1945 - The Greatest of Them All - Indiana University Athletics

By Mark Deal
Assistant Athletic Director for Alumni Relations

The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the 1945 Big Ten championship won by Coach Bo McMillin's Hoosiers. Growing up as the youngest son of an IU Football family, I was fortunate to witness and participate in many of the greatest moments in IU Football history. I watched my older brother Mike help defeat Purdue in 1967 to win the Big Ten. I watched him play in the 1968 Rose Bowl. The captain of the undefeated 1945 Big Ten champions, my Dad, Russell "Mutt" Deal, hosted many 1945 teammates at our home in northwest Indiana over the years. Hobart, Ind., became a stopping point for teammates who had to travel to the Chicago area. It was a normal occurrence to have men such as Howard Brown, George Taliaferro, Pete Pihos, Bob Ravensberg, Joe Sowinski, Dick Deranek, and Ted Kluszewski in our living room. I would sit in the corner and listen to all the stories and memories from a special time of the greatest team in IU Football history. Russ Deal's academic and football career was interrupted by World War II after the 1942 season. 1945 was the third calendar year of Russ Deal's stint in the United State Army. May 1945 saw the fall of the Third Reich and VE Day. A week after the Japanese surrender in August of 1945, Russ Deal was discharged from the United States Army. Within two weeks Russ Deal enrolled in school. And also within those two weeks he was back on the practice field for Coach Bo McMillin.

The team that Mutt Deal left in the spring of 1943 was much different than the one he returned to in September 1945. Gone was one of the greatest backs in IU history, first-team All-American Billy Hillenbrand. Gone was another first-team All-American and future College Football Hall of Fame inductee, center John Tavener. Gone was quarterback Lou Saban and sensational All-American back Bob Hoernschmeyer.

The 1944 Hoosiers led by All-Americans Tavener and Hoernschmeyer went 7-3 and reclaimed the Old Oaken Bucket. It was against this backdrop that Mutt Deal found himself the only senior member of the 1945 Hoosiers. As IU opened the 1945 season at Michigan Stadium, 24-year old lineman Mutt Deal found himself on the field with 10 other players that he had not played with before. Included in that mix of players were two ends who would go down as the greatest pair in IU history. Bob Ravensberg played for IU in 1943 and 1944 and Ted Kluszewski came to IU as a two-sport star in 1944. In the backfield an 18-year old freshman from Gary, Ind., made his collegiate debut. George Taliaferro was a triple threat in the backfield for Coach Bo McMillin in the mold of Hillenbrand and Hoernschmeyer. Two touchdown passes by quarterback Ben Raimondi gave the Hoosiers a 13-7 win over the Wolverines, who would finish the season ranked sixth in the nation. In his first football game in three years and with only two weeks of practice, Mutt Deal played all 60 minutes as players played offense, defense and special teams.

Week two saw the Hoosiers travel to Evanston to battle Northwestern. In a fortunate turn of events, two members of the 1942 team were granted leave from the Army for the rest of the 1945 season and joined the team in Chicago. The two men were not only heroes of Indiana Football, but also American heroes. Howard Brown was wounded three times in battle fighting the Nazis in Europe. Pete Pihos went from the beaches of Normandy to a battlefield commission under General George Patton. Howard Brown and Pete Pihos came off the bench and a Pihos touchdown late in the fourth quarter salvaged a 7-7 tie to keep the Hoosiers unbeaten. In week three Indiana played their third-consecutive conference game on the road at Illinois. A Ted Kluszewski touchdown catch from Ben Raimondi in the fourth quarter gave IU the 6-0 win. More importantly the game saw the debut of the lineup that would carry Indiana the entire season. Ends: Ravensberg and Kluszewski[ Tackles: Deal and freshman John Goldsberry; Guards: Brown and Joe Sowinski' Center: John Cannady; Quarterback: Raimondi; Fullback: Pihos; and Halfbacks: Taliaferro and Mel Groomes. This team would not look back.

The home opener was a 54-14 win over Nebraska. The Hoosiers went back on the road for another Big Ten game at Iowa. Taliaferro had 102 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Ravensberg had an interception for a touchdown and returned a blocked punt by Brown for a touchdown. The Hoosiers coasted to a 52-0 lead and won 52-20. Next up for the eighth-ranked Hoosiers was a Top-20 matchup at home with unbeaten and 14th-ranked Tulsa, the defending Orange Bowl Champions. Mutt Deal called the game the toughest and most physical he ever played. Ravensberg's second-quarter touchdown was the difference. Tulsa managed only a safety against IU. Pihos and Deal played all 60 minutes in the 7-2 Hoosier win. The following week the now fifth-ranked Hoosiers made quick work of Cornell in Memorial Stadium. The Hoosiers rolled up 472 yards of total offense and held Cornell to three first downs and just 113 yards offense. Dick Deranek had 133 yards and 3 touchdowns. Also scoring a touchdown for IU was back-up fullback Bill Buckner. Buckner's sons Quinn and Lorin would go on to play football at IU in the 1970sl and Quinn would also captain the 1976 undefeated NCAA Basketball National Champions.

The 46-6 Cornell win set up a first-place showdown in Minneapolis against the No. 20 Golden Gophers. Taliaferro set the tone early as he returned the opening kickoff 96 yards to the Minnesota 4-yard line. Taliaferro also had an 82-yard interception return for a touchdown. IU forced seven Minnesota turnovers, six of them interceptions. By halftime the Hoosiers led 35-0 en route to a 49-0 demolition. The now fourth-ranked Hoosiers posted a road shutout at Pitt, 19-0, to set the stage for a Big Ten Championship game with No. 18 Purdue.

Indiana would play its ONLY home conference game of the year against their rival. Over 27,000 fans jammed Memorial Stadium to witness the 20th anniversary of the first Old Oaken Bucket Game. This was the most significant Bucket game to date. After a scoreless first half, a pass from Raimondi to Taliaferro put the ball on the Purdue 1-yard line. From there, Pihos scored the first touchdown of the game. On the next Purdue possession Mutt Deal's forced fumble led to a Kluszewski recovery on the Purdue 1. Pihos scored again and the Hoosiers led 13-0 after 3 quarters. The Hoosiers began the fourth quarter behind the running of Taliaferro and Groomes. A Raimondi to Kluszewski TD pass made the score 19-0. Purdue was desperate now and Boilermaker quarterback Bob DeMoss under heavy pressure from Brown and Mutt Deal was intercepted by Raimondi, who returned the ball to the Purdue 34 with the aid of a crunching block by Kluszewski. Seven plays later Raimondi hit Lou Mihajlovich for the final touchdown. The Hoosiers had shut down the nation's leading passing attack, holding DeMoss to only 1 completion. The final score was Indiana 26 Purdue 0. The undefeated and undisputed Big Ten Champion Hoosiers carried Coach McMillin off the field. Team Captain Mutt Deal had his finest day as a Hoosier, registering 14 tackles, a quarterback sack and the forced fumble. Indiana finished the season ranked fourth in the final polls. Because the Big Ten did not allow its teams to participate in bowl games in 1945, their magical season was over. Coach Bo McMillin was named National Coach of the Year. Brown, Mutt Deal, Pihos, Ravensberg and Taliaferro were named All-Americans. On the Monday following the game, a celebration was held at the IU Auditorium for the entire student body to honor the Big Ten championship. In what Mutt Deal called one of the greatest honors of his life, he officially attached the championship "I" to the Old Oaken Bucket.

A close look at the 1945 team reveals why they are the greatest in IU history. The backfield that featured two future College Football Hall of Fame members in Pihos and Taliaferro is unmatched in IU history. Add to the fact Raimondi would lead the nation in passing in 1946 made it even more dangerous. The combination of Ravensberg and Kluszewski at end is again unrivaled IU history. While Ravensberg was a consensus All-American, Kluszewski may have been just a good at football as he was at baseball. Kluszewski would never play football again, signing a contract with the Cincinnati Reds and becoming one of the greatest Reds' players of all time. Taliaferro used to say the heart of the team was in the linemen up front. He often said that the older World War II veterans Brown and Deal were "men". He was correct, Brown and Deal were freshmen at IU in 1940 and came back after three years in the Army. Cannady would go on to play 8 years for the New York Football Giants and play in two Pro Bowls. Joe Sowinski and John Goldsberry were steady and solid players in the middle of both offense and defensive lines. But the key to IU success in 1945 was on defense. Mutt Deal would call the signals for what was called the 4-4 "Thumbs Up" defense. Opponents only scored 56 points all season against IU. But upon closer examination, the only two teams to score in double figures, Nebraska and Iowa, scored all their points after the IU starters had been pulled with the Hoosiers ahead by 50 points in both games. The starting 11 gave up only two touchdowns all year, one each to Michigan and Northwestern in the first two games of the season. The Hoosiers starting defense did not allow a touchdown in the final eight games. IU had four shutouts on the year, including the final three games. In eight of the 10 games IU allowed seven points or fewer. My dad told me many times it was the defense that brought home the Big Ten title. Eight members of the 1945 team have been inducted into the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame: Howard Brown, Russell "Mutt" Deal, Ted Kluszewski, Coach Bo McMillin, Pete Pihos, Ben Raimondi, Bob Ravensberg and George Taliaferro.

In 1960, my dad secured a 16 mm film of the 1945 win over Purdue. As the son of a football coach, I watched that game film many times on the projector in our home. The sequence of plays are forever burned into my head. The long pass to Taliaferro to set up the first score. Pihos second touchdown run, a man nobody wanted to tackle. Howard Brown pressuring DeMoss into a bad throw; an interception by Raimondi, and Kluszewski's devastating block on the return. The final statement by Mutt Deal, an emphatic sack of DeMoss. Late in the fourth quarter, with the sun setting to west goal line in the original Memorial Stadium, Big Klu was "shading his eyes" at his outside linebacker position. And at the end of the 60 minutes of football, the undefeated Big Ten Champion Indiana Hoosiers lifted their beloved coach Bo McMillin on their shoulders and carried him off the field. The film stopped and as the lights came on in our basement I looked over to framed picture on the wall. It was the 1945 team celebrating in the locker room…celebrating their crowning achievement…the Big Ten Championship. All of these heroes are in this picture. Some are sweaty, some are dirty, some are bloody and all with smiles on their faces. And in the middle of the picture is the captain of the team next to his smiling head coach. The captain is pumping his fist into the air, something I had seen him do many times in my lifetime. That fist pumped into the air in 1967 when his oldest son beat Purdue to win a Big Ten Championship. And the fist pumped again in 1977 when his youngest son beat Purdue and put the eighth Deal Family "I" on the Old Oaken Bucket. The heroes of 1945 are frozen in time, saving the world on the battlefields of Europe and in the Pacific. They are part of the Greatest Generation. They are also frozen in time as the Greatest Generation of IU Football, the Undefeated Big Ten Champions of 1945.

1945 - The Greatest of Them All

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