Johnny Lattner, a 1979 College Football Hall of Fame inductee from Notre Dame and the 1953 Heisman Trophy recipient, passed away Feb. 12. Born Oct. 24, 1932, he was 83. Lattner, a 6-1, 190-pound halfback Notre Dame from 1951-53, can claim more offensive and defensive records than anyone else during his career.
In 1951, his sophomore year, he saved the Irish from defeat at the hands of Iowa. Notre Dame trailed, 20-13, with less than a minute and a half to go. It was fourth-and-ten on Notre Dame's 22-yard line, but instead of punting, Lattner threw his first college pass, a 23-yard completion, against the wishes of Hall of Fame Coach Frank Leahy. With 45 seconds left, Lattner raced 55 yards to the goal line, scoring the touchdown that helped Notre Dame to a 20-20 tie.
In a 28-21 victory against Oklahoma during his senior season, Lattner carried the ball 24 times for a 4.1 rushing average, caught two passes for 42 yards and intercepted a pass. He also punted nine times that afternoon, compiling a 38-yard average. After the game he modestly stated, "It was everybody's game, the whole team made it possible."
As a senior, Lattner played 421 of a possible 600 minutes. He scored nine touchdowns, accounted for 855 yards in rushing and catching, intercepted four passes, accounted for 424 yards in kick returns, and punted for a 35-yard average. His accomplishments earned him the 1953 Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell Award for a second consecutive year. He would also twice claim All- America honors.
“We just didn’t have specialists in one-platoon football,” Lattner said many years later. “It was a challenging type game because you had to be mentally and physically prepared to play 60 minutes. You had to spread your talent all over the field.”
Lattner finished with 1,724 rushing yards, 39 career passes for 613 yards, returned 11 kickoffs for 366 yards, 27 punts for 307 yards and 13 interceptions for 128 yards. His all-purpose yardage record stood until Vagas Ferguson broke it in 1979. He also played one season with the Irish basketball squad in 1951-52.
Lattner grew up in an apartment building on Chicago’s west side where the residents also included George Wilson. As a senior for coach Tony Lawless at Chicago’s Fenwick High School in 1949, Lattner received more than 90 football scholarship offers. He finally picked Notre Dame because the Irish had such a large following in Chicago. He wanted to prove himself to detractors who said he wasn’t good enough to play for Leahy, the legendary Irish coach known for his stern ways.
Lattner was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had an outstanding rookie year in 1954 before entering the service, where he injured his knee so severely in a pickup game that he never played again. A vice president and sales representative for many years for commercial printer PAL Graphics in Chicago, Lattner initially kept his Heisman atop a piano bar in his home. He later displayed it in a Chicago restaurant that he owned. When the restaurant burned, the trophy was destroyed, but the Heisman committee had a duplicate made. In recent years Lattner’s daughter Maggie has “booked” the trophy so various charitable organizations could use it for fundraising purposes, including making appearances at the NFF Chicago Metro Chapter Annual Awards Banquet.
Lattner is survived by his wife Peggy, eight children and 25 grandchildren (six of them competed in athletics at the college level). Visitation will be 3-9 p.m. CST Friday (Feb. 19) at Lawless Gymnasium at Fenwick High School (505 Washington Blvd.) in Oak Lawn, Illinois. The funeral will be at noon CST Saturday (Feb. 20) at St. Vincent Ferrer Church (1530 Jackson Avenue) in River Forest, Illinois.
Parts of this story are taken from a press release from Notre Dame Athletics, which credited a feature on John Lattner by Billy Reed that appeared in the 1988 Notre Dame-Miami official football game program.
