Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lattner passed away last week at the age of 83. The best player in the country in 1953, Lattner was one of Notre Dame’s record seven Heisman Trophy winners, and is the third of that group to have deceased, joining Angelo Bertelli and Leon Hart.
Lattner once quipped he spent the majority of his playing career in head coach Frank Leahy’s doghouse. But it’s hard to understand how that was possible, considering Lattner was one of the last football players to spent 60 minutes a game on the football field, a “one-platoon” player in an era where specialization took hold.