William Kirk Mohn (April 22, 1899 – 1952) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player for the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

. He was born in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

. In

Knute Rockne Knut (Norwegian and Swedish), Knud (Danish), or Knútur (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used whi ...

's first year as the head football coach at Notre Dame in 1918, Mohn was the

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for a very thin squad that had been decimated due to the military enrollment for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The team went 3-1-2 in a shortened season that was declared "unofficial" by the university. Among Mohn's career highlights were scoring the lone touchdown for the Irish in a 7-7 tie against Great Lakes Navy and a 73-yard punt return for a touchdown in a 26-6 win at

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

References

* Schoor, Gene. ''100 Years of Notre Dame Football.'' New York: Morrow and Co. (1987). p. 56-58 * Steele, Michael R. ''The Fighting Irish Football Encyclopedia.'' Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing LLC (2002). p. 42 American football quarterbacks Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players 1899 births 1952 deaths {{quarterback-stub