Hunk Anderson

September 22, 1898 – Heartley “Hunk” Anderson was a guard from the University of Notre Dame who played from 1918 to 1921. 

His freshman season in 1918 is significant to Notre Dame football history, as it was the first under the leadership of Knute Rockne, the team’s head coach. Hunk Anderson blocked for George Gipp that season, and Rockne  was heard to say later that Anderson was “the greatest lineman he ever coached.”

After a single loss in his freshman season, Hunk and the Irish did not experience another loss in a football game until his senior season, when the Iowa Hawkeyes upset them. Against Purdue, Hunk blocked not one but two punts and then recovered them both in the endzone! With performances like those, Anderson played well enough that season to earn First-Team All-American honors.

The great collegiate lineman after college turned pro and played with the Chicago Bears for four seasons. He later returned to his Almamater and became the head coach after Rockne’s untimely death in 1931. Hunk Anderson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1974.