Hawkeye Football | Wayback Machine | 1948 Notre Dame at Iowa

Today's look into the Hawkeye past takes us to October 23, 1948. The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame came to Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes in a game the official program called 'Notre Dame-Iowa Magic.'

From the program:

"In mid-July's most unfootball-like weather, the thoughts of thousands of people turned to the 23rd of October.

"They quickly translated their autumn thoughts into action, even if it meant a little extra perspiration.
For they knew that if the did not get those ticket orders in, they would be no closer to the Notre Dame-Iowa game than their own livingrooms in front of the family radio."

"Those orders came flooding in to the Hawkeye athletic department. Everyone, drawn by the magic of the name Notre Dame and the thoughts of the rubber game of the even-break series, wanted to be in
Iowa Stadium."

The Iowa football coaching staff had become the largest the school had ever assembled. It included: Leonard Raffensperger, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Frank Carideo, Robert Fitch, Pat Boland, Jerry Niles, Maury Kent, Francis Cretzmeyer, Charles Forwald, Frank O'Conner, and J.E. Davis.

The 1948 Hawkeyes finished the season with a 4-5 record, 2-4 in the Big Ten. They were led by Jerry Long (end), Harold Bradley (tackle), Jack Dittmer (end), Bob Reynolds (fullback), Bob Phillips (end), John Tedore (fullback), and Al DiMarco (quarterback).

Some interesting roster notes:

• The largest man on the Iowa roster is James Shoaf (left tackle) at 6'4" 215 pounds
• The smallest man on the roster is Al DiMarco at 5'8" 160
• I counted 43 players on the roster from Iowa, 14 from out-of-state
• Almost half of the roster was either 24 or 25 years old, I assume they served in the military 

Iowa's quarterback, Al DiMarco, received his own full page spread in this program. DiMarco was called "the Hawks' great little passer" and several notes about his athletic accomplishments were included. DiMarco led the league in passing touchdowns the year prior with eight. "De Mark" was noted as Iowa's leading offensive player for '47. He was only 5'8" and 160 pounds and came to Iowa after severing 40 months in the Marines.

The 1948 Notre Dame team arrived at Iowa Stadium undefeated (5-0) and ranked #2 in the country. The Hawkeyes were unranked and their record stood at 2-2.

The Irish would defeat Iowa this day 27-12 and go on to finish #2 after a tie to end the season with USC put the Irish at 9-0-1. If I can ever find a box score I'll edit this post with the details.

The Irish were led by quarterback Frank Tripucka, fullback Mike Swistowicz, halfback Emil Sitko, and end Raymond Espanan.