Indiana Honors 70th Anniversary of 1945 Hoosier Football Team
10/13/2015 5:08:00 PM | Football
By: Sam Beishuizen | Twitter
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana football's most decorated team is celebrating an anniversary this weekend.
The 1945 Indiana Hoosiers will be honored as part of Homecoming festivities Saturday as they celebrate the 70th anniversary of their undefeated Big Ten Championship season. Under the guidance of head coach Bo McMillin, IU went 9-0-1 (5-0-1 in the Big Ten) while outscoring their opponents 279-56.
The Hoosiers finished the season ranked No. 4 in the final Associated Press Poll, led by six players who earned either All-America or first team All-Big Ten honors.
Four of the 10 surviving members of the team—Bob Joseph, Bob Miller, Larry Napolitan and George Taliaferro—will be in attendance and honored during the Indiana-Rutgers game. Bo Peep McMillin Benckart, the daughter of the late coach Bo McMillin, will be recognized in place of her father.
"That '45 team was as good as they get, I mean, it's the greatest in our history," said Mark Deal, IU's assistant athletic director for alumni relations. Mark's father, Russ, was the captain of the 1945 Indiana Hoosiers.
Deal grew up hearing stories about his father's team and the players who made it one of the nation's best. Seven decades later, it's difficult to find anyone who knows the team better.
"They were very well coached and they just had terrific, terrific players," Deal said.
The lone blemish on the team's undefeated record was a 7-7 tie with Northwestern in the second game of the season.
The 1945 college football season began shortly after World War II ended. Nine players who had previous playing experience rejoined the team just as the season began after serving for the United States Armed Forces.
Among the players late to rejoin the team were All-Americans Pete Pihos and Howard Brown. Pihos was a lieutenant in the 35th Infantry Division, and Brown received three Purple Heart citations for his service in the European Theater of Operations.
Both joined the team midway through the second week of the season just days before the Hoosiers played Northwestern on the road. They each had just a couple of days to practice and didn't start the game against the Wildcats.
"Not having those guys definitely affected them," Deal said. "They didn't really get things going until week three, and then that team was together."
Indiana defeated Illinois 6-0 in week three on the road. It was one of four shutouts on the season and the second of four Big Ten wins away from home. All conference games other than the Purdue game were played on the road because other schools didn't yet respect Indiana's football program enough to agree to travel to Bloomington, Deal said.
From week three on, the Hoosiers caught fire, rattling off consecutive wins against Nebraska, Iowa, Tulsa and Cornell with relative ease.
But the '45 Hoosiers saved their best for last. Indiana ended the year with three consecutive wins against Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Purdue, outscoring their opponents by a combined 94-0. The three-game shutout streak capped off a five-game stretch to end the season where Indiana allowed just eight total points off one touchdown, given up to Cornell with the backups in, and a safety scored by Tulsa.
The Hoosiers didn't do anything ahead of their time defensively, Deal said. Indiana ran a 4-4 base defense, which was common in those days.
Indiana was simply more talented than most of the competition, Deal said. Once they got rolling, they were hard to beat.
"My dad always talked about how great they were defensively, and I think obviously that's an example and they had great players," Deal said. "We were really tough."
The defense was more than enough for Indiana's offense, led by arguably the greatest backfield in program history of Taliaferro, then a freshman, and Pihos. Both were later inducted into both the Indiana and College Football Hall of Fames.
"I don't think you could find a better backfield than that," Deal said.
Undefeated Army finished as the unanimous choice for the nation's No. 1 team and national champion, as determined by the AP Poll. Alabama finished second and was followed by Navy and then Indiana.
The Big Ten didn't have an automatic bowl tie-in as it does today, and IU's season ended without a postseason game. The Big Ten wasn't a participant in the Rose Bowl until two years after.
There were talks that No. 1 Army and No. 4 Indiana would play in a bowl game at Soldier Field in Chicago, Deal said, but that never came to fruition. Instead, Indiana finished the greatest season in program history undefeated with nine wins and one tie to its credit.
"Indiana vs. Army would have been a special deal," Deal said. "But it wasn't meant to be. That team was still one of the best ever, certainly the best Indiana has had."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana football's most decorated team is celebrating an anniversary this weekend.
The 1945 Indiana Hoosiers will be honored as part of Homecoming festivities Saturday as they celebrate the 70th anniversary of their undefeated Big Ten Championship season. Under the guidance of head coach Bo McMillin, IU went 9-0-1 (5-0-1 in the Big Ten) while outscoring their opponents 279-56.
The Hoosiers finished the season ranked No. 4 in the final Associated Press Poll, led by six players who earned either All-America or first team All-Big Ten honors.
Four of the 10 surviving members of the team—Bob Joseph, Bob Miller, Larry Napolitan and George Taliaferro—will be in attendance and honored during the Indiana-Rutgers game. Bo Peep McMillin Benckart, the daughter of the late coach Bo McMillin, will be recognized in place of her father.
"That '45 team was as good as they get, I mean, it's the greatest in our history," said Mark Deal, IU's assistant athletic director for alumni relations. Mark's father, Russ, was the captain of the 1945 Indiana Hoosiers.
Deal grew up hearing stories about his father's team and the players who made it one of the nation's best. Seven decades later, it's difficult to find anyone who knows the team better.
"They were very well coached and they just had terrific, terrific players," Deal said.
The lone blemish on the team's undefeated record was a 7-7 tie with Northwestern in the second game of the season.
The 1945 college football season began shortly after World War II ended. Nine players who had previous playing experience rejoined the team just as the season began after serving for the United States Armed Forces.
Among the players late to rejoin the team were All-Americans Pete Pihos and Howard Brown. Pihos was a lieutenant in the 35th Infantry Division, and Brown received three Purple Heart citations for his service in the European Theater of Operations.
Both joined the team midway through the second week of the season just days before the Hoosiers played Northwestern on the road. They each had just a couple of days to practice and didn't start the game against the Wildcats.
"Not having those guys definitely affected them," Deal said. "They didn't really get things going until week three, and then that team was together."
Indiana defeated Illinois 6-0 in week three on the road. It was one of four shutouts on the season and the second of four Big Ten wins away from home. All conference games other than the Purdue game were played on the road because other schools didn't yet respect Indiana's football program enough to agree to travel to Bloomington, Deal said.
From week three on, the Hoosiers caught fire, rattling off consecutive wins against Nebraska, Iowa, Tulsa and Cornell with relative ease.
But the '45 Hoosiers saved their best for last. Indiana ended the year with three consecutive wins against Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Purdue, outscoring their opponents by a combined 94-0. The three-game shutout streak capped off a five-game stretch to end the season where Indiana allowed just eight total points off one touchdown, given up to Cornell with the backups in, and a safety scored by Tulsa.
The Hoosiers didn't do anything ahead of their time defensively, Deal said. Indiana ran a 4-4 base defense, which was common in those days.
Indiana was simply more talented than most of the competition, Deal said. Once they got rolling, they were hard to beat.
"My dad always talked about how great they were defensively, and I think obviously that's an example and they had great players," Deal said. "We were really tough."
The defense was more than enough for Indiana's offense, led by arguably the greatest backfield in program history of Taliaferro, then a freshman, and Pihos. Both were later inducted into both the Indiana and College Football Hall of Fames.
"I don't think you could find a better backfield than that," Deal said.
Undefeated Army finished as the unanimous choice for the nation's No. 1 team and national champion, as determined by the AP Poll. Alabama finished second and was followed by Navy and then Indiana.
The Big Ten didn't have an automatic bowl tie-in as it does today, and IU's season ended without a postseason game. The Big Ten wasn't a participant in the Rose Bowl until two years after.
There were talks that No. 1 Army and No. 4 Indiana would play in a bowl game at Soldier Field in Chicago, Deal said, but that never came to fruition. Instead, Indiana finished the greatest season in program history undefeated with nine wins and one tie to its credit.
"Indiana vs. Army would have been a special deal," Deal said. "But it wasn't meant to be. That team was still one of the best ever, certainly the best Indiana has had."
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