Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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So when it was time for Notre Dame to play Army, Harper was back in his element. The game against the powerful Cadets — whose backups included a sophomore who was a future World War II commander of the Allied Forces and U.S. President, Dwight David Eisenhower — was like his Wabash team trying to upset Notre Dame. Reports vary, but it is generally agreed that the 5-7, 145-pound Dorais completed 14 of 17 passes for 243 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in the mind-boggling 35-13 upset pulled by Notre Dame. Wrote the New York Times: "The yellow leather egg was in the air half the time, with the Notre Dame team spread out in all directions over the field waiting for it. The Army players were hopelessly confused and chagrined before Notre Dame's great playing, and [Army's] style of old-fashioned, close line-smashing was no match for the spectacular and highly perfected attack of the Indiana collegians." Notre Dame's receivers caught their passes on the run while Dorais "tossed the football on a straight line for 30 yards time and time again," according to the Times. The standard defense in 1913 was a sevenman line, but there was no such thing as a pass rush. To counter the aerial onslaught, the Cadets dropped their guard back — but then Notre Dame fullback Ray Eichenlaub, a 6-0, 210-pound fullback and the largest man on the team, smashed through the depleted defense. Notre Dame struck first early on a 25yard scoring pass from Dorais to Rockne. Contrary to popular belief, Army hardly folded. It went ahead 13-7 before halfback Joe Pliska's five-yard run and Dorais' point after try made it 14-13 at the half. In the second half, the combination of run and pass befuddled Army, with Eichenlaub scoring twice and Pliska catching a five-yard scoring toss from Dorais. "We had thrown only a couple of passes," Harper said years later of the first half. "I told Gus to start throwing and keep throwing. We figured it was the best chance we had. … He went out in the second half and completed 13 straight passes [unconfirmed], most of them to Rockne. Army had its usual great team, but the passes demoralized them completely. By the time it ended, we could do anything we pleased, running or passing." During the turn of the millennium in 2000, ESPN featured a countdown of the "Greatest Coaching Decisions of the 20th Century." Harper's strategy of using the forward pass at Army in 1913 ranked No. 6 in any sport — and No. 1 in college football. The Greatest Month By Saturday evening of their watershed victory, the Notre Dame players were headed by train to Buffalo, N.Y., and they spent Sunday at Niagara Falls and didn't return back to campus until Monday. Once there, they returned to classes and had only two days of practice before having to travel 520 railroad miles to State College, Pa., to play the Penn State Nittany Lions, another first-time foe that had been 17-0-1 the previous two years and crushed first-year Western Conference member Ohio State 38-0 on the road in 1912. • Avoiding a letdown, Notre Dame squeezed out a 14-7 victory against Penn State. The first "Catholics" score came on an 80-yard, three-play drive that saw Dorais hit Pliska for a 40-yard gain, Dorais running around end for 35 yards and then "We had thrown only a couple of passes. I told [quarterback] Gus [Dorais] to start throwing and keep throwing. We figured it was the best chance we had. … He went out in the second half and completed 13 straight passes [unconfirmed], most of them to Rockne. Army had its usual great team, but the passes demoralized them completely. By the time it ended, we could do anything we pleased, running or passing." Head coach Jesse Harper (1913-17) on Notre Dame's unheard of strategy, at the time, to throw the ball against Army Rockne catching a five-yard pass from Dorais. Eichenlaub gave Notre Dame a twotouchdown lead in the third quarter before Penn State made it close at the end. • At St. Louis, a 400-mile trip by rails, Harper chose to rest his starters early against Christian Brothers, which hadn't been beaten in two years. Intense rain made the field a quagmire, and Christian Brothers scored on 25-yard fumble return to take a 7-0-halftime lead. Notre Dame tied the game in the third quarter on an Eichenlaub run, and then in the fourth quarter Dorais returned a punt for a 60-yard score and added a 25-yard scoring jaunt in the 20-7 victory. • Another 840 railroad miles later, Notre Dame arrived in Austin to face a Texas team that was on a 12-game winning streak. Harper's crew led only 10-7 at halftime and 13-7 after three quarters before prevailing 29-7. Dorais scored twice on fiveand 15-yard runs and converted three of his seven field goals attempted. It took 58 years until another Notre Dame kicker (Bob Thomas) would make three field goals in a game. It also would be Texas' lone loss over a 24-game span. Thus concluded the amazing 7-0 season in which Notre Dame spent more than a week in railroad cars while covering more than 5,200 miles during the month of November. Prior to this season, the longest previous road trip had been 415 miles to Pittsburgh. The Notre Dame football team also achieved another milestone when for the first time it netted a profit — $1,364 — at the conclusion of the 1913-14 academic year. The school nickname "Catholics" would soon become known to sports journalists as "The Ramblers" during the Rockne era because of the many travels across the country. But the tradition originated in 1913 under Harper. The Second Time Around With his work done at Notre Dame, World War I in force and somewhat leery that expectations to win all the time had intensified, Harper moved back to Kansas in 1918 to tend to cattle and oil fields — and with the peace of mind that the Notre Dame program was in good hands with his prize pupil and 1914-17 assistant Rockne. However, after Rockne's death in a plane crash on March 31, 1931 — within 100 miles of Harper's ranch in Kansas — Notre Dame reached out again to Harper to run the athletics department. In the midst of The Great Depression, Harper had to make some difficult cutbacks to the recruiting budget and scholarships while at Note Dame for his second term from 1931-34, ultimately leading to the ouster of Rockne's successor, Hunk Anderson, after a 3-5-1 season in 1933. Somewhat under the radar was how Harper persuaded the school to enforce its rule that a 77 average was required before a student could take part in athletics. Back in 1988, the late South Bend Tribune sports editor Joe Doyle wrote in a feature for Blue & Gold Illustrated: "Harper was more than willing to return to the Kansas prairie in the still-Depression locked year of 1934. But the football house was in good order again because Harper insisted that only integrity, honesty and sound business practices would keep the 'tail from wagging the football dog.' "And Harper felt that under Elmer Layden, Notre Dame football was in good hands." The efforts and philosophies of Harper — inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1971 — remain everlasting at Notre Dame 100 years after his arrival. ✦ Blue & Gold Illustrated 2013 Football Preview ✦ 143 140-143.100th Anniversary ND vs Army.indd 143 6/25/13 9:32 AM