1953 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

The 1953 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1953 college football season. John Lattner won the Heisman Trophy although he did not even lead the Irish in passing, rushing, receiving or scoring.[1] Lattner held the Notre Dame record for all-purpose yards until Vagas Ferguson broke it in 1979.

1953 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
National Champion (Billingsley, Boand, Devold, Dunkel, Helms, Litkenhous, NCF, Poling, Sagarin, Williamson)
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 2
AP	No. 2
1953 record	9–0–1
Head coach	Frank Leahy (11th season)
Captain	Don Penza
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium (c. 59,075, grass)

1953 Midwestern college football independents records
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 2 Notre Dame			–					9	–	0	–	1
Cincinnati			–					9	–	1	–	0
Youngstown			–					7	–	1	–	0
John Carroll			–					7	–	2	–	0
Washington University			–					7	–	2	–	0
Rose Poly			–					6	–	2	–	0
Wabash			–					6	–	2	–	1
Marquette			–					6	–	3	–	1
Baldwin–Wallace			–					4	–	4	–	0
Wayne			–					3	–	4	–	1
Dayton			–					3	–	5	–	1
Xavier			–					2	–	7	–	1
Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance
September 26	at No. 6 Oklahoma	No. 1	Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Norman, Oklahoma	W 28–21	59,500
October 3	at Purdue	No. 1	Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, Indiana (rivalry)	W 37–7	49,135
October 17	No. 15 Pittsburgh	No. 1	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, Indiana (rivalry)	W 23–14	57,998
October 24	No. 4 Georgia Tech	No. 1	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, Indiana	W 27–14	58,254
October 31	No. 20 Navy	No. 1	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, Indiana (rivalry)	W 38–7	58,154
November 7	at Penn	No. 1	Franklin Field Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	W 28–20	74,711
November 14	at North Carolina	No. 1	Kenan Memorial Stadium Chapel Hill, North Carolina	W 34–14	43,000
November 21	No. 20 Iowa	No. 1	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, Indiana	T 14–14	56,478
November 28	at No. 20 USC	No. 2	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, California (Jeweled Shillelagh)	W 48–14	97,952
December 5	SMU	No. 2	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, Indiana	W 40–14	55,522
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Roster

• QB Ralph Gugliemi
• HB Johnny Lattner

Game summaries

Oklahoma

1 2 3 4 Total • Notre Dame 7 7 14 0 28 Oklahoma 7 7 0 7 21 Date: September 26 Location: Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Norman, Oklahoma Game attendance: 59,500 Game weather: Sunny • 94°F

Don Penza blocked and recovered a kick to set up one touchdown and recovered a fumble that led to another Notre Dame score.[2]

Team players drafted into the NFL

The following players were drafted into professional football following the season.

Player	Position	Round	Pick	Franchise

[3]

Awards and honors

• John Lattner, Heisman Trophy

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-06-08. Retrieved 2008-08-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. "Fighting Irish Roar Back to 28-21 Victory." Palm Beach Post. 1953 September 27 Retrieved 7 July 2013.
3. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/1953/draft.htm?redir