(3 of 10)
The very first time that Terry threw a pass for keeps to Jim, in this season's opening game against highly touted Purdue, it went for 42 yds. By the time the afternoon was over, Hanratty and Seymour had clicked twelve more times for a total of 276 yds. and three touchdowns in a 26-14 victory, and Purdue Coach Jack Mollenkopf could only groan: "We weren't prepared for this." Nobody was. Against Northwestern the following week, Notre Dame's amazing sophomores teamed up nine times for 141 yds. and spent most of the fourth quarter lolling on the bench as the Irish rolled to a 35-7 victory.
Army was No. 3, and the poor cadets, undefeated until then, never had a chance. Notre Dame scored the first time Hanratty got the ball, and scored again less than 120 seconds later when Seymour blew right past the cadets' secondary and gathered in a perfect 30-yd. TD toss from Hanratty. The final score was 35-0—"a military disaster," as one Chicago sportswriter put it—the worst drubbing Notre Dame had ever handed Army in a 38-game series that goes back to 1913.
North Carolina was the Irish's fourth opponent, and the Tar Heels could almost say that they had stopped Terry and Jim. Almost. Hanratty completed only five passes, and only one of those went to Seymour. But it was a gorgeous 56-yd. strike that Seymour gathered in on the Tar Heels' 14-yd. line, carried the rest of the way in about four giant strides. Final score: Notre Dame 32, North Carolina 0.
Green Power. "Good Lord, they're only babies," Coach Ara Parseghian keeps insisting—as if he can hardly believe it all himself. By last week Hanratty and Seymour had connected 34 times for 675 yds. and five touchdowns. Sportswriters were calling them "the Dynamic Duo," "the Teen Terrors," "the Super Sophs," "the Kiddie Korps." Notre Dame's fervent subway alumni were handing out stickers proclaiming "Green power!", and normally hard-headed football experts were agape with awe.
Gil Brandt of the Dallas Cowboys says that both Hanratty and Seymour are "certain to be first-round draft choices"—though they won't even be eligible for the professional draft until January 1968. The Baltimore Colts' Upton Bell talks dreamily about Seymour's ability to "stop a missile and hold on to it," Hanratty's "on-the-mark, 50-yd. bullets" that travel even faster than the passes thrown by the Colts' own superb Johnny Unitas. George Dickson of the Atlanta Falcons calls Terry Hanratty "the best Notre Dame passer in 25 years"—quite an endorsement, since that includes Johnny Lujack, Frank Tripucka, Ralph Guglielmi, Paul Hornung, George Izo and John Huarte. As for Jim Seymour, the Houston Oilers' Don Klosterman says flatly: "This boy is the best pro prospect I've ever seen at any position. I believe he could make any professional team in the country right now."
Oldtime football fans let go of their heroes hard.