Loyal Sons

Just started reading this book about the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame. Although I am only a couple of chapters in, it has already been an excellent read. Makes me want to keep reading more and more. It really is good at describing the nature of the main players, the camaraderie of the team and university in general. The first chapter describes how the captain of the 1924 team,who was from California was impressed to go there by a couple alumni he had met. They shared how much they loved their time there and how it made them better men. It just reminds me of the scenes in the beginning of the movie, Chariots of Fire, when the new students are going around seeing what groups, sports, and clubs they wanted to join. They had so much enthusiasm, youthful exuberation, and desire to be a part of something great with their classmates. I think it would have been an interesting time to go to college in the early decades of the 20th century. Obviously the movie is Hollywood's take on what college was like, but it does seem there was a lot more time for good natured ribbing and play, as well as great studies being undertaken. With so little of the technology we have today and especially no where near the distractions we have with that technology, it would have been an interesting time to go from being a boy to a man.

"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 team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below."

~ Grantland Rice, New York Herald Tribune, 18 October 1924.