Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IRISH ECHOES JIM LEFEBVRE 58 JANUARY 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED T he backdrop to the 1924 Notre Dame football season was an event that rocked downtown South Bend in May of that year. The Ku Klux Klan, at its peak of strength and virulently anti-Catholic, organized a rally in the city as a deliber- ate poke in the eye of American Catholi- cism. A goodly number of Notre Dame students, including some of the football players, stormed downtown to take on the Klansmen, and a melee ensued. Afterward, the Klan propagandized the event, claiming they were peace- ably assembled when set upon by the "Catholic hooligans" from Notre Dame. It was not the type of publicity the uni- versity welcomed. Rev. John O'Hara, C.S.C., Notre Dame prefect of religion (essentially, dean of students), saw something special in coach Knute Rockne's football team. These were students with a reputation for fair play and good sportsmanship, and O'Hara envisioned them to be the face of Notre Dame for the nation to see. As the victories in the autumn of 1924 piled up, O'Hara developed a plan should the Fighting Irish be invited to play in a postseason game. The football team would make a his- toric trip to play in the Jan. 1, 1925, Rose Bowl game, but not by a direct route. Rather, it would be an excursion which would place the team in front of thou- sands of fans and potential supporters. Rockne approved the plan, both for its marketing value, and the idea of eas- ing the Fighting Irish into the milder weather similar to that expected at Pas- adena. The official traveling party included 32 players, Coach Rockne, assistant coach Tom Lieb, team manager Leo Sut- liffe, Father O'Hara, and several sup- porters and their children. At 10:17 on Saturday morning, Dec. 20, from a campus nearly deserted by students headed home for the holidays, the Fighting Irish started their jour- ney, heading first to Chicago. Almost on cue, a winter storm featuring snow, cold and fierce winds slammed into South Bend. At 8:15 Saturday evening the team, cheered by several hundred Notre Dame fans who had gathered, left Chicago on the Illinois Central bound for New Orleans. The first stop, at 8:50 Sunday morn- ing, was Memphis, where a group of Notre Dame alums and Knights of Co- lumbus met the Notre Dame party and escorted them to St. Peter's Church for Mass. The entire stop lasted an hour and a half. Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, the temperature dipped below freezing and, for a few moments, snow flurries fell for the first time in a decade. De- spite the chill, more than 600 people gathered outside the Union Station long before the approach of the Notre Dame football train, anxious to get a look at the famous team. Among the crowd were Notre Dame alumni as well as stu- dents from Holy Cross College, which like Notre Dame was operated by the Congregation of the Holy Cross. As the train pulled in on the station's outer track, cheers went up for the fa- mous team and its coach: "Rah, rah, rah, rah." "N-O-T-R-E D-A-M-E." "Rock-ne. Rock-ne. Rock-ne." "Yea, Yea, Yea." Regular passengers at the station found it hard to maneuver through the huge crowd. As the Irish players stepped off the train, they were guided through the baggage room to waiting cars. Ev- eryone wanted a glimpse. "Say, isn't that Harry Stuhldreher, one of the Four Horsemen?" "Isn't he simply grand," one girl remarked of Adam Walsh. "There goes Don Miller." "These boys are too good looking to be football players." The players appeared small, a local reporter commented. Not like a team that has gone through a season unde- feated against some of the nation's best elevens. From the station, the squad was Epic Rose Bowl Trip Showcased Rockne's 'Wonder Team' CELEBRATING THE 1924 CHAMPIONS Notre Dame's undefeated football squad traveled from Illinois Central Station in Chicago on Dec. 20, 1924, en route to California — via New Orleans and Houston — to play in the Rose Bowl. PHOTO COURTESY OF KNUTE ROCKNE MEMORIAL SOCIETY