Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Irish Golden Boy

We don’t have the entire issue to share today, but we thought we’d put up this fine cover shot of future Packer Paul Hornung from the October 29, 1956 issue of Sports Illustrated. Hornung, nicknamed the "Golden Boy," won the Heisman Trophy in 1956 as the year’s outstanding College football player in the United States and is the only player from a losing team (his University of Notre Dame team finished 2-8 that year) ever to win the trophy. Highly versatile, he was a quarterback who could run, pass, block, and tackle. Many consider Hornung the greatest all-around football player in Notre Dame history. In the 1956 season, he led his team offensively in passing, rushing, scoring, kickoff and punt returns, and punting. He also played defense and led his team in passes broken up and was a second in interceptions and tackles made. He jokes about the fact that he was among the nation's leaders in kickoff returns by saying, “We gave up so many points that our opponents were always kicking off to us.”