Notre Dame football, part two
In the midst of this first college football playoff season I had hoped to have a piece written about a priest who railed against Catholic colleges playing football, in the 1930s — he was especially disturbed about Notre Dame, to the point of writing about a certain deceased coach “who called upon the memory of the dead” and whose “university was pushing a new building program, and the earnings of a successful team were expected to aid this program….” And that’s just his opening salvo. It gets worse, much worse — or better, depending on your perspective. This was in 1936 — holy smoke, what would he say today?
Anyway, I’m still working on that one so in the meantime, this:
Earlier this month I wrote about the current exhibit at the University of Notre Dame archives that tells the story of the 1924 football team fight against prejudice. On the same visit, I saw the telegram below.
Thanks to Coach Knute Rockne, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were able to attend the 1928 Notre Dame vs. Army game — the game famous for “win one for ‘the Gipper.’”
You likely know the story: George Gipp starred for the Irish gridders in two unbeaten seasons, 1919 and 1920 before his shocking death of pneumonia December 14, 1920, at age 25. On his deathbed he told Rockne, “Someday, when things look really rough for Notre Dame, ask the boys to go out there and win one for the Gipper.”
It was eight years before Rockne felt things looked “really rough” enough to make the Gipper’s request of his squad. In 1927, Army defeated Notre Dame 18-0. Still reeling from that shutout loss, the next season, Rockne repeated to the team Gipp’s request before the rematch. “I’ve never used Gipp’s request until now. This is that game. The rest is up to you.”
The Irish went out on the gridiron and won the game 12-6. The New York Daily News headline read: “Gipp’s Ghost Beats Army.”
There is another Babe Ruth item in the Notre Dame archives: a signed baseball is among several dozen held in the university collection (I was surprised to learn the archives had such a collection) and can be seen here.
One other Notre Dame vs. Army story: Bill Gompers was a neighbor of mine. Bill passed away in 2019. As a 17-year-old, Bill starred for the Fighting Irish in 1946. He shared some great stories with me. He is pictured below being tackled short of the goal line in what some have called “The Game of the Century” — a game that ended in a 0-0 tie between the top-two-ranked teams.
