The 1919 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team 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 wi ...

team that represented 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 c ...

as an independent during the

1919 college football season The 1919 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the ''Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book'' listing Centre, Harvard, Illinois, Notre Dame, and Texas A&M as having been deemed national champions by major selectors Onl ...

. The team compiled a perfect 9–0 record and outscored opponents by a total of 229 to 47.

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 ...

was in his second year as the team's head coach.

Gus Dorais Charles Emile "Gus" Dorais (July 2, 1891 – January 3, 1954) was an American football player, coach, and athletic administrator. Dorais played college football at the University of Notre Dame, where he was an All-American in 1913 at quarterback ...

was the assistant coach. There was no contemporaneous system in 1919 for determining a national champion. However, Notre Dame was retroactively named as the co-national champion for 1919 by the National Championship Foundation and

Parke H. Davis Parke Hill Davis (July 15, 1871 – June 5, 1934)"PARKE H. DAVIS BURIED.; Many Prominent Men at Funeral of Football Authority", special to ''The New York Times'', June 9, 1934 was an American football player, coach, and historian. Shortly befo ...

. Other selectors chose

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

, and/or

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

as the 1919 national champion or co-champion. Five persons affiliated with the 1919 Notre Dame team were inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vo ...

: coach Rockne (inducted 1951); end

George Gipp George Gipp (February 18, 1895 – December 14, 1920), nicknamed "The Gipper", was a college football player at the University of Notre Dame under head coach Knute Rockne. Gipp was selected as Notre Dame's first Walter Camp All-American, and ...

(inducted 1951); assistant coach Dorais (inducted 1954); end Eddie Anderson (inducted 1971); and guard Hunk Anderson (inducted 1974). In addition, tackle

George Trafton George Edward Trafton (December 6, 1896 – September 5, 1971) was an American professional football player and coach, boxer, boxing manager, and gymnasium proprietor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964 and was also selec ...

was inducted in 1964 into the

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...

. Quarterback

Leonard Bahan Leonard Finlan "Pete" Bahan (February 18, 1898 – May 1, 1977) was an American football player. Bahan played quarterback for Somerset High School in Somerset, Kentucky, and later was the team captain for both the football team and the basketb ...

was the team captain. Other notable players from the 1919 Notre Dame team included

Bernard Kirk Bernard C. Kirk (May 8, 1900 – December 23, 1922) was an American football player who played for Notre Dame in 1919 and for Michigan from 1921 to 1922. He was selected as an All-American at the end position in both 1921 and 1922. In December ...

Cy DeGree Walter Bernard "Cy" DeGree (July 8, 1898 – August 11, 1964), sometimes spelled "Degree" and "De Gree", was an American football player who played college football for Notre Dame and professional football for the Detroit Tigers. Degree was ...

, and

John Mohardt John Henry Mohardt (January 21, 1898 – November 24, 1961) was an American football and baseball player and medical doctor. Mohardt attended the University of Notre Dame from 1918 through 1921 where he played football under Knute Rockne and al ...

. The team played its home games at

Cartier Field Cartier Field was a stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana, first dedicated on May 11, 1900 as an arena for football, baseball, track and field, and bicycling. It hosted the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team from 1900 to 1928, and held ...

Notre Dame, Indiana Notre Dame is a census-designated place and unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend in St. Joseph County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. It includes the campuses of three colleges: the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's C ...

Schedule

References

{{College Football National Champion pre-AP Poll navbox Notre Dame Notre Dame Fighting Irish football seasons College football national champions College football undefeated seasons

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the campus' Notre Da ...