Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IRISH ECHOES JIM LEFEBVRE 50 OCT. 3, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED W hen Notre Dame de- feated Michigan State 27-10 Sept. 19, it marked the 13th straight game Marcus Freeman's team had won by 10 or more points, breaking a school record that stood for more than a century. Knute Rockne's Irish won the final six games of the 1921 season and the first six games of 1922 by a combined margin of 350 points — an average of 29.2 points per game. The closest calls were a 21-7 win at Marquette in 1921 and a 13-3 triumph at Georgia Tech in 1922. The streak ended with a 0-0 tie at Army on Ar- mistice Day, Nov. 11, 1922 — the final Notre Dame-Army game at West Point before the series moved to New York City. Ye t , fo r a l l h i s v i c to r i e s, Rockne never lost sight of the overall process — the drive for constant improvement. Harry Stuhldreher, his na- tional championship-winning quarterback and one of the Four Horsemen in 1924, described Rockne this way in his 1931 book, Knute Rockne: Man Builder: "It's remarkable how Rockne with all his success always remained on the same level," Stuhldreher wrote. "Often when things are going along well with men, they are likely to overlook the weaknesses in their armor. Rockne never let the glory of a victory overshadow mistakes. He al- ways said that when you were riding on the crest of a wave, you were most likely to be missing out on something. "His eagle eye was always looking for some fault to be corrected. If his boys had distinguished themselves by un- usually good play, he gave them a slap on the back and a word of encourage- ment. If they had made mistakes, he followed up his praise by suggestions of how to right them. He maintained that when he lost a game, that he and his boys learned a lot of football as a result of the things that had gone wrong. It was his theory that you could see farther and clearer on a cloudy day because the glare of the sun doesn't blind you." In piling up one lopsided victory after another, Rockne keenly spotted a vital challenge: keeping his players from get- ting cocky. "Overconfidence in his players was an evil that Rockne had frequently to com- bat," Stuhldreher noted. "He told his boys that public fancy is a fickle commodity, hard to get, and easy to lose. When a boy gets too full of himself, he's afraid that the world won't notice how good he is and he begins to call attention to himself. "That's where he makes his mistake. If he would only realize that the public likes to make its own discoveries, he would stay in the background until called for. It only takes a little time to tear down what it has taken a lot of time to build up." "It's a good thing to be confi- dent," Rockne said. "I wouldn't give much for the boy who wasn't. You've got to get the most out of every minute of the day because opportunities don't come often. But any time you're inclined to slow up, or get filled with your own importance, take out your watch and remember that when that second hand moves from 60 to 60, that minute is gone. If you have wasted it, it will do you no good, because it is gone, never to come back. But if you've taken advantage of it, you can say, 'I've made the best of my time.'" In his first three seasons (1918-20) as Notre Dame head coach, Rockne had a unique talent leading the way for the Irish. George Gipp could do vir- tually everything on a football field, and his spectacular abil- ity meant the difference in many Notre Dame victories. Beginning with the players who arrived on campus in 1921, Rockne was able to create a true team of skilled, interdependent players who each played a key role — eventually as the Four Horsemen, the Seven Mules, and the Shock Troops. Rockne continually stressed the need to work as a unit, not as individuals. In coaching The Four Horsemen, Stuhldre- her noted, Rockne's psychology was key. "It took ingenuity to handle each one according to his own peculiarities and yet to get them to go ahead as one unit," Stuhldreher recalled. "Rockne kept everlasting impressing on their minds that it wasn't their individual playing, nor their collective playing that put the Four Horsemen over but that it was the splendid work of the seven men in front of them that made it possible for them to do what they did. "To bring out this point, Rockne would put the Four Horsemen back- field behind a second-string line (in practice). The going for them would be Even On A Winning Streak, Knute Rockne Kept His Focus On Improvement Knute Rockne's Irish won the final six games of the 1921 season and the first six games of 1922 by a total of 350 points (29.2 points per game), a school record that stood for more than a century. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS