From "Out of Bounds"


Line coach Moose Krause, left, watched head coach Frank Leahy diagram some formations on the blackboard in his office.

The Jack Dempsey - Jess Willard title fight held on July 4, 1919 in Toledo, Ohio, was the first major sporting event I ever attended. It was an experience that has been indelibly impressed on my mind since that memorable day.

I was six years old at the time and I remember the event primarily for two reasons: This was my first train trip and I recall Dempsey, a little guy at 195, defeating a mammoth Jess Willard.

It was because of a little player that I received my nickname "Moose" while playing football as a sophomore at De LaSalle High School in Chicago. My coach and close friend, Judge Norman Barry, a teammate of the Gipper's - seeing the trouble I was having blocking the little guy - yelled at me, "You're big enough to be a Moose and you can't even block a little guy."

I was the first player to have that nickname and it's followed me throughout my career. There have been others - Moose Fischer and Moose Connor who later made All-Americans at Notre Dame, but I have the "honor" of being number one.

There was one game in particular during my playing days at Notre Dame that stands out in my memory. This was the Army game in 1933. The Cadets were favored by about thirty points. The Irish played their hearts out and we won 13-12. That day I managed to deflect, not block cleanly, about eight punts. These deflections so shook up the Army that they changed formations and started putting two players in their backfield on punt formations. Their job was to block our great end, Wayne Millner, and me.

Late in the game we were behind by a touchdown and Army went into punt formation. Wayne and I set up a play. At the snap I ran in, jumped over the first back, grabbed the second and all three of us went down in a heap. Millner blocked the punt with his knees - he had so much time to get in. The ball bounced into the end zone where Jim Harris and I fell on it. We were both holding the ball but the officials gave the touchdown to Harris. I never scored a point in my college career but I always maintained that three of those six points should have been credited to me.

There were some memorable occasions when I returned to Notre Dame as a coach. I handled the team a few times when Frank Leahy was ill, once at USC in 1946. I gave the team a rousing pep talk before the game and I topped it off by pointing at the door and shouting, "Now get out there and beat 'em!" The team was on its way out of the dressing room when Johnny Lujack came up to me and told me I'd forgotten to name a starting line-up. "Everybody starts!" I shouted. I was the most excited person in that dressing room. Somehow we got eleven people on the field, and we absolutely clobbered the Trojans, 26-6. That victory clinched a National Championship for us.

Being at the University of Notre Dame all these years has been a singular honor for me. I have had the privilege of being associated with three men whom I consider legends - Rockne, Leahy, and Parseghian. In a word, I have found my career at the school of Our Lady to be extremely rewarding and replete with fine memories.

Many of those memories are included in Out of Bounds. I'm very impressed with this book. I'm sure every football fan will find it informative and interesting.

Back to Irish Reveries