Notre Dame football: Top 5 wide receivers in school history

Wayne Millner is not a name on the tip of most modern Notre Dame fan’s tongues. However, he deserves more than a little bit of recognition for his excellent career with Notre Dame.

Wayne Millner won’t appear in any receiving record books. He won’t be confused as the most prolific receiver in school history. He is, however, the greatest Notre Dame wide receiver for the first half of the program’s existence.

While with the Notre Dame football program, Millner was an All-American during the 1935 season. He also had one of the most important catches in the early history of Notre Dame football. It was against Ohio State in the Game of the Century, circa 1935.

Notre Dame had traveled to the Horseshoe to take on Ohio State for the first time in history. Both teams were unbeaten, and the game had massive National Title implications. The Buckeyes jumped out to an early lead and held onto it into the 4th quarter. It was 13-0 when Notre Dame began the comeback, which ended with a Billy Shakespeare pass to Wayne Millner for a touchdown to take a late lead.

In his own words, “Bill Shakespeare tossed a long pass to me which I was able to catch without breaking stride. Notre Dame had won, 18 to 13. The pass play called for a shift to the left. The ball came back to Mazziotti who had replaced Layden for the kickoff, he spun and handed it to Shakespeare, who faded deep and to his right. McKenna, the quarterback who was sent in to call the play; Danbom, and Mazziotti blocked. Marty Peters, right end, cut to his left, drawing the secondary over. I ran straight ahead and then cut hard to my right.”

In 1990 Wayne Millner was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Unfortunately, due to the era, it’s difficult to find much in the way of video or recorded statistics. This means that what most of us know about Millner’s playing days comes from archived articles about games. Again, this goes to the difficulty in comparing eras, and hurt’s Millner’s chances to go any higher on this list.