If a Hollywood screenwriter decided to pen a biopic on one of the Heisman Trophy winners, the story of the 1958 recipient would seem like a work of fiction.
But it is the true and improbable story of Peter Miller Dawkins, a puny kid from Royal Oak, who overcame polio to become a football star at West Point, a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, a brigadier general, and later a leader on Wall Street.
Sixty years ago, halfback Pete Dawkins helped lead third-ranked Army to its last undefeated season, with an 8-0-1 record, thanks in large part to the innovation of the legendary head coach Earl “Red” Blaik, who in his final year at the helm instituted a “Lonesome End” formation that opponents never figured out but helped modernize wide-receiver sets.