Wisconsin

The 8-1-1 Wisconsin team of 1942 was hailed by many to be the National Champion, finished third in the AP Poll, and featured the dazzling running of Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch who later found professional fame with the Los Angeles Rams. World War II broke up that team, sending many of the players to Michigan for military training, where they battered their old Badger mates when football season rolled around. Head Coach and former Notre Dame great Harry Stuhldreher held the reins since 1936 and hoped for better days at the end of the War. After a two-win season in '48 that left the Badgers in the Big Ten basement, he stepped down as coach but remained as Athletic Director. Among the candidates for the open job were Oklahoma's Bud Wilkinson, Brown's Rip Engle, and Liz Blackbourn, all of whom went on to much coaching success. Ivan “Ivy” Williamson was the man who got the position and he was well-suited for it. A former Michigan end rated as a "great" by his coach Fielding Yost, Williamson had apprenticed at Yale and with a number of well-respected collegiate coaches at various military stops. He led Lafayette to a 13-5 mark in two years as their head man and beat most of the Eastern powers. His best trait was that of an organizer and his staff reflected that, bringing in line coach Milt Bruhn, backfield coach Bob Odell (a former Penn star), and George Lanphear. Home sellouts became the rule with Williamson's exciting teams that competed for the conference title until the final week of the season in all but his final year. With very much the same team that had gone 2-7 the season before, Williamson's 1949 squad went a respectable 5-3-1, put up a hefty 207 points, and his coaching genius was reflected in taking All Big Ten center Bob "Red" Wilson and converting him into an All American end. Wilson also starred for Wisconsin’s baseball team and went on to a ten year Major League Baseball career. Williamson enhanced the excitement that his teams brought to the gridiron by moving the players into the suspension era helmets and unlike most universities, having two sets that nicely reflected the school colors of cardinal and white. Through at least the 1954 season, the Badgers would wear a cardinal shell with a one-inch white center stripe for some games and a white shell with a contrasting cardinal center stripe for others until settling on the white helmet as their usual “base color.”

Passing QB John Coatta, the future Badger head coach, set the pace in Williamson’s Split-T Offense of 1950, throwing to end Gene Felker who played well on both sides of the ball, and the team improved to 6-3. Captain G Ken Huxhold kept order up front while HB Ed Withers from Madison Central High School received some All American notices, primarily for his defensive play that was highlighted by intercepting three passes against Iowa for 103 yards in returns. He was Wisconsin’s first African-American football player to receive All American honors. The special team of ’51 was known as the "Hard Rocks" because of their tough defensive play, the best in the nation that yielded but 68.9 yards per game and fifty-three points for the nine game season. All American end Pat O’Donahue who played with the Forty Niners and after his military service, the Packers, was the group’s fiery leader. The overlooked offense led the Big Ten in scoring. The 14-10 loss to the Illini in the second game of the year cost them the conference championship and they finished 7-1-1 and ranked eighth at the end of the season in the national poll as frosh FB Alan "The Horse" Ameche took center stage leading the conference in rushing with 824 yards. End Felker who played for the pro Dallas Texans in '52 was the top target, and QB Coatta who was also an excellent place kicker, led the Big Ten in both passing percentage and scoring. The Hard Rocks secondary was led by Withers who again was named to a number of All American teams with able assistance from young Don Voss.

1952’s 6-2-1 record tied Purdue for the Big Ten title as All Conference FB Ameche led the conference in rushing for the second time and was also named to the Academic All American team. QB Jim Haluska threw for a terrific 1410 yards and twelve TD’s. This attack strength gave the vote of the Big Ten Athletic Directors to the Badgers and they were off to their first-ever post-season game, the Rose Bowl, where they lost 7-0 to USC despite Ameche’s 133 yards in twenty-eight rushing attempts. Although the defense wasn't quite up to the '51 "Hard Rocks" group, it was certainly solid with end Voss and tackle Dave Suminski, both of whom were named as All American. Voss also earned All American distinction in track and field. 1953 brought another 6-2-1 mark and the squad was in the battle for the league crown right up to the season finale. Without QB Haluska who broke his leg while playing basketball over the summer, FB Ameche was “the man” and tacked on another 524 yards to his rushing statistics. He repeated as an Academic All American and All American as well as an All Big Ten choice. He doubled at LB and played well for fifty-five minutes each game. Ends Voss and Ron Locklin teamed with center Gary Messner and tackle Suminski who played with both the Redskins and Cardinals in 1954, to control the front line. 1954 introduced a variation to the offensive attack, adding Wing-T plays to their basic Split-T and their 7-2 record tied them for second in the conference with FB Ameche winning all of the nation's major honors. Jim Miller was a capable QB and Ameche, “The Horse,” once again was named All American and Academic All American, as well as winning the Heisman Trophy and the first Walter Camp Trophy. He finished with a laundry list of school and conference rushing records and added the NCAA career rushing mark of 3212 yards on 673 carries. Ameche topped off his tremendous collegiate career in the post season as the MVP in the Senior Bowl before moving on to a short but productive pro career. Captain and guard Messner paved the way for Ameche.

SPOTLIGHT ON ALAN AMECHE:

Born Lino Dante Amici in Italy, the family immigrated to the US, returned to Italy, and finally came back to settle in Kenosha, WI. Legally changing his name to Alan at the age of sixteen, Ameche put Mary Bradford High School in the history books as one of Wisconsin's greatest football teams, one that scored more touchdowns than opponents scored points in his senior year. Ameche tallied 108 points for the undefeated state champions while setting a host of city records. He went to the state finals in track for the 100-yard sprint and also won the state shot put title. After knocking his first opponent in the State Golden Gloves Championships unconscious, the remainder of Ameche’s scheduled opponents refused to enter the ring against him, giving him the heavyweight title by default. At Wisconsin, he captured the starting fullback position by the fourth game of his freshman year with a 148-yard effort against Purdue. For the heralded “Hard Rocks” squad of 1951, known as one of the greatest Wisconsin teams of all time for their frenzied defense, he became the first freshman to lead the Big Ten in rushing with 824 yards. As a sophomore, he led the Badgers to a tie with Purdue for the title, again topped the Big Ten in rushing, and was All Conference for the first of three times. He gained 133 yards in the Rose Bowl vs. USC and then took on a linebacking position with the one-platoon rules changes of his junior season. Ameche was All American, Academic All American, and All Big Ten selections averaging fifty-five minutes per game. Despite injuries, he finished in '54 as the NCAA, Big Ten, and Wisconsin career rush leader, totaling 3212 yards on 673 carries with sixteen one-hundred-plus yard games. As the MVP of his team and the Big Ten Conference, Ameche received the very first Walter Camp Memorial Award and won the Heisman Trophy. Nicknamed “The Horse” because of his ability to burst through the line “like a racehorse” and at times compared to the great thoroughbred Citation, Ameche passed on pro wrestling and Canadian League offers to join the Colts as their first-round draft choice and was NFL Rookie Of The Year while making the first of his four Pro Bowl games. Best known for scoring the winning TD in the first Sudden Death overtime game in the 1958 championship bout against the Giants, Ameche retired after six seasons due to an Achilles tendon tear. His first Gino's Restaurant, opened in 1957, was parlayed into a chain of three-hundred hamburger outlets with partner and Colt teammate Gino Marchetti and both became multi-millionaires when they sold out to the Marriot Corporation. A member of the University Of Wisconsin, State Of Wisconsin, and College Football Halls Of Fame and voted as the University's greatest all-time player, Ameche was under publicized for the scope of his charity work. The reserved and polite Ameche who had married his high school sweetheart and had six children, died of complications following heart by-pass surgery on August 8, 1988. Ironically, his wife Yvonne re-married another Heisman winner, Army's Glenn Davis in 1996 and daughter Cathy married John Cappelletti's (1973 Heisman winner) brother Michael. Forever remembered by his nickname "The Horse," Ameche remains one of the most respected and beloved figures in the history of college football.

1955 marked Williamson’s only losing season as the Badgers finished 4-5. QB was shared by Jim Miller and Jim Haluska and soph Danny Lewis ran well but even when teamed with solid FB Charlie Thomas, the backfield was not at the level of the Amerche-led units. With an inconsistent offense, only one of the losses, a 17-14 defeat at the hands of Illinois, may have been reversible. With the opening of the AD position, Williamson agreed to move up and name a successor as head coach at the end of the season. His seven-year record of 41-19-4 was the best the Badgers had in the modern era until the 1990 arrival of Barry Alvarez and he took Wisconsin from the conference doldrums to being consistent contenders for the league title. Milt Bruhn had been a two-sport athlete at Minnesota and served as the line coach and Williamson’s top assistant at both Lafayette and Wisconsin. His 1-5-3 1956 debut was less than expected but Bruhn shifted to a Straight-T Formation instead of the multiple attack Williamson had used. He could not settle on a QB and used four in one game on more than one occasion until Sid Williams stepped up. An African-American from segregated Dunbar H.S. in Little Rock, Arkansas, he was one of the first Black QB's to start for a major program. HB Danny Lewis was the lone bright spot as the team's top scorer and he rushed for 554 yards. Completing his career as a two-year letter winner was guard Stephen Ambrose who later won fame as an historian, the author of biographies about American Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, and accounts of the Second World War that were best selling books that were made into the popular movie Band Of Brothers.