USD Football 1993

TOUCHDOWN ILLUSTRATED

"V" forVictorv

quently killed during the invasion of Okinawa. Later on, the dispersal of Minnesota players was done on an alphabetical basis: Those with initials from A-J were sent to Northwestern and those from K-Z to Notre Dame. Sometimes, though, things got a bit hectic, because the Navy had complete control of its "V" candidates and moved them regardless of the time of year, as happened to Bertelli. November l was the universal fall

In 1943, Notre Dame, aligned with the Navy program, lost quarter- back and eventua l Heisman Trophy win- ner Angelo Bertelli in midseaso n when he joined a Marine outfit, but had enough man- power from its V-12 to win the national cham- pionship, losing only to Great Lakes Nava l Training Center in the final seconds of the

graduation date, so many schools scheduled as many games as possible ear ly in the season to alle- viate player losses. North Carolina's Tar Heels lost 32 players on

171c analogy offootball and JJ1ar is becoming more and more appar- ent each day. The bene- fits oftraining in football are helping American soldie1·s, sailors and mm·ines in their wartime duties. -Admit-al Tom Hamilton

T1110 other notable coaching gradttatcs ofthe "V" progmw: Bud Wilkinson and Jim Tat1t1/l.

November l , l 943, but "had a bench so long you couldn't see the end," and still won three of its last four games. Wayne Johnson Jr. lettered at Harvard in '42, and then at Yale as a Marine trainee in '43, while Vic Kulbitski played for Minn esota's national champions in '4 1 and for Notre Dame's national champs in '43. Quarterback Sam Vacanti played quarterback for Iowa in '42, for Purdue in '43 and for Nebraska in '46; and tackle Bob Hanzlik started for Wisconsin in '42, for Michigan in '43 and at Minnesota in '45. In the end, thanks to those "V" pro- grams, college football survived the war and played perhaps its greatest role ever-it helped to train tens of thousands of brave men to win the biggest "game" of their lives. •••

Agricultural School (now Texas-Arlington) went from junior college status to Division I with players from SMU and Texas Christian. In l942, Southwestern Uni- versity of Texas produced an All-America guard, Haro ld Fisher. Co lorado College joined the V-12 program and attracted many good playe rs from Rocky Mountain area schools, and with its No. 18 national ranki ng, earned bids from the Sun, Grape and Raisin Bowls. In 1943, Amos Alonzo Stagg, then 81 years old, found his career rejuve- nated at College of the Pacific when that school's V-12 program attracted the entire 1942 starting backfie ld from St. Mary's Galloping Gaels and several players from Santa Clara to forge a 7-2 record and a No. 19 rank- ing. Stagg was chosen Coach of the Year.

final game.

Bill Daley was Minnesota's star running back in 1942, and he played the same role for Fritz Crisler's third-ranked Michigan Wolverines of 1943. Daley was joined at Michigan by three starters from Wisconsin's 8- 1-1 1942 team, including Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. Two 1942 All- America players at Illinois, guard Alex Agase and running back Tony Butkovich, played for fifth -ranked Purdue in 1943, and then made All- America for the Boil ermakers. Butkovich, a Marine, was subse-

Jack Clary is a regular contributor to Touchdown Illustrated and author ofsome three dozen books on sports.