IT'S NOT THE GAME, IT'S THE ANTICIPATION OF THE GAME THAT WE ALL LOVE

It ain't 1946, but it's close...While we all immerse ourselves in the Anticipation for tonight's Texas vs USC "Game of the Century" we hope for a hell of a game once the hype dies down. "Games of the Century" don't usually turn into anything more than a game of the week; only a few have turned out to be great games. But if you think the current Anticipation of the USC-Texas Game is wild, it pales to nothing when compared to the anticipation for blood that took place back in 1946. National Heroes were pitted against National villains. Most fans wanted to see actual blood and a few deaths wouldn't have been bad either.

The real college "?game of the century"? took place between two undisputed undefeated football powerhouses. One team was coming off three years of losing, the other was continuing a run that was approaching three undefeated seasons during which they had buried opponents by average scores of 56-4 and 46 to 5. They had run over their current undefeated opponent "like Patton ran over France;" running up scores of 59-0 and 48-0 over the past two years. So what was the big deal way back then?

The big deal was the two teams, Army and Notre Dame, clashing in a rivalry that dated back to the 1920s when somebody named Knute Rockne invented the forward pass just so little Notre Dame could beat a favored Army team and go down in football lore.

The much talked about Army teams of the mid forties ran up their record during war time by beating up on the physically unfit for service. Called 4Fs, these guys had absolutely no chance against the "best of the best"? and were in school because nobody would accept them for military service. Most of the country with relatives killed in action or still serving in combat hated the Army football teams, referring to them as "a bunch of draft dodgers." The guys who lived after serving overseas hated them too because others were dying in their places.

The Army guys knew that more than fifty percent of the West Point graduating classes of 1941 through 1944 had been killed in action while even more were wounded. West Point was not the place where cowards went to train for the soft life.

When the war was finally over, the players who had been in the service "came back," many with no higher purpose than to play against Army and destroy them. No university had more hard core combat veterans than Notre Dame, the team of 4Fs that Army had slaughtered during the war. The all male Notre Dame campus was so filled with hate for the Army team that during the week before the game things almost got out of control. They wanted to stomp Army, to destroy the draft dodgers from the Hudson. Priests actually had to restrain the pep rally from getting violent after a guy who lost both legs on Tarawa led the student body in the Notre Dame fight song. Talk about crazy.

The Army Notre Dame football game of 1946 took place against the background of hate for the Army team as well as love for it from a large part of the country who felt that the Military Academy guys would do their duty if called and were ready to fight at any time. It was a game of national hate vs national love. Draft Dodgers vs the much hated Catholics. Two legendary football powers during peacetime were to clash in "The Battle of the Century." Everyone in the country was reaching back to a pre-War 1941, a time before their sons and fathers been killed in the war. To them the game was unfinished business. To make it even bigger, the battle to the death was to be played at a sold out Yankee Stadium in New York City.

How did it turn out? The legendary Army backfield of the now mythical "Mr. Inside" and "Mr. Outside" (Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard) was held in check except for one long Blanchard run; Army made it to the Notre Dame 30 just four times. The kill crazy Notre Dame team, which was filled to the brim with soon to be all pro players, mounted one drive that failed on the four yard line and that was it. The defensive stars of the game were the two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Arnold Tucker and Johnny Lujak (this was the day of the two way player). Lujak made a game saving tackle on the sprinting Doc Blanchard which "saved the game"? and Tucker intercepted a pass in the endzone that Lujak had tossed from the four yard line, an interception that "saved the game." The total offence for these two offensive powerhouses was barely over 400 yards, 219 yards for Notre Dame and 224 for Army. The final score of 0-0 pleased nobody, the tie ended Army's multi year unbeaten string, and Notre Dame'?s war heroes ended up the Number One college football team in the land.

The only Army All American who dodged military service was Glenn Davis who was basically a bust when he joined the NFL, helping the story that Army was picking on cripples during the war. Never mind, the anticipation for that "Game of the Century"? is still the greatest ever, even though the actual game was a bust.

Let's hope for better tonight because neither the USC nor the Texas teams padded their records by beating up on 4Fs, The Eyes of Texas will be upon them and USC will "fight on."