Throwback Thursday: The Recruitment Of Alan Ameche.

This Flicker was originally posted on 6/12/14

Alan Ameche is probably best remembered for scoring the overtime touchdown for the Baltimore Colts in the 1958 NFL Championship. Seeing #35 slice through the New York Giants defensive line and into the end zone will be replayed forever. Ameche was a terrific NFL fullback. If he'd played a couple more years than his six in the NFL, he'd probably be in the Hall of Fame. There's still a valid argument that he should be. Ameche was the third pick in the 1955 NFL Draft. He won the 1954 Heisman Trophy. He left the University of Wisconsin with the NCAA career rushing record. Alan Ameche was a great football player. In high school, he was the kind of football player that attracts a great deal of attention from colleges. His recruitment was a very interesting one. It was a recruitment that nearly impacted a very important Wisconsin industry. The beer industry.

Alan Ameche was a three-year varsity player for Kenosha Bradford. As a sophomore, his team won zero football games. By his senior year, Kenosha Bradford was undefeated and that 1950 team is considered one of the greatest teams in the history of Wisconsin high school football. Practically every major college in the Midwest offered a scholarship to Ameche. As did North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The recruitment ultimately came down to Wisconsin and Notre Dame. Madison was only 90 miles northwest of Kenosha. Ameche's brother, Lynn, was already a student at Wisconsin. Several Kenosha Bradford teammates were also being recruited by Wisconsin. Despite all of that, Notre Dame was considered by most to be the favorite to have Alan Ameche carrying the football for them in the fall of 1951.

Notre Dame had some things on their side. Alan Ameche had a strong Roman Catholic faith. His high school coach Chuck Jaskwhich played quarterback for the Irish. Ameche's high school sweetheart, and future wife, Yvonne preferred Notre Dame over Wisconsin for the simple fact that Notre Dame had no female students at the time. Notre Dame also offered to send Yvonne to their sister school, St. Mary's. Wisconsin football hadn't amounted to much by that point. Notre Dame was an annual powerhouse under head coach Frank Leahy. Notre Dame also had prominent Wisconsin businessman Fred Miller on their side. Miller was the owner of the Miller Brewing Company and a Notre Dame almnus. He was also an All-American tackle under Knute Rockne. Irish football was a pretty important part of his life. He was used to getting his way and didn't much care for taking "no" for an answer. Miller became a significant player in the Irish recruitment of Alan Ameche. He flew Ameche, along with high school teammates Mario Bonofiglio and Ed Ronzia, on his private plane to South Bend for a Notre Dame campus visit. Miller's recruitment of Ameche became a serious statewide issue. It became Miller vs. the University of Wisconsin alumni and fans. Wisconsin patrons of Miller Brewing Company threatened a boycott against the buying and consumption of Miller Beer if Alan Ameche attended Notre Dame. Fred Miller eventually backed off on his recruitment but not before he paid a visit to the Ameche home. He brought along Irish coach Frank Leahy and Ameche's Mount Carmel parish priest. The recruiters even had a friend of Leahy's call the high school running back to provide some extra incentive to attend Notre Dame. Hollywood leading man Don Ameche. The actor was actually a Kenosha, Wisconsin native, a University of Wisconsin alum, and the second cousin of Alan Ameche. Despite the direct connections to the state of Wisconsin and that state's University, the actor Ameche was calling the high school football player Ameche on the behalf of Notre Dame. It was also the first time that the two members of the Ameche family had ever spoken. Miller might have unintentionally ended the Irish recruitment of Alan Ameche when he offered Mrs. Ameche a check for $1500 if her son would commit to Notre Dame. This act didn't sit well with Alan Ameche. Actually, he was pissed. It might have been the University of Wisconsin from that point on.

The Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame recruitment of Alan Ameche can be considered intense. A state-wide beer boycott doesn't venture into the recruiting of many high school football players. Ameche might have actually made his decision a couple of years before Fred Miller insulted his family. As a sophomore, Ameche visited his brother Lynn at the University of Wisconsin. He returned to his sweetheart Yvonne wearing a white shirt and red tie and singing "On Wisconsin." He claimed that the campus was "the most beautiful place he had ever seen" and "On Wisconsin" was "the beautiful song he had ever heard." He was especially struck by the University of Wisconsin music room. It seemed like every phonograph record in the world could be found there and you could play them as loud as you wanted. Alan Ameche might have been smitten with the University of Wisconsin and their music department as a high school sophomore and remained that way through the recruitment of Fred Miller and Notre Dame but a potential beer boycott is much more interesting.