1947 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team The 1947 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1947 college football season . The Irish , coached by Frank Leahy , ended the season with 9 wins and no losses , winning the national championship . The 1947 team became the sixth Irish team to win the national title and the second in a row for Leahy . The squad is the second team in what is considered to be the Notre Dame Football dynasty , a stretch of games in which Notre Dame went 36 - 0 - 2 and won three national championships and two Heisman Trophies from 1946 - 1949 . The 1947 team was cited by Sports Illustrated as the part of the second best sports dynasty ( professional or collegiate ) of the 20th century < ref name = " CNN / SI ND Dynasty " > < / ref > and second greatest college football dynasty . < ref name = " CNN / SI ND Dynasty 2 " > < / ref > Post - season . Award winners . All - Americans : The 1947 national championship dispute . While Notre Dame was voted national champion in the final official AP poll , Michigan went on to beat USC , 49 – 0 , in the 1948 Rose Bowl , a greater margin that by which Notre Dame had beaten USC . Notre Dame and Michigan had traded the top spot in the polls through much of the season . Michigan took the # 1 spot in the AP poll on November 16 , 1947 , and Notre Dame moved into the # 1 spot on November 23 , 1947 , by a margin of 1 , 410 points to 1 , 289 points . This last regular season poll determined the recipient of the AP ' s national championship trophy . Debate arose among some prominent sports writers , among them football writer Pete Rozelle " and Grantland Rice , the dean of the nation ' s sports writers . Rice lauded the Wolverines , saying , " It is the best all - around college football team I ' ve seen this year . . . " Red Smith of the " New York Herald Tribune " said , " No other team that I have seen this season did things with so little effort . Crisler has so many that do so much . " Notre Dame supporters argued that the post - season AP poll was final and should not be revisited . They contended that Michigan had run up the score on USC , noted that Notre Dame had not had an opportunity to play in a bowl game , and asserted that Michigan and other Big Nine schools were unwilling to schedule Notre Dame in the regular season . " Detroit Free Press " Sports Editor Lyall Smith argued the debate should be answered by comparing the two team ' s performance against common opponents . Smith noted : " They played three common foes . Notre Dame beat Pitt , 40 – 6 , a margin of 34 points : Michigan beat Pitt 59 – 0 . Notre Dame defeated Northwestern , 26 to 19 , a margin of seven points : Michigan beat the ' Cats 49 to 21 , for a 28 - point advantage . Notre Dame dropped USC , 36 to 7 , in what Coach Frank Leahy termed his team ' s ' greatest game of the year , ' while Michigan slaughtered the same Trojans , 49 to 0 . Against those three common opponents the Irish scored 104 points to 32 . Michigan ' s margin was 167 to 21 . " In response to the debate over which team truly deserved to be recognized as the nation ' s best , an unofficial post - bowl ballot was held , with the only two options being Michigan and Notre Dame . The AP reported on the rationale for the special poll this way : " The Associated Press is polling sports editors of its member papers throughout the country to help settle the argument as to which is the better football team - - Michigan or Notre Dame . The AP ' s final poll of the top ten teams , released Dec . 8 at the conclusion of the regulation season , resulted in Notre Dame winning first place with 1 , 410 points . Michigan was second with 1 , 289 . . . . Returns so far received indicate that voting in this latest poll is likely to be the heaviest ever recorded . " Another AP report indicated the special poll was " conducted by popular demand " to answer " the burning sports question of the day " and to do so " at the ballot box . " Commenting on the post - Rose Bowl poll , Michigan coach Fritz Crisler said " the men who voted couldn ' t have made a mistake if they had picked either team . " He described Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy as a " superb coach . " Notre Dame President , Father John Cavanagh said , " We at Notre Dame feel grateful for the magnanimous statement of Coach Crisler . I listened to Michigan against Southern California and have only praise for the skill and accomplishment of your fine team . " Despite the magnanimous statements of Coach Crisler and Father Cavanagh , the reversed decision in the post - Rose Bowl poll only stoked the debate over which team was best . Said one columnist : " Hottest argument of the moment is the one over which had the better football team , Michigan or Notre Dame . To settle it the Associated Press polled better than 350 sports writers in 48 states . . . with a two to one nod for the Wolverines . " Forty years later , the debate was still ongoing . In 1988 , Michigan All - American Dan Dworsky noted : " Notre Dame still claims that national championship and so do we . " The NCAA , the governing body for college athletics , presently cites Notre Dame as the official AP title winner . The Associated Press also does not recognize the special poll and the special poll does not supersede the original final poll .