He was born 7 months after the Rockne plane crash and died last November.
see linked article
Green Bay HC & GM Bart Starr sent assistant coach Zeke Bratkowski to scout Montana.
Per the attached article, Bratkowski worked out Montana -even catching his passes as he tested Joe's arm strengh
Zeke came away impressed & told Starr to draft Montana...but as Starr admitted -he blew it & passed on Joe
more trivia
Zeke Bratkowski was in the very first graduating class ever at Danville Ill. Schlarman.....
In addition to finishing in the top 10 in passing all 3 years of varsity play at Georgia(mentioned in my earlier post), Bratkowski led the Nation in punting in 1953 (42.6 average) -Bart Starr of Alabama finished 2nd (41.4)
Look at the top 5 picks of the draft. One of these things isn't like the other.
When Danville Schlarman star Zeke Bratkowski went on his recruiting visit to Georgia, there weren't many football players from the State of Illinois on the Georgia team.
But Zeke was shown around campus by one of the few such players - a former Illinois All State HB named Jack McHugh from Chicago St Rita -who had transferred to Georgia from Notre Dame (ND 1947 Frosh recruiting class).
Bio on McHugh linked
posts!
The closest he got was 8% of the vote.
Really good player, he and Donald Smith were a great combo
Vida Blue, Gary Carter, and Willie Wilson.
When Holtz did the Japan Bowl with alumni players in 2009, Bobby Valentine spoke at their dinner. He talked about his ND recruitment:
"Bobby Valentine, current manager of the Chiba Lotte team in the Japanese pro baseball league, spoke briefly and identified himself as the only person to be a manager in the American and National Leagues and the Japan League and to go to World Series in both countries.
He also noted he had been fired from all three stops.
Valentine talked about his football recruiting trip to Notre Dame (he eventually went to USC) as a 5-10, 185-pound running back from Stamford, Conn. He stayed with Joe Theismann on his visit and recalled Ara Parseghian telling him, "You don't have to sell a Cadillac. We are a Cadillac."
At one point in the winter snow, Valentine recalled a corridor of Irish lineman in front of him, and Ara suggested (with the offense on the left and defense on the right) that if you come here you'll be looking at the backsides of these guys. If you don't you'll be looking into the faces of these other guys.
Valentine claimed his choice of USC started a 10-year family feud."