Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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50 SEPT. 7, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED IRISH ECHOES JIM LEFEBVRE H ead coach Knute Rockne knew that his backfield, especially in 1924, would garner special at- tention. He preferred that a lineman be elected captain of the Fighting Irish and was delighted when senior center Adam Walsh won that honor. Walsh's life was one of achievement from California to Maine. His 1968 in- duction into the College Football Hall of Fame recognized his outstanding con- tributions to the game. Adam Walsh III was born on Dec. 4, 1901, at the country crossroad town of Churchville, Iowa, located about 15 miles south of Des Moines. His father, Adam Walsh Jr., was a first-generation American whose parents emigrated from Ireland during the potato famine of the late 1840s. In Churchville, the elder Walsh operated a general store. In 1906, the family followed a famil- iar American theme and struck out for Southern California, leaving behind Churchville and numerous Walsh rela- tives. Adam Jr. and his wife, Stella, built a home in the village of Hollywood, in an area with few other houses. The Walsh children played in a large, fenced yard where they would occasionally see deer and mountain lions wandering down from the nearby hills. The elder Walsh began working as a clerk in a grocery store, and before long, he had become co-owner of Walsh & Mackie Groceries, located on Prospect Avenue, just east of Vine Street. The area was becoming famous for the bud- ding motion picture business. When he was in high school, the younger Walsh spent his Saturdays de- livering groceries to the "movie stars" — Will Rogers, Mary Pickford, Char- lie Chaplin — using a horse and buggy. In summers, it became a full-time job, paying 75 cents a week. Walsh showed a sharp mind and fin- ished grammar school when he was only 11. Rather than enter high school so young, he spent some time back in Iowa visiting relatives. In between delivering groceries and attending to his studies, Walsh devel- oped an interest in sports. He started out playing football as a 132-pound "runt" but developed into one of the stars at Hollywood High, leading his team to a regional championship. Upon leaving high school, he worked to earn money for college, driving a 10-ton truck, working 10½ hours a day, seven days a week, for $15. For a time, he worked as a cowboy rounding up cattle on a nearby ranch. Later, he joined the crew of famed automobile racer Barney Oldfield, who was developing and testing designs for new race cars that would better pro- tect drivers while achieving high speeds. When Walsh celebrated his 19th birth- day in December 1920, he began to think more seriously about going to college. Several of his classmates at Hollywood High had gone on to Leland Stanford Uni- versity at Palo Alto near San Francisco, and Walsh saw himself there as well. But his mother had other thoughts. She des- perately wanted her son to attend a Catholic college — but not just any Catholic college. Local alums made the case for Notre Dame, and Walsh accepted. He reported to Rockne on Sept. 8, 1921, and joined the other first-years on the freshman team. Practicing against the varsity took its toll and, in late September, Walsh suffered a broken arm and dislocated col- larbone. Coupled with his homesickness and self- doubt, he was terribly dis- couraged. In these times, it was Rockne's knack for seeing into the heart of his players that provided the needed remedy. Rockne saw something of himself in Walsh — a determined, self-reliant sort who was not afraid of work. Rockne helped Walsh get a job the second semester of his freshman year working at the Northern Indiana Gas and Electric Co. garage. For someone who started at Notre Dame with $30 in his pocket and, as he said later, "for months had only pennies," the sum of $125 a month felt like a king's ransom. Yet, there always seemed to be another unexpected challenge. Coming off the 1923 football season, when he had as- cended to starting center for the Irish, life was sailing along smoothly for Walsh. Then, as the first semester was ending in January 1924, he came down with a debil- itating case of strep throat. The sisters at the Notre Dame infirmary could do little for him. He lost 33 pounds in nine days. Rockne saw a young man teetering on the edge of exhaustion. He advised Walsh to take the second semester to go home and get well. So, for the first time since arriving on campus as a hesitant freshman, Walsh headed back to Holly- wood. He regained his health and came back for summer school in June with brother Charles, known as Chile, in tow. 1924 Captain Adam Walsh Excelled From Coast To Coast CELEBRATING THE 1924 CHAMPIONS As a senior center, Walsh (right) was captain of Knute Rockne's 1924 national championship Irish squad. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS