Bob Chappuis
Robert Richard Chappuis was an American football player who played halfback and quarterback for the University of Michigan Wolverines in 1942, 1946, and 1947. His college years were interrupted by service in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Chappuis flew 21 missions as a radio operator and aerial gunner on B-25 bombers in the European Theater. His aircraft was shot down in February 1945 in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy. Chappuis parachuted from the plane before it crashed, and Italian partisans rescued him by hiding Chappuis and two other crew members for the final three months of the war.
After the war, Chappuis returned to Michigan where he broke the Big Nine Conference record for total offense in 1946 and then broke his own record in 1947. He led the 1947 Michigan team known as the "Mad Magicians" to an undefeated season and a 49–0 win over the USC Trojans in the 1948 Rose Bowl game. Chappuis was a unanimous All-American selection in 1947 and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1948 Rose Bowl. His picture appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1947 in connection with a feature article about Chappuis and the 1947 Wolverines. He placed second in the 1947 Heisman Trophy balloting.
During his career he established many football records that lasted for over a generation and became an All-American. He continues to hold the Big Ten Conference single-season passer rating record and the Michigan Wolverines single-season yards/completion records. He was one of the early passing specialists in an era where football players were just beginning to either play on offense or defense instead of both.
Chappuis played professional football in the All-America Football Conference as a quarterback for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Hornets in 1948 and 1949. He led the Dodgers in total offense in 1948 with 1,402 yards passing and 310 yards rushing. When both clubs and the AAFC folded, Chappuis retired from football in 1950. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988.
Early life
Chappuis was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, the son of Mary Ellen and Sylvan Francis Chappuis. His father—who had played quarterback for Denison University, which is located near Columbus, Ohio— was an executive with a porcelain products company in Toledo. Chappuis graduated from DeVilbiss High School where he was a star football player. When it came time to choose a college, his father said his only preference for his son was that he not attend Ohio State. Chappuis could not provide much of an explanation for his father's preference: "Dad just didn't like Ohio State."Chappuis played in nine games for Michigan as a sophomore in 1942, contributing 220 yards rushing, 358 yards passing, and 30 yards receiving. In his first game as a college halfback, Chappuis completed seven of eighteen passes for a gain of 80 yards, and also rushed for 49 yards in a 9–0 win over the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Chappuis' predecessor as Michigan's halfback, Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon, completed seven passes in a single game only three times in three years, a feat accomplished by Chappuis in his first game.
Service in World War II
Chappuis' college program was interrupted by military service from 1943 to 1945. During World War II, Chappuis earned the rank of Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Forces. He flew 21 missions as a radio operator and aerial gunner in B-25 bombers. His crew sunk a cruiser in an Italian harbor, which earned it a citation in September 1944. He flew his first mission, which was targeting a railroad bridge in the heavily fortified Brenner Pass on Christmas Day 1944. At the time he flew this first mission, he was a sergeant. On February 13, 1945, Chappuis flew his 21st mission when he was assigned to fill in for a sick crew member. Chappuis' B-25 bomber was assigned to bomb a railroad tunnel in the Italian mountains north of the Po River. "Over the target, a burst of flak knocked out one engine, then the other engine went out. When the order came to bail out, the tailgunner went out first, and got stuck in the escape hatch, pinned against the rear of it by the wind pressure. Chappuis kicked him in the only accessible place—his head—and knocked him loose. Then he jumped."Chappuis was rescued by an Italian partisan, Aldo Comucci, a 21-year-old who was in charge of one of the many underground groups operating in the area. Comucci and his band of resistance fighters got to Chappuis before the Germans and hid him and two other American flyers from the same plane for nearly three months until the end of the war. The partisans passed Chappuis and the two other Americans from house to house, and village to village, toward the Swiss frontier. Dressed in shawls — but still wearing G.I. shoes — they once walked undetected past a German sentry.
Chappuis and his crewmates finally reached a home in the small town of Asola, Italy, in the Province of Mantua, Lombardy, about from Milan. The German headquarters was two houses away, and the drill grounds were across the street. Accordingly, Chappuis and the other Americans could not walk near a window or talk above a whisper. They passed the time playing cards with each other and with the Ugolini family with whom they stayed, and reading a well-worn copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Americans were nearly captured one evening when the Fascist fiancé of one of the Ugolini daughters entered the house unannounced and found the Americans playing cards. He threatened to turn the Americans in, but was persuaded not to when told it would mean the death of his fiancée and her family for aiding the Americans.
When V-E Day arrived in early May 1945, Chappuis and his crewmates stayed in Asola for a week-long celebration. On the night the war ended, residents of Asola removed the seats from the town's theater for a victory ball. While two orchestras played onstage, the liberated townspeople toasted the Americans, and Chappuis danced with the Ugolinis' daughters. When Chappuis returned to the United States, he stayed in touch with the Ugolinis and sent them weekly food packages. Chappuis also stayed in touch with Comucci, the resistance leader who rescued him. In 1974, Chappuis returned to Italy to meet with Comucci for the first time in 20 years. And in August 1975, Comucci and his wife traveled to Michigan to visit Chappuis.
All-American at the University of Michigan
1946 season
Chappuis returned to Michigan after being discharged from the military and played football in the spring of 1946. He returned in time to join the Michigan baseball team, where he played in the outfield, led the team in batting, and helped them win the Big Nine championship with a 26-game winning streak.When football season arrived in the fall, Chappuis was one of many veterans who returned to college and the gridiron after serving in the war. Many of the returning veterans were not in prime football condition at the start of the 1946 season, and Coach Fritz Crisler "predicted it might be November before ex-servicemen were adjusted physically and mentally to play their top game." Chappuis later recalled that he was 23 years old when he returned to school, and some of the returning veterans "didn't know if they could get back into the rah-rah of college football, but Fritz took care of that. He really whipped us into shape." Despite any difficulties in re-adjusting to civilian life and football, Chappuis broke Otto Graham's Big Nine Conference record for total offensive yards during the 1946 football season. Though reports differ as to Chappuis' total yards gained, University of Michigan records show that Chappuis gained 1,284 yards in 1946—734 yards passing, 501 yards rushing and 49 yards receiving. Chappuis set the new offensive mark in 1946 with a fractured bone in his wrist that he did not report until after the season had ended, at which time an operation was performed. Chappuis later said he knew the x-ray would reveal a fracture, and he would be benched before he even began. He delayed the examination until the season was over because "the time to break into the lineup is prior to the first game. If I hadn't, there were so many capable candidates around who could have made good behind our front wall that I'd never have become a first-stringer by returning in the middle of the season." Accordingly, Chappuis played the 1946 season with a fractured wrist and without even bothering to tape the wrist.
He was later drafted in December by the Detroit Lions in the fifth round of the 1947 NFL draft. But Chappuis opted to stay in school to finish his collegiate career.
1947 season
Given the off-season wrist surgery, Chappuis was questionable for the 1947 season. As the season got underway, Chappuis said the wrist was "not as loose" as it was in 1946, but he felt it was "loose enough." In the end, Chappuis broke his own Big Nine total offense record by gaining 1,405 yards as compared with 1,284 yards in 1946. He completed 48 out of 84 passes for 976 yards, including 11 touchdown passes. He also scored 5 touchdowns and gained 544 yards rushing. In the season opener against Michigan State, Chappuis scored three touchdowns in a 55–0 victory, as Michigan outgained the Spartans 504 yards rushing to 56. Michigan finished the 1947 season with a 21–0 victory over Ohio State. In his last game at Michigan Stadium, Chappuis set a Michigan single-game record for total offense that would last 20 years. Altogether, Chappuis accounted for 307 yards, rushing for 90 yards and completing 12 of 27 passes for 217 yards. This stood as a school single-game total offense record for over 20 years. At the end of the 1947 season, Chappuis was named a unanimous first-team All-American. He also finished second to Johnny Lujack in the 1947 Heisman Trophy voting, with Lujack receiving 742 first and second place votes to 555 for Chappuis. Despite the glowing adjectives heaped on him, reporters noted that "Chappuis can still wear his regular size seven headgear." Chappuis gave credit to his line saying, "Anyone passing behind the protection that line gave me could have done as well." In another sign of his modesty on a team with only two two-way players Chappuis said "You have to smell where to go on pass defense—and my sniffer's not too good." when asked why he does not play both ways.In addition to having the most accomplished season of his collegiate career, Chappuis was a leader on campus. He was elected president of the Michigan Alpha chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity whose membership included a number of his teammates and prominent University of Michigan athletic alumni such as Tom Harmon, Bob Ufer, and Harry Kipke. Chappuis appeared on the cover of the October 28, 1947 issue of Look magazine which featured pictures of him on the football field and at the fraternity house. In the magazine, Chappuis and his future wife were also featured about the Michigan campus. He expressed an interest in first playing professional football for a few years before going into the porcelain business with his father.
Look magazine devoted over a dozen pictures to showing Chappuis play in the offense. In the 1940s, the offense was perceived as gimmicky and magical and the magazine described how the offense used various fakes and delays to gain the advantage in timing by concealing the point of attack and the attacker. The contemporary football lingo described the basic attack as a "fullback spinner cycle with the backs deployed loosely." It described an alternate formation as a single-wing formation with direct snap from center to left halfback. The article also describes T maneuvers, lateral passes and end-around plays as part of the offense.