7-0 Notre Dame, ranked #1 the national polls, hosted a 5-3 Iowa Hawkeye team riding the momentum of consecutive shutouts over Purdue and Minnesota. Frank Leahy was in his eighth season at the helm of the Fighting Irish while Forest Evashevski was completing his second year in Iowa City.

A native of Detroit, Evashevski wasn't allowed to play on his high school's foot­ball team because he weighed only 130 pounds. As a 16-year-old 180lb senior, he led his school's intramural squad to victory over the varsity in a scrimmage and forced the coaches to move him to the varsity where he played tackle and lineback­er. Then he played single wing quarterback at Michigan from 1938 to 1940 under Hall of Fame coach Fritz Crisler, who quickly saw Evashevski's potential as a team leader. He also played for the Iowa Pre-Flight service team in 1941.

Michigan's star running back, Tom Harmon, said, "Evy seemed to think right with Crisler. As a linebacker, he had a fantastic instinct for smelling out the play. As a blocker, I never saw a better one."

After the War, Evashevski became an assistant coach at Syracuse under Biggie Munn in 1946. Then he followed Munn to Michigan State the next year and served as his assistant coach through 1949. He became the head coach at Washington State in 1950. After going 4-3-2 in '50, the Cougars improved to 7-3 in 1951, their best recod in two decades.

With a choice of becoming head coach at Indiana or Iowa, Evy chose Iowa at the urging of Crisler. After a 2-7 season in 1952, the Hawkeyes went 5-3 in 1953 before their final game against Notre Dame.

Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish were undefeated in seven games and ranked #1 heading into the nationally-televised clash with the Hawkeyes.

Iowa opened the scoring in the first period with an eight-play, 71y march. George "Dusty" Rice intercepted a pass from Notre Dame QB Bob Guglielmi and returned it to the Iowa 44, but a clipping penalty set the Hawkeyes back to their 29.

Two plays later, HB George "Binkey" Broeder broke loose and scampered to the Notre Dame 40 where he was tackled by HB Joe Heap. Three runs later, Iowa moved the chains to the Irish 22. Rice's 10y gallop put the ball on the 12, and HB Eddie Vincent lugged the pigskin untouched into the end zone from there. Jim Freeman kicked the extra point. Iowa 7 Notre Dame 0.

Notre Dame threatened early in the second quarter. A combination of Guglielmi passes and runs by Heap and Johnny Lattner moved the ball to the Iowa 8. But the drive died when captain Don Penza dropped a Guglielmi pass in the end zone, and Iowa C Jerry Hilgenberg deflected the next pass into the hands of teammate Bill Fenton to end the threat.

The Irish mounted another drive in the last minutes of the half. Lattner returned a punt 25y to his own 41. Then Guglielmi connected with Heap to put the ball on the Iowa 37. After Lattner gained 5y, Guglielmi threw five straight passes, but only one was complete—to Heap on the 14 even though the ball squirted out of the receiver's arms.

As the Irish huddled up with no timeouts and just two sec­onds remaining, T Frank Varrichione "let out a squeal, held his back, and fell to the ground. The offi­cials ruled an 'injured player' timeout, and the clock was stopped with two seconds left in the half." (Notre Dame 1953 Football Review) This allowed Varrichione to be "helped" off the field.

On the next play, Guglielmi passed to end Dan Shannon for the touchdown, and Don Schaefer's PAT with no time on the clock tied the score 7-7 as the teams went to their dressing rooms.

The second half developed the same way as the first. After neither team scored in the third quarter, Iowa began their second touchdown march early in the fourth period when Broeder intercepted a Guglielmi pass intended for Lattner on the Iowa 48. Runs by Broeder, Rice, and Vincent moved the pigskin to the Notre Dame 33. An offside penalty moved the Hawkeyes back 5y, but second-string QB Garet Reichow faked a pass and handed off to Broeder, who zipped to the ND 16.

Staying on the ground on the next four snaps, the Hawkeyes made it first-and-goal at the six. Another two runs gained 2y, Bob Stearnes, fresh off the bench, took a pitchout from Reichow and tossed a pass into the end zone to E Frank Gil­liam, who caught the ball as he fell to the ground. Freeman's kick made it 14-7 Iowa with just 2:06 remaining.

Facing their first defeat of the season, the Irish started a goalward march in a race against the clock. FB Neil Worden took the kickoff and returned it 21y to the ND 42. After an incompletion, Heap threw another pass and hit fellow halfback Lattner to the Iowa 46. Then Guglielmi fired an aerial to Lattner to the 28, then another to Heap to the 20.

Guglielmi connected with Lattner again to the nine with just 32 seconds remain­ing. This time not one but two Notre Dame linemen fell to the ground to stop the clock with 0:25 left. When play resumed, two passes to Heap were broken up to leave just six seconds on the clock. Then Guglielmi rolled back to his left, turned and threw to Shannon on the right side of the end zone for the touchdown. Schaefer's conver­sion was good.

Final score: Iowa 14 Notre Dame 14

Listen to the Iowa radio broadcast of the last moments of each half. The announ­cers pull no punches in describing what ND was doing. Also hear Coach Evashev­ski's poetic response after the game. (Same link.)

Neither coach was satisfied with the 14-14 tie. Evashevski summarized the game in one terse statement: "It was a wonderfully played game."

Over in the Notre Dame dressing room, a physically spent and grim Leahy praised the Iowa team and coach, but the tenseness surrounding Leahy could be felt.

"Do you have any questions?" Leahy asked a battery of 15-20 reporters. But they failed ask a single question. Leahy praised both teams.

"Iowa was physically and emotionally prepared for the game. I offer my sincere congratulations to coach Evashevski and his Iowa team."

He continued, "But I was exceptionally proud of our team. This wasn't their day, but they would not lose. They showed the true Notre Dame spirit."

Notre Dame's win-at-all-cost tactics brought condemnation from many quarters. Speaking to the New York Football Writers Association, the legendary Grantland Rice (who immortalized the 1924 Notre Dame backfield as "The Four Horsemen") wrote:

The Associated Press voters demoted Notre Dame to #2 and kept them behind
10-0 Maryland the rest of the season despite Fighting Irish routs of USC and SMU. (Iowa finished 10th.) Since no poll was taken after the bowl games, Mary­land's loss to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl did not change the final rankings. Notre Dame, following its policy of those days, did not play in a bowl game.

Leahy, who had collapsed at halftime of the 1953 Georgia Tech victory that snap­ped Tech's 31-game winning streak, retired at the end of the season. His 107-13-9 record gave him a winning percentage second only to Knute Rockne.