Football History Rewind Part 64

Hitting the rewind button once again to take us back in time to a particular year in football shows us a couple of great stories of the college game in 1929. An injured coach is a continual inspiration to his players, and there was one proud mother in New Haven. These stories and more in a moment.

Our story of the history of football has taken us to the end of the decade, the 1920s. The 1929 season of NCAA football did not have anything substantial in rule revisions, but it had some memorable moments.

On the road full of obstacles

Notre Dame had a disappointing year in 1928, and no one was more bound to correct this than Head Coach Knute Rockne. Rockne was very upset about his team's four losses in the previous season, including two in a row (the only time this ever occurred under Rockne’s watch.)

The march to a national championship would not be easy for Knute and the boys as a couple of glaring obstacles met them before the season’s start. Notre Dame Stadium was under construction during the season, so all games in 1929 were scheduled to be played on the road. A more serious issue was that Rockne developed a blood clot in his leg. The phlebitis was severe enough to restrict the great coach to a wheelchair which kept him from traveling to the road games after the first one against Indiana, a 14-0 win. Rockne would still attend the practices in his wheelchair armed with a bullhorn.

Assistant Coach Tom Lieb led the team in the games as Rockne would call long distance to speak with Lieb and the team before the games. Against his doctor’s orders, Knute went with the team to Pittsburgh in the fourth game of the season against Carnegie Tech, two days after the Stock Market crashed. The Head Coach could not patrol the sidelines, but Lieb did carry him into the locker room at halftime of the scoreless tie to rally the troops. Rockne was endangering his life by doing this, as the clot could loosen if he got excited, but Knute wanted to win games despite the risk. 

His speech on this day went something to the tune of asking the team if they thought he attended the game risking his life to see them lose. Would they let that happen after he suffered so much to be with them? His oratory fired the team enough to pull out a 7-0 win as they scored in the second half.

Rockne also attended the game at Chicago’s Soldier Field, where the Irish defeated U.S.C. 13-12 before a crowd of 112,000 fans. He would have to settle on listening at home to his radio on the final game of the year against Army from Yankee Stadium, though.

The Nation was one month into the Great Depression, but still, the paid attendance of this game in New York City was 79,000. The Irish prevailed in the game 7-0 and locked up the 1929 National Championship with the win in a perfect 9-0-0 season.

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We have yet to discuss the Yale teams much in recent articles due to a decline in their program during the 1920s. However, they certainly would add excitement during the ‘29 season with some of their exploits on the field.

An excellent one-player performance by QB Albie Booth against Army had all of the Yale supporters cheering again. Army was dominant in the first half of this game played at the Yale Bowl. The Cadets breezed out to a 13-0 lead and looked in total control of the contest. That condition soon changed, though, as Army fumbled at their own 32 yard-line late in the half, and Yale recovered. Booth carried the ball repeatedly and scored a touchdown just before the half to make the score 13-7. The Yale crowd was in a frenzy at halftime, and Booth and the guys did not disappoint in the second half as Albie scored another TD and even punched through his second dropkick of the day to put Yale in the lead 14-13.

Booth had the inspiration of his mother attending her very first football game, and he was still invigorated to do more in this contest. His next exploit would go down in history as the legend of “Little Boy Blue.”

Yale held Army on the next series and forced them to punt. Albie was the deep return man for the Blue, and he fielded the kick at his own 35, heading for the sideline. The Army coverage converged on him and appeared ready to knock Albie out of bounds to end the return. Somehow Booth cut back at the last moment and broke through the Cadets into an open field! One last Army defender wrapped his arms around Booth at the 25 yard-line, but Albie spun and broke free once again to score!

When Booth exited the game, he was met with a standing ovation that would go down in history as one of the most incredible roaring cheers in Yale lore. 

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Tales of the Cornhuskers, Pittsburg - Nebraska football program, October 19, 1929