Dec 2006, Vol. 3 No. 3
Tech's Greatest Victory
By: Bruce Gerson
CARNEGIE TECH 19, NOTRE DAME 0
The game, played 80 years ago before a standing-room-only crowd at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, is legendary. It stands as not only the greatest victory in school history, but also one of the biggest upsets in all of college football. ESPN includes the game in its television special called “Greatest College Football Upsets.”
On paper, the Tartans didn’t have much of a chance that snowy, cold, and gray November afternoon. Notre Dame came to Pittsburgh undefeated and with a super-stingy defense that had not yielded a single point in eight games. A national championship seemed to be well in hand with only two games remaining, Tech and Southern Cal. Conversely, Tech, which had fallen to Notre Dame the previous four years in a row by a combined score of 111-19, brought a 6-2 mark into its final contest of the season.
Notre Dame was such the heavy favorite that rumors flowed out of South Bend that Head Coach Knute Rockne planned to leave the first-string at home to rest for Southern Cal.
“We are pointing for your game Saturday and will give you all we have,” wrote Rockne in a telegram to Carnegie Tech Athletic Director Clarence “Buddy” Overend in an effort to dispel the rumor.
The record shows that Notre Dame’s first team did make the trip, but Rockne chose to stay in Chicago to attend the Army-Navy game at Soldier Field, and left the team in the hands of his top assistants. It was a move he would regret.
The teams played to a scoreless standstill in the opening quarter as Notre Dame predictably employed their “shock troops” to begin the contest. The Irish plan was to use their second team to build the confidence of its opponent before rushing their top 11 on the field for the kill. The plan backfired as Tech toyed with the Notre Dame backups before shocking their first team in the second frame.
Touchdown runs by Bill Donohoe and C.J. Letzelter gave the Tartans a 13-0 halftime lead, and two drop-kick field goals of 32 and 45 yards by Quarterback Howard Harpster ended the scoring. Tech drove the final stake into Notre Dame with a fourth-quarter goal-line stand led by Lloyd “The Plaid Bull” Yoder. Harpster and Yoder later became Tech’s first two football All-Americans and were inducted into the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.
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“cool colorized photo”
– LarryMB
“I am the son of a great man who played football and earned his degree at Carnegie Tech.My dad never mentioned playing football, nor how good he was. I found out when I looked up his high school and college records. This story and my dad's actions illustrate to me that education comes first. My dad played in the early 1920s and never had a chance to meet his granddaughter, but she plans to enroll at her grandfather's alma mater. ”
– John J Gross
“great story....my grandfather played for atech on this day. Jack Kerr.....I showed my daughter the picture on this page. I believe he is third from the left in the first row ”
– Jeff Kerr
“I listened today to the radio broadcast of the game against Case Western. It brought bak quite a few memories..Two of my uncles attended Carnegie in the 20's. We Akronites are still very proud of Howard Harpster, Akron native. Harpster's father was an architect in Akron and a colleague of my father. Another memory is this: Carnegie's visit to Akron in 1939 and the fantastic football game that was. Carnegie's George Muha was kind of upstaged by Akron's Frank Zazula. I'm eighty-eight.”
– Robert M Kraus Akron Ohio
“Thank you for this story. My grandfather, Don Lovewell, played right guard in that game.
RJ Arthur
Clemmons, NC ”
– RJ Arthur Clemmons, NC
“This happened in 1926. I was born in 1930. My mother picked my name because of what she heard of the Carnegie Tech hero. ”
– Lloyd W. Yoder