1920 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

1920 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
National champion (Billingsley)
Co-national champion (Davis)
ConferenceIndependent
Record9–0
Head coach
Offensive schemeSingle-wing
Base defense7–2–2
CaptainFrank Coughlin
Home stadiumCartier Field
Uniform
Seasons
← 1919
1921 →
1920 Midwestern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
Notre Dame     9 0 0
Michigan Mines     2 0 0
Butler     7 1 0
St. Xavier     7 1 0
Detroit     8 2 0
Marquette     7 2 0
Haskell     7 2 1
St. Ignatius (OH)     4 2 0
Iowa State Teachers     4 2 1
South Dakota State     4 2 1
Indiana State     3 2 0
Valparaiso     5 3 0
Nebraska     5 3 1
Central Michigan     4 3 1
Akron     4 4 0
Wabash     3 4 0
Western State Normal (MI)     3 4 0
North Dakota Agricultural     2 3 1
Michigan Agricultural     4 6 0
Earlham     2 3 0
Northern Illinois State     3 5 0
Dayton     2 4 0
Kent State     1 2 0
Saint Louis     3 6 0
Bowling Green     1 4 0
Toledo     0 3 0

The 1920 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team was an American football team that represented the University of Notre Dame as an independent during the 1920 college football season. In their third year under head coach Knute Rockne, the team compiled a perfect 9–0 record and outscored opponents by a total of 251 to 44.[1][2]

There was no contemporaneous system in 1919 for determining a national champion. However, Notre Dame was retroactively named as the national champion by the Billingsley Report and as a co-national champion by Parke H. Davis.[3]

Senior halfback George Gipp was a consensus pick on the 1920 All-America college football team.[4] He died on December 14, 1920, due to a streptococcal throat infection and pneumonia.[5] Other Notre Dame players who received 1920 All-America honors included: ends Eddie Anderson (first-team from United Press) and Roger Kiley (first-team from International News Service); and tackle Frank Coughlin (second-team from International News Service and Walter Eckersall).

  1. ^ "1920 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  2. ^ "The Season's Review 1920" (PDF). University of Notre Dame. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
  3. ^ 2020 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (PDF). Indianapolis: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. July 2020. pp. 112–114. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  4. ^ "Football Award Winners" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2016. p. 6. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  5. ^ "Gipp will be buried Thursday". Milwaukee Sentinel. December 15, 1920. p. 10.[permanent dead link]