Saw the other thread on the 75th anniversary of Iwo and it reminded me of the UT football angle to the story too. Seventy-five years ago today, former UT head coach Jack Chevigny died on the beach at Iwo Jima. He grew up in Indiana and was a good athlete -- good enough to play halfback for Notre Dame in the late 1920s. He made his way into Notre Dame history in the famous 1928 "Win One for the Gipper" game. In that game, played in Yankee Stadium, an undermanned Fighting Irish team, supposedly inspired by Coach Knute Rockne's halftime speech about a dying George Gipp, upset the then-#1 ranked Army Black Knights. Chevigny scored the tying touchdown in the third quarter, and then threw a block to spring his teammate for the game-winning touchdown in the fourth, reportedly yelling "There's one for the Gipper !" Some folks dispute whether Rockne really gave the iconic halftime speech. If he did, it probably wasn’t the one from the classic movie “Knute Rockne, All American.”
After graduation, Chevigny became a Notre Dame graduate assistant. He was supposedly temperamental and a falling out there led to his coaching the Chicago Cardinals in the NFL for a year, and then on to Texas and Austin to coach at St. Edward's. (Apparently the Hilltoppers actually fielded a football team back then.) When legendary UT Coach Clyde Littlefield stepped down as the Horns’ head football coach in 1934, Chevigny replaced him. In only his second game, Chevigny took his Longhorns to South Bend where they beat his old alma mater 7-6. Legend has it that after that game, old Notre Dame friends presented Chevigny with a pen that said "To Jack Chevigny, a Notre Dame boy who beat Notre Dame."
The story takes a poignant turn after that. Despite his successful first season, Chevigny had difficulty recruiting in Texas and his Horns subsequently suffered two straight losing seasons. He resigned, the first UT head football coach to depart campus with a losing record.
Chevigny worked in state government in Austin for a few years, then returned to his family business in the Midwest. He enlisted in the Marines after the start of World War II and was in the initial spearhead landing on Iwo Jima 75 years ago today on February 19, 1945. I wonder whether as he was going in to the beach on his landing craft, he had time to reflect on the strange journey that had taken him from South Bend to Chicago to Austin and eventually to such a desolate island in the Pacific. He was only 38 years old and he was killed later that day by a Japanese mortar or artillery shell. (Chevigny wasn’t the only football star to die at Iwo Jima. Former standout Georgia lineman and Green Bay Packer “Smiley” Johnson was killed that same day by an artillery round. A few days later, Baylor and New York Giants star Jack Lummus died in combat there.)
Legend also has it that seven months later in August 1945 at the formal surrender ceremony on the battleship USS Missouri that ended World War II, Chevigny's pen commemorating UT's victory over Notre Dame was recovered from a Japanese officer. This story has been hard to verify. As they say, if it ain’t true, it oughta be.
R.I.P. coach.
After graduation, Chevigny became a Notre Dame graduate assistant. He was supposedly temperamental and a falling out there led to his coaching the Chicago Cardinals in the NFL for a year, and then on to Texas and Austin to coach at St. Edward's. (Apparently the Hilltoppers actually fielded a football team back then.) When legendary UT Coach Clyde Littlefield stepped down as the Horns’ head football coach in 1934, Chevigny replaced him. In only his second game, Chevigny took his Longhorns to South Bend where they beat his old alma mater 7-6. Legend has it that after that game, old Notre Dame friends presented Chevigny with a pen that said "To Jack Chevigny, a Notre Dame boy who beat Notre Dame."
The story takes a poignant turn after that. Despite his successful first season, Chevigny had difficulty recruiting in Texas and his Horns subsequently suffered two straight losing seasons. He resigned, the first UT head football coach to depart campus with a losing record.
Chevigny worked in state government in Austin for a few years, then returned to his family business in the Midwest. He enlisted in the Marines after the start of World War II and was in the initial spearhead landing on Iwo Jima 75 years ago today on February 19, 1945. I wonder whether as he was going in to the beach on his landing craft, he had time to reflect on the strange journey that had taken him from South Bend to Chicago to Austin and eventually to such a desolate island in the Pacific. He was only 38 years old and he was killed later that day by a Japanese mortar or artillery shell. (Chevigny wasn’t the only football star to die at Iwo Jima. Former standout Georgia lineman and Green Bay Packer “Smiley” Johnson was killed that same day by an artillery round. A few days later, Baylor and New York Giants star Jack Lummus died in combat there.)
Legend also has it that seven months later in August 1945 at the formal surrender ceremony on the battleship USS Missouri that ended World War II, Chevigny's pen commemorating UT's victory over Notre Dame was recovered from a Japanese officer. This story has been hard to verify. As they say, if it ain’t true, it oughta be.
R.I.P. coach.
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