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A Notre Dame team of pipsqueak size made the forward pass what it is today, after major colleges had slighted it as a possible weapon for something like 7 years.

Army had a gap in its 1913 schedule and was looking around for some "soft touch" to tune up its players for later contests against rugged foes. The Army schedule-maker heard about little-known Notre Dame and offered $1,000 to Notre Dame if it would care to meet Army. The little Western institution accepted, although $1,000 was just about enough to send 15 of its players from Indiana to West Point, N.Y.

Gus Dorais, quarterback, and Knute Rockne, an end for Notre Dame, worked at the Cedar Point (Ohio) vacation resort in the summer of 1913. Knowing the Army game was ahead and nursing a slim hope for victory, Dorais and Rockne practiced the forward pass on the beach of Lake Erie in their leisure hours. Dorais perfected himself as a pitcher and Rockne as a catcher. They had the trick down to a fine science when they returned to school in the autumn.

However, prior to the Army game, it was decided to school someone else in catching passes, since it was figured that if Rockne were the only receiver, he quickly would be smothered. Therefore, Pliska, a back, was tutored privately, and in due time Notre Dame moved on to West Point and took the field against the Army giants.

Dorais proceeded to put the forward pass into operation. His pitches baffled the Army men. Army players stood around helplessly for a while, then, with Dorais ready for a new offensive play, swirled around Rockne, who had been highly successful in ripping off tremendous yardage on aerials. Thereupon, Dorais passed to Pliska and continued to alternate his pitches, to the bewilderment of Army. Notre Dame defeated Army, 35 to 13, and "made" the forward pass as an attacking weapon. Those young gentlemen also "made" Notre Dame as a football institution, and the rise of the college from football obscurity to greatness dates from that spectacular debut along the banks of the Hudson River.

The unexpected result of the Army-Notre Dame game did more to popularize football with the masses than any that had ever been played. It gave courage to the smaller colleges, whose squads were made up chiefly of light men. It demonstrated that a light team, using the pass, could fight on even terms with the bulky squads devoted to line play or hurricanic charges around the flanks. It ended the day when brawn was the determining factor in football conflict.