Notre Dame and the Game that Changed Football: How Jesse Harper Made the Forward Pass a Weapon and Knute Rockne a Legend [Hardcover]

Frank P. Maggio (Author), Keith Jackson (Introduction), Joe Doyle (Afterword), Jim Harper (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Between 1880 and 1905, more than 325 deaths were reported in college football, and several major football schools, including Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, and Penn, threatened to drop the sport. President Theodore Roosevelt even called a White House conference to eliminate football's violence. One result was the development of the forward pass, which reduced the frequency of dangerous collisions between helmetless players. Enter Jesse Harper, head football coach at Notre Dame. Harper recognized the potential of the forward pass, and, by the summer of 1913, along with star players Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais, had perfected an efficient, overhand throwing motion. With this new offensive weapon, the Fighting Irish marched into West Point that fall to face the Eastern powerhouse Army, and routed the Black Knights 35–13. This victory not only changed the way football would be played, it also established Notre Dame as a football power. This is the story of Jesse Harper and his tremendous impact on the game we know today. Drawing from years of original research, Frank P. Maggio brings the classic victory to life and recounts Jesse Harper's role in Notre Dame's evolution into college football's most successful and storied program, and an elite university.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On November 1, 1913, Notre Dame's 29-year-old football coach, Jesse Harper, defeated Navy by having his team rely heavily—and successfully—on the forward pass, which had been legalized only seven years earlier. Notre Dame's surprising victory was the start of its football program becoming a sports powerhouse, Maggio believes, and it forever changed how the game was played. The book's first half is excellent, as Notre Dame alum Maggio (he graduated from the law school in 1963) offers a well-researched, insightful look at football's beginnings and the school's early struggles, highlighting just how important that victory was for the survival of two future American institutions. Bafflingly, after the historical game, Maggio devotes countless pages to summarizing every game associated with Harper, who was also Notre Dame's athletic director from 1931 to 1933. Without interviews from players and coaches to offer new insights into these games, the rest of the book reads like eight years' worth of box scores punctuated by letters between Harper and Rockne: his friend, former player and coaching protégé. Even die-hard Fighting Irish fans will have trouble enduring Maggio's lack of narrative flair and focus. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

It's hard for modern fans to imagine football without passing. And, frankly, without the invention of the forward pass early in the twentieth century, it's unlikely the game would have survived. At least 325 deaths were recorded in college football between 1880 and 1905. The pass was effectively introduced to open the game up and reduce the number of calamitous hits, but it wasn't until Jesse Harper, head coach at Notre Dame in 1913, developed an efficient throwing technique that it became a viable offensive weapon. Assisting him were two star players, Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais. The trio worked together in 1913, and later, when the Fighting Irish upset highly favored Army 35-13, the pass—and Notre Dame—secured their places in football history. Maggio researched his subject carefully, uncovering heretofore unseen correspondence between Harper and Rockne. The result is a compellingly readable and informative examination of a seldom discussed cornerstone of football history. Detailed notes and an extensive bibliography round out an impressive volume. Lukowsky, Wes

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078672014X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786720149
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,108,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Jackson, Jesse

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but a lot of repetiton, September 22, 2008

By 

Domer1956 (Mount Dora, FL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Notre Dame and the Game that Changed Football: How Jesse Harper Made the Forward Pass a Weapon and Knute Rockne a Legend (Hardcover)

I learned some interesting and previously unknown things about the pre-Rockne days at ND, but there was a lot of repetition and needless details that didn't add anything. The book could have been much shorter.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the book the title promises, March 4, 2010

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M. GLENNON - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Notre Dame and the Game that Changed Football: How Jesse Harper Made the Forward Pass a Weapon and Knute Rockne a Legend (Hardcover)

I pulled this title having read Lars Anderson's book on the 1915 Carlisle-Army game and Mark Bowden's book on the 1958 NFL championship. I would recommend either of those without qualification. Both provide a thorough background leading up to and culminating in a particular pivotal game, which game itself is described in exciting detail (although not quite down-by-down). Anderson and Bowden provide nice little mini-bios of the key players and a taut history of football leading up to the game in question (in fact it might not be a stretch to say that Bowden's book proivdes a better retelling of football's becoming a more "open" game than this volume.) The background provided here is not the same level or quality and the game description itlsef is lacking. Quite tellingly, the game of the title taks place at the mid-way point of the book. The rest of the book to follow the game account, and much of what precedes it in fact, is really just a hagiography of Harper. The exciting history of ND football deserves better.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Notre Dame wasn't the first throwing team, June 21, 2008

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Homer Martin (West Monroe, Louisiana USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Notre Dame and the Game that Changed Football: How Jesse Harper Made the Forward Pass a Weapon and Knute Rockne a Legend (Hardcover)

I like the subject of the book, but really the Army game was long after Carlisle and LSU had been throwing the ball with great effect in the years of 1906-1909.

The game of 1913 wasn't the first forward pass and many years after Pop Warner had made the Indians a passing machine. The Indians with Jim Thorpe and the great passing game of 1907-08 were a one of the best early football teams.

Its Carlisle in the North and LSU in the South that put the passing game on the map and near every football team in America started following thier lead.

Army had already been beat by Carlisle great team of 1912 and between Jim Thorpe's running and the Indians passing game, Army was destoryed by the score of 27-6.

Coach Wingrad comes to LSU and has the pass as his key weapon in the 1907 and 08 seasons, Joe Pitchard uses the same offense in 1909 at LSU. Its the two key passing plays vs Auburn on plains that lead to the victory over the Plainsmen, both passes were Fenton to Seip in a 10-2 victory. Read up on Doc Fenton, he is in the Hall of Fame and was the key passer on those teams.

Hollywood made the myth out of the Army-Notre Dame game and today we are still hearing the myth, its time to put it to rest.

So unlike the movie shows, no one by 1913 and in no way was Army surprised by the farward pass.

And Notre Dame like all the smaller teams of those times saw and knew that the small Indian teams had beat the football powers of Harvard, Yale, Penn, Army, Navy, etc using the passing game.