Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right: High School Football in Illinois

Chapter 3: The Teams

3 The Teams Mount Carmel 1950: Best Team of Its Era Tom Carey recalls how he prepared to become the quarterback of Mount Carmel’s 1950 football team, acknowledged in a Chicago Sun-Times poll as the best in state history. Bob McBride was the coach when Carey,an undersized but eager freshman,showed up for the first team meeting at the South Side Catholic school. McBride said the 11 toughest kids in the room would start. “Football is a tough, physical sport,” McBride told them,“but if you do the things I tell you to do, I will assure you that you won’t get hurt if you get in shape and keep in shape.” Carey got the message. He joined the wrestling team to get in shape, to prove he was one of the 11 toughest kids in school.He weighed 117 pounds as a freshman and won the novice championship in the Central AAU competition. As a senior, he was 5–7 and weighed 135, even though he was listed on the football program at 175. McBride left after two years and Mount Carmel called Terry Brennan,a 1949 Notre Dame graduate who had become a national celebrity by returning a kickoff for a touchdown against Army in 1948, but hadn’t applied for the job and had no coaching experience. He was 36–6 in four years, and then was hired to serve on Frank Leahy’s staff at Notre Dame as a 25-year-old. Brennan’s first team finished 5–4,losing to Johnny Lattner and Fenwick,Leo,Loyola, and Aquinas, N.Y., 40–0 in the season finale. But everybody returned in 1950. The Caravan finished 11–0, smashed DePaul 51–14 for the Catholic League championship and Public League kingpin Lane Tech 45–20 in the Prep Bowl.They scored 464 points, allowed 121, and played five games in Soldier Field. Seven players were named All-Catholic, four were named All-State, three were named All-America, and five went to Notre Dame. Carey passed for 793 yards and 14 touchdowns, and Tim McHugh rushed for 1,198 yards, averaged 10 yards per carry, and scored 18 touchdowns.The team still holds the school single-game total offense record with 589 yards against DePaul. “It wasn’t a big team but they had very good team speed. They were strong and smart and tough,”Brennan said.“Some people thought I was nuts to have Tom Carey at quarterback on offense and linebacker on defense. But he was the undefeated middleweight wrestling champion in the city and I felt sorry for his opponents. I never enjoyed four years more than my time at Mount Carmel.” 74   / Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right The line averaged 160–165 pounds. Ted Cachey later played and was team captain at Michigan as a 175-pound offensive lineman. Fullback Dan Shannon was the biggest of all at 195 pounds.They were one of the first high school teams to adopt the revolutionary split-T offense, which Brennan picked up from Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson. At Brennan’s suggestion, Carey spent 10 days at Oklahoma’s spring practice to learn the system. “The first thing I learned was how to read defenses, what plays worked against which defenses,”Carey said.“We perfected it in 1950.The key to running it was when you break out of the huddle, set yourself, then read the defense. If you called dive in the huddle and they bring their linebackers up to form a nine-man line, how do you deal with it? We’d change the play, fake the dive, and pitch out.” “Pitch out” meant the ball was going to McHugh, arguably the greatest player in school history.As a junior, he ran behind center Dick Frasor, guards Cachey and Van Snyder, tackles Bill Walsh and Bob Dunklau, and ends Paul Matz and Paul Leoni. He left after the season because he had so many scholarship offers, was named a freshman All-American at Illinois by Collier’s magazine, then walked off the 1952 Rose Bowl team after a disagreement and was described in a Chicago Tribune article as “the strangest athlete in history.” “I had a hard head. I was big on my way or the highway. I’ve always been that way,” McHugh admitted.“But I loved my time at Mount Carmel. Terry Brennan was the...