Glory Years Of Notre Dame Football

As the 2014 season approaches anticipation is in the air entering Brian Kelly’s 5th. coaching year. He seems to have all the pieces in place to make a run for the National Championship.

Kelly has his QB back in action – Golson and can finally run his up-tempo offense. But, and it’s a big But… Can Golson get it done? He has missed a season and that’s big in college football and while showing flashes in his first year there were also some dreadful plays. We’ll see on Aug. 30th.

With that in mind I reflect back on ND’s greatest Coach – Frank Leahy. Leahy played for Rockne, coached Vince Lombardi at Fordham and in his 2nd year as Head Coach At Boston college he went 11-0 and beat Tennessee in the Sugar bowl and BC got the National Championship that year 1940.

Then came the Glory Years at ND 1941-43, 1946-53. During that span Leahy had 5-6 undefeated seasons and 4 National Championships, 39 straight wins and a .864 winning percentage. He was so good that he was too good for the Administration. ND Football was dwarfing the Academic side of the Institution. So they cut Leahy down to size by reducing the number of Scholarships from 33 per year to 18.

Leahy was a perfectionist (Lombardi got it from guess who) and with the disadvantage of scholarship reductions and tough scheduling his health failed and he resigned after the 1953 Season. Terry Brennan took over 1954-58 and was 32-18 kinda unfair for the loss of scholarship severely hampered his success and he was unceremoniously fired on Christmas Eve.

I want you to check out a great post at www.onefootdown.com Greatest Wins ND history 1941-1963.

Will bring back fond memories for the oldsters. Remember the Tan and Black Leather Helmets, remember QB Bob Williams? He was never mentioned in QB discussion but he was an All American and possibly the best clutch QB in ND history before Joe Montana.

Anyhow enjoy the memories. Here are some of the great clips you can check out: