Johnny Lujack was ‘king of the hill’ at Notre Dame

Johnny Lujack’s senior season as quarterback of the Notre Dame football team in 1947 was spectacular. He easily won the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s top collegiate player…while leading his team to a 9-0 record.

Notre Dame Coach Frank Leahy and Johnny Lujack

Notre Dame quarterback Johnny Lujack, left, receives the Heisman Trophy from Wilbur Jurden, president of the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, on Dec. 10, 1947.  

However, “the argument” about who had the best team in the land in 1947 wasn’t settled on the playing field. In fact, it still hasn’t been settled…in the minds of many football fans. (This was the second year in a row that controversy surrounded the final Associated Press rankings.)

Also in the conversation in 1947 was the Michigan Wolverines, a team that went 10-0.

 After the last regular season game, the Associated Press sportswriters out of the blue voted to “leapfrog” Notre Dame over Michigan as the top-ranked team.

Michigan still had one game remaining…a Rose Bowl contest with Southern California. Notre Dame’s season was over.

(The late Lou Somogyi, a football writer at Notre Dame, said his university’s policy from 1925-68 was “not to go to bowl games, primarily because they were nothing more than glorified exhibitions.”)

Entering the Rose Bowl game, Southern Cal was ranked No. 3 with a 7-1-1 record, after a loss to Notre Dame (38-7) and an early season tie with Rice (7-7).

In the Rose Bowl game, Michigan steamrolled Southern Cal (49-0), but the national title went to Notre Dame.

Michigan was robbed, commented Grantland Rice, the dean of the nation’s sports writers (shown below). He lauded Michigan, saying, “It is the best all-around college football team I’ve seen….”

 

Detroit Free Press Sports Editor Lyall Smith argued the debate (about who’s No. 1) should be answered by comparing the performance of Notre Dame and Michigan against three common opponents.

Smith said: “Notre Dame beat Pitt, 40-6, a margin of 34 points; Michigan beat Pitt 59-0. Notre Dame defeated Northwestern, 26-19, a margin of seven points; Michigan beat the Wildcats 49 to 21, a 28-point advantage. Notre Dame dropped Southern Cal, 36-7, in what Coach Frank Leahy termed his team’s ‘greatest game of the year,’ while Michigan slaughtered the same Trojans, 49-0.”

“Against those three common opponents, the Irish scored 104 points to 32. Michigan’s margin was 167 to 21.”

The AP took a lot of heat. It sent out “an unofficial post-bowl ballot to poll sports editors of its member newspapers throughout the country: ‘Which is the better football team – Michigan or Notre Dame?’”

Michigan was voted No. 1 in the post-bowl poll by a vote of 226 to 119. The AP reported: “The nation’s sports writers gave the final answer to the raging controversy on the relative strength of the Notre Dame and Michigan football teams, and it was the Wolverines over the Irish by almost two to one.”

In the hearts of the Notre Dame faithful, Johnny Lujack was the best quarterback in school history.

Even though his collegiate career was interrupted by service with the Navy in 1944-45 during World War II, he guided Notre Dame football to three national titles in the wrap-around years of 1943 and 1946-47.

At Notre Dame, Lujack earned varsity letters in four sports – football, basketball, baseball and track and field – as a freshman. No one else has accomplished that feat in Notre Dame history.

Drafted by the Chicago Bears (fourth overall pick in the 1948 National Football League draft), Lujack played four years as a professional. He posted stellar numbers on both sides of the ball, leading the team in scoring and in interceptions. Lujack was selected to the NFL Pro Bowl twice.