Another Banger -1956 Iowa vs Notre Dame

[JerseyCityHawki]

Some big names on both teams - Kenny Plane(sp)? And Billy Happel, Paul Hornung (sp)?

Iowa was number 3 in the nation at the time and that was a great year for Iowa football - actually a great 2/3 years in a row. I wasn’t even swimming in my dads nuts at the time but I sure would love to travel back in time to
Watch these older games - especially Nile Kinnick!

 

[JerseyCityHawki]

Almost forgot the GRERRRREAT Alex Karras!

 

[isuisshit]

Was this the fainting irish game?

 

[JerseyCityHawki]

Was this the fainting irish game?

No- this was the ass pounding (that doesn’t sound good) Iowa put on the Doomers

 

[Ripcord280]

were't we to play them the last game of the 1963 season & it got cancelled due to a national tragedy? I thought I read somewhere that Notre Dame was not too good that year, so we would have probably had a winning season ( think we were 4-4 or something?)

sorry, but it was a bit before my time.

 

[tdstick]

We are we playing Ploen. Duncan is much more mobile. Offensive coordinator needs to open up the offense more. Too many over thrown passes. 😁😁. Just kidding. That was fun to watch. Especially like the 20 yard QB sneak.

 

[SchwartzUndGold]

The 63 game was the week of the Kennedy Assassination and the entire country was shutdown. It was rescheduled in 1968. It was the last time Iowa played ND. ND was a frequent opponent for Iowa prior to 63. I was 9 years old in 1963 so I have vivid memories of that era. The bleakest period of Iowa football began when the switch was made from limited substitution rules to unlimited substitution and the Big Ten Conference operating under tighter recruiting rules than the remainder of the NCAA.

If you listen to the broadcast a number of players played both offense and defense. If you saw the roster of players with their height and weight you would be surprised how much smaller the players were in comparison to today's players.

The circumstances for players was drastically different. Pro Football was small in comparison to today. Very few college players went on to the pro's. There was just the national football league and the number of teams was half or less than there are today. Some Iowa players on the 56 team went to Canada to play. The salaries for pro's was not very much. The payroll was probably less than a million dollars.

 

[CloydWebb]

Was this the fainting irish game?

No. This was partial payback for "The Fainting Irish Game" in 1953 and was a big nail in Terry Brennan's coaching coffin. Evy wasn't in a mercy mood.

 

[pistachio1999]

were't we to play them the last game of the 1963 season & it got cancelled due to a national tragedy? I thought I read somewhere that Notre Dame was not too good that year, so we would have probably had a winning season ( think we were 4-4 or something?)

sorry, but it was a bit before my time.

Yes. It was cancelled because Kennedy was killed. Have a relative who still has those tickets.

 

[CloydWebb]

The 63 game was the week of the Kennedy Assassination and the entire country was shutdown. It was rescheduled in 1968. It was the last time Iowa played ND. ND was a frequent opponent for Iowa prior to 63. I was 9 years old in 1963 so I have vivid memories of that era. The bleakest period of Iowa football began when the switch was made from limited substitution rules to unlimited substitution and the Big Ten Conference operating under tighter recruiting rules than the remainder of the NCAA.

If you listen to the broadcast a number of players played both offense and defense. If you saw the roster of players with their height and weight you would be surprised how much smaller the players were in comparison to today's players.

The circumstances for players was drastically different. Pro Football was small in comparison to today. Very few college players went on to the pro's. There was just the national football league and the number of teams was half or less than there are today. Some Iowa players on the 56 team went to Canada to play. The salaries for pro's was not very much. The payroll was probably less than a million dollars.

I have a friend who was a starting NFL defensive lineman in the 1950s. Played right next to Chuck Bednarik. He told me he made $800 per game.

Many of the really good black players went immediately to Canada (Willie Fleming and Calvin Jones among them) because they could earn nearly twice as much than they were offered to play in the NFL.

 

[BrewHawk]

Is that Jim Zabel on the call?

 

[destewart]

No. This was partial payback for "The Fainting Irish Game" in 1953 and was a big nail in Terry Brennan's coaching coffin. Evy wasn't in a mercy mood.

Terry Brennan was not the Irish Coach in 1953. It was Leary’s last year and I remember as an 11 year old the announcement being made that Leahy left the field during a game with Georgia Tech. Brennan coached at Notre Dame five seasons , only had one losing season, had a career record of 32-18 and never coached another game even though he was only 30 years old when he was fired. Throw out his bad year and he was 30-10 in four seasons.

 

[CloydWebb]

Terry Brennan was not the Irish Coach in 1953. It was Leary’s last year and I remember as an 11 year old the announcement being made that Leahy left the field during a game with Georgia Tech. Brennan coached at Notre Dame five seasons , only had one losing season, had a career record of 32-18 and never coached another game even though he was only 30 years old when he was fired. Throw out his bad year and he was 30-10 in four seasons.

Right. Brennan wasn't the coach in 1953. He was the coach in 1956 when Evy was still pissed about 1953 and when Evy exhaled for the last time in Petoskey, he was still pissed about 1953.

 

[icsedge1]

Yes, that is Jim Zabel. Likely that the radio call put over the video.

Dave

 

[Hawk68]

I did not see that game but did get to watch that team play 2 or 3 games. Kenny Ploen could throw and run plus play db. I still remember my father arguing that Ploen was twice the QB as Duncan. Ploen played in Canada a long time and is considered one of their all-time greats.

 

[rchawk]

After the game was canceled the Notre Dame team went to a mass at St. Thomas More in Iowa City to pray for the slain president. Iowa players and coaches were there as well.