Gus Dorais Charles Emile " Gus " Dorais ( July 2 , 1891 – January 3 , 1954 ) was an American football player and coach of football , basketball , and baseball . Dorais played college football at the University of Notre Dame , where he was an All - American in 1913 at quarterback , and then played professionally with the Fort Wayne Friars and Massillon Tigers . Dorais was the head coach at Columbia College ( 1914 – 1917 ) in Dubuque , Iowa , Gonzaga University ( 1920 – 1924 ) in Spokane , Washington , and the University of Detroit ( 1925 – 1942 ) , compiling a career college football coaching record of 150 – 70 – 12 ( ) . He was also the head coach of the National Football League ' s Detroit Lions from 1943 to 1947 , tallying a mark of 20 – 31 – 2 ( ) . In addition , he was the head basketball coach at Notre Dame , Gonzaga , and Detroit and the head baseball coach at Notre Dame and Gonzaga . Dorais was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954 . Playing career . Born and raised in Chippewa Falls , Wisconsin , Dorais arrived at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend , Indiana in the summer of 1910 at and . He started four seasons for the Fighting Irish at quarterback , but it was during his senior season that he became part of college football history . During the summer of 1913 , Dorais and his Notre Dame teammate Knute Rockne worked as lifeguards and busboys at Cedar Point Resort at Lake Erie in Sandusky , Ohio . During their free time there , the story goes , the duo practiced passing on the beach with Dorais throwing to Rockne , an end . " We mastered the technique of losing the football with hands relaxed and tried to master the more difficult feat of catching it with one hand , " Rockne later wrote . The Irish , 17 – 1 – 3 ( ) in Dorais ' first three seasons as a starter , outscored their first three opponents in 1913 by a margin of 169 – 7 . On November 1 , 1913 , the Irish , still known mainly in the Midwest at the time despite just one loss in three seasons , traveled to West Point , New York with a roster size of only eighteen players to face heavily favored Army . Although Dorais and Rockne are often credited with inventing the forward pass that day against the Cadets , the maneuver had been legal since 1906 , and had been used by several lower - profile programs . In 1952 , Dorais himself tried to set the record straight , telling the United Press that " Eddie Cochems of the St . Louis University team of 1906 - 07 - 08 deserves the full credit . " Dorais first completed a pass to Rockne two seasons before . But against Army in 1913 , Dorais , an Irish co - captain and the first Irish player named a consensus All - American , completed 14 of 17 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns . At the time , his 40 - yard pass to Rockne was the longest pass ever completed . After taking a 14 – 13 halftime lead , Notre Dame pulled away from a confused Army team for a 35 – 13 victory that changed the landscape of college football and lifted the Irish out of obscurity . From that point forward , no longer was the forward pass an obscure weapon , or a little - used gimmick to be used when trailing late in games . " The press and the football public hailed this new game , and Notre Dame received credit as the originator of a style of play that we simply systematized , " Rockne said . In addition to playing quarterback , Dorais was also the team ' s placekicker . Coaching career . Dorais and Rockne were roommates at Notre Dame , and in their coaching days , Dorais served as an assistant for a season under Rockne . Dorais served as head coach at Columbia College from 1914 to 1917 , then was an assistant to Rockne at Notre Dame in 1919 . He went west to Spokane in 1920 to become head coach at Gonzaga University for five years , through the 1924 season . He also was the head coach of the basketball and baseball teams through their 1925 seasons , and also track . Dorais earned $ 4 , 000 per year at Gonzaga and was kept for a fifth season in 1924 when boosters helped raise his salary to $ 7 , 000 to prevent him from leaving for Detroit . The Bulldogs were undefeated in 1924 , led on the field by Houston Stockton , grandfather of basketball hall of famer John Stockton . Although offered $ 8 , 000 to stay in Spokane at Gonzaga in 1925 , Dorais resigned that February and left for the University of Detroit where he was the head coach for 18 seasons ( 1925 – 1942 ) . His record with the Titans was 113 – 48 – 7 ( ) . Dorais was also the head coach of the basketball team for his first four years at the school ( 1925 – 1929 ) . Due to World War II , Detroit did not field a football team during the 1943 and 1944 seasons . Dorais was the college team coach for the College All - Star Game in August 1937 in Chicago , in which college seniors played against the defending NFL champions in a pre - season game . With Sammy Baugh at quarterback , the college stars won 6 – 0 over the Green Bay Packers under head coach Curly Lambeau . This was the first All - Star team to beat the pros , who also won the following year ( over the Washington Redskins , quarterbacked by Baugh ) . As most college football teams went on hiatus after 1942 , Dorais moved up to the professional ranks . He was the head coach of the Detroit Lions of the NFL for five seasons , from 1943 to 1947 . Dorais retired after the 1947 season at age 56 , but coached in 1952 as the backfield coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers under head coach Joe Bach . Dorais had a circulatory disorder and died at his home in Michigan in January 1954 at age 62 .