Film Room: 1928 Notre Dame-Army "Win One For The Gipper" Game
YouTube provides easy access to old game films that give a sense of what football looked like in the old days. In previous efforts, we reviewed the two oldest known game films.
Since Notre Dame will appear in the National Championship game on Monday, it seemed like this would be a good time to look at moving pictures of the 1928 Notre Dame-Army game, which required a halftime "Win One For The Gipper" speech by Rockne to give the Irish the victory.
Notre Dame entered its 1928 game with Army at 4-2, having lost to Wisconsin and Georgia Tech. Thus, it was not one of Rockne's finest teams. They faced a 6-0 Army team touted as a national championship contender despite playing a weak schedule that included wins over DePauw and Carleton.
The November 10 game saw 78,188 fans crowd into Yankee Stadium, with the military set hoping for a repeat of the 1927 game in which Army gave the Irish their only loss of the season in an 18-0 victory in the Bronx. Notre Dame fans hoped to return the favor that day.
The following provides timestamps with commentary about the game and the nature of football in 1928, emphasizing elements that differ from today. It may be easiest to split your screen and open the article in one window and the YouTube video in another.
The video is choppy and sometimes shows the Army Corps of Cadets marching. It's also black and white, so the teams can sometimes be difficult to distinguish. Notre Dame is on offense much of the time, plus Army's horizontal jersey stripes are apparent at times, while the numbers on the backs of the Notre Dame jerseys are brighter than Army's.
Among the Notre Dame players and numbers to note are:
12 – John Cevigny
18 – John Niemiec
24 – Frank Carideo
26 – Frank Leahy (future ND coach)
44 - Fred Miller (scion and future president of Miller Brewing; All-American tackle)
0:11 Notre Dame is on offense in their Notre Dame Box or Shift, but have the right end and wing spread out. Army's defense often aligns with only one or two players with the hand on the ground. Despite both teams using a lot of misdirection, they run inside the ends most of the time.
0:26 Army is on offense and picks up 18 or so on the first play.
0:51 Army running a sideline play. Note how the tailback drops back to pass and is pinned along the sideline, making scrambling challenging.
0:58 Army runs a QB Sneak, though he does not have his hands under center, as was the norm until the 1940s.
1:21 Army is still on offense. As is the case throughout the game, the pass blocking is quite poor. Since blockers cannot use their hands, the passer comes under pressure quickly.
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