Navy at Notre Dame

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  Evening star, Washington, D.C., November 4, 1963, page 16

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  In q game In which Navy scored IS points, one punt does not seem very important at first glance. But the way Wayne Hardin, the Navy coach, sees It. that was the key to the Middies’ 35–⁠14 conquest Of Notre Dame Saturday. Joe Ince. Nays punter, was back to kick on q fourth-andnine situation at the Middies’ So during the second quarter. Center Bruce Kenton’s pass skinned along the ground, and after Ince fielded the ball he had to run for his life to avoid those blood-thirsty Irish line men. Unlike Dan McGinn, the Notre Dame punter. Ince had no intention Of either running or passing. All he wanted todo was kick. And he finally did-on the dead run. It wasn’t q very long kick, covering only 20 yards to the Notre Dame AZ. But this was infinitely more comfortable than to have the Irish perched on the Navy rs. particularly considering the fact that the score was tied, TT, at the time. Costs Irish Touchdown Had the kick been blocked or had Ince been tackled back there” Hardin said. I’VE could have been behind at halftime. !” When he said this he also i’m piled that II Navy had been behind at the half, there was q good chance the Middies would have trailed at the end Of the game. McGinn had two experiences Of this nature, and the second cost the Irish q touchdown. The second time Notre Dame was forced to punt, the Middies broke through, and McGinn, instead Of persevering as Ince did later. tried q pass to End Tom Goverville. 1t was incomplete and Navy took over on the Notre Dame 36. This was wasted opportunity, because four plays later the Middies were on the Notre Dame 81. But the next time Notre Dame tried to punt. Neil Hen derson, q second-string end, nailed McGinn on the Notre Dame 10. Five plays later the Middies had their first touch down. No Surprise The fact that the Midshipmen could get to McGinn came as no surprise to Hardin. I’VE figured that we could rush him. We noticed in the movies that McGinn is a three step punter. He’s slow getting the ball away. But we were surprised that he didn’t try to get them off. He had the time” If there was one play that settled the game. Hardin said that this was it. But he also believes that a couple of other things had some bearing on the outcome. One was a decision he made following Nays 20–⁠12 loss to Notre Dame last year, when he changed his game plan because Of high winds and rain in Philadelphia. II made the decision then that I would never change my game plan again. I didn’t even consider it before this game, he said, recalling that Saturday morning was windy and rainy and occasionally snowy. Hardin’s other point concerned the big lead Navy built up In the third quarter when the Middies scored 81 points and

Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The text is the machine reading of the page, mistakes and all.

Officially, Notre Dame leads 82–⁠13–⁠1; as played, 84–⁠13–⁠1 in 98 meetings, counting the 61 since this game.