Army's Greatest College Football Duo

One of the greatest one-two punches in college football was provided by Army's Black Knights in 1944-46. Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis were nicknamed Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside due to their awesome running ability. Blanchard, Mr. Inside, ran from a full back position and Glenn Davis, Mr. Outside, ran from a half back position.

Both players won the Heisman Trophy (Blanchard '45 and Davis '46) and both were three-time All-America picks. In the three seasons that they played together they scored 89 touchdowns and compiled a 27-0-1 record.

Blanchard was a complete player with a battering-ram running style. At 6-1, 208, he was a place kicker, punter and linebacker as well as fullback. Though Blanchard was fast, Davis had blazing speed he used in his half back position. He also returned punts and kickoffs. He played at 5-9, 172.

Blanchard's father was a doctor. Felix was known as "Little Doc." Felix's father played football at Tulane (1917-20) under an assumed name (Gaston Beaulieu) since his parents did not approve of him playing football.

Felix was rejected by the Navy due to defective sight, so he joined the Army. While his father was stationed at a chemical warfare unit in New Mexico, he secured Felix an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

In his first varsity game, though Blanchard played only 17 minutes, he averaged 58 yards on kickoffs, punted once for 40 yards and carried the ball four times for a 4.5 yard average.

In 1945, he rushed 718 yards, a 7.1 yard average, with 19 touchdowns.

His career totals were 1666 yards rushing, 38 touchdowns. He is the only athlete to win the Heisman Trophy and the Sullivan Award (best amateur athlete of the year).

Davis came in second in the Heisman in 1944 and 1945. Though he won in 1946, his statistics were better in 1944 and 1945 when he averaged 11.5 yards per carry.

Davis finished his career with 48 pass receptions for 850 yards, 57 of 126 pass completions for 1172 yards, 14 interceptions for 147 yards, 22 punts for an average of 33.7 yards, 84 punt returns for 1060 yards and ten kickoff returns for 278 yards.

Davis ran the 100 yards sprint in 9.7, was an outstanding center fielder as well as an excellent guard in basketball.

Though Blanchard never played professionally, Davis played for the Rams and Browns.

New York Sun sportswriter George Trevor is responsible for the nicknames of Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside.

Blanchard and Davis were coached by Earl "Red" Blaik. After bad years in 1939 and 1940 for Army's football team, Brigadier General Robert Eichelberger, superintendent of the academy, recommended that the athletic board delete the policy that allowed only graduate officers head coach positions. After the Board deleted the policy Eichelberger lured Blaik to become Army's head football coach. Though a graduate of West Point, Blaik was retired. He had previously coached at Dartmouth.

Blaik said of Blanchard: "For a big man he was the quickest starter I ever saw. In the open he ran with the niftiness, as well as the speed of a great half back. Twice in Navy games I saw him run through a head-on tackle without breaking stride and race on to a touchdown."

Of Davis, Blaik said, "He was emphatically the fastest halfback I ever knew. He was not so much a dodger and a sidestepper as a blazing runner . . . "

In the 1944, season Army outscored their opponents 504-35 in nine games against N. Carolina, Brown, Pitt, Coast Guard Academy, Duke, Villanova, Notre Dame, Penn, and Navy.

The 1945 season was another undefeated year. A 28-7 victory over Michigan's Fritz Crisler said, "If you tighten up your line to stop Blanchard's drives, there goes Davis. If you extend your flanks to check Davis, there goes Blanchard." In most games Blanchard and Davis played little more than a half.

The 1945 team had eight All-America picks: Blanchard, Davis, John Green, Tex Coulter, Al Nemetz, Hank Foldberg, Barney Poole, and Shorty McWilliams.

Blanchard was injured in the 1946 opening game against Villanova. On a rain-soaked field Doc burst through the line into broken field and was hit by Frank Kane. Doc's right heel sunk in the turf and bent the knee back. Though he had torn ligaments and missed the next two game, he returned to action and finished the year.

Blanchard would miss the Oklahoma game. That left only Mr. Outside to take on a tough Sooner team. Quarterback Arnold Tucker used Davis as a pass receiver and Army went on to defeat Oklahoma 21-7. Doc missed the Cornell game also, but the Black Knights had little trouble as they scored a 46-21 victory.

The Michigan game was "one of the two or three most memorable games of my career," said Red Blaik. Blanchard started the game in Ann Arbor in front of a crowd of 88,000, then a capacity crowd.

Michigan scored first. The first few times Blanchard carried the ball the Wolverines ganged up on him. Quarter back Tucker received a shoulder separation and sprained elbow. He played in the game but was unable to pass. With Blanchard in and out of the game, and Tucker playing injured, it was up to Davis to get the Knights rolling. On a trap play Davis shot through Michigan's left guard where a group of Wolverines converged on him, but Davis broke away and headed down the sideline, faked out a final pursuer, and scored.

Late in the second period, Mr. Outside threw to Mr. Inside for a 44-yard completion. On the last play of the first half, with 4th and 18 at the Michigan 31, Tucker tossed the ball to Davis who fumbled the ball. A Wolverine picked the ball up then lost it. Davis snatched the ball from the ground and completed a touchdown pass.

Blaik said of the dressing room scene at halftime, ". . . I saw Doc and Glenn pacing up and down like two caged animals. They felt they had done nothing and were impatient to get going."

Though Tucker and Blanchard were not playing at their top form, they teamed up with Davis to win the game. Michigan tied the game at 13-3. Tucker blocked as Davis and Blanchard ran and passed their way into the end zone to win 20-13.

The next three games against Columbia, Duke and West Virginia were won by Army, but not impressively. Everyone seemed to be looking ahead to the Notre Dame game.

Notre Dame was undefeated and very talented. They possessed two players who would win the Heisman Trophy - John Lujack (1947) and Leon Hart (1949).

There was a tremendous interest in the game, which was held in Yankee stadium. The lines dominated the game. In the second period Notre Dame drove 83 yards to the 4 yard line, but Army stopped them without a score. Davis took a pass to the 18 but could go no farther. After a pass interception Army began a threat with a Blanchard run down the sideline, but he was caught by their last man, John Lujack. The match between the titans ended in a 0-0 tie. It was the only game Davis and Blanchard would play for Army that they didn't win. Army finished the season with wins against Penn and Navy.

The 1946 team had seven All-America picks: Blanchard, Davis Foldberg, Poole, Tucker, Steffy and Gerometta.

Blaik, in a coaches' poll conducted by the New York World-Telegram, was voted Coach of Year. In his acceptance speech on January 3, 1947 he said of his past three teams: "As their coach I have great pride in the record of the 1944 squad, which was our best squad. I have great pride in the record of the 1945 team, which was definitely out best team. But I reserve the warmest affection and the greatest respect for the 1946 team, which, in the face of adversities, playing the best college opposition, completely and thoroughly demonstrated its right to be classed as great."

In 1947, Blanchard and Davis starred in a realistic film entitled "The Spirit of West Point." This seventy-seven minute film was directed by Ralph Murphy and starred (along with Davis and Blanchard) Tom Harmon, Robert Shayne, Ann Nagel and Alan Hale Jr.

Sources:

New York Sun

College Football Researchers Association