I think Washington & Jefferson?
Correct. The college is located in Washington, PA a suburb of Pittsburgh and today plays Div III ball. But The Washington & Jefferson Presidents were a powerhouse in the 1910s and 20s.
They were undefeated in 1921 and as champions of the East went to the Rose Bowl to play the undefeated "Greatest Team of All Time" California Golden Bears. W&J was a low budget school and they could only afford to send 11 players to the Rose Bowl which was enough as back then you could only play 11 players. ('22 Rose Bowl was the last played with 11 players). On the train ride West, one of the Presidents got sick leaving them short a player. But right out of a Hollywood script it turns out a reserve W&J player snuck on the train and the other players snuck him food during the several day train trip. (Delta Airlines wouldn't start flying crop dusters until two years after the '22 Rose Bowl). In Pasadena the Bears and Presidents played to a scoreless tie and W&J was Co-National Champions (A 1/2 N.C. like Michigan in 1997.) BTW the W&J QB was an African American, Charlie "Pruner" West, who was the first AA to QB.
Grantland Rice writing for the NY Herald Tribune not the NY Tribune described W&J:
The power of this Eastern eleven lay in its ability to rip through and smear opposing plays. Its uncanny faculty in this department was pronounced especially so in a season where the attack was featured and the offensive often given no great attention. Any attack in the country, including that bewildering onslaught launched by Notre Dame, would have found great trouble in hammering out any extensive distance against Neale's machine.
Two years later Rice would become famous for writing:
Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horseman rode again. ...
This NY Trib article was actually written for the upcoming Notre Dame Army game of '22. The week before W&J played their most famous game beating Lafayette college out of Easton PA in the Polo Grounds before 50,000 fans. W&J trailed 13-0 but won 14-13 on the final play of the game. The Trib article tied that big game into his piece about ND/Army that would be played at West Point before 15, 000 fans and ending in a scoreless tie.
Despite the hype in the article, the '22 season was supposed to be a transitional year for ND. Gipp's last season was '20 but ND graduated a ton of talent after the '21 season, 6 players Kily, Eddie, Hunk Anderson, Mohardt, Castner, and Shaw were All-Americans that's what the author was pointing out when he noted "From that star cast Notre Dame lost almost every member. Only one or two veterans came back. In addition, he lost Lieb, one of his stars, and other injuries cut down his forces."
Tom Lieb, a tackle was ND's star OL (and by definition the star DL - only 11 men played). Lieb broke a leg in the second game of the season. Paul Castner was the starting FB and a All-American in '22. He had played with Gipp. Against Army, Castner played with a broken nose and a sprained ankle and he fumbled away a TD on Army's goal line in the 4th Quarter in the 0-0 tie. He also missed a 55 yd dropkick on ND's next possession.
The next week against Butler Castner broke his hip and was lost for the season. Rockne now had no experienced veterans in his backfield. He had to play 4 sophomores. He asked one of those sophomores a kid named Layden to move from left half to fullback, Castner's spot. Another kid named Crowley filled in at Layden's left halfback slot. The two other sophomores were named Miller and Stuhldreher. Two years before Grantland Rice penned his famous column, The Four Horsemen rode for the first time in the Fall of 1922.
If you want to win a barroom bet with ND trivia fans asked them to name the ND All-American that played both with George Gipp and with The Four Horsmen. Paul Castner - from the days when tradition didn't graduate.
