September 12, 2007
The Game That Changed Football Forever: An Interview with Frank Maggio Posted by Allen Barra at 02:15 PM EST In today’s football, the pass rules. But there was a time when the game was largely, in Damon Runyon’s phrase, “three yards and a cloud of dust.” In the early 1900s the game became so dangerous that President Theodore Roosevelt considered banning it. Football was saved by the forward pass, putting an emphasis on speed and skill and spread the action out. It took years, though, for the pass to win acceptance among the nation’s college football coaches. In Notre Dame and the Game That Changed Football: How Jesse Harper Made the Forward Pass a Weapon and Knute Rockne a Legend, Frank Maggio tells the story of the 1913 Army–Notre Dame game, after which nothing in football would ever be the same. I discussed it with him recently. The title of your book claims that the 1913 Notre Dame–Army game actually changed the course of the game of football. That’s a mouthful, but I have to say that you justify the claim. Can you give us a brief summation of why the game is such a landmark? The game was the first time the forward pass was used in such an extensive, dramatic, and successful fashion. It was extensive in its sheer quantity and quality. Gus Dorais completed 14 of 17 passes for 243 yards, unheard of statistics for that day and age and pretty good in today’s game. Notre Dame would like to have such passing success in their games this season. It was dramatic because it was the first time that long passes—20, 30, and 40 yards—had been thrown to receivers who caught them while on a dead run. In the past, passes were thrown to stationary receivers, and until 1912 a pass could not be thrown farther than 20 yards from the spot where the quarterback was standing. It was successful because it led Notre Dame to victory and immediate national recognition—as well as awakening the football world of the possibilities of the forward pass. What was the status of the forward pass prior to that game? The forward pass in its nascent form had been incorporated into the rules of football in 1906, and coaches, especially in the Midwest and South, were quick to see its potential. Its use, however, was limited, so it didn’t become a major weapon until 1912, when the restrictions were lifted. The Notre Dame–Army game of 1913 was not the first use of the forward pass, but it was the first extensive use of the pass after the rule changes. Also, it was the first effective use in a major game between well-known schools and in a major media center, New York. Because of those two factors the game received maximum publicity, and as one writer said, it “demonstrated the devastating potential of the forward pass.” So, though this type of passing might have been used earlier than November 1, 1913, it went unnoticed. The importance of the major media center cannot be overstated. The game received national publicity, and was immediately hailed by the press as a “landmark” game. What were the national reputations the Notre Dame and Army football teams at the time of the game? In 1913 the major powers in college football were in the East. Army was well recognized as one of those major powers. Others in that day, by way of example, were Harvard, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. Army’s 1913 loss to Notre Dame was their only loss in 1913. In 1914 Army was undefeated and declared national champions. Notre Dame, on the other hand, was virtually unknown in the East, or really anywhere else, with the exception of the Midwest. They were at that time a small, financially poor Catholic men’s school. 1913 was the first year Notre Dame had a professional football coach, Jesse Harper, and the first time they ventured out on the national stage. In 1913 Notre Dame went East and played Army and Penn State and went Southwest and played the University of Texas It was the first time a college team had attempted such a national schedule. And Notre Dame was undefeated in 1913. At what point did Jesse Harper and Notre Dame decide to make the forward pass their primary offensive weapon? Had they used it much before the Army game? Why did it catch Army so off-guard? Jesse Harper was very familiar with the forward pass prior to coming to Notre Dame. He had worked with it from the time it came into the rules in 1906 and used it extensively in his last two years at Wabash College, almost beating Notre Dame with the forward pass in 1911. However, in that game a successful touchdown pass by Wabash was nullified because it was thrown more than 20 yards. When Harper arrived at Notre Dame in 1913, the numerous restrictions on the forward pass had been lifted, and the football had been changed from its original oval-like shape to a more aerodynamic “prolate spheroid.” Both of these factors greatly facilitated the use of the forward pass. Harper’s 1913 Notre Dame team immediately began using it. The summer before the 1913 season, Harper had Gus Dorias, his quarterback, and Knute Rockne, his receiver, working with the pass during their summer jobs on Lake Erie. In the practice sessions, Notre Dame worked extensively with the pass and had great success in their first three games of the 1913 season. Army was the fourth game on their schedule. Army was familiar with the forward pass. In fact, their coach, Charles Daly, had been on the 1906 committee that brought the pass into the rules of football. However, the Eastern schools had virtually ignored it, and there was little or no scouting in those days, so Army had no idea that Notre Dame knew how to throw and catch the pass. Thus Army, prepared for a titanic struggle on the offensive and defensive line with the fighting Irish runners, was completely thrown off their game. Everyone knows that Knute Rockne went on to become the most innovative coach in football history and that he died in a plane crash in 1931. What became of the other famous participants in that 1913 game? As for Army, the men playing in the 1913 game were known in West Point lore as the class “the stars fell on,” because so many of them went on to be multistar generals in World War II. The two most famous were sitting on the bench during the 1913 game, namely Dwight Eisenhower and his roommate, Omar Bradley. Both were five-star generals at the end of World War II, and Ike, of course, went on to become President of the United States.
Of the Notre Dame players, Harper, whose later years are reviewed in my book, became a cattle rancher in Kansas. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1970. Rockne, of course, went on to become one of the greatest legends in the history of college football. His story is well known. Gus Dorais, the outstanding quarterback of the 1913 team, played some professional football but mostly distinguished himself as a coach. He coached college football for almost 20 years and was the head coach of the Detroit Lions from 1943 to 1947. He also was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach. Ray Eichenlaub, the powerful and very important fullback on the 1913 team, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1972. The rest of the team I have been unable to trace, so, to my dismay, there the story ends.
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