Before there was Joe Burrow or Cam Newton coming out of absolutely nowhere to win the Heisman Trophy, there was a young man by the name of John Huarte.
Huarte split time at quarterback with Frank Budka in 1963 as Notre Dame went just 2-7 in what was a truly awful year. One fall later though, the Fighting Irish had hired Ara Parseghian and began one of the all-time turnarounds in college football history.
Week One of the 1964 campaign saw Notre Dame win big at Wisconsin, 31-7 behind touchdown passes of 61 and 42 yards from Huarte to Jack Snow. Snow would finish the season with 1114 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in what was an all-time turnaround.
What was the 2-7 Irish a year before soared from un-ranked to number one after wins over Purdue, Air Force, UCLA, Stanford and Navy to start the season. Once top-ranked they’d then beat Pitt, Michigan State and Iowa in succession to move to 9-0 and a win over USC away from one of the most unlikely national championships in college football history.
Things didn’t go that way for the Irish though, losing 20-17 to close the year at the Coliseum. What did happen though was John Huarte, pretty much a complete unknown to the nation just months before, walked away with Notre Dame’s sixth Heisman Trophy in program history.
Huarte won the Heisman after setting a dozen Notre Dame passing records in 1964 while also setting a pair of NCAA passing records.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5t2_D3rI7g&w=560&h=315]
Huarte would go on to play professionally from 1965-75 before calling it a football career. He’d go on to found Arizona Tile a couple years later and turned a small business into a chain of more than 25 stores out west. Just a couple years ago Huarte repaid his alma-mater with a one-million dollar donation.
Happy 75th to an all-time Notre Dame legend!