The Archives of The University of Notre Dame 607 Hesburgh Library Notre Dame, IN 46556 574-631-6448 [email protected] Notre Dame Archives: Alumnus 4lOTRE DAME FOOTBALL ISSUE -r^-r-'z— ^ f. 1 .;• jy •-,->; Vol.38 No. 5 December, 1960 POTRE '•-—? JAMES E. AKMSTRONG. '25 Editor • i JOHN F. LAUGHLIN, '48 2J IDAAIE Managing Editor ie^.j—ji. .j^...-j»t-.j—.>t»...j/..y A •» J The announcement that the University of Notre Dame has extended the coaching contract HAPPY. NEW YEAR, JOE! of Joe Kuharich, '38, three years beyond its expiration date—to February, 1966—should bring an element of stability to coaches, squad, prospects, and aliunni and friends. In the light of this move, the remarks below seem even more to the point.—^I. E. Armstrong, Editor. questions. But the questions are those meant administration, faculty, student NOTRE DAME of a constructive curiosity about a body, alumni, community, synthetic or healthy phenomenon, from interested N subway alumni, and, by many impli­ FOOTBALL —1960 alumni and friends, who believe that cations, the Catholic Chm-ch. by James E. Armstrong football is one of the nourishing fac­ In the recent years there has been I enrolled at Notre Dame in 1921. tors which has fed not only the sports a tendency to yield to the specialization The football team had had two unde­ pages of the nation, but the richer and departmentalization of the world feated seasons, 1919 and 1920, and an- pages of tradition; the inspiring pages around Notre Dame football. I have :*ther seemed imminent. The post- of competition; the prosperous pages heard more and more "the team," vVorld War I teams were strong, and of Notre Dame's financial progress; "Leahy's lads," "Brennan's boys," "die it looked like Coach Rockne had an the leadership pages of many facets of boys lost another," "THEY haven't undefeated season assured. The loss life into which athletes have been fed; got it this year," and now "what's Joe that year to Iowa was my first contact going to do?" with the tragedy of student spirit. It For my own part, as editor of the was, as I look back, probably over- ALUMNUS, I report honestly that in dramatized because loss was unfamiliar Sept. 30—Oklahoma at Notre Dome Oct. 7—Purdue at Lafayette no era over these four decades has to any of the students. there been any serious alumni pressure, After that came the entanglement Oct. 14—Southern Cal at Notre Dome Oct. 21—Michigan State at East alumni criticism, aliunni interference, ,|>bfith some of tlie N.D. stars in pro Lansing or aluimii abuses. There has been a football (the money involved then was Oct. 28—Northwestern at Notre Dome persisting interest, a universal enthusi­ hardly enough to justify the charges, Nov. 4—Navy at Notre Dame asm, a loyal hope, and a deep appre­ but the principle was ironclad). Nov. 11—PiHsburgh at Pittsburgh ciation of the richness of the football It looked as though the football sun Nov. 18—Syracuse at Notre Dame tradition. svas about to set on the promising Nov. 25—Iowa at Iowa City I think good football is possible un­ Notre Dame football empire. Coach Dec. 2—Duke at Durham der high standards, because we have Rockne was only just getting acquaint­ seen high standards and good football ed with some of my classmates — good the spiritual pages of an intangible living together for all these years. students for the most part, but small force, developed by an almost acciden­ I think coaching, materiaJ, student Jis football players had come. The tal circumstance into a symbolic arm spirit, changes, attitudes, and all the names included Stuhldreher, Layden, of the Church, and fostered by the other pieces of the football pattern are Miller and Crowley, Hunsinger, Col­ prayers of nuns and children; an an­ not essentially changed. lins, Bach, Rip Miller, Kizer, Weibel, nual visible manifestation of a spirit To me, the situation can very pos­ and Walsh, with some even more likely that has loomed much larger than the sibly stem almost entirely from the prospects offering a little hope. season's scoreboards. scattering of the pieces of this pattern, Well, that is how my interest in foot­ So we must accept the unrest that away from its former institutional to- ball grew — though it never distracted comes with any indication that this taUty. a large and entliusiastic student body, long and loved phenomenon is seriously Within each piece of this pattern ^f record proportions then, from the threatened. there is the potentiality for fitting itself *^ursuit of learning, and the many other I do not think it is. What may be back into the whole. I think when fluourishing extracurricular programs the problem? that is done, Notre Dame \vill resimie of a growing University. In analyzing the situation from the its place among the leaders in football, When news of Rockne's death came vantage point of 39 years as a lay without affecting in any way its place to Notre Dame on that sad March day observer, I am not convinced that it among the leaders in any or all phases in 1931, it seemed again as though is coaching, material, standards, ad­ of higher education. football destiny had run its course. ministration and faculty attitudes, or The real source of optimism is that But though the ensuing years have changing times. Certainly it is not this can be done quickly, if there is •brought changes in the coaching staff, alumni pressures. agreement on the solution. the cold fact remains that for 25 years One thing seems to me to hold at Notre Dame's football tradition and after Rockne's death, Notre Dame foot­ least the potential answers. When I its teams have been in a sense like the ball remained the top team record in knew Notre Dame football at its best, flaming sword of Michael. It would major football in the U.S. it represented a totality of enthusiasm. be almost a heresy to think that they Small wonder then that a more It was Notre Dame that won, or Notre could be overcome by intellectuaJ (Justained period of adversity raises Dame that lost. And this Notre Dame pride. This Football Phenomenon Excerpts from an Address at the Football Banquet in 1929 by Rev. Charles L. O'Donnell, C.S.C, President of the University "This football phenomenon — and tion do not make this charge. They der, wilder learning, more divine an© that is what football has become in know that the athlete is subject, if nearer to the source of trudi. It is that America — strikes me as being some­ anydiing, to keener scrutiny on the lesson which the heart learns of life thing like the elephant, which, in the score of his classes dian is the non- itself, — it is honor, it is chivalry, it old story, the blind men went to see. athlete. They say rather that, not­ is loyalt}', it is love; it is dedication and One of the blind men, stumbling withstanding all the alleged improve­ consecration of self to an ideal and a against the elephant's side, said, 'I ment, standards are so deplorably low cause, even though in the particular perceive the elephant is very like a generally it is no credit to any student premises that cause is only the ele^ wall.' Another, happening to catch to keep up in his classes. mentary one of winning a footbalr hold of the elephant's trunk, opined "These critics overlook or ignore one game for sake of the school. that die elephant was like a tree; important, and I diink, the most im­ "Two and two make four, but one while, to another, who happened to portant aspect of the whole question. and ten do not merely make eleven, catch hold of the animal's tail, the ele­ College is not merely a school; it is when that one is Captain John Law phant appeared much like a rope. Now a life. It is a school-life, of course, and and die otiier ten are the men of his football is like that How you regard the major emphasis, I affirm, is, as it team fighting for die honor of their it will depend upon what aspect of it ought to be, on study. But even if it school. When it comes to tiiat, yoi^ you single out and concentrate upon. were not, if football interest ran away pass out of the prosaic world of rude For example, some cridcs insist, noting with one-quarter of die year, then, I and common calculation into 'an only the crowds that attend games, that say, diere are ever so many worse ampler etiier, a diviner air' where the football is nothing but a great spectacle things that could happen to a school, impossible dreams that sway mankind that has got away from the colleges and, in my opinion, would happen to become breathing realities. In tiiat and becomes public property. Odiers, a school if that healthy outlet for young realm, forever living, dwell the custo­ looking only at the gate receipts, main­ energy and enthusiasm were closed. dians and the exemplars of our human tain that football is just a great money- There are more things in heaven and heritage of valor and virtue — Sparta making business. Others still, regard­ eartii — in the college heaven and is there and Rome is there, RicharcP ing it from an inside academic point earth, for it is a combination of the and Raymond and Godfrey, the Kings of view, affirm that football is the great two — tiian are dreamed of in die of Artiiur's Table, and the great Gaels obstacle to the fundamental purpose of pliilosophy of foundations for the ad- of Ireland — 'die men that God made college life, which is study.