Indiana University Athletics
“The Picture on The Wall” – The 1945 Big Ten Champions
11/21/2025 9:30:00 AM | Football
"The Picture on The Wall" – The 1945 Big Ten Champions
By: Mark Deal
HOBART, Ind. –––– The picture on the wall was there as long as I can remember. As the son of a high school football coach, it was one of many that hung on the wall in the basement our home in Hobart, Indiana.
It was different than the others in that it was not the posed team pictures of many championship teams. This was spontaneous, definitely not posed.
It showed a group of football players celebrating in a locker room with their beloved coach. Some of these men were just 18 years old and fresh out of high school. Some had served our country on the battlefields and skies of World War II just a few months before.
How did this picture come to be?
In the late summer of 1945, World War II in Europe had been won. Japan was ready to surrender after the atomic bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the first time since December 7, 1941, the United States was not at war.
And IU Head Football Coach Bo McMillin was hopeful to get back some of the players of his team, that he had lost due to their service in World War II. One of those players was my father, Russell "Mutt" Deal.
He had played football at IU from 1940-1942. After the 1942 season, he was drafted into the United States Army and left school in January of 1943.
Russ Deal was discharged from the US Army on September 1, 1945, following the end of World War II. A week later, he enrolled in school at IU and returned to practice. The team he left in the Fall of 1942 was much different than the one he rejoined in September 1945.
Russ Deal would be playing with 10 players he had never player with before. Included in that mix were two ends who would go down as the greatest pair in IU history: Bob Ravensberg and Ted Kluszewski, along with junior linemen John Cannady, Frank Ciolli, and Joe Sowinski and freshman John Goldsberry.
In the backfield, junior quarterback Ben Raimondi, and sophomore running backs Mel Groomes and Dick Deranek along with freshman George Taliaferro.
Team Captain, 24-year-old Russell "Mutt" Deal was the only senior on this team as they headed to Ann Arbor to take on the Wolverines in the opening game of the season.
Little did anyone know at the time that this opening game of the season would decide the Big Ten Championship.
Ben Raimondi got the Hoosiers on the board first with a touchdown pass to Ted Kluszewski. Later in the half, Raimondi hit Mel Groomes with a 46-yard touchdown pass to give IU a 13-0 lead. A Michigan touchdown in the 3rd quarter cut the lead to 13-7. That Michigan touchdown would be the only touchdown given up by Indiana's starting defense the entire season. Michigan threatened the IU goal line in the final minute of play. On fourth down with 20 seconds to play, Bob Ravensberg and Deal stopped the Wolverine ball carrier at the Indiana-5-yard line to preserve the 13-7 win.
Three days later, Indiana received news that would help propel the Hoosiers for the remainder of the 1945 season. Howard Brown and Pete Pihos each received a 60-day leave from the United States Army and enrolled in classes at IU.
Brown was a starting lineman in 1942, and Pihos, a starting end in 1942 and 1943. In 1943, Pihos received All-American honors. One more player, Charles Armstrong, was discharged from the Army and rejoined the team. Armstrong was an undersized lineman but was a terrific place kicker. These three men were not only heroes of IU Football but also American heroes.
These men joined their teammates for three practices before the Northwestern game.
With Kluszewski and Ravensberg playing end, McMillin moved Pihos to fullback to get his best players on the field. Northwestern blocked an IU punt in the first quarter for a touchdown and that lead held up until five minutes left in the game when Raimondi hit Pihos for a touchdown pass. Charlie Armstrong kicked the extra point, and the Hoosiers and IU left Evanston unbeaten with a 7-7 tie.
The following week, Indiana instituted their lineup they'd use the lineup for the remainder of the season. It debuted against Illinois with Pihos and Brown as starters. IU intercepted 2 passes and held Illinois to just eight first downs. A Raimondi to Kluszewski touchdown pass in the fourth quarter gave the Hoosiers the 6-0 win.
After three consecutive Big Ten road games to open the season, IU finally played their home opener against non-conference foe Nebraska. IU raced to a 34-0 lead midway through the third quarter when Bo McMillin put in the reserves. IU defeated the Cornhuskers, 54-14.
The Hoosiers went back on the road the following week to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes. George Taliaferro had eight carries for 102 yards and two touchdowns. Bob Ravensberg scored 2 touchdowns the first on a 20-yard pick-6 and the second when Howard Brown blocked a punt and "Raven" fell on the ball in the endzone. IU led 52-0 before the reserves came into the game and the Hoosiers remained unbeaten in the Big Ten.
At that point, IU was ranked No. 8 in the nation in the AP Poll, with a game against No. 14 Tulsa on deck.
From 1942-1944, Tulsa played in the Sugar Bowl twice and Orange Bowl once. They were unbeaten in the regular season in both 1942 and 1943 and only lost one game in 1944 in their Orange Bowl season.
The Indiana defense was superb against Tulsa, holding them to just three first downs, 85 yards of total offense while also forcing five turnovers.
IU scored on a 68-yard drive in the second quarter that culminated into a 41-yard touchdown, a designed trick play that featured a lateral from Pete Pihos to Bob Ravensberg at the 20-yard line who ran the ball into the end zone. This was the only touchdown of the game as both defenses dominated.
Tulsa scored a safety in the fourth quarter to get them on the board. Indiana won the game by a final score of 7-2.
Russ Deal called it the toughest and most physical game he ever played. George Taliaferro called it the best football game he ever played in at any level: high school, college or the NFL. The win moved the Hoosiers to No. 5 in the nation, their highest ranking ever at the time.
Next up was Cornell at home. Dick Deranek scored three touchdowns and gained 133 yards rushing. IU led 46-0 in the third quarter before resting the first unit in a 46-6 win.
The Hoosiers boarded a train for their fifth consecutive Big Ten road game, this time to Minneapolis to face the No. 20 Minnesota Gophers. George Taliaferro returned the opening kickoff 95 yards to the Minnesota 5-yard line to set the tone for the day.
Taliaferro scored the Hoosiers first three touchdowns with two rushing scores. In the second quarter, Taliaferro intercepted a pass at his own 18 and ran 82 yards for a touchdown. Bob Miller and Pete Pihos ran for two more touchdowns in the second quarter to put Indiana ahead 35-0 at half.
George Taliaferro sat out the entire second half, but his first half stats were amazing. His combined total yards of offense, defense and special teams totaled 242 yards.
The final score was Indiana, 49-0. It was the worst defeat in Minnesota history. IU forced six interceptions and one fumble for seven total turnovers and held the Gophers to just four first downs. The voters took notice as IU was ranked No.4 in the nation following the game, its highest ranking ever.
Another road trip to Pitt Stadium produced another shutout as Pete Pihos gained 113 yards rushing and two touchdowns to lead IU to a 19-0 win. One more win and a Big Ten Championship and undefeated season was secure.
Purdue was 7-2 and ranked No. 18 in the country. The No. 4 ranked Hoosiers were trying to make IU history with Indiana's first Big Ten Championship and undefeated season.
Over 27,000 people jammed into Memorial Stadium for the 20th anniversary of the Old Oaken Bucket Game. This would be the only Big Ten home game for the Hoosiers.
After a scoreless first half, Ben Raimondi hit George Taliaferro with a pass to the Purdue 1-yard line. From there, Pete Pihos scored the first touchdown of the game. On the next possession, Mutt Deal forced a fumble and Ted Kluszewski recovered on the Purdue 3-yard line. Pihos scored his second touchdown and suddenly the score was 13-0 early in the third quarter.
IU began the 4th quarter behind the running of George Taliaferro and Mel Groomes. A Raimondi to Kluszewski TD pass made the score 19-0.
Purdue was desperate now and Purdue quarterback Bob DeMoss under a heavy pass rush from Howard Brown and Russ Deal, was intercepted by Raimondi who returned the ball to the Purdue 34. Seven plays later, Raimondi hit Lou Mihajlovich with a touchdown pass for the final score of the day. The Hoosiers shut down the nation's leading passing attack holding DeMoss to just one completion on the day. The final score was Indiana 26, Purdue 0.
The undefeated Big Ten Champions carried head coach Bo McMillin off the field.
Indiana finished the season ranked No. 4 in the final AP Poll. Because the Big Ten did not allow any of their teams to participate in Bowl games in 1945, their season was over. Howard Brown, Russ Deal, Pete Pihos, Bob Ravensberg, and George Taliaferro were named All-American. Coach Bo McMillin was named the National Coach of the Year.
lOn the Monday following the Bucket Game, President Herman B Wells cancelled classes and the student body gathered in the IU Auditorium for a celebration of the Big Ten Championship. Captain Russ Deal attached the Big Ten Championship "I" on The Old Oaken Bucket in front of the student body.
The 1945 Big Ten Champion Hoosiers hold a rightful place among the greatest teams of any sport in IU history. They overcame adversity not that was not under their control, but by events of the world. Three of their starters all of whom became All-Americans in 1945 were still on active duty in the United States Army when practice began. Two of them had not played in a football game in three years. And yet they combined with those already in Bloomington to form one of the best defenses in IU Football history.
In 10 games, the starting 11 players gave up only one touchdown the entire season, and that was in the first game of the year at Michigan. Only Northwestern in the second game of the year scored a touchdown against Indiana with the starters on the field and that was via a blocked punt for a touchdown.
Indiana defeated three ranked teams in the final month of the season, No. 12 Tulsa, No. 20 Minnesota, and No. 18 Purdue by a combined score of 82-2, yielding only a safety to Tulsa.
Michigan, who Indiana defeated in the opening game of the season finished the season ranked No. 6 in the final polls losing only to IU and No. 2 ranked Navy.
Three members of the 1945 Football team have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: Pete Pihos, George Taliaferro, and Head Coach Bo McMillin.
Eleven members of the team have been inducted into the Indiana Athletics Hall of Fame; Howard Brown, Russ Deal, Mel Groomes, Ted Kluszewski, Pete Pihos, Ben Raimondi, Bob Ravensberg, George Taliaferro, Head Coach Bo McMillin, and Assistant coaches Pooch Harrell and Charley McDaniel.
Charley McDaniel is the only assistant coach to be on the staff of both IU Football Big Ten Champions 1945 and 1967. Howard Brown is the only IU man to play on a Big Ten Football Champion in 1945 and coach on one in 1967.
Several members of the 1945 team had sons who excelled in the collegiate and professional ranks. Tailback Bill Bradley's son Phil Bradley was a quarterback and baseball player at Missouri. Phil played eight years in the major leagues mostly with the Seattle Mariners and played in the 1985 All Star Game. Wingback Joe Gilliam's son Joe Gilliam Jr. played four years for the Pittsburgh Steelers and started six games at quarterback for the Steelers in 1974 and won two Super Bowls with Pittsburgh.
Fullback Bill Buckner's son Quinn played Football and Basketball at IU before concentrating on Basketball only during his junior and senior year. Quinn helped lead IU to the 1976 NCAA Basketball Championship. Quinn later won an Olympic Gold Medal in Basketball in 1976 and an NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics. Bill and Quinn hold a unique "Daily Double" as members of two of Indiana's greatest teams in different sports. And "Mutt" Deal's son Mike, was a defensive back for the 1967 Big Ten Champion Rose Bowl Hoosiers making them the only Father and son Big Ten Championship players in IU Football history.
But the greatest achievement of the 1945 team in overcoming obstacles is a record that likely will never be broken. In 1925, the Big Ten expanded the number of conference football games to five or six each year. That number of six remained steady for 40 years until 1965 when the Big Ten made it a seven-game conference season.
Since that expansion, the only team to win the Big Ten Football Championship playing only one home game is the 1945 Indiana Hoosiers. The IU win over Purdue in the final game of the season was the only home conference game they played all season. That statistic showed the mettle and the greatness of the 1945 IU Football team.
The "Picture on The Wall" is still there. It is the same picture, but it hangs on a different wall. The picture is now hanging on the wall of my office. I see it every day. Eighty years later, the faces remain the same…the smiles, the joy, the jubilation.
Those faces are frozen in time and will last for eternity. Those young football players never grow old. The men of the Greatest Generation in the fall of 1945 who authored the undefeated, undisputed Big Ten Football Champions. They live forever.
By: Mark Deal
HOBART, Ind. –––– The picture on the wall was there as long as I can remember. As the son of a high school football coach, it was one of many that hung on the wall in the basement our home in Hobart, Indiana.
It was different than the others in that it was not the posed team pictures of many championship teams. This was spontaneous, definitely not posed.
It showed a group of football players celebrating in a locker room with their beloved coach. Some of these men were just 18 years old and fresh out of high school. Some had served our country on the battlefields and skies of World War II just a few months before.
How did this picture come to be?
In the late summer of 1945, World War II in Europe had been won. Japan was ready to surrender after the atomic bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the first time since December 7, 1941, the United States was not at war.
And IU Head Football Coach Bo McMillin was hopeful to get back some of the players of his team, that he had lost due to their service in World War II. One of those players was my father, Russell "Mutt" Deal.
He had played football at IU from 1940-1942. After the 1942 season, he was drafted into the United States Army and left school in January of 1943.
Russ Deal was discharged from the US Army on September 1, 1945, following the end of World War II. A week later, he enrolled in school at IU and returned to practice. The team he left in the Fall of 1942 was much different than the one he rejoined in September 1945.
Russ Deal would be playing with 10 players he had never player with before. Included in that mix were two ends who would go down as the greatest pair in IU history: Bob Ravensberg and Ted Kluszewski, along with junior linemen John Cannady, Frank Ciolli, and Joe Sowinski and freshman John Goldsberry.
In the backfield, junior quarterback Ben Raimondi, and sophomore running backs Mel Groomes and Dick Deranek along with freshman George Taliaferro.
Team Captain, 24-year-old Russell "Mutt" Deal was the only senior on this team as they headed to Ann Arbor to take on the Wolverines in the opening game of the season.
Little did anyone know at the time that this opening game of the season would decide the Big Ten Championship.
Ben Raimondi got the Hoosiers on the board first with a touchdown pass to Ted Kluszewski. Later in the half, Raimondi hit Mel Groomes with a 46-yard touchdown pass to give IU a 13-0 lead. A Michigan touchdown in the 3rd quarter cut the lead to 13-7. That Michigan touchdown would be the only touchdown given up by Indiana's starting defense the entire season. Michigan threatened the IU goal line in the final minute of play. On fourth down with 20 seconds to play, Bob Ravensberg and Deal stopped the Wolverine ball carrier at the Indiana-5-yard line to preserve the 13-7 win.
Three days later, Indiana received news that would help propel the Hoosiers for the remainder of the 1945 season. Howard Brown and Pete Pihos each received a 60-day leave from the United States Army and enrolled in classes at IU.
Brown was a starting lineman in 1942, and Pihos, a starting end in 1942 and 1943. In 1943, Pihos received All-American honors. One more player, Charles Armstrong, was discharged from the Army and rejoined the team. Armstrong was an undersized lineman but was a terrific place kicker. These three men were not only heroes of IU Football but also American heroes.
These men joined their teammates for three practices before the Northwestern game.
With Kluszewski and Ravensberg playing end, McMillin moved Pihos to fullback to get his best players on the field. Northwestern blocked an IU punt in the first quarter for a touchdown and that lead held up until five minutes left in the game when Raimondi hit Pihos for a touchdown pass. Charlie Armstrong kicked the extra point, and the Hoosiers and IU left Evanston unbeaten with a 7-7 tie.
The following week, Indiana instituted their lineup they'd use the lineup for the remainder of the season. It debuted against Illinois with Pihos and Brown as starters. IU intercepted 2 passes and held Illinois to just eight first downs. A Raimondi to Kluszewski touchdown pass in the fourth quarter gave the Hoosiers the 6-0 win.
After three consecutive Big Ten road games to open the season, IU finally played their home opener against non-conference foe Nebraska. IU raced to a 34-0 lead midway through the third quarter when Bo McMillin put in the reserves. IU defeated the Cornhuskers, 54-14.
The Hoosiers went back on the road the following week to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes. George Taliaferro had eight carries for 102 yards and two touchdowns. Bob Ravensberg scored 2 touchdowns the first on a 20-yard pick-6 and the second when Howard Brown blocked a punt and "Raven" fell on the ball in the endzone. IU led 52-0 before the reserves came into the game and the Hoosiers remained unbeaten in the Big Ten.
At that point, IU was ranked No. 8 in the nation in the AP Poll, with a game against No. 14 Tulsa on deck.
From 1942-1944, Tulsa played in the Sugar Bowl twice and Orange Bowl once. They were unbeaten in the regular season in both 1942 and 1943 and only lost one game in 1944 in their Orange Bowl season.
The Indiana defense was superb against Tulsa, holding them to just three first downs, 85 yards of total offense while also forcing five turnovers.
IU scored on a 68-yard drive in the second quarter that culminated into a 41-yard touchdown, a designed trick play that featured a lateral from Pete Pihos to Bob Ravensberg at the 20-yard line who ran the ball into the end zone. This was the only touchdown of the game as both defenses dominated.
Tulsa scored a safety in the fourth quarter to get them on the board. Indiana won the game by a final score of 7-2.
Russ Deal called it the toughest and most physical game he ever played. George Taliaferro called it the best football game he ever played in at any level: high school, college or the NFL. The win moved the Hoosiers to No. 5 in the nation, their highest ranking ever at the time.
Next up was Cornell at home. Dick Deranek scored three touchdowns and gained 133 yards rushing. IU led 46-0 in the third quarter before resting the first unit in a 46-6 win.
The Hoosiers boarded a train for their fifth consecutive Big Ten road game, this time to Minneapolis to face the No. 20 Minnesota Gophers. George Taliaferro returned the opening kickoff 95 yards to the Minnesota 5-yard line to set the tone for the day.
Taliaferro scored the Hoosiers first three touchdowns with two rushing scores. In the second quarter, Taliaferro intercepted a pass at his own 18 and ran 82 yards for a touchdown. Bob Miller and Pete Pihos ran for two more touchdowns in the second quarter to put Indiana ahead 35-0 at half.
George Taliaferro sat out the entire second half, but his first half stats were amazing. His combined total yards of offense, defense and special teams totaled 242 yards.
The final score was Indiana, 49-0. It was the worst defeat in Minnesota history. IU forced six interceptions and one fumble for seven total turnovers and held the Gophers to just four first downs. The voters took notice as IU was ranked No.4 in the nation following the game, its highest ranking ever.
Another road trip to Pitt Stadium produced another shutout as Pete Pihos gained 113 yards rushing and two touchdowns to lead IU to a 19-0 win. One more win and a Big Ten Championship and undefeated season was secure.
Purdue was 7-2 and ranked No. 18 in the country. The No. 4 ranked Hoosiers were trying to make IU history with Indiana's first Big Ten Championship and undefeated season.
Over 27,000 people jammed into Memorial Stadium for the 20th anniversary of the Old Oaken Bucket Game. This would be the only Big Ten home game for the Hoosiers.
After a scoreless first half, Ben Raimondi hit George Taliaferro with a pass to the Purdue 1-yard line. From there, Pete Pihos scored the first touchdown of the game. On the next possession, Mutt Deal forced a fumble and Ted Kluszewski recovered on the Purdue 3-yard line. Pihos scored his second touchdown and suddenly the score was 13-0 early in the third quarter.
IU began the 4th quarter behind the running of George Taliaferro and Mel Groomes. A Raimondi to Kluszewski TD pass made the score 19-0.
Purdue was desperate now and Purdue quarterback Bob DeMoss under a heavy pass rush from Howard Brown and Russ Deal, was intercepted by Raimondi who returned the ball to the Purdue 34. Seven plays later, Raimondi hit Lou Mihajlovich with a touchdown pass for the final score of the day. The Hoosiers shut down the nation's leading passing attack holding DeMoss to just one completion on the day. The final score was Indiana 26, Purdue 0.
The undefeated Big Ten Champions carried head coach Bo McMillin off the field.
Indiana finished the season ranked No. 4 in the final AP Poll. Because the Big Ten did not allow any of their teams to participate in Bowl games in 1945, their season was over. Howard Brown, Russ Deal, Pete Pihos, Bob Ravensberg, and George Taliaferro were named All-American. Coach Bo McMillin was named the National Coach of the Year.
lOn the Monday following the Bucket Game, President Herman B Wells cancelled classes and the student body gathered in the IU Auditorium for a celebration of the Big Ten Championship. Captain Russ Deal attached the Big Ten Championship "I" on The Old Oaken Bucket in front of the student body.
The 1945 Big Ten Champion Hoosiers hold a rightful place among the greatest teams of any sport in IU history. They overcame adversity not that was not under their control, but by events of the world. Three of their starters all of whom became All-Americans in 1945 were still on active duty in the United States Army when practice began. Two of them had not played in a football game in three years. And yet they combined with those already in Bloomington to form one of the best defenses in IU Football history.
In 10 games, the starting 11 players gave up only one touchdown the entire season, and that was in the first game of the year at Michigan. Only Northwestern in the second game of the year scored a touchdown against Indiana with the starters on the field and that was via a blocked punt for a touchdown.
Indiana defeated three ranked teams in the final month of the season, No. 12 Tulsa, No. 20 Minnesota, and No. 18 Purdue by a combined score of 82-2, yielding only a safety to Tulsa.
Michigan, who Indiana defeated in the opening game of the season finished the season ranked No. 6 in the final polls losing only to IU and No. 2 ranked Navy.
Three members of the 1945 Football team have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: Pete Pihos, George Taliaferro, and Head Coach Bo McMillin.
Eleven members of the team have been inducted into the Indiana Athletics Hall of Fame; Howard Brown, Russ Deal, Mel Groomes, Ted Kluszewski, Pete Pihos, Ben Raimondi, Bob Ravensberg, George Taliaferro, Head Coach Bo McMillin, and Assistant coaches Pooch Harrell and Charley McDaniel.
Charley McDaniel is the only assistant coach to be on the staff of both IU Football Big Ten Champions 1945 and 1967. Howard Brown is the only IU man to play on a Big Ten Football Champion in 1945 and coach on one in 1967.
Several members of the 1945 team had sons who excelled in the collegiate and professional ranks. Tailback Bill Bradley's son Phil Bradley was a quarterback and baseball player at Missouri. Phil played eight years in the major leagues mostly with the Seattle Mariners and played in the 1985 All Star Game. Wingback Joe Gilliam's son Joe Gilliam Jr. played four years for the Pittsburgh Steelers and started six games at quarterback for the Steelers in 1974 and won two Super Bowls with Pittsburgh.
Fullback Bill Buckner's son Quinn played Football and Basketball at IU before concentrating on Basketball only during his junior and senior year. Quinn helped lead IU to the 1976 NCAA Basketball Championship. Quinn later won an Olympic Gold Medal in Basketball in 1976 and an NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics. Bill and Quinn hold a unique "Daily Double" as members of two of Indiana's greatest teams in different sports. And "Mutt" Deal's son Mike, was a defensive back for the 1967 Big Ten Champion Rose Bowl Hoosiers making them the only Father and son Big Ten Championship players in IU Football history.
But the greatest achievement of the 1945 team in overcoming obstacles is a record that likely will never be broken. In 1925, the Big Ten expanded the number of conference football games to five or six each year. That number of six remained steady for 40 years until 1965 when the Big Ten made it a seven-game conference season.
Since that expansion, the only team to win the Big Ten Football Championship playing only one home game is the 1945 Indiana Hoosiers. The IU win over Purdue in the final game of the season was the only home conference game they played all season. That statistic showed the mettle and the greatness of the 1945 IU Football team.
The "Picture on The Wall" is still there. It is the same picture, but it hangs on a different wall. The picture is now hanging on the wall of my office. I see it every day. Eighty years later, the faces remain the same…the smiles, the joy, the jubilation.
Those faces are frozen in time and will last for eternity. Those young football players never grow old. The men of the Greatest Generation in the fall of 1945 who authored the undefeated, undisputed Big Ten Football Champions. They live forever.
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