Excerpt from FIGHTING IRISH FOOTBALL

Charles Lamb and Elizabeth Hogan

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F I G H T I N G I R I S H

F O O T B A L L

THE NOTRE DAME TRADITION IN PHOTOGRAPHS

Charles Lamb and Elizabeth Hogan

University of Notre Dame Press • Notre Dame, Indiana

Published by the University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2024 by the University of Notre Dame

Printed in Canada

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024937288

ISBN: 978-0-268-20816-5 (Hardback)

ISBN: 978-0-268-20815-8 (WebPDF)

Notre Dame Varsity Football, 1914

To Beth, Caitlin, and Hannah, and to Dorothy and Edmund Lamb

To Mom and Dad, always and forever, and to Marie and Jeff, Sean, Teresa, and Katie

Notre Dame Stadium premium seating, August 28, 2017

C on TE n TS

Repurposed bleacher wood on the walls on the ninth floor of Duncan Student Center, July 27, 2017

COA CHES

Coach Frank Longman on the Sidelines, 1909 3

Studio Portrait of Jesse Harper in a University of Chicago Letter Sweater, circa 1913 5

Coach Knute Rockne at Notre Dame Football Practice, 1920s 7

Babe Ruth with Knute Rockne and the Notre Dame Football Team on Cartier Field, 1926 8–9

Knute Rockne in His Office with His Secretary Ruth Faulkner, 1926–1931 11

Knute Rockne with His Coaching Staff, 1930 12

Crowd outside Sacred Heart Church during Knute Rockne’s Funeral, 1931 15

Jesse Harper, Athletic Director, and Heartley “Hunk” Anderson, Head Football Coach, circa 1931–1933 17

Coach Elmer Layden on the Bench with Players, 1935–1940 19

Frank Leahy Press Conference with Newsreel Cameras, 1940s 21

Frank Leahy at Practice Diagramming Plays on a Chalkboard, 1941 22

AssistantCoach Fred Miller,HeadCoachFrank Leahy, and AssistantAthleticDirectorEdward“Moose”KrauseStanding withPlayersonthe Sidelines, 1948 25

Frank Leahy, Assistant Coaches, and Players on the Sidelines, 1949 27

Coach Terry Brennan on the Sidelines with Players, 1954 29

Coach Joe Kuharich Huddled with Players during a Break in the Action, 1960 30

Views Featuring Coach Ara Parseghian on the Sidelines, 1966 32–33

Coach Ara Parseghian on the Sidelines with Quarterback Terry Hanratty and Other Players, 1966 35

Ara Parseghian Meeting with Assistant Coaches, 1967 36

Coach Dan Devine and the Team Celebrating the Victory in the Locker Room, 1977 39

Coach Dan Devine Leaving the Field through the North End Zone Tunnel with Players Wearing Green Jerseys, 1977 41

Gerry Faust Speaking to His Team in the Locker Room, 1981 42

Coach Lou Holtz Conferring on the Sidelines with Pat Eilers, 1988 45

Coach Lou Holtz on the Sidelines with Tony Brooks, 1988 47

Lou Holtz Leading the Team Out of the Tunnel, 1993 48

Lou Holtz Tipping His Cap to Students, Players, and Fans after His Final Home Game as Head Coach, 1996 51

Coach Brian Kelly Leading the Player Walk, 2018 52

The Notre Dame Marching Band Welcoming New Head Football Coach Marcus Freeman, LaBar Practice Complex, 2021 54

PLAYERS

Notre Dame Varsity Football Team, May 17, 1888 61

Notre Dame Varsity Football Team, 1896 62–63

Studio Portrait of John F. Farley, circa 1900 64

Studio Portrait of Louis “Red” Salmon, circa 1903 65

Players Using a Blocking Sled at Football Practice, circa 1908 67

Studio Portrait of Ray Eichenlaub and Charles “Gus” Dorais, 1913 69

Studio Portrait of the Notre Dame Varsity Football Team, 1913 71

Notre Dame Varsity Football Team, with and without George Gipp, 1920 73

The Four Horsemen at Notre Dame after the Army Game, 1924 75

Notre Dame Varsity Football Team Posed on a Set at the Warner Brothers Studios with Actress Irene Rich and Rin-Tin-Tin, 1925 77

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on the Return Trip from Southern California, 1925 79 x FIGURES

Practice on a Field outside of Cartier Field, circa 1925–1930 81

Football Coach Heartley “Hunk” Anderson and players greeting Carl Laemmle, President of Universal Pictures, at South Bend’s Union Station, 1931 82

Captain Dick Prendergast Wearing a Monogram Leather Jacket at the Grotto, 1957 83

Posed Action Shot of Johnny Lattner in Notre Dame Stadium, 1952 85

Spring Football Practice: Motion Picture Cameramen Shooting from a Trench, before and while Players Run Past, 1953 86–87

Agility Drills at Practice on Cartier Field, 1954 89

Line Sprints at Opening Football Media Day, Spring 1966 90–91

Joe Montana Walking off the Field with Dave Reeve and Al Wujciak, 1975 93

Lou Holtz Squares Off against Tim Brown during the Annual Bookstore Basketball Tournament, 1987 95

Chris Zorich Reacts to Notre Dame’s Heartbreaking Loss, 1991 96

Touchdown Pass to Jerome Bettis from Rick Mirer, 1993 99

Tom Zbikowski Running Back a Punt Sixty Yards for a Touchdown, 2005 101

FANS

Notre Dame Students and Football Players at the Train Station, 1914 106

Notre Dame Students Parading through South Bend, Indiana, circa 1915 107

Crowds Following the Results of the Game via Telegraph in Downtown South Bend, 1915 109–10

View of the Game from the Stands, 1919 112

“The World’s Longest Bar,” Slip Madigan’s Football Train Trip to the Game, 1936 115

Navy Day Celebration at Halftime, 1945 117

Camera from Television Station WBKB of Chicago Covering the Game, 1947 118

Reporters Working inside the Notre Dame Stadium Press Box, 1953 119

Fans Consuming the Game with Technologyduring a Live Game, 1982 120

Scenes from the Friday Night Bonfire, 1950 122–23

Cheerleaders on the Sidelines, 1950 125

View of the Kennedy Family in the Stands, 1953 127

Joe Boland in a Radio Booth, Broadcasting a Notre Dame Football Game, 1950s 128

Ed Sullivan and Aubrey Lewis with Mascots Mike and Trotter, 1957 131

Silent Cheering with Cards in the Stands, 1964 133

Two Ushers Working Gate 12 of Notre Dame Stadium, 1966 135

A Group of Women Working in the Football Ticket Office in the Basement of Breen-Phillips Hall, 1967 136

Tailgating outside Notre Dame Stadium before the Game, 1968 139

Postgame Celebration, 1973 140

Coach Gerry Faust at a Pep Rally in Stepan Center, 1982 142

Fans on the Field after the Game, 1993 143

Leprechaun Mike Brown Doing Pushups after an Irish Score, 1999 145

The Notre Dame Marching Band Entering the Field, 2002 147

ESPN College GameDay Program Stage on Library Quad, 2012 149

GAMES

The Players in Their Positions at the Beginning of the Game, 1888 155

Harry “Red” Miller Running with the Ball from the Backfield, 1909 157

Charlie Crowley in Motion to Catch a Forward Pass, 1912 159

Before the Snap to Quarterback Charles “Gus” Dorais, 1913 160

Coach Jesse Harper Talking with Players on the Field at Halftime, 1915 163

A Mid-Air Tackle on Cartier Field, circa 1910s 165

Page from an Anonymous Scrapbook, 1920 167

Notre Dame Football Team Posed with Rev. John O’Hara, C.S.C., in Front of the Maryland Hotel, 1925 168–69

View of the Yankee Stadium Field from the Upper Stands, 1928 172

Anonymous Scrapbook Page with Four Photographs Taken from the Stands, 1932 175

Notre Dame’s Perfect Play of 1936 176–77

Jim Mello Scoring Notre Dame’s Third Touchdown, 1943 179

Dan Shannon Catching a Pass from Johnny Lattner, 1953 180

Touchdown Pass to Bob Scarpitto from Don White, 1959 180–83

Quarterback John Huarte Passing to Split End Jack Snow, 1964 185

Robert “Rocky” Bleier Carrying the Ball, 1967 187

Jeff Zimmerman Carrying the Ball, as Seen on the Contact Sheet and with the Intended Crop Lines, 1968 188–89

Quarterback Tom Clements Carrying the Ball and Evading Defenders, 1973 191

High Tensions between Irish Linebacker Andre Jones and Wolverine Tailback Tony Boles, 1988 192

Quarterback Tony Rice Carrying the Ball, 1989 195

Reggie Brooks Carrying the Ball during a Snow Storm, 1991 197

Irish Defenders Attempt to Block an Aggie Field Goal Kick, 1993 198

Lee Becton Running with the Ball and Resisting the Tackling Attempts ofTwo Opposing Players, 1993 201

Autry Denson Scoring a Touchdown, 1998 202

Theo Riddick Stretching to Score a Touchdown, 2012 205

VENUES

Aerial View of Campus, Early 1920s 211

View of Cartier Field from Above, circa 1915 212

Cartier Field, circa Early 1920s 213

A Dusty Skirmish on Cartier Field, circa 1920 214

Empty Stands of Cartier Field with Sacred Heart Church and the Main Building in the Background, circa 1928 215

View of the Action from the Stands in the End Zone, 1925 217

Lines of Automobiles Parked Outside of the Stadium, 1925 219

The New York Skyline Appearing above the Confines of Yankee Stadium, circa 1925 221

A Capacity Crowd inside Soldier Field, 1927 222–23

Early Construction Phase of Notre Dame Stadium, 1930 226–27

Scoreboard in Use from 1930 to 1938 229

Scoreboard in Use from 1939 to 1954 230

Scoreboard in Use from 1955 to 1971 231

Scoreboard in Use from 1972 to 1996 232

Scoreboard in Use from 1997 to 2017 233

View of Notre Dame Stadium from Memorial Library (Later Named Hesburgh Library), 1964 234

View of Notre Dame Stadium from Hesburgh Library, 2000 235

Views of Helmets in the Notre Dame Locker Room, 1966 236–37

Bench Seats in Notre Dame Stadium, 1967 239

View from the South End Zone inside Notre Dame Stadium, 1977 241

Joe Montana Carrying the Ball over the Goal Line for a Touchdown, 1977 242

A Worker Applying Gold Leaf to the Lettering of Notre Dame Stadium, 1997 243

Aerial View of Campus during a Football Game at Sunset, 2017 245

View of the Western Press Box from the Stands, 1930 246

View of the Western Premium Boxes from the Stands, 2023 247

xiv FIGURES

ACK now LEDgME n TS

We would like to thank the University of Notre Dame Press, particularly Matt Dowd, Rachel Kindler, Wendy McMillen, and Rachel Martens for their expertise, encouragement, and guidance, but most of all for their patience. We are appreciative of friends and family who were gracious enough to read the manuscript in its various stages and offer comments, including Amy Rule, a former colleague at the Center for Creative Photography, and Hannah Lamb, who gave up part of a Christmas vacation to read a draft and offer advice to her dad. From the Notre Dame Archives, we are grateful for Joe Smith, who provided significant assistance by pulling files for review and tracking down obscure quotes, and for Patrick Milhoan, who supported this project from the beginning.

Thanks to our families, who were forced to listen to what must have seemed like a never-ending discussion of Notre Dame football, photographs, and deadlines, especially Beth, who was the one person more relieved than the authors to see the completion of this book. Writing can sometimes be a lonely enterprise, so we are both grateful to have a coauthor; it helps to have someone listening when you are thinking out loud, someone to keep you on task, and someone who shares your love for photography and Notre Dame football. A special thanks to the always friendly people at Cloud Walking Coffee shop in South Bend, as coffee and writers have a natural affinity.

We are indebted to those who created, innovated, and lived and breathed the continuing legacy of Notre Dame football. There are many photographers whose work made this book possible, from amateurs looking down into their humble Kodak Brownie to seasoned professionals shooting with a high-end Hasselblad. Even further behind the scenes are those who collected and preserved these visual works to make them accessible to future generations. They all played a part in telling the stories that fill this book.

A souvenir stand on campus, 1977

Throughout the history of college football, fans have followed the game and their favorite teams through a range of media. Reports first arrived through print media such as newspapers and magazines. Later came radio and television and, most recently, the internet. From the 1870s until well into the twentieth century, the printed popular press was the most accessible medium for fans of college football. Illustrations accompanied the articles as drawings or paintings that engravers transferred to woodblocks to be printed alongside the text. When it became more feasible for photography to stop game action, the engravers also copied photographs onto their woodblocks and steel printing plates. Eventually, the technology evolved to eliminate the need for engravers and to allow mechanical printing of the photographs through patterns of dots, known as halftone screens. Printing actual photographs became an easier process for illustrating stories in a timely fashion, and it offered viewers real-life images with more detail than drawings could provide.1

By the early part of the twentieth century, photography had overtaken other forms of illustrations for supplying views of college football, coaches, and athletes to the readers. Photography revolutionized the consumption of games by bringing the fans closer to the action through the sports page as the number of print media outlets exploded across the country. Although television and video (preceded by films and newsreels) have come to dominate

much of the coverage of college football today, photography continues to preserve its place in connecting fans and followers to the game. Photographers remain a staple on the sidelines as the internet and social media have provided new channels for the distribution and appreciation of college football images from the cameras of professionals and fans alike.

This book is a curation of a sampling of photographs from collections held by the Archives of the University of Notre Dame, where we have worked together as archivists specializing in the medium of photography. In some cases, the selection process for this book was very easy, but in many cases, it was difficult. Millions of photographic prints, negatives, transparencies, and born-digital photographs reside in the Notre Dame Archives. Naturally, because football has a special place at Notre Dame, a fairly large percentage of those photos is football-related. As such, a lot of eye-catching and historically important photographs were left on the proverbial cutting room floor. Even with myriad choices, there were also a few times when we wanted to showcase a certain niche or behind-the-scenes aspect of Notre Dame football only to determine that no such image existed in the photographic holdings.

The sources of these photographs vary. The Notre Dame Archives is the official repository for all historic records created by university departments.

1.The technology of lithographs, engravings, and other printing processes is beyond the scope of this book except for this brief discussion. For those interested in learning more about this topic, especially about the non-photographic illustrations that documented football into the 1920s, please see the works of Michael Oriard, a Notre Dame graduate and former football player, especially his book The Art of Football (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017). Oriard’s many other books on college football are essential for any reader who wishes to understand the history, culture, and media coverage of the sport.

Analog and born-digital photographic material are part of the records of the university. A prominent example are the records from the department of the University Photographer, which began documenting university activities in 1949 and continues today with the work of photographers who are now seated in Notre Dame Creative under the Office of Public Affairs and Communications. The negatives, photographic prints, and transparencies from this department comprise the largest collection of analog photographic material in the University Archives. A handful of other departments and academic colleges have their own staff photographers and their work is narrowed to documenting their slice of the whole Notre Dame experience. Many other images of university life have arrived in the Notre Dame Archives as donations from former students and their descendants. This area of collecting provides a rich history found in photograph albums and scrapbooks that were created and kept by students, especially in the pre–World War II era. It is important to note that the Notre Dame Archives collects and preserves photographic material, but the archivists do not create it.

Photographs are acquired so that the patrons can study and reuse them for their own projects, so a large part of an archivist’s job is to help many researchers navigate these collections and find what they need. Unsurprisingly, photographs regarding the storied history of Notre Dame football make up a large portion of patron requests. Our almost-daily contact with football photographs within the archival collections inspired this book.

The staff of the Notre Dame Archives routinely fields questions that can be very specific. In the case of Notre Dame football, a patron focuses often on certain topics: a particular game, player, coach, or surrounding activities. Researchers are usually looking for images to illustrate bits of information that make up the text of their books and articles, and often the photographs that they choose could easily be interchangeable. Rarely is a photograph used as the crux of the content. However, these photographs should be seen as more than mere illustrations of the historical timeline of the university. They themselves

are a source of information on the events, places, and people that populate Notre Dame’s past. Many of them can stand on their own as visually compelling works of art that evoke a range of emotions among viewers.

The photographs selected for this book do not exist in a historical vacuum; they were created within the context of the larger history of photography and the technology that has driven the medium since its invention. The long timeline of the history of photography is beyond the scope of this book, but there are points on that line where its evolution can clearly be seen in the photographs presented in this book. In much of the early era, being photographed meant entering a studio and sitting in front of a professional photographer. This happened sometimes with painted backdrops, but always with controlled lighting and formal poses. The football team group photographs and individual player portraits of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that are reproduced in this book are good examples of professional photographers working in a controlled environment.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, photography had moved out of the studio and professional photographers were no longer the only ones using and experimenting with the medium. The introduction of the Kodak Brownie in 1900 transformed amateur photography by putting a very inexpensive and easy to use camera into the hands of ordinary people. Anyone could become a photographer. The early Brownie camera was essentially a cheaply made cardboard box with a very simple lens, a single speed shutter, and a fixed aperture. The camera required no controls or settings; all the photographer had to do was point and shoot and then let a local drugstore process the film. Photography quickly became much more informal and candid as camera technology advanced to where even the simple Brownie could capture objects in motion.

The viewer might notice that the photographs taken since the introduction of the Brownie reflect this newfound freedom. In the first decades of the twentieth century, photographers brought viewers closer to the game by pro-

ducing images of game action, spectators in and around the stands, football practices, sideline views, and other scenes that draw the interest of contemporary fans. These images are familiar and now expected by modern viewers. Beginning in the 1920s, followers of college football expected to see both the public aspects of the game and the behind-the-scenes moments without the formality that characterized much of nineteenth-century studio photography.

The photographs that followed this early era are the product of a variety of cameras too numerous to detail here. However, several lines and types of cameras were especially influential. The Speed Graphic, first manufactured in 1912, became the favorite of professional photographers, particularly press and sports photographers. By the 1940s and 1950s, the Speed Graphic was in such widespread use that most of the public even today would recognize its iconic handle and large flash attachment on the right side of the camera. Amateur photographers had few choices beside the Brownie camera until the late 1960s, when Kodak and other companies introduced Instamatic Reflex cameras, which were smaller and even easier to use. Their popularity soared with an estimated fifty million Instamatic Reflex cameras sold by 1970.

By the early 1970s, the Speed Graphic was also losing out to a more convenient kind of camera, the 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) camera. The most famous manufacturers of these cameras were Leica and Nikon, although many other companies produced them as well. The 35 mm SLR camera was fast, easy to use, versatile, and produced good results, so it suited sports photographers who had to work quickly in an unpredictable environment. Photographs taken with 35 mm cameras and reproduced in this book demonstrate the camera’s advantages, especially in the action images in the “Games” chapter, where the photographer has to change positions often, shoot players in motion, cover scenes that were close or at a distance, and adjust to changes in light. The 35 mm SLR cameras could also make use of a variety of interchangeable lenses and offered close ups from distance or wider-angle shots. The contact sheets reproduced in the “Games” and “Coaches” chapters highlight and illustrate the

format. The ease of use no doubt let photographers concentrate on what they were seeing through the lens.

The images selected for this book display many facets of the experience of Notre Dame football, some of which will be familiar to viewers, although others will be unexpected. Certain images were selected because they serve as a starting point or ending point for a particular story in the history of Notre Dame football, and one that might not have been told in the past or not told in the way the photograph might suggest. Hopefully, some of the images will evoke personal emotions and memories, even if the photographs come from a different era or show an event unlived by the viewer. The humanity of the players, coaches, and fans is apparent. The viewer can readily relate with the subjects’ emotions captured on film or in digital pixels, such as joy, frustration, hope, and determination.

Finally, some images appeal to viewers not because of the historical information they convey or even the feelings they generate, but because they are just good photographs. Of course, what makes a photograph good is difficult to describe and aesthetics have changed over time. Beyond the subject matter of football, the elements of composition contribute to the quality of the image—the photographer’s use of lines, light, shapes, patterns, and textures. Composition can draw viewers’ eyes into the scene, capturing their attention and holding their interest. We hope that this book will inspire readers to linger longer on these photographs and study these sometimes subtle details.

For each photograph in this book there is a photographer—some known, some unknown and anonymous. Images in this book reveal something about how photographers work, including some of the background effort and the steps taken to get to the final image: contact sheets used to preview and perhaps crop the frame, experiments with different exposure settings to take advantage of lighting conditions, leading lines to direct the viewer’s eye into the photograph, and other choices made in and out of the camera that together create a successful image.

There are many ways to divide the vast universe of football-related images in the Notre Dame Archives’ collections. As we began to select the images, categories emerged and presented themselves as the essential elements of a theatrical play or drama with the coaches as directors, players as actors, fans as the spectators, games as the final production, and venues as the stages. Each category is a necessary piece of a story played out for well over one hundred years at Notre Dame. The images in this book extend beyond the specifics of people and eras to provide a fresh way of examining the subject of each chapter. In turn, the sum of the parts reflects the whole experience of Notre Dame football.

In this book, we have made judgments not only about the historical significance of each image—its story within Notre Dame history—but also its composition based on our experience viewing many related photographs over many years. When we comment on the elements that make an image interesting, we do not believe that the photographer always consciously visualized the elements as he or she peered through the lens before the image was exposed. Perhaps the camera recorded the scene exactly as predicted, or perhaps it did not. Intentions are obviously valid, but once the photograph is made, viewers bring their own interpretation and thoughts to the experience of viewing an image. In the end, the viewer might well see these works in a very different light than the photographers originally intended. It is just the nature of endeavor.

CHARLES LAMB

ELIZABETH HOGAN

C O A C H E S

In the early years of college football, coaches as we understand them today were not the norm. It was generally expected that the players themselves should handle the duties now associated with coaches—everything from running practices and devising game plans to managing the logistics of the schedule itself. Under this approach, team captains or former players were unpaid volunteers and served as the leaders of the squad. The idea of a paid, professional coach was thought to be against the spirit of amateurism, which favored the love of the game and dedication to the team above the almighty dollar. Well into the early twentieth century, the rules of college football discouraged the practices of coaching that are common in the modern era, even to the point of not allowing active coaching from the sidelines and prohibiting sending in substitute players with instructions. The players, not coaches or managers, were seen as the rightful owners of the game.

Notre Dame’s earliest coaches generally fit the profile of the nonprofessional volunteer. In the very first years of the program, the team captains fulfilled the role of coach. Notre Dame hired James Morrison of Ann Arbor as its first official “coach,” but only for a two-week stint in October 1894 to get the

team into shape. The players were then supposed to execute the plan without Morrison’s direct supervision. Upon his departure from campus, the Notre Dame student news magazine Scholastic noted, “Never in the history of athletics at Notre Dame has an eleven been better trained. It rests now with the captain and his men to continue practice on the lines mapped out by the coach.”

Between 1894 and the hiring of Jesse Harper in December 1912, Notre Dame had twelve different coaches. Current players still acted as coaches in some seasons, and former players from Notre Dame or other schools took on the role in other seasons. Once the professional coaching roles were established at Notre Dame, captains and seasoned players sometimes assumed responsibilities that are now the roles of today’s assistant coaches. For example, during the First World War, newly named head coach Knute Rockne, successor to Jesse Harper, was stationed at the Fort Sheridan student Army training camp in the late summer of 1918. In his stead, Rockne gave directions to captain Leonard “Pete” Bahan on how to run practices until he could return to campus.

Over time, as the game took on greater significance both as a mainstay of collegiate life and as a source of significant income, schools became less willing to leave the football programs in the hands of players and unpaid volunteers. College football expanded into a system of complex programs and conferences with increasingly more administrative needs, such as setting schedules, arranging travel, and maintaining facilities. All of these responsibilities were in addition to the traditional coaching duties of recruiting, running practices, supervising training and conditioning, and developing game strategy. The growth in game attendance and the corresponding revenue caught the attention of college administrators. Winning football games, though always the desired outcome, garnered new importance. As the game evolved over the early years of the twentieth century, professional coaches became a key part of the game, not only as leaders of football teams but also as administrators of the entire athletic programs.

Notre Dame made the transition to a modern coach with the hiring of Jesse Harper in December 1912. Harper had attended the University of Chicago and played football under the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg, one of the most influential figures in the early history of college football. After graduating from Chicago in 1906, Harper went on to coach two seasons at Alma College and four at Wabash College. After the 1912 football season, Notre Dame hired Harper into the official roles of director of athletics and coach of all varsity sports. Harper quickly went to work improving the football team’s strength of schedule. Four of Notre Dame’s seven opponents in the fall of 1913 had never faced the gold and blue on the gridiron: the University of South Dakota, Army, Penn State University, and the University of Texas. Harper had fulfilled his role as administrator for the season, just as he would later fulfill his role as coach when Notre Dame proved victorious over all seven of its opponents.

Over the decades, fans have gotten to know the Notre Dame coaches through the media of the day. For many years that meant the popular press— newspapers, magazines, and other publications. Knute Rockne’s rise to fame coincided with the rise of popular culture and the advent of radio in America in the 1920s. Although Jesse Harper was Notre Dame’s first coach in the modern sense, Rockne was the first Notre Dame coach to become a national figure, leveraging publicity for himself and Notre Dame with the help of an outside sports agent. He wrote books and newspaper and magazine articles; he endorsed products; and he consulted with Hollywood on motion pictures. His tragic death at the age of forty-three in an airplane accident sealed his place in the lore of Notre Dame athletics and in the history of college football. Coaches since Rockne have achieved varying degrees of fame, but all have been in the national media spotlight, making the head coaching job at Notre Dame one of the most scrutinized in all of college football.

Coaches are most visible to fans on the sidelines during a game or at the podium of a press conference, especially in the era of television. However, many of a coach’s vital responsibilities are less public: meetings, practices, workouts, traveling, recruiting, and other day-to-day activities that are not the spotlight and therefore are filmed and photographed less.

This chapter highlights Notre Dame’s most famous coaches, and it also includes photographs that attempt to show the multifaceted dimensions of any coach’s work. It sheds light on the particularly intriguing relationship between coaches and the players, where the coach has an incredibly important role as teacher, motivator, and mentor.

Frank “Shorty” Longman coached Notre Dame for two seasons—1909 and 1910. He earned his stripes playing fullback from 1903 to 1905 on the University of Michigan’s famous “point-a-minute” teams. After graduating, he coached at the University of Arkansas and the College ofWooster in Ohio before accepting the job at Notre Dame. The 1909 season was a pivotal season for Notre Dame since the team won seven games and tied one. More importantly, they defeated a strong Michigan team for the first time in school history with an 11–3 victory in Ann Arbor. The Irish claimed the Western Championship, although the title was disputed by the Wolverines and their coach, Fielding Yost.

The 1910 rematch was canceled by Michigan just twenty-four hours before the game was to be played, after the Wolverines claimed three of the Irish players had exhausted their eligibility due to having previously played at other schools in Washington and Oregon. Notre Dame argued that the past experience did not count because those schools were not on the Big Nine’s list of eligible schools, and Notre Dame refused to sit them out of the contest with Michigan. Despite long negotiations, the matter could not be resolved. Because of this and other tensions between the two schools, Michigan and Notre Dame did not play again until 1942.

Longman’s permanent home was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and he reveled in the fact that he was the first of Yost’s former players to conquer the master. For many years, Longman took to walking his pet bulldog Mike around town while the dog sported a jacket that displayed the score of the 1909 Irish victory. While his work helped lay the foundation for Notre Dame football glory, Longman left the game altogether after the 1910 season. In his two seasons at Notre Dame, Longman’s record was 11–1–2.

Michigan 3Notre Dame 11 Ferry Field, Ann Arbor, Michigan, November 6, 1909

Coach Frank Longman on the Sidelines

COACHES

Studio Portrait of Jesse Harper in a University of Chicago Letter Sweater, circa 1913

Jesse Harper was a pivotal actor in the history of Notre Dame football. His tenure came as the football program was leaving behind the vestiges of its early days and taking on characteristics of a more modern program. When Harper was hired as football coach at Notre Dame in December 1912, he also took on the role of athletic director and scheduled games, oversaw other varsity sports, and budgeted travel and other expenses, which were duties previously managed by the captain of the team. Harper’s five years at Notre Dame ushered in the modern construct of professional coaches and full-time athletic administrators. Harper, Knute Rockne, and a few other coaches held both jobs while at Notre Dame.

Another change that Notre Dame implemented at the beginning of Harper’s tenure was to elevate the status of the program by strengthening the schedule. The tenuous relationship with Michigan led Notre Dame to look for quality opponents outside of the Midwest. One of Harper’s earliest acts, carried out after he had been hired by Notre Dame but while he still finished his term at Wabash College, was to schedule a game with Army for the 1913 season. Because Notre Dame already had a strong reputation in the Midwest, Harper was able to secure spots on the home schedules of Army, Penn State University, and the University of Texas in 1913, followed by the likes of Yale University, Syracuse University, and the University of Nebraska in subsequent years. The risk paid dividends and propelled Notre Dame to the next level in the realm of collegiate football. In 1913, Army was the king of the sport, and Notre Dame’s upset victory turned out to be one of the most famous in all of Notre Dame football history.

Harper left coaching after the 1917 season, paving the way for his young assistant, Knute Rockne, to take over as head coach. Harper left football to work on his twenty-thousand-acre ranch near Sitka, Kansas, not far from the site of the airplane crash that took Rockne’s life fourteen years later. Notre Dame brought Harper back to campus following Rockne’s death to serve as athletic director from 1931 to 1933, while Heartley “Hunk” Anderson took over as head football coach. Harper and Anderson were then replaced by Elmer Layden, one of the Four Horsemen on Notre Dame’s 1924 National Championship team, who resumed filling both roles of football coach and athletic director. With this chapter of his life now complete, Harper once again returned to his successful ranching career. Harper was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1962 and into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

This studio portrait of Jesse Harper was made by Jacob Rhode at McDonald Studio in South Bend, Indiana, which still exists today. It is a simple, head-and-shoulders shot taken against a neutral background. Harper wears the letter sweater of his alma mater, the University of Chicago, where he played football under the famous Amos Alonzo Stagg. As discussed in the “Players” chapter, the Notre Dame monogram was initially reserved for those athletes who had earned it. While fans today would expect Harper to be loyal to the school he led on the athletic field, it would have been out of place for him to wear a Notre Dame sweater.

Coach Knute Rockne at Notre Dame Football Practice, 1920s

As a dominating figure in the twentieth century, Knute Rockne has a welldocumented life story. He was born in Norway and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five. After attending high school in Chicago, Rockne worked in the post office for several years before coming to Notre Dame in 1910 as a student-athlete at the age of twenty-two. Many of the details of his life entered popular culture because of the 1940 movie Knute Rockne: All American. However, as with many Hollywood treatments, liberties are taken. In more recent years, several serious and more scholarly biographies have been published, which help to separate truth and myth.

Rockne’s football career at Notre Dame as a player and coach was met with incredible success. On the gridiron, his strength and speed were utilized in the position of left end from 1910 to 1913. Expressing interest in all aspects of the game, including those beyond the physical play, Rockne was a true team player. His most famous game was the 1913 game against Army in which he was on the receiving end of passes from quarterback and good friend Charles “Gus” Dorais. Such a big game on a big stage helped to give Notre Dame and Rockne national notoriety.

After graduating from Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1914, Rockne stayed at Notre Dame as assistant football coach, head track coach, and chemistry professor. When Jesse Harper departed in 1918, Rockne was the natural choice to assume the head coaching position and that of athletic director. During his thirteen years as head coach, Rockne posted a record of 105–12–5 for a winning percentage of .881. He won three national championships and had five undefeated seasons. He coached many of Notre Dame’s greatest players, starting with George Gipp and on to the Four Horsemen, and finally to the two undefeated national championship teams in 1929 and 1930.

A plane crash cut short Rockne’s life on March 31, 1931. His death was major national and international news with everyone from the president of the United States to the king of Norway commenting on Rockne’s passing.

However, Rockne’s life and impact went beyond the field. His big personality and love for innovating the game came to prominence as the popular press and new forms of media were developing and college football was booming. College enrollments and attendance at football games grew rapidly and schools began to construct large stadiums and athletic facilities. Newspapers, magazines, newsreels, radio stations and networks, and wire services all took advantage of the large stage now presented by the sport. Bright spotlights demand big actors, and Rockne was certainly one such actor. He had an agent, Christy Walsh, to arrange opportunities with the popular media outlets, event appearances, product endorsements, newsreel features, and other promotions. Rockne’s early and untimely death only solidified his larger-than-life persona.

The photograph shown here was made from a 4 x 5 in. glass plate negative by Bagby Studio, a South Bend company that covered Notre Dame athletics from the 1910s to the 1940s. Rockne is pictured doing one aspect of the multifaceted job—coaching and mentoring players. The photographer composed the shot by putting the main subjects in the center third of the frame and slowly blurring out the players and objects farther in the background. Shooting up from the grass also makes for a more powerful image as the horizon is lowered. These techniques successfully add layers of complexity to this informal practice scene where the players thoughtfully heed the words of their coach.

Babe Ruth with Knute Rockne and the Notre Dame

Football Team on Cartier Field, September 23, 1926

Pictured here are two of the sporting world’s largest stars of the 1920s. The New York Yankees were in town in September 1926 to play a barnstorming exhibition game against the amateur league South Bend Indians at Playland Park. When the game was called on account of rain, Babe Ruth spent some time on the Notre Dame campus at football practice with coach Knute Rockne and his players. In addition to their shared stardom, Ruth and Rockne were among the first major figures in the athletic world to have a sports agent, and they shared the same one: Christy Walsh.

Figures like Rockne used interaction with the press to boost interest in games and subsequent ticket sales, but their own personal popularity led to other promotions, including coverage of big games such as the 1926 Army–Navy game played at Chicago’s Soldier Field. Rockne, along with coaches Tad Jones of Yale and Glenn “Pop” Warner of Stanford University, headlined pregame publicity for yet another “Game of the Century.” Part of the promotion included the three coaches attending the game and offering postgame analysis.

For Rockne, that engagement meant missing his own team’s game on the same day, November 27, against the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. In a letter to Christy Walsh dated August 3, 1926, Rockne commented, “Will be on hand for the Army–Navy game as the game in Pittsburgh will not be important enough.” Instead, Rockne would send assistant coach Heartley “Hunk” Anderson to manage the Notre Dame game against Carnegie Tech. The game did not turn out well for the Irish, who suffered an upset loss to the Tartans by a score of 19–0. The loss was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect season. Later accounts of the Carnegie Tech game put

Rockne’s reason for being in Chicago as the need to scout Navy, a new opponent on Notre Dame’s schedule for the upcoming 1927 season.

The Rockne and Ruth photographs tell the stories of the national sports figures, whom the popular press had helped to create. Ruth was coming off a 1926 season in which he had batted .372 with 47 home runs and 146 runs batted in (RBI), although the Yankees lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. Ruth made more money barnstorming than he did in his annual salary from the Yankees. Rockne had much the same experience in the 1920s, the decade that launched his career across the spectrum of sports

and entertainment. Beyond his coaching duties at Notre Dame, Rockne pocketed additional income from product endorsements, football camps, writing gigs, and public speaking engagements.

In a letter dated September 24, 1926, Rockne told his agent Walsh, “Babe here yesterday and everything was fine and the pictures will be sent to you in a short time . . . .” The images themselves are somewhat posed, in accor-

dance with the artificial nature of the whole publicity enterprise, which included ghostwritten articles in the popular press and choreographed press opportunities for this “Game of the Century.” The photographs were captured on glass plate negatives, one of which has a chipped corner, a fate met by more than a few negatives from the era that were made of glass about one-eighth of an inch thick.

Knute Rockne in His Office with His Secretary Ruth Faulkner, 1926–1931

For six years, Ruth Faulkner served at Knute Rockne’s right hand as his private secretary. She saw the inner workings of the Notre Dame’s Athletic Department and Rockne’s relationships with the players, Notre Dame administrators, and colleagues across the country. She was so close with Rockne that a publishing company approached her about writing a biography of “Rock” after his death. Faulkner declined, but later regretted it based on the halftruths that she had seen circulating in that first year.

Faulkner had hoped to “help carry on for Rockne,” but she found it surreal and unbearable to see others occupying Rockne’s office and life moving on. Looking for a fresh start, Faulkner resigned from Notre Dame in June 1931. A year later, she moved to New York to work at Manhattan College for coach John Francis “Chick” Meehan, who was a former football player at Syracuse University and had previously coached at Syracuse and New York University.

Reports of Faulkner’s new position hit the newspapers nationwide in October 1932. She reminisced about Rockne: “He knew how to get the best and the most from a boy with the least effort, and because he built character with his football teams, his greatness was something that will endure with Notre Dame. The boys loved him, and he had more to teach them” (The Waterbury Democrat, Waterbury, CT, October 4, 1932).

As seen pictured here, Rockne dictated his voluminous correspondence to Faulkner, who often signed Rockne’s name. In 1932, Faulkner noted, “There are many people around the country treasuring letters signed by Rockne – in my handwriting. I don’t think he signed ten letters in the six years I was with him. But you couldn’t tell the difference. Even he couldn’t distinguish between the two handwritings” (The Times Recorder, Zanesville, OH, October 18, 1932).

The University of Notre Dame Archives hold the administrative records for Athletic Director Knute Rockne, who corresponded with other coaches and athletic administrators, former players, Notre Dame administrators, business associates, fans, and many others. Similar to the administrative records of other campus departments, the athletic directors’ files tell the day-to-day story of the inner workings of the Notre Dame football program. Ruth Faulkner’s mark can be seen on many of the secretarial copies with the notation of “KRR:F” at the bottom of the letters.

While Notre Dame had moved into the world of hiring professional coaches, some vestiges remained of the old way of relying on alumni for assistance. Players had limited opportunities to continue playing football beyond graduation. If they wanted to remain a part of the game, coaching was their best opportunity. Notre Dame regularly plucked assistant coaches from the ranks of alumni players, a tradition that is still in practice today.

Throughout his career, Rockne actively encouraged his former players to take up coaching and quite a large number did. Some earned their stripes as assistants at Notre Dame; in fact, all of Knute Rockne’s assistant coaches in 1930 had previously played for him. For those who did not stay on campus, Rockne wrote many letters of recommendation on behalf of his former players for positions at other schools. He maintained relationships with them and continued to offer direct professional advice. Rockne’s desire to spread knowledge about coaching football led him to spearhead annual coaching clinics for others around the country to glean insight from the master.

Rockne said of his assistants in 1930, “Heartley Anderson, Chevigny, Voedisch, and Moynihan made up the best varsity coaching staff I have ever had or hoped to have, and their untiring, unselfish, unostentatious work was

Knute Rockne with His Coaching Staff, 1930

very largely responsible for our success” (Official Football Review, 1930). In the same year, the Irish went undefeated and won the national championship for the second year in a row, playing for the first time in the newly constructed Notre Dame Stadium. Their season-ending victory over the University of Southern California (USC) was the nineteenth win in a row for Coach Rockne and Notre Dame. The 1930 season was Rockne’s final season, and the last game he coached was a charity exhibition game played on December 14 in New York at the Polo Grounds between Notre Dame All-Stars (composed of Rockne’s former players) and the New York Giants. The Giants won the game 22–0 in an upset, and $115,153 was raised for a charity supporting unemployed workers in New York City.

This photograph of Rockne and his coaches shows three coaches dressed for practice and the other two dressed more for a media event. In this era, it wasn’t usual for coaches to wear suits and ties on the sidelines during games and be in athletic togs at practice. The variation in the formal and informal dress does make for an interesting photograph. The coaches seem a bit stiff and self-conscious; perhaps that is why they all are striking the same pose and holding their hands behind their backs as they gaze into the camera.

Left to right: Timothy Moynihan, Heartley “Hunk” Anderson, Knute Rockne, John “Jack” Chevigny, and John “Ike” Voedisch

Crowd outside Sacred Heart Church during Knute Rockne’s Funeral, April 4, 1931

Knute Rockne died unexpectedly in an airplane crash near Bazaar, Kansas, on March 31, 1931. Rockne had traveled from South Bend to Chicago and then took a train to Kansas City, where he visited his two sons who were in boarding school, before he caught a plane to fly on to the West Coast. Rockne had a number of speaking engagements scheduled in California, as well as plans to discuss his participation in a feature film, which was released later in 1931 as The Spirit of Notre Dame. The combination of icy weather and structural deterioration of a wing spar led to the death of all eight aboard the Fokker F-10 trimotor shortly after takeoff.

Rockne’s sudden death at age forty-three shocked the nation. President Herbert Hoover called his death a national tragedy and King Haakon VII of Norway, Rockne’s native country, sent an envoy to the funeral. For some, suddenly losing one of the most popular public figures of the decade confirmed the end of the roaring twenties. The outpouring of sympathy and reflection on Rockne’s life continued for weeks from ordinary people to politicians, newspaper columnists, celebrities, and athletes.

The funeral took place on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter, recalling to Notre Dame’s campus many students who were out on vacation, football alumni, coaching contemporaries, and even politicians. Sacred Heart Church was packed and people lined up on the route from the church to Highland Cemetery in the northwest part of South Bend. An estimated fifteen thousand people visited Rockne’s gravesite that Saturday and Sunday.

CBS radio broadcasted the funeral service to a national audience. Notre Dame President Rev. Charles O’Donnell, C.S.C., preached the sermon at the services, saying in part,

He might have gone to any university in the land and been gladly received and forever cherished there. But he chose Our Lady’s school, Notre Dame. He honored her in his life as a student, he honored her in the monogram he earned and wore, he honored her in the principles he inculcated and the ideals he set up in the lives of the young men under his care. He was her own true son. (Scholastic, April 17, 1931)

The photograph here shows people milling about, talking in small groups, surrounded by a line of cars (presumably the funeral procession). Standing behind mourners lined up on the steps of the Main Building, next to Sacred Heart Church, the photographer brings the viewer into the crowd. Other images of the funeral show the more formal aspects of the ceremony, the casket coming out of the church, the services inside, and the burial ceremony at Highland Cemetery. The informality of this particular snapshot is completed by the handwritten caption at the top of the print.

Jesse Harper, Athletic Director, and Heartley “Hunk” Anderson, Head Football Coach, circa 1931–1933

This photograph of two major figures of the Notre Dame football program in the early part of the twentieth century was taken in Notre Dame Stadium with the players on the sidelines and in the old dugout. The small crowd in the stands could mean it was a practice or maybe the spring Old Timers’ scrimmage game, the precursor to today’s Blue–Gold game. It was called the Old Timers’ game because former players used to return to campus to play the current varsity at the conclusion of spring practice.

Although the focus is on two men, Jesse Harper and Heartley “Hunk” Anderson, it brings to mind a third, Knute Rockne. After Rockne’s tragic death in 1931, Harper returned to campus for another stint as athletic director, a post he had already held from 1913 to 1917. His second tenure lasted from 1931 to 1933, and no doubt Notre Dame’s administration called him back to shepherd the football program through the difficult times that followed the iconic coach’s tragic death. Notre Dame president Rev. Charles O’Donnell, C.S.C., named Anderson “senior” coach, and named another former player, Jack Chevigny “junior” coach. This arrangement indicates that Notre Dame felt like it would take more than one man to replace Rockne. After Father O’Donnell announced the appointments, he addressed the gathered team by saying, “The eyes of the football world are on Notre Dame. It wants to know what Notre Dame will do without Rockne. You will answer. So carry on” (Scholastic, April 17, 1931).

With this background, the impromptu portrait takes on added poignancy as both of these men had been close friends of Rockne: one as his mentor and the other as his player. The expressions of coach and administrator look solemn, maybe even sad—at least that is what readers might conclude given the subjects’ history with the great coach and the reason they share this

portrait at this time. However, this photograph is open to interpretation, as most are.

“Smile!” is the command of more contemporary photographers, not of those in past eras, so in some ways it’s not unusual that Harper and Anderson are not smiling. Viewers today often see the expressions of people in photographs taken during the nineteenth century as being dour, expressionless, or even angry. Being photographed, especially in a studio portrait, was a serious undertaking; people might only have had a very few chances to ever be photographed in their life.

Portraiture photography was a posed experience that had a certain aesthetic about it as they were taken with cameras that had long shutter speeds that would blur the tiniest of motion. Thus it was common for sitters to look somber, sometimes self-important, for the future generations that would see this image. Smiling in portraits is an artifact of the era of candid photographs of the early twentieth century when photographs could finally be taken in a fraction of a second. Perhaps this picture demonstrates leftover conventions: Harper and Anderson had weight on their shoulders and they were consequently in a serious situation.

Speculating about the intentions of photographers can be a tricky proposition, but viewers bring their own interpretations to photographs without any real knowledge of the subject’s thoughts at the moment the shutter clicked. Once the image is created in the camera, exposed on a negative, or made in pixels and then presented as an analog print or digital image, the photographer loses some control of the narrative. Viewers will bring their own feelings, experiences, and understanding to their experience with the image.

Any viewer of this image could also grasp why this photograph imparts a feeling of melancholy. Without mistake, the elements of this photograph emphasize these two men and their importance and some relationship, showing them in full length yet also zoomed in close enough to see their expressions.

Perhaps the photographer wanted to express that these two people are part of a relationship that matters. They are centered in the image with the surrounding background in soft focus so that it does not detract from the main focus of the image—these two men, together.

Notre Dame –Unidentified –

Notre Dame Stadium, 1935–1940

Coach Elmer Layden on the Bench with Players

Elmer Layden began his Notre Dame career as a player under Knute Rockne. In 1924, his last year as a player, he gained fame as one of the Four Horsemen while winning a national championship. After his playing days he went into the more stable career path of coaching, like so many of Rockne’s players, since professional football was still in its naissance.

Layden returned to his native Davenport, Iowa, to coach at Columbia College for two years starting in 1925. From there he went on to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he was head coach from 1927 to 1933. For the 1934 season, he replaced Heartley “Hunk” Anderson as head coach of his alma mater, Notre Dame.

Layden’s coaching career at Notre Dame produced successful years. His signature game occurred in 1935 against the Ohio State University, when the Irish pulled out a come-from-behind victory in the last thirty-two seconds. In 1938, the Irish carried an 8–0 record into their final game against USC, but Notre Dame’s loss to the Trojans dropped a potential national championship title.

During his years as head football coach, Layden was also Notre Dame’s athletic director. In that role, one of his accomplishments was to restart the series with Michigan, scheduling two games against the Wolverines in 1942 and 1943. Even though Layden took over as Irish head coach just three seasons (and one coach) after Rockne’s death, it must have been difficult to replace such a legend who had also been his coach and mentor.

In this photograph, coach Elmer Layden is huddled on the bench with his players at a late-season, cold-weather game and smoking a cigarette to keep himself warm. Usually, players and coaches stand on the sidelines in preparation for going into battle on the gridiron. Perhaps the excitement of the game has worn off and the men foresee a loss as they gaze off into the distance. Layden is in the center of the bench, which was photographed at an angle. This makes for a much more interesting composition than if it had been shot head-on. His attire is naturally different from the players’ garb, and Layden’s dark coat contrasts nicely with the lighter coats of the players to make him stand out in the crowd.