Sunday, December 7, 2008

YouTube - Notre Dame Football

Here's some clips of the Fighting Irish in action

YouTube - Notre Dame Football

The Author of the Infamous Article

*Grantland Rice (1880-1954)
*Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee
*American sportswriter
*Known as the Voice of Sports during the 1920s, and considered a pioneer in the development of modern sports journalism.
*Educated at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee
*He moved to Atlanta and finally, New York where he worked as a writer.
*Rice filled his writing with literary traits, often adding his own poems to his stories
*From 1901-1911 Rice was a reporter on various newspapers, including the Atlanta Journal and the Cleveland News
*After 1911 he wrote about sports events, successively, in the New York Evening Mail, Tribune, and Sun.
*Rice's column of sporting news, comment, and gossip, “The Sportlight,” was nationally syndicated in 1930.
*Rice was the president of a company producing motion picture documentaries about sports.
*He immortalized Notre Dame's outstanding 1924 backfield as "The Four Horsemen," nicknamed Red Grange "The Galloping Ghost”
*Authored one of the most frequently quoted poetic couplets in all of sport: "For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, / He writes--not that you won or lost--but how you played the Game.”

*Grantland Rice’s Works

Non-Fiction
* The Winning Shot (with Jerome Dunstan Travers, 1915)
* The Boy's Book of Sports (1917)
* The Duffer's Handbook of Golf (with Claire A. Briggs, 1926)
* Understand Football (with John William Heisman, 1929)
* The Omnibus of Sport (editor, with Harford Powel, 1932)
* Spalding's Golf Guide 1932 (editor, 1932)
* The Bobby Jones Story: From the Writings of O.B. Keeler (1953)
* The Tumult and the Shouting: My Life in Sport (1954)
* The Best of Grantland Rice (1963)

Poetry
* Base-Ball Ballads (1910)
* Songs of the Stalwart (1917)
* Songs of the Open (1924)
* Only the Brave and Other Poems (1941)
* Steel and Flame: A Collection of War Poems (1942)
* The Final Answer and Other Poems (1955)

The Fighting Irish football


The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. The team competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Subdivision level. It is one of the two Catholic universities that field a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Their home games are played on Notre Dame's campus at Notre Dame Stadium, also known as "House that Rockne Built," which has the capacity of 80,795.
Notre Dame has the most consensus national championships. They produced more All-Americans than any other Football Bowl Subdivision school, however their beginning was not so great.
The Fighting Irish played their first game on November 23, 1887. Michigan shut them out and they lost with a score of 8-0. Their losing continue to flourish and they didn't get a W in their column until the last game in the 1888 season when they won against Harvard Prep with a score of 20-0. Between 1887 and 1899 Notre Dame had a record of 31 wins, 15 losses, and four ties.
At the beginning of the twentieth century college football began to increase in popularity and became standardized in 1906 with the IAAUS, which later became the NCAA in 1910. Notre Dame starting achieving more success during this time and got their first victory over Michigan in 1909 by a score of 11-3. By the end of the 1912 season they acquired a record of 108 wins, 31 losses, and 13 ties.
The luck of the Irish really began to grow in 1918 when they got one hell of a coach in Knute Rockne. Under his leadership the Irish had 105 wins, 12 losses, and 5 ties. Once a player for Notre Dame, Rockne led his team to six national championships, five undefeated seasons, a Rose Bowl victory 1925, and produced players such as the "Four Horsemen." Rockne has the highest win percentage (.881) in college football history. The last game he coached was on December 14, 1930, when he coached a group of Notre Dame All Stars against the New York Giants in NY. Fifty-thousand fans turned out to see the reunited "Four Horsemen" along with players from Rockne's other championship teams to take the field against the pros. Rockne died n Kansas on March 31, 1931 in a plane crash, while on his way to help in the production of the film The Spirit of Notre Dame. The crash site now features a Rockne Memorial.
Notre Dame has the 2nd highest winning percentage in the NCAA. They have produced the largest number of players to go on to play in the NFL. Notre Dame has graduated 98.74% of its football players in four years. Seven of their players have won the Heisman Trophy. Also Notre Dame is the only team professional or college, to have all of its games broadcast nationally on the radio and is the only college football team to have all of its home games televised nationally.

Knute Rockne-Legendary Coach


*Knute Kenneth Rockne
*Born on March 4, 1888 in Voss , Norway
*Highly regarded as college football's greatest head coach.
*To this day, no head coach in the history of the game has had the same success as Rockne.

*The Young Years
*Rockne's father, a carriage maker, brought the family from Norway to the Logan Square district of Chicago, Illinois when Knute was just five.
*Rockne first played football on the sandlots of his neighborhood
*Eventually played end for the Logan Square Tigers.
*As a teen, he attended North West Division High School in Chicago where he ran track and played football.
*After High School/College
*Rockne took a job as a mail dispatcher with the Chicago Post Office for four years.
*After saving enough money to continue his education, Rockne boarded a train and headed to South Bend, Indian.
*At the age of 22, Rockne passed the entrance exam and enrolled at Notre Dame.
*During Rockne's freshman year he played as a scrub on Notre Dame's varsity football team. *Unsatisfied with his football career, he quickly turned his attention to track where he set a school record (12-4) in the indoor pole vault.
*Rockne's accomplishments on the track ultimately motivated him to give football a second chance
*Named to Walter Camp's All-America football squad as a third-string end.
*In 1913 Rockne served as captain of the football team, and along with his roommate, quarterback Gus Dorais, led the Irish to a 35-13 victory over the highly-ranked Army Cadets.
*Rockne graduated magna cum laude with a 90.52 (on a scale of 100) grade point average and was offered a job at his alma matter as a graduate assistant in chemistry.
*He accepted the school's offer under the condition that he would be allowed to help coach the football team.
*When Jesse Harper, head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish retired in 1917, Rockne was named his successor.

*Football Head Coach at Notre Dame
*Head coach from 1918 to 1930
*Rockne set the greatest all-time winning percentage of .881. This mark still ranks at the top of the list for both college and professional football.
*During his 13-year tenure as head coach of the Fighting Irish, Rockne collected 105 victories, 12 losses, five ties and six national championships.
*Rockne also coached Notre Dame to five undefeated seasons without a tie.
*Rockne was known as one of the most innovative and charismatic coaches of his era.
*He was the first football coach to initiate intersectional rivalries and build a national schedule. *Rockne is well known for coaching the most dazzling, dramatic, idolized athlete of all time, George "Gipper" Gipp.
*Gipp's running, passing, kicking and generalship lifted the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to national fame. Gipp was Notre Dame's first All-American and the famous subject of Rockne's motivating halftime speech in which he coined the phrase, "Win one for the Gipper."
*Rockne coached the "Four Horsemen" - (consisted of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley and Elmer Layden.)
*Rockne and the "Four Horsemen" led Notre Dame to a 28-2 record.
*During the off season, Rockne was needed in Los Angeles to assist in the production of the film "The Spirit of Notre Dame."

*The Innovative Coach
*The mark that Rockne left on the game of football is immeasurable and unique.
*He aided in the development of the forward pass and in doing so helped increase football's mass appeal.
*Using his knowledge of the human anatomy, Rockne was keen on designing his own equipment.
*Understanding the importance that speed plays in the game of football, his designs reduced bulk and weight without sparing protectiveness.
*Rockne introduced to the Notre Dame uniform a pair of gold, satin and silk pants that cut down on wind resistance.

*The Tragedy
*After visiting his two sons in Kansas City, Missouri, Rockne boarded Transcontinental-Western's Flight 599 to Los Angeles on March 31, 1931.
*Shortly after takeoff, one of the plane's wings separated in flight and the aircraft plummeted into a wheat field near Bazaar, Kansas
*There were no survivors.
*Rockne died at the age of 43.

The Fighting Irish-Then and Now

*Since the 1924 season, the Fighting Irish have had 10 instances in which they were named national champions, including most recently in 1988, under leghendary coach Lou Holtz, as well at 11 undefeated seasons.
*Since then, however, Notre Dame football has dropped off significantly. It's been so bad, that their football team has not won a bowl game since the 1993 Cotton Bowl in a 24-21 win over Texas A&M. They've played in a few big bowls since, including the 1994 Fiesta (L Colorado 41-24), 1995 Orange (L Florida State 31-26), 2000 Fiesta (L Oregon State 41-9), 2005 Fiesta (L Ohio State 34-20) and most recently 2006 Sugar (L LSU 41-14).
*Since their 2006 Fiesta Bowl loss, the team has taken a pitfall, into the NCAA Divison 1A dog house, going 3-9 in 2007, which involved their first loss to Navy in over 35 years and finishing a bysmal 6-6 in 2008, which included a loss to a Syracuse team who had fired their coach less than a week prior to their meeting.

*The Irish have had legendary coaches such as Knute Rockne, who coached the Four Horsemen, Frank Leahy, who led Notre Dame to four AP National Championships, Ara Paresghian, who won two national titles and was considered by many as the best coach in the country during his tenure there, Dan Devine, who followed Ara by winning the 1977 National Title, and the afore mentioned Lou Holtz who gave them their most recent National Title in 1988, beating West Virginia 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl.

*Going back in time for the Irish brings up a lot of memorable football games, like the "Game of the Century" played between Notre Dame and Ohio State in 1935, where both teams met undefeated and played a hard fought battle, which culminated in an 18-13 victory for the Irish.

*A second "Game of the Century" was played against Army in 1946, as well as a third in 1966 vs. Michigan State.

*Another amazing claim to fame the football program has is seven members proud to bear the name "Heisman Trophy Winner". These winners include Angelo Bertelli in 1943, Johnny Lujack 1947, Leon Hart 1949, Johnny Lattner 1953, Paul Hornung 1956, John Guarte 1964 and most recently Tim Brown of the 1988 National Championship Team, won the award the previous year in 1987.

*Notre Dame has also been blessed with five different Maxwell Award Winners, which goes to the most valuable player of the year, as voted on by the sportswriters, sportscasters and NCAA head coaches. Irish winners include Leon Hart in 1949, Johnny Lattner in 1952 and 1953, Jim Lynch in 1966, Ross Browner in 1977, and Brady Quinn in 2006. Quinn went on to finish 3rd in the Heisman voting that year.

*48 Notre Dame coaches and players lie immortalized in the College Football Hall of Fame, leading all universities in players inducted. All four horseman are members, as well as legends like Angelo Bertelli, Jack Cannon, Dan Devine, George "The Gipper" Gipp, Frank Hoffman, Paul Hornung, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Knute Rockne, John "Clipper" Smith, Joe Theismann, and Chris Zorich.
T*heir program tradition has led to many of their players having great successes in the National Football League. In total, the Irish have had 61 players be selected in the 1st round of the NFL draft, five number one overall picks and a total of 463 players.
*Their number one overall selections were QB Angelo Bertelli in 1944 to the Boston Yanks, ironically QB Frank Dancewicz in 1946 to the Boston Yanks, DE Leon Hart in 1950 to the Detroit Lions, QB Paul Hornung in 1957 to the Green Bay Packers, and DE Walt Patulski in 1972 to the Buffalo Bills.

*10 former Notre Dame members are inshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame, including Joe Montana, Curly Lambeau, and Paul Hornung.
*They also have 43 players currently on NFL rosters. So as you can see, though they're struggling mightily as of late, they maintain a strong and presitigous history in the NCAA Football World and will hope to get back on top on the years to come, with their coach Charlie Weis and top prospect recruit Jimmy Claussen.

The Legendary Four


The Football Facts
*The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame comprised a winning group of football players at the University of Notre Dame under coach Knute Rockne.
*They were the legendary backfield of Notre Dame's 1924 football team.
*None of the four stood taller than six feet and none of the four weighed more than 162 pounds, the Four Horsemen might comprise the greatest backfield ever.
*The players that made up this group were Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden.
*The Four Horseman had run rampant through Irish opponents' defenses since coach Knute Rockne devised the lineup in 1922 during their sophomore season.
*Notre Dame won 37 of its 41 games during the amazing four-year run of the "Four Horsemen", losing just three times and tieing once.
*The quartets' secured their fame with Notre Dame's 13-7 victory over Army in 1924.
*After that momentous win, the Irish recorded a 27-10 win over Stanford in the 1925 Rose Bowl
*Notre Dame finished the year a perfect 10-0 and was named by Sportswriters college football's national champion.

The Making of Football Legends
*It wasn't until late in that championship season that the foursome of Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden was first called the "Four Horsemen".
*While watching Notre Dame defeat Army on October 18, 1924, popular sportswriter Grantland Rice recalled the Biblical devastation of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" in the opening sentence of his newspaper column for the New York Herald Tribune (See post on The Article) helping the foursome achieve football immortality.
*In 1924, a dramatic nickname coined by a poetic sportswriter and the quick-thinking actions of a clever student George Strickler (Coach Rockne’s publicity aide and later Sports Editor of the Chicago Tribune) helped transform the quartet in college football history, the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.
*After the team arrived back in South Bend, Strickler had the four players dressed in their uniforms, on the backs of four horses from a livery stable in town and took the now infamous picture.

"At the time, I didn't realize the impact it would have," Jim Crowley said later. "But the thing just kind of mushroomed. After the splurge in the press, the sports fans of the nation got interested in us along with other sportswriters. Our record helped, too. If we'd lost a couple, I don't think we would have been remembered."

Elmer Layden-Fullback


*Elmer Francis Layden
*Born May 4, 1903 in Davenport, Iowa
*He attended Davenport High School (Now Davenport Central High School)
*Considered one of the best backfields in college football history
*Layden was the fastest out of the Four Horsemen and boasted a 10-second speed in the 100-yard dash
*He was married to the former Edith Davis on October 25, 1926.
*Layden was a solid, competent coach, he was subjected to criticism during his later years at Notre Dame. Critics felt that his teams played too conservatively and lacked scoring punch. Consequently it was felt that they lost games they should have won.
*After leaving the NFL, he embarked on a successful business career in Chicago
*Layden died in 1973 at the age of 70.

*Football Career
*Fullback for Notre Dame College and in the Four Horsemen formation
*Named an All-American during his senior year
*Layden culminated his collegiate career in the 1925 Rose Bowl against Stanford, returning two interceptions for touchdowns in Notre Dame's 27-10 victory.
*Layden served as head football coach at Columbia College (Dubuque, Iowa) in 1925-26, where he compiled an 8-5-2 record.
*From 1927 to 1933 he was head coach at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, going 48-16-6 and winning the 1933 season's Festival of Palms Bowl (a precursor to the Orange Bowl) on New Year's Day, 1934.
*In 1934, he became head coach and athletic director at Notre Dame, a few years after his legendary mentor Knute Rockne was killed in a plane crash.
*Layden lead the Irish for seven years and posted an overall 47-13-3 docket.
*His 1935 squad posted one of the greatest wins in school history by rallying to defeat Ohio State, 18-13.
*His 1938 team finished 8-1, losing only to USC in the season finale. This loss cost them a possible consensus national championship, but the Dickinson System named the team national champion.
*Layden left Notre Dame in Feb. 1941 to become the Commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) until 1946
*He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 as a charter member.
*Layden coached at his alma mater for seven years and compiled a 47-13-3 record.

Don Miller-Halfback


*Don Miller
*Born May 30, 1902 in Defiance, Ohio
*Miller had three brothers that all attended Notre Dame before him, all who were monogram winners for the football team. The most famous of these being his brother, Red Miller, who was the captain of the 1909 squad
*President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him U.S. District Attorney for Northern Ohio
*Miller died in 1979 at the age of 77

*Football Career
*Right Halfback and member of the Four Horsemen
*Notre Dame head coach Knute Rockne called Miller “The greatest open field runner I ever had.”
*Miller proved to be Notre Dame’s breakaway threat
*After his playing career, he coached at several colleges, in which he coached at Georgia Tech for four years
*Miller eventually decided to quit coaching and pick up his career in law, in which he was extremely successful in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
*Inducted to the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1970

Jim Crowley-Halfback


*James H. "Jim" Crowley
*Born September 10, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois
*Raised in Wisconsin
*Nicknamed "Sleepy Jim" by Notre Dame coach Rockne because of his low-key demeanor and droopy eyelids
* Crowley outmaneuvered many a defender with his clever, shifty ballcarrying.
*During World War II Crowley served with the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific
*In 1953, after the stint with the Chicago team he left football behind moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania to take over as station manager and sports director of independent television station WTVU.
*Two years later, Crowley was named chairman of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, a position he held until 1963.
* In the 1960s and 1970s Crowley was a much sought-after speaker at banquets and dinners.
*Crowley died in Scranton on January 15, 1986, aged 83.

*Football Career
* Crowley played high school football at East Green Bay High School, where he learned the sport from head coach Earl "Curly" Lambeau, the founder of the National Football League's Green Bay Packers.
*Graduated from high school in 1921, went on to play at Notre Dame
*Crowley placed as the left halfback for the four-back formation of the Four Horsemen
*Crowley's finest season with the Fighting Irish came in 1924, when he led the team in scoring and joined fellow Horsemen Layden and Stuhldreher on the All-American team
*Graduated from Notre Dame in 1925
*Crowley played in just three professional football games with the National Football League's Green Bay Packers and Providence Steamrollers
*Crowley stayed in football as an assistant coach at the University of Georgia
*Named head coach at Michigan State University in 1929. In four seasons Crowley's teams went 22-8-3
*Fordham University hired Crowley in 1933, taking him away from his coaching career at Michigan State.
*Crowley enjoyed tremendous success at Fordham by building one of the top defensive teams in the country
*Crowley left Fordham University after the 1942 Sugar Bowl, having compiled a record of 56-13-7 as the Rams' head coach
* In late 1944 he agreed to become the first commissioner of a new professional football league, the All-America Football Conference
*The league kicked off in 1946 and quickly became a formidable rival to the National Football League
*Following the 1946 season, Crowley stepped down as commissioner to become part-owner and coach of the AAFC's worst team, the Chicago Rockets
*Crowley's success as a college coach didn't translate to the pros. The Rockets went just 1-13 in 1947
*Crowley quit his dual role with the team before the 1948 season
* Named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1966

Harry Stuhldreher-Quarterback


*Harry Augustus Stuhldreher

*Born October 14, 1901 in Massillon, Ohio
*Three-time All-American quarterback and member of the Four Horsemen
*Stuhldreher was at 5-7, 151-pounds, making him one of the smallest quarterbacks in Notre
Dame football history
*Often labeled cocky, feisty and ambitious
* Stuhldreher wrote two books, "Quarterback Play" and "Knute Rockne, Man Builder."
*The latter was a source for the movie Knute Rockne, All American, starring Ronald Reagan as George Gipp. Stuhldreher's wife Mary was also a writer; the couple had four sons.
*Died in 1965 at the age of 63 in Pittsburgh of acute pancreatitis and is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania


*Football Career
*Stuhldreher played football for both Massillon Washington High School and The Kiski School
in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1921
*Self-assured leader who threw accurately but also returned punts and proved a solid blocker
*Started as a signalcaller in four games into his sophomore season in 1922
*At Notre Dame he became quarterback in 1922 and in 1924 led the team to a 10-0 record, a 27-
10 win over Stanford University in the 1925 Rose Bowl, and a national championship
*General football skills on the field were unmatched by any other play from Notre Dame or as
widely thought-anywhere
*Became the Athletic Director and football coach at Wisconsin.
* After graduating, he joined fellow member of the Four Horsemen Elmer Layden on the roster
of the Brooklyn Horsemen of the first American Football League.
* After playing only six games of the 1926 season, the Horsemen merged with the National
Football League's Brooklyn Lions franchise (which then was renamed the Horsemen).
*The AFL, the Brooklyn NFL franchise, and Stuhldreher's major league football career all ended with the last game of the season.
* Stuhldreher turned to college coaching
* He served for 11 years as head coach at Villanova University, compiling a 65-25-9 record, and 13 years (1936 to 1948) as head coach and athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his tenure, he compiled a 45-62-6 (.425) record, and Wisconsin was twice the Big Ten Conference runner-up under his guidance.
* Leaving Wisconsin, Stuhldreher joined U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh in 1950
* Stuhldreher was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1958.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Four Horsemen Stamp


The Notre Dame Four Horseman consisting of players Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Elmer Layden, and Jim Crowley were rewarded for their work and legendary status with a 1998 stamp created by the United States Postal Service. The stamp was part of a 15 commemorative postage stamp pack saluting "The Roaring Twenties." The stamps were officially issued on May 28, 1998, immortalizing their place in history, which all began with an article written by Grantland Rice in the aftermath of the Notre Dame-Army game back on October 18, 1924 at the Polo Grounds in New York. This stamp is the third Notre Dame-related commmorative issued by the postal service, succeeding a Knute Rockne stamp in 1988 and a postcard with the Main Building on the stamp in 1991.

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Article

Grantland Rice's "The Four Horsemen"

New York Herald Tribune, 18 October 1924


Excerpt from 1925 Dome Yearbook

Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army football team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds yesterday afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down on the bewildering panorama spread on the green plain below.

A cyclone can't be snared. It may be surrounded, but somewhere it breaks through to keep on going. When the cyclone starts from South Bend, where the candle lights still gleam through the Indiana sycamores, those in the way must take to storm cellars at top speed.

Yesterday the cyclone struck again as Notre Dame beat the Army, 13 to 7, with a set of backfield stars that ripped and crashed through a strong Army defense with more speed and power than the warring cadets could meet.

Notre Dame won its ninth game in twelve Army starts through the driving power of one of the greatest backfields that ever churned up the turf of any gridiron in any football age. Brilliant backfields may come and go, but in Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden, covered by a fast and charging line, Notre Dame can take its place in front of the field.

Coach McEwan sent one of his finest teams into action, an aggressive organization that fought to the last play around the first rim of darkness, but when Rockne rushed his Four Horsemen to the track they rode down everything in sight. It was in vain that 1,400 gray-clad cadets pleaded for the Army line to hold. The Army line was giving all it had, but when a tank tears in with the speed of a motorcycle, what chance had flesh and blood to hold? The Army had its share of stars as Garbisch, Farwick, Wilson, Wood, Ellinger, and many others, but they were up against four whirlwind backs who picked up at top speed from the first step as they swept through scant openings to slip on by the secondary defense. The Army had great backs in Wilson and Wood, but the Army had no such quartet, who seemed to carry the mixed blood of the tiger and the antelope.

Rockne's light and tottering line was just about as tottering as the Rock of Gibraltar. It was something more than a match for the Army's great set of forwards, who had earned their fame before. Yet it was not until the second period that the first big thrill of the afternoon set the great crowd into a cheering whirl and brought about the wild flutter of flags that are thrown to the wind in exciting moments. At the game's start Rockne sent in almost entirely a second-string cast. The Army got the jump and began to play most of the football. It was the Army attack that made three first downs before Notre Dame had caught its stride. The South Bend cyclone opened like a zephyr.

And then, in the wake of a sudden cheer, our rushed Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden, the four star backs who helped to beat Army a year ago. Things were to be a trifle different now. After a short opening flurry in the second period, Wood, of the Army, kicked out of bounds on Notre Dame's 20 yard line. There was no sign of a tornado starting. But it happened to be at just this spot that Stuhldreher decided to put on his attack and began the long and dusty hike.

On the first play the fleet Crowley peeled off fifteen yards and the cloud from the west was now beginning to show signs of lightning and thunder. The fleet, powerful Layden got six yards more and then Don Miller added ten. A forward pass from Stuhldreher to Crowley added twelve yards, and a moment later Don Miller ran twenty yards around Army's right wing. He was on his way to glory when Wilson, hurtling across the right of way, nailed him on the 10 yard line and threw him out of bounds. Crowley, Miller and Layden -- Miller, Layden and Crowley -- one or another, ripping and crashing through, as the Army defense threw everything it had in the way to stop this wild charge that had now come seventy yards. Crowley and Layden added five yards more and then, on a split play, Layden when ten yards across the line as if he had just been fired from the black mouth of a howitzer.

In that second period Notre Dame made eight first downs to the Army's none, which shows the unwavering power of the Western attack that hammered relentlessly and remorselessly without easing up for a second's breath. The Western line was going its full share, led by the crippled Walsh with a broken hand.

But there always was Miller or Crowley or Layden, directed through the right spot by the cool and crafty judgment of Stuhldreher, who picked his plays with the finest possible generalship. The South Bend cyclone had now roared eighty-five yards to a touchdown through one of the strongest defensive teams in the game. The cyclone had struck with too much speed and power to be stopped. It was the preponderance of Western speed that swept the Army back.

The next period was much like the second. The trouble began when the alert Layden intercepted an Army pass on the 48 yard line. Stuhldreher was ready for another march.

Once again the cheering cadets began to call for a rallying stand. They are never overwhelmed by any shadow of defeat as long as there is a minute of fighting left. But silence fell over the cadet sector for just a second as Crowley ran around the Army's right wing for 15 yards, where Wilson hauled him down on the 33 yard line. Walsh, the Western captain, was hurt in the play but soon resumed. Miller got 7 and Layden got 8 and then, with the ball on the Army's 20 yard line, the cadet defense rallied and threw Miller in his tracks. But the halt was only for the moment. On the next play Crowley swung out and around the Army's left wing, cut in and then crashed over the line for Notre Dame's second touchdown.

On two other occasions the Notre Dame attack almost scored. Yeomans saved one touchdown by intercepting a pass on his 5 yard line as he ran back 35 yards before he was nailed by two tacklers. It was a great play in the nick of time. On the next drive Miller and Layden in two hurricane dashes took the ball 42 yards to the Army's 14 yard line, where the still game Army defense stopped four plunges on the 9 yard line and took the ball.

Up to this point the Army had been outplayed by a crushing margin. Notre Dame had put underway four long marches and two of these had yielded touchdowns. Even the stout and experienced Army line was meeting more than it could hold. Notre Dame's brilliant backs had been provided with the finest possible interference, usually led by Stuhldreher, who cut down tackler after tackler by diving at some rival's flying knees. Against this, each Army attack had been smothered almost before it got underway. Even the great Wilson, the star from Penn State, one of the great backfield runners of his day and time, rarely had a chance to make any headway through a massed wall of tacklers who were blocking every open route.

The sudden change came late in the third quarter, when Wilson, raging like a wild man, suddenly shot through a tackle opening to run 34 yards before he was finally collared and thrown with a jolt. A few minutes later Wood, one of the best of all punters, kicked out of bounds on Notre Dame's 5 yard line. Here was the chance. Layden was forced to kick from behind his own goal. The punt soared up the field as Yeomans called for a free catch on the 35 yard line. As he caught the ball he was nailed and spilled by a Western tackler, and the penalty gave the Army 15 yards, with the ball on Notre Dame's 20-yard line.

At this point Harding was rushed to quarter in place of Yeomans, who had been one of the leading Army stars. On the first three plays the Army reached the 12 yard line, but it was now fourth down, with two yards to go. Harding's next play was the feature of the game.

As the ball was passed, he faked a play to Wood, diving through the line, held the oval for just a half breath, then, tucking the same under his arm, swung out around Notre Dame's right end. The brilliant fake worked to perfection. The entire Notre Dame defense had charged forward in a surging mass to check the line attack and Harding, with open territory, sailed on for a touchdown. He traveled those last 12 yards after the manner of food shot from guns. He was over the line before the Westerners knew what had taken place. It was a fine bit of strategy, brilliantly carried over by every member of the cast.

The cadet sector had a chance to rip open the chilly atmosphere at last, and most of the 55,000 present joined in the tribute to football art. But that was Army's last chance to score. From that point on, it was seesaw, up and down, back and forth, with the rivals fighting bitterly for every inch of ground. It was harder now to make a foot than it had been to make ten yards. Even the all-star South Bend cast could no longer continue to romp for any set distances, as Army tacklers, inspired by the touchdown, charged harder and faster than they had charged before.

The Army brought a fine football team into action, but it was beaten by a faster and smoother team. Rockne's supposedly light, green line was about as heavy as Army's, and every whit as aggressive. What is even more important, it was faster on its feet, faster in getting around.

It was Western speed and perfect interference that once more brought the Army doom. The Army line couldn't get through fast enough to break up the attacking plays; and once started, the bewildering speed and power of the Western backs slashed along for 8, 10, and 15 yards on play after play. And always in front of these offensive drivers could be found the whirling form of Stuhldreher, taking the first man out of the play as cleanly as though he had used a hand grenade at close range. This Notre Dame interference was a marvelous thing to look upon.

It formed quickly and came along in unbroken order, always at terrific speed, carried by backs who were as hard to drag down as African buffaloes. On receiving the kick-off, Notre Dame's interference formed something after the manner of the ancient flying wedge, and they drove back up the field with the runner covered from 25 and 30 yards at almost every chance. And when a back such as Harry Wilson finds few chances to get started, you can figure upon the defensive strength that is barricading the road. Wilson is one of the hardest backs in the game to suppress, but he found few chances yesterday to show his broken-field ability. You can't run through a broken field unless you get there.

One strong feature of the Army play was its headlong battle against heavy odds. Even when Notre Dame had scored two touchdowns and was well on its way to a third, the Army fought on with fine spirit until the touchdown chance came at last. And when the chance came, Coach McEwan had the play ready for the final march across the line. The Army has a better team than it had last year. So has Notre Dame. We doubt that any team in the country could have beaten Rockne's array yesterday afternoon, East or West. It was a great football team brilliantly directed, a team of speed, power and team play. The Army has no cause to gloom over its showing. It played first-class football against more speed than it could match.

Those who have tackled a cyclone can understand.