1913 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

Last updated

1913 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Notre Dame football team, 1913.JPG
ConferenceIndependent
Record7–0
Head coach
Offensive scheme Single-wing
Captain Knute Rockne
Home stadium Cartier Field
Seasons
  1912
1914  
1913 Midwestern college football independents records
Conf.Overall
TeamW L TW L T
Michigan Agricultural   7 0 0
Notre Dame   7 0 0
Western State Normal (MI)   4 0 0
Haskell   10 1 0
Michigan   6 1 0
Lake Forest   5 1 1
Doane   5 1 2
St. Mary's (OH)   4 1 1
Christian Brothers (MO)   6 2 1
Wabash   5 2 0
Detroit   5 3 1
Heidelberg   4 3 0
Marquette   4 3 1
Mount Union   4 3 2
Saint Louis   5 4 1
Lincoln (MO)   1 1 0
South Dakota   3 3 0
Northern Illinois State   3 3 3
Akron   3 4 0
Iowa State Teachers   2 3 1
Ohio Northern   4 6 1
Butler   2 4 1
Michigan State Normal   2 3 1
North Dakota Agricultural   0 2 2

The 1913 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1913 college football season.

Contents

Jesse Harper became head coach in 1913 and remained so until he retired in 1917. During his tenure the Irish began playing only intercollegiate games and posted a record of 34 wins, five losses, and one tie. This period also marked the beginning of the rivalry with Army and the continuation of rivalries with Michigan State. In an effort to gain respect for a regionally successful but small-time Midwestern football program, Harper scheduled games in his first season with national powerhouses Texas, Penn State, and Army.

Schedule

DateTimeOpponentSiteResultSource
October 43:30 p.m. Ohio Northern W 87–0 [1] [2]
October 18 South Dakota
  • Cartier Field
  • Notre Dame, IN
W 20–7
October 253:30 p.m. Alma
  • Cartier Field
  • Notre Dame, IN
W 62–0 [3] [4]
November 1at Army W 35–13 [5] [6]
November 7at Penn State W 14–7
November 22at Christian Brothers (MO) W 20–7 [7]
November 27at Texas W 30–7 [8]

[9]

Game summaries

Week 4: at Army

Notre Dame burst into the national consciousness and helped to transform the collegiate game in a single contest. On November 1, the Notre Dame squad stunned Army, 35–13, on The Plain at West Point. [5] [6] Led by quarterback Gus Dorais and future head coach Knute Rockne at end, Notre Dame attacked the Cadets with an offense that featured both the expected powerful running game but also long and accurate downfield forward passes from Dorais to Rockne.

This game has often been miscredited as the invention of the forward pass. Prior to this contest, receivers would come to a full stop and wait on the ball to come to them, but in this contest, Dorais threw to Rockne in stride, changing the forward pass from a seldom-used play into the dominant ball-moving strategy that it is today.

References

  1. "Football Season Opens Here Today—Notre Dame and Ohio Northern the Curtain Raiser—Local Team is Getting Down to Form Through Hard Work". South Bend News-Times . South Bend, Indiana. October 4, 1913. p. 6. Retrieved March 16, 2025 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  2. "Notre Dame Squad Wins Initial Game". South Bend Tribune . South Bend, Indiana. October 6, 1913. p. 10. Retrieved March 16, 2025 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  3. "Varsity Is Given Scare By Scrubs". South Bend News-Times . South Bend, Indiana. October 25, 1913. p. 6. Retrieved February 10, 2024 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  4. "Harper's Warriors Defeat Alma Squad". South Bend News-Times . South Bend, Indiana. October 27, 1913. p. 10. Retrieved February 10, 2024 via Newspapers.com Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg .
  5. 1 2 "Army outclassed by Notre Dame". Milwaukee Sentinel. November 2, 1913. p. 1, sports.
  6. 1 2 "Notre Dame swamps Army". Pittsburgh Press. November 2, 1913. p. 4, sports.
  7. "Notre Dame Men Hard Pressed to Beat C.B.C., 20-7: College Eleven, First to Score, Is Beaten in Last Period by Giant Eichenlaub and Dorais". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. November 28, 1913. p. 18 via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Notre Dame team beats Texas, 29–7". The Chicago Daily Tribune. November 28, 1913. Retrieved April 23, 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  9. "1913 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule and Results".