:: Notre Dame Football ::
Frank Leahy: Legendary Notre Dame coach also set the bar at Boston College
Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update, Oct. 24, 2009
Notre Dame Alumnus Frank Leahy was the second-winningest coach in college football history, with winning programs at both Notre Dame and Boston College. The Frank Leahy Memorial Bowl once again will be the trophy awarded to the Notre Dame-Boston College winner.
Leahy was second in overall winning percentage only to his own coach, Notre Dame's Knute Rockne. While Leahy was the third-winningest head coach at Notre Dame, with Jesse Harper having a slightly higher winning percentage during his Notre Dame tenure, Leahy's overall winning percentage was boosted further by two highly successful seasons at Boston College.
(Jesse Harper, Rockne's head coach, introduced passing offense to the game of football with the help of end/receiver Rockne and quarterback Gus Dorais, and had a slightly higher winning percentage than Leahy with respect to their tenures at Notre Dame. Previously Harper had coached at Adrian, with success but apparently not with as high a winning percentage as Leahy had at Boston College).
As head coaching at Notre Dame from 1941-43 and 1946-1953 (taking time away to serve in World War II), Leahy was 87-11-9, with six unbeaten seasons, at least five national championships, and four Heisman trophy winners. Adding in the two Boston College years, Leahy was 107-13-9 overall. Leahy had a winning percentage at Notre Dame of .855. Rockne's winning percentage was .881, and Harper's Notre Dame winning percentage was .863.
:: VIDEO: Coach Frank Leahy of Notre Dame (and previously of Boston College)
As a player, Leahy, a native of South Dakota, was a lineman under Rockne, for Rockne's last three seasons.
After graduating, Leahy held stints as an assistant coach, at Georgetown, Michigan State and then-powerhouse Fordham. At Fordham, Leahy coached under Fordham Head Coach and former Notre Dame Four Horseman Jim Crowley. Their line at Fordham, known as The Seven Blocks of Granite, included a young Vince Lombardi.
Back at Notre Dame, after Rockne's tragic death in a plane crash near Bazaar, Kansas, Notre Dame had a few ups and downs, including a losing season in 1933, before settling in with former Four Horseman Elmer Layden as head coach from 1934-1940 . Layden had a fairly successful tenure, including two wins over Ohio State, one of them a Game of the Century win on the road that was one of Notre Dame's greatest comeback victories. But Layden did not win a national championship.
In 1939 and 1940, Leahy was head coach at Boston College, leading them to a 9-2 record that included a loss in the Cotton Bowl and a 11-0 record culminating in a Sugar Bowl victory.
Meanwhile, in the late 1930's, Leahy became head coach at Boston College, where during his two-year tenure in 1939 and 1940 he went 20-2, including a loss in the Cotton Bowl and a Sugar Bowl victory to cap off a perfect 11-0 season in 1940.
When Layden reportedly was offered just a very short contract extension, he left to become Commissioner of the National Football League, and Notre Dame hired Frank Leahy as its new head coach.
As mentioned above, Leahy had six undefeated seasons and won at least four national championships. During one stretch, Leahy did not lose a single game in four years. Leahy's five Heisman winners included the largest player to ever win the Heisman, Leon Hart, a receiving tight-end and defensive end who was roughly 6-5, 260 who could run like a deer and had great receiver's hands.
Leahy's 1947 team is regarded as the best team in the history of college football. And it was roughly in that time frame that, according to at least one source, Notre Dame had at least its entire two-deep, plus additional players from deeper in the depth chart, eventually go on to play in the NFL.
Interestingly, as pointed out by Heisman-winner Johnny Lattner, one of "Leahy's Lads," when he spoke at a Notre Dame pep rally during the Charlie Weis tenure, Leahy went from his stretch of having an unbeatable dynasty to having a season where Notre Dame struggled to reach .500. They bounced back to once again compete for national championships, and are credited by at least once source with at least one national championship in the early 1950's. Lattner shared this experience with the current Irish program when it was facing difficulties, and predicted they too would bounce back and win a national title, just like Leahy's Lads.
Leahy, and many of his players, took a hiatus from campus to serve in World War II. Army beat Notre Dame 56-0, and 59-0 in their absence. When everyone came back after the war, in a highly anticipated rematch featuring multiple Heisman trophy winners, the Irish and the Cadets played to a classic 0-0 tie in the old Yankee Stadium. Notre Dame was awarded the national championship, something Army contests to this day.
Perhaps influenced by his military service, Leahy began using green jerseys at Notre Dame, with the Irish wearing the green more extensively than at any time until the Dan Devine Years.
Keywords: Frank Leahy, Notre Dame Football, Notre Dame, Fighting Irish, Irish Football, College Football, Football, Boston College Football, Elmer Layden, Knute Rockne, Jesse Harper
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