential candidate Wendell Willkie at a campaign rally. Kinnick said, "When the members of any nation have come to regard their country as nothing more than the plot of ground on which they reside, and their government as a mere organization for providing police or contracting treaties; when they have ceased to entertain any warmer feelings for one another than those which interest or personal friendship or a mere general philanthropy may produce, the moral dissolution of that nation is at hand."

The Marion Sentinel proposed in an article to endorse a presidential run for Kinnick in 1956, the first year in which he would be eligible.

While Kinnick took a year of law school in 1940, he also served as an assistant football coach for the Hawkeyes, aiding the freshman team and scouting upcoming opponents. He accompanied the team to South Bend to see Iowa upset the Irish for the second straight season. According to The Daily Iowan’s account, "Nile Kinnick, cool, calm, and collected while he’s on a football team, pranced up and down the dressing room almost jabbering in his excitement." He was also an assistant football coach at Iowa in 1941.

Kinnick joined the US Navyy, training to be a fighter pilot. "The task which lies ahead is adventure as well as duty," Nile wrote in his final letter to his parents before deploying with the USS Lexington in late May 1943, "and I am anxious to get at it. I feel better in mind and body than I have for ten years and am quite certain I can meet the foe confident and unafraid. 'I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.' Truly, we have shared to the full life, love, and laughter. Comforted in the knowledge that your thought and prayer go with us every minute, and sure that your faith and courage will never falter, no matter the outcome, I bid you au revoir."

Kinnick died in 1943 on a training flight, the first Heisman Trophy winner to die.

Nile Kinnick's Heisman Trophy acceptance speech is played at Kinnick stadium before every game.

[henkster]

A moral victory for the Hoosiers in Camp Randall in 1940; they didn’t give up 83.

[iowamark]

November 15: MIRACLE GAME AT NOTRE DAME
Despite the loss of several Ironmen—including Kinnick, Erwin Prasse, and Dick “Whitey” Evans—the Hawkeyes opened the season with gusto, skunking South Dakota and beating Wisconsin. Then followed three consecutive losses, before another miracle game versus Notre Dame.

Late in the fourth quarter, Ken Pettit recovered an Irish fumble in Iowa territory. Fullback Bill Green took over from there, scoring the game’s only touchdown on a short run to win the game, 7-0. The Hawkeye victory snapped Notre Dame’s six-game winning streak, making Iowa the only school in the nation able to boast of a perfect record (3-0) against the Fighting Irish.

While Green was the man who rushed for all of Iowa’s net yardage that day, others celebrated, too. According to The Daily Iowan’s account, “Nile Kinnick, cool, calm and collected while he’s on a football team, pranced up and down the dressing room almost jabbering in his excitement."

Fans in Iowa City picked up on the merrymaking the instant they heard the radio report confirming the outcome of the game. Unrehearsed cheerleaders perched on the traffic signal at the intersection of Washington and Clinton streets, leading a number of yells and singing “On Iowa.” The student newspaper noted that after a snake dance proceeded north on Clinton, “an accordion player and a bugler joined the cheerleaders on the steps of Old Capitol and added discordant though enthusiastic accompaniment to the general clamor.”

It was the highlight of the football year. At the end of the season, the Hawkeyes stood dead even, with four wins and four losses.

Watch highlights from the "Miracle Game" at the link.