It’s always fun when big, new moments in sports create big, new facts connecting eras, generations, and rival teams or competitors.
Whenever Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic won a major championship in men’s tennis, they would create an impressive, new fact about their rivalry with each other and their respective rivalries with Roger Federer.
When Tom Brady or a Manning brother won a Super Bowl, the rivalry between Brady and the Mannings would take on new dimensions.
When Steph Curry or LeBron James win the NBA Finals, the contours and comparisons involved in their respective NBA journeys would become sharper, more defined, and historically resonant.
At the 2022 Heisman Trophy ceremony, the rivalry between USC and Notre Dame in major college football gained a new and fascinating fact. These two schools are part of the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football, and one of the best intersectional rivalries in American sports, right up there with Lakers-Celtics and Dodgers-Yankees.
Here is the big, new fact to savor after Caleb Williams won the 2022 Heisman this past weekend in New York:
New #Heisman winner @CALEBcsw joins Huarte of ND (’64) as the only Heisman winners to engineer as much as a 7-win improvement for a school over its previous season. The ’64 ND squad went from 2-7 in ’63 to 9-1 in ’64, while USC jumped from 4-8 in '21 to 11-2 in '22. pic.twitter.com/HQMKA70zls
— The Heisman Trophy (@HeismanTrophy) December 11, 2022
John Huarte was honored in Los Angeles the day before Caleb Williams beat the Fighting Irish in the Coliseum and locked down the 2022 Heisman.
Huarte won the 1964 Heisman. Notably, USC denied him and Notre Dame the 1964 national championship with a historic upset of the Irish in the Coliseum. The cover photo for this story shows John Huarte in that 1964 Notre Dame-USC game, one of the most significant in the history of the series.
Listen to our Rockne Society podcast for more on the Nov. 25 event in which John Huarte and other Notre Dame alumni were honored in L.A. the day before this year’s Irish-Trojan game:
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