Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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dinner-dance for the players and guests. By 7:30 the next morning, the team was aboard the Daylight Limited headed to the next stop, San Francisco. But Knute and Bonnie Rockne stayed behind in southern California, for several days of relaxation, approved by President Father Matthew Walsh and university officials. What they hadn't counted on was a meeting the Rocknes had with University of Southern California officials. The school's football team was coming off a season filled with embarrassments: a fifth consecutive loss to the University of California; broken athletic relations with both Cal and Stanford over allegations of Southern Cal using ineligible players; and, following the cancellation of the Stanford game, the loss to Slip Madigan and little St. Mary's. Over six seasons, "Gloomy Gus" Henderson had a 45-7 record, but he twice had perfect season bids upset with losses to Cal. Officials were ready for a change — especially if they could nab the hottest coach in football. Bonnie Rockne had already fallen in love with southern California. The sunny days, soft breezes, comfortable nights, open spaces, and orange groves all spoke to a more relaxing existence than back in cold, snowy, sometimes stark South Bend. Here, the kids could easily play outdoors yearround, with plenty of activities from which to choose. For Knute, now a celebrity in his own right, the idea of mingling with movie stars and other notables had some appeal. And when they toured the recently constructed Coliseum, with columns and arches that mimicked its Roman namesake and its huge Rockne spent 12 years at Notre Dame, but twice came within a legal battle of leaving South Bend to coach other universities, including Irish rival Southern California. photo courtesy Notre Dame Media Relations