1943 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

The 1943 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1943 college football season. The Irish, coached by Frank Leahy, ended the season with 9 wins and 1 loss, winning the national championship.^[1] The 1943 team became the fourth Irish team to win the national title and the first for Frank Leahy. Led by Notre Dame's first Heisman Trophy winner, Angelo Bertelli, Notre Dame beat seven teams ranked in the top 13 and played seven of its ten games on the road.^[2] Despite a season ending loss to Great Lakes, Notre Dame was awarded its first national title by the Associated Press.^[3]

1943 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Consensus national champion
Conference	Independent
Ranking
AP	No. 1
Record	9–1
Head coach	Frank Leahy (3rd season)
Offensive scheme	T formation
Captain	Pat Filley
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium
Seasons ← 1942 1944 →

1943 Midwestern college football independents records

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Michigan State Normal			–					2	–	0	–	0
DePauw			–					5	–	0	–	1
No. 1 Notre Dame			–					9	–	1	–	0
Miami (OH)			–					7	–	2	–	1
Western Michigan			–					4	–	2	–	0
Bowling Green			–					5	–	3	–	1
Marquette			–					3	–	4	–	1
Central Michigan			–					2	–	3	–	0
Ohio Wesleyan			–					4	–	6	–	0
Xavier			–					1	–	6	–	0
Wayne			–					0	–	3	–	0
Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 25	at Pittsburgh		Pitt Stadium Pittsburgh, PA (rivalry)	W 41–0	43,437
October 2	Georgia Tech		Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	W 55–13	26,497–30,000	[4]
October 9	at No. 2 Michigan	No. 1	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI (rivalry)	W 35–12	86,408
October 16	at Wisconsin	No. 1	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	W 51–0	16,235
October 23	Illinois	No. 1	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN	W 47–0	24,676
October 30	vs. No. 3 Navy	No. 1	Cleveland Stadium Cleveland, OH (rivalry)	W 33–6	77,900
November 6	vs. No. 3 Army	No. 1	Yankee Stadium Bronx, NY (rivalry)	W 26–0	75,121
November 13	at No. 8 Northwestern	No. 1	Dyche Stadium Evanston, IL (rivalry)	W 25–6	49,124
November 20	No. 2 Iowa Pre-Flight	No. 1	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN	W 14–13	39,446
November 27	at Great Lakes Navy	No. 1	Ross Field Great Lakes, IL	L 14–19	23,000
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Rankings

See also: 1943 college football rankings

Notre Dame was the wire-to-wire No. 1 in the season's AP poll and won the Dr. Henry L. Williams Trophy.

Ranking movements
Legend: ( ) = First-place votes

	Week
Poll	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Final
AP	1 (53)	1 (86)	1 (98)	1 (97)	1 (97)	1 (91)	1 (87)	1 (97)	1 (86)

Awards and honors

• Angelo Bertelli: Heisman Trophy^[5]

All-Americans

Name	AP	UP	INS	COL	AA	SN	L
Angelo Bertelli, QB	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
Creighton Miller, HB	1	1	1	1	1
John Yonakor, E		1	1		1	1
† Jim White, T	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
Pat Filley, G	2	1				1
Herb Coleman, C		2
†denotes consensus selection      Source:[1]