Notre Dame Golden Moments

Dan Healy

Notre Dame Golden Moments
20 Memorable Events That Shaped Notre Dame Football
by John Walters
Rutledge Hill Press (2004)
ISBN 1-59186-042-3

As the son of a member of the West Point class of 1924 I think it is most appropriate that the most golden moments (4) were Army vs Notre Dame. Days after the 1946 scoreless tie, watching the news reel of the game in a movie theatre, we still thought Blanchard was going to score.

The names Blanchard, Davis, Tucker, and McWilliams still go through my mind as the Army backfield. McWilliams wasn't mentioned in the book. Also not named in the story of the '46 game was the Army center.

While we were in school, the University of Houston was trying to get into the Southwest Conference. Gil Burdick, he ran the swimming pool in the Rock, claimed they would never let U of H into the SWC, the U of H would dominate it. He was wrong, they let the U of H in. He was right, U of H dominated the SWC.

Fast forward to the 1978 Cotton (Ice) Bowl. Many of the fair weather fans who left the game early listened to the final quarters stuck on frozen I45 South out of Dallas. As I remember, the Army center in the '46 Army/ND game was Bill Yoeman, the coach of the 1978 U of H Cotton Bowl team. Bill Yoeman's teams did dominate the SWC.

The major omission in the book was the "Here comes Shannon" Notre Dame/Oklahoma game of 1952. Maybe a whole book should be written on that game.