In the matter of the most faultless execution of a play under adverse conditions, football probably reached its highest peak of attainment at Soldiers' Field in Chicago late in the afternoon of Saturday, November 29, 1930. A great Army team was meeting a great Notre Dame team, and one of the greatest crowds that has ever witnessed a football game sat through a driving rainstorm and risked pneumonia in a cold wind to see it — and in the end they saw one of the most thrilling finishes ever staged on any football field.

A football coach may spend days and weeks drilling his players in the way each must function in the perfect execution of a play, but any time each player involved functions to perfection in the heat of a game, where the activities of the opposing team have to be swept aside, the coach is lucky.

He is lucky even when the play is made to click on a dry field — but here was a case where a perfectly planned play that demanded swift and perfect execution on the part of eight players operated without a slip in any detail on a field that had been transformed into a quagmire by the pelting rain.

That was the greatest of all Notre Dame teams, coached by one of the greatest of football coaches, the late Knute Rockne — but that rainy day on Soldiers' Field it met one of the greatest of all Army teams.

In the Notre Dame backfield were Marchmont Schwartz and Frank Carideo, both of whom were unanimous All-America selections that year, and Marty Brill, also an All-America selection.

At the ends they had Conley and O'Brien, the former an All-America selection; and at one of the guard positions was Metzger, a 150-pound guard who was unanimously selected for the All-America in spite of his lack of weight.

The first part of that game was uneventful, a drab and forlorn affair, with the attack of both teams bogged down in the mud. Then, five minutes before the end of the game, when neither side had scored, this game in the mud produced the most perfect play.

Notre Dame had the ball on her own forty-six-yard line when Carideo called the signal for Schwartz to take the ball on an off-tackle play. As Schwartz swung into action over the slippery turf, Brill spun out and blocked out the Army end. Conley, Notre Dame right end, swung in and blocked the Army left tackle in, with the aid of Mullins, Notre Dame fullback. As Schwartz started wide and then cut back inside of end, with the Army end and tackle blocked and the Notre Dame center and right tackle blocking out the Army center and left guard, he found Carideo and Metzger leading him. This great pair of blockers went through and took out the Army close secondary defense, leaving only Carver, the Army "safety man," on guard. Then O'Brien, Notre Dame left end, swung down the field from the other side and took out Carver. All Schwartz had to do was to keep his feet in the mud and run — and he raced more than half the length of the field for a touchdown without a single hostile hand even touching him.

Here was a play that called for perfect execution on the part of eight men — and not one of them slipped up on his assignment. Schwartz was given the right of way by as fine a development of team play as any football field has ever seen.

A second startling development to thrill that water-soaked crowd of 100,000 came swiftly on the heels of this one just a few plays later.

After the Army kick-off Notre Dame was forced deep into her own territory. Carideo had to drop back to his own fifteen-yard line to kick. As he got the ball, King, the Army end, sifted through and was upon him. King blocked the kick and the ball bounded over the Notre Dame goal line with King after it. As he got near the ball he saw Trice, one of the Army forwards, at his side. A Notre Dame player was only two steps away. Instead of diving for the ball, King turned and cut down the Notre Dame player, giving Trice a free shot, and Trice fell on the ball for a touchdown.

If they kicked goal it would tie the score. But Broshaus, who essayed the kick, never had a chance. As soon as the ball was passed the whole Notre Dame team swarmed through and blocked the kick. The game ended a minute later, Notre Dame winning by a single-point margin.

It was the only defeat that great Army team had suffered that year — and it took the greatest of all Notre Dame teams and the one chance in a thousand for eight players to function perfectly in a difficult assignment on a single play to do it.

That, in my opinion, represents the high peak of football attainment.

Publication Date: January 13, 1934