1945 Football Team

1945 Army 9-0 AP#1

09/29 Army 32 – Louisville Field 0
10/06 Army 54 – Wake Forest 0
10/13 Army 28 – Michigan 7
10/20 Army 55 – Melville PT Boats 13
10/27 Army 48 – Duke 13
11/03 Army 54 – Villanova 0
11/10 Army 48 – Notre Dame 0
11/17 Army 61 – Pennsylvania 0
12/01 Army 32 – Navy 13 W Philadelphia, PA

Unanimous choice for the nation’s number one team by the 116 voters in the Associated Press writers’ poll. The runner up was Navy.

Coach: Earl Henry “Red” Blaik (February 15, 1897 – May 6, 1989)
Dartmouth 1934-1940 – 45-15-4
Army: 1941-1958 – 121-33-10
Overall: 166-48-14
Awards:
All-American, 1919
AFCA Coach of the Year (1946)
College Football Hall of Fame, Inducted in 1964

Howitzer 1946 – not available online

http://digital-library.usma.edu/cdm/search/collection/howitzers/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/display/50/order/title/ad/asc

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ArmyFB_1945_team-NationalChamps_AssemblyJan46
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armyfb_1945_vsmichigan_stpetersburgtimes_oct141945

ArmyFB_1945_vsMichigan_StPetersburgTimes_Oct141945

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ArmyFB_1945_vsNotreDame_MilwaukeeJournal_Nov101945

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Tom McWilliams, Arnold Tucker, Doc Blanchard, and Glenn Davis

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ArmyFB_1945_vsPenn-Linemen_DailyTimesPa_Nov151945
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ArmyFB_1945_vsPenn-GlennDavis_DailyTimes_Nov171945
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ArmyFB_1945_Blanchard-Davis_PainesvilleTelegraph_Nov191945
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ArmyFB_1945_backs_LIFE_Nov191945
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ArmyFB_1945_plays_LIFE_Nov191945
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News Articles

ArmyFB_1945_RobertStOnge_byPap_CSM_Jun111945

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ArmyFB_1945_ArnoldTucker_byPap_CSM_Oct131945

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ArmyFB_1945_GlennDavis_byJackSords_TheDailyTimes-RochesterPA_Oct181945

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ArmyFB_1945_DewittTEXCoulter_byPap_CSM_Nov61945

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ArmyFB_1945_DewittCoulter_byJackSords_PainesvilleTelegraph_DailyTimesPa_Nov17-23-241945
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armyfb_1945_texcoulter_prescotteveneingcourier_nov231945

ArmyFB_1945_TexCoulter_PrescottEveneingCourier_Nov231945

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ArmyFB_1945_GreatestTeam_MilwaukeeJournal_Nov271945

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ArmyFB_1945_vsNavy_PainesvilleTelegraph_Nov291945
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ArmyFB_1945_Blanchard-Davis_GreensburgDailyTribune_Nov291945
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armyfb_1945_backfield_deseretnews_nov301945

ArmyFB_1945_Backfield_DeseretNews_Nov301945

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ArmyFB_1945_BackfieldvsNavy_Herald-Tribune_Dec11945

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ArmyFB_1945_JohnGreen_byPap_CSM_Nov301945

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ArmyFB_1945_JohnGreen_byPap_CorningNYLeader_Dec141945

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ArmyFB_1945_onTV_vsNavy_SundayMorningStar_Dec21945
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ArmyFB_1945_vsNavy_MiamiNews_Dec21945
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armyfb_1945_vsnavy_herald-tribune_dec21945

ArmyFB_1945_vsNavy_Herald-Tribune_Dec21945

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ArmyFB_1945_Line_PainesvilleTelegraph_Dec61945

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ArmyFB_1945_All-Eastern_NewsandCourier_Dec51945

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NEA_1945_All-AmericanTeam_EntireArmyFirstTeam_PittsburghPress_Nov271945
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ArmyFB_1945_vsNavy-ServiceGameinShanghaiChina_GreensburgDailyTribune_Dec131945

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A closeup of the team in 1945 (misleading title) – awesome highlight film by legendary sportscaster Bill Stern

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Felix Blanchard

FILE – In this Oct. 13, 1945, file photo, Army halfback Felix Blanchard (35) weaves away as three Michigan men close in to tackle him after a 3-yard first-period gain in a college football game in New York. Michigan players are Stuart Wilkins (68), Dominic Tomasi (65), Harold Watts (58), and Walter Teninga (42). Army’s Albert Nemetz (75) is in the background. Felix “Doc” Blanchard, the 1945 Heisman Trophy winner and Army’s Mr. Inside in one of college football’s most famous backfields, has died. He was 84. (AP Photo/File)

armyfb_1945_blanchard_45heisman-art-bytedwatts

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Football’s Greatest Decade by Bernie Mcarty

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv01/CFHSNv01n1b – see page 5

This writer (Bernie Mcarty) believes West Point 1945 is the greatest team of all time. The 1944 Army team may actually deserve that title, but it was never tested. Army was also undefeated in 1946, 1948 and 1949.
Army’s top stars during 1945-1949 were the effulgent “Touchdown Twins”, Glenn Davis and “Doc” Blanchard, Arnold Tucker, Arnold Galiffa, “Rip” Rowan, Bobby Jack Stuart and Gil Stephenson in the back-field, and up front Joe Steffy, Art Gerometta, Jack Green, Bill Yoemans, Joe Henry “Tex” Coulter, Al Nemetz, and the sterling end duo of Hank Foldberg and Barney Poole.
In 1945 the Newspaper Enterprise Assoc. simply picked the entire Army team as its All-American team, stating no group of All-Americans could beat the Cadets.
Only a world war could have brought together such a collection of players to one institution. But it took the coaching genius of Col. Earl Blaik to mold the players into a cohesive unit.
In truth, Navy personnel was equal to Army’s on an individual basis. The Middies never jelled as a team, however.
The 1951 Army outfit might have been as good as the 1945 Cadets, but the infamous cribbing scandal wiped out the team.

Sports articles provided by Russ “Skip” Grimm – Class of ’76

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This entry was written by forwhattheygave, posted on January 20, 2008 at 11:20 pm, filed under Teams and tagged 1945, Football. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

One Comment

Philip Burkhalter

Posted November 5, 2019 at 9:52 am | Permalink

I am friends with Jack (Johnny) Green’s son Dan, all the way back when Jack coached Vanderbilt. He never talked about his years at Army. Typical captain.

My parents were good friends with Jack and Jean. They were in the same Sunday School class. He was a great person.

Philip Burkhalter