80yrs ago -the 1940 ND football Frosh recruiting class

cluttering the board (again)...hey, hardly anybody else is using it :)

As always, all BoardOps has to do is say the word & I go away...
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1940

80 years ago

ND coach Elmer Layden's last recruiting class

the 1940 NOTRE DAME FRESHMEN FOOTBALL RECRUITING CLASS

(Circa 2011?) a 'Bleacher Report' article ranking the top 10 ND football Freshmen recruiting classes of all time-ranked this 1940 ND Frosh class # 6

A later 'Bleacher Report' ND Frosh all time ranking (circa 2015) by supposedly a different author-albeit same format, bumped this 1940 ND Frosh class up to # 3 All Time...

The latter author claimed this '40 class only lost 3 games in 4 yrs(actually in was 3 g in 3 varsity yr..they were ineligible as Frosh in '40..plus if you include their Frosh yr in would be 5 games lost...but I know what he meant to say :)

More importantly this author went on the note that as seniors this class of 1940 won the National Championship!

But

Only 3 members of the ND Frosh class of 1940 were on the 1943 Notre Dame National Championship team

and

Only 11 members of that '40 ND Frosh class EVER played in a varsity game for the Irish(full roster below-asterisk in front of the 11 who played varsity football at ND)

The reason so few '40 Frosh ever played football for Notre Dame was simple:

a war got in the way.

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3...Of the 3 players who played on the 1943 National Champs, 2 had been given medical discharges from the service (Creighton Miller/Navy/high blood pressure) &( Pat Filley/Marines/surgical knees)..the 3rd player-Angelo Bertelli left mid-season(43) for the Marine Corps.

All 3 members of the 1940 ND Frosh class who played on the '43 Irish National Champs were consensus All Americans! Bertelli won the Heisman..Creighton Miller finish 4th & led the Nation in rushing...Filley was captain of the Champion Irish & captain again of the '44 ND team.
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4...Four of the 1940 ND Frosh Football class were killed in WWII...McGinnis, Creevy and Elward were killed in action & Ellrott was killed in a Naval air training crash.
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2..were Prisoners of War..McBride (captured at the Battle of the Bulge) & Charles McKelvey when his plane was shot down...both survived
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10...were later selected in NFL drafts...McGinnis was overseas when drafted by the NFL & was killed in action...McBride was a POW soon after being selected in the '44 NFL draft...not all '40 Frosh who were selected were at ND when picked...Tom Dorais, the son of Gus, had transferred to play for his father at Detroit U & then was selected by the Lions-who by then were coached by his father!
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2 jumped behind German lines as paratroopers on D Day- Weir McQuoid & George Dickson..

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4 were later named to the ND All Interhall football team...when Frank Leahy arrived the next season he was mandated to cut the squad by ND President Father Hugh O'Donnell -himself a former ND football player(starting center 1915)..Father O'Donnell did NOT like the large teams that Elmer Layden had..Layden never cut anyone.

The 4 ND All Interhall players from the '40 Frosh class were:

Gene Yoklavich Walsh Hall
Louis Hornung Dillon Hall
Andy Murphy Badin
Bob Metzler Walsh

Metzler had followed an older brother from Rockhurst HS in KC to ND (Jim - 1936 ND Frosh FB class) & would later be wounded on Iwo Jima

The 1942 ND Interhall All Stars were scheduled to play the Purdue 'B' team...ND did not have a 'B' team...Leahy's cuts had not left enough players to field a team.....but after initially agreeing to the contest on Thanksgiving Day (to some fanfare) the Purdue 'B' squad 'discovered' that they had already turned in their equipment for the end of the season...whoops

1...player who was cut, had the balls to confront Leahy in his office and demand a second chance...Russell 'Pete' Ashbaugh had played HS football for his father in Youngstown-the dad a Walter Camp college AA at Brown.

Leahy gave Ashbaugh a 1 on 1 tryout against one of ND's fierce assistant coaches-Joe McArdle..known as 'Capt. Bligh' for his meanness..Ashbaugh impressed enough to be reinstated & was later selected in the 1944 NFL draft(while he was away at War as a bomber pilot)...Ashbaugh returned to ND after the war & played on 2 ND postwar National Championship squad(one of those teams best safeties)...then played in the pros in the AAFC.

OF NOTE regarding Ashbaugh..his own obituary incorrectly has him coming to ND in 1941...but he was a 1940 recruit..mentioned in an early 1940 article in the Scholastic on a Frosh '40 practice + Ashbaugh played on the '41 varsity-Frosh weren't eligible in 1941-he had to be a soph.

A strange note, you won't find Ashbaugh in the ND Student Directory of 1940-41...at least the online version...Ashbaugh 'A' would have been on page 18 or 19 of that directory...both pages are mysteriously missing from the online version.....

Worth noting..again, mentioned before

Even Frank Leahy's biographer (Wells Twombley) mistakenly claimed that Angelo Bertelli (ND Frosh class of 1940) came to ND with Frank Leahy in '41...and was originally destined for Boston College until the coach took the ND job & brought his recruits with him(including Bertelli)...a poorly researched 'lie' that was repeated recently in the book "Tales from the Boston College Sidelines'

Bertelli was a soph in '41 at ND & finished 2nd in the voting for the Heisman trophy...IF he had been a Frosh, he would not have been eligible to play on the Irish varsity.

Almost everyone of the players listed below were in the US armed forces in WWII.

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The Notre Dame Freshmen Football players of 1940

(asterisk in front of name signifies varsity player at ND)

listed at their Frosh position

Bill Amann T Vernon NY
*Russell Ashbaugh QB Youngstown Oh South..NFL Draftee
*Angelo Bertelli LHB Springfield Ma Cathedral..NFL Draftee
*Matt Bolger E Newark NJ St Benedict..Trans Cornell..NFL Draftee
Bill Broderick RHB Dormont Pa
Bob Brown T Evanston, Ill
Leo Burke QB Richmond Va Benedictine
Jim Butler T Milwaukee Wis
John 'Red' Clark RHB Pittsburgh Central Catholic
*Tom Creevy QB Chicago Mt Carmel ...KIA WWII
Paul Cunningham C Williamsport Pa Albany(NY?) Acad
Francis Curran LHB Sterling Ill
Joe Daly FB Reading Pa Malvern Prep
Herb DeGreve T South Bend Washington
Tony Del Vecchio G Kokomo Mich
*George Dickson LHB Pasadena Cal
Tom Dorias QB Detroit Mi...Trans Detroit...NFL Draftee
Charles Ellefson E Ironwood Mi Wright
Norb Ellrott G Albany NY Vincentian.....KIA WWII
Allen Elward QB W Lafayette Ind....KIA WWII
*Pat Filley G South Bend Central...NFL draftee..2 time ND captain
Gerald Gaffney RHB Chicago DeLaSalle
Pat Hinkson T Palo Pinto Tx Strawn
Joe Honda G Seattle Wa
Louis Horning E Tarenton Pa Har-Brack
Tom Kelly C Elizabeth Pa
Tom Kerrigan G Youngstown Oh
*Stan Kudlacz G Chicago DePaul Acad....NFL draftee
Marty Kuntz QB Dayton Oh Georgetown Prep(DC)..trans Dayton
Bill Kyle E Pittsburgh Central Catholic
John Leahy C Philadelphia Pa
*Bob McBride FB Lancaster, Oh Logan...NFL draftee...POW WWII
Owen McCall LHB Gibson City Ill Drummer....Trans West Point & Illinois
Bob McConnell C Sterling Ill
Paul "Mickey' McDonnell LHB Elmira NY...trans Bucknell
*John McGinnis E Chicago St George...NFL Drafee...KIA WWII
Charles McKelvy E Atchison Ks...POW WWII
*Dave McLaughlin G S.Orange NJ Columbia
Bill McNamara FB Baldwin NY
Weir McQuaid FB Faribault Mn...trans Carlton College
Bob Metzler C Kansas City Mo Rockhurst
*Creighton Miller LHB Wilmington Del DuPont...NFL Draftee
Andy Murphy RHB Kingston NY
Bill Murphy RHB Van Nuys Cal
Tom O'Brien T Suffern NY
Nick Rotz G Canton Oh McKinley
Ed Schmid T Detroit Mi
Wm Smythe E Cincinnati O Roger Bacon...Trans Cincy & Penn St..NFL draftee
Ted Smith FB Alexandria Ind
Ed Tessaro FB Greensburg Pa Marshall Acad...trans PITT
Ed Tully T Flushing NY
George Wienhoeber QB Chicago
Neal Williams FB Youngstown Oh Boardman
Erwin Wroblewski RHB South Bend Washington..signed MLB contract w Cardinals
Gene 'Pat' Yoklavich LHB Gunnison Col
Al Younghaus QB Ft Wayne Ind

Hey, somebody should remember these guys