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

Chapter 1: The Players

1 The Players Johnny Lattner: Heisman Trophy Winner Johnny Lattner, who once had his picture on the cover of Time magazine after winning the Heisman Trophy for his football exploits at Notre Dame, admits he experienced “one of the biggest thrills of my life” while playing basketball. As a senior at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, he was an All-State tailback and captained the football team to the Prep Bowl for the second year in a row. But he also was the captain and leading scorer on a Friar basketball team that beat Tilden at Chicago Stadium for the All-City championship. “I enjoyed basketball as much as football,” Lattner recalled.“After my sophomore season in football at Notre Dame, I tried out for the basketball team. I didn’t make the traveling squad but when two players were declared ineligible, I was put on the team. “We’re playing Navy and NYU in Madison Square Garden in New York and I’m sitting on the end of the bench watching the girls and not paying attention. We’re losing by one point and Leroy Leslie, the team captain, fouled out and assistant coach Johnny Dee called me to go in. “I get the ball with 17 seconds to play, I score and we win by one point. [Famed New York sports columnist] Red Smith, a Notre Dame guy, wrote how athletes could play football and basketball. Leslie scored 32 points and I get one basket and get a big write-up.The next year, I figured I’d flunk out if I played basketball.” In fact, Lattner loved basketball so much that he nearly passed up his trip to New York to accept the Heisman Trophy because he didn’t want to miss a basketball game at Dayton. “He asked,‘What should I do?’ He invited his mother to go to New York in his place. Then he decided he’d better go,” said Bob Rigali, a Fenwick classmate who roomed with Lattner at Notre Dame for two years.“He was serious about playing the basketball game and not letting the other guys on the team down.” But his biggest disappointment came in football, when he fumbled at the goal line with his unbeaten team leading 7–0 and Fenwick went on to lose to Schurz 20–7 in the 1949 Prep Bowl before nearly 58,000 witnesses in Soldier Field. It was the second year in a row that Fenwick had lost in the Prep Bowl. “I’ll never forget that loss.Neither will the other Fenwick guys.That was my biggest disappointment in football,”Lattner said.“We beat St. George for the Catholic League 4   / Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right championship.We were better than 1948.We beat Leo,the preseason pick,and Mount Carmel, which was being coached by Terry Brennan in his first season.” Lattner,halfback Bob Rigali,quarterback Norm Canty,guard John Dwyer,and center Don Weaver were the hubs of the 1949 squad. Rigali, whose father had played for Knute Rockne, won the Tony Lawless Award (named for the Fenwick coach) for his academic and athletic prowess. Lattner was the second choice. “He still talks about that fumble in the Prep Bowl,” Dwyer said.“It still hurts him to think about that fumble.” In 1948, Lattner was an All-State end on a Fenwick team that also was unbeaten until losing to Lindblom and Dale Samuels 13–7 before 65,000 in the Prep Bowl. Because teammates Bob Rigali and Ed Lejeune were injured, Lattner was called upon to play a lot of halfback. But he couldn’t do anything about Samuels. “Samuels was a legend in the city,” Lattner said.“They used him like a spread offense. We chased him all over the field. He’d stand 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage and throw the ball. I chased him all the time but never caught him.” Samuels tormented Lattner on defense, too.“I was deep on kickoffs. Twice after they scored I’m running down the sideline and a blocking wall formed in front of me and I thought I was going to break away for a touchdown. But Samuels tackled me twice,” he said. Lattner, the youngest of three children, grew up on Laverne and Madison, on Chicago ’s West Side. Former Austin star Bill DeCorrevont still was a legend in those parts. His...