Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME 90 Years Ago: Oct. 18, 1924 It was the most famous day in football for legendary nicknames. First, the dedication of Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois sees Harold "Red" Grange become "The Galloping Ghost."Against a Michigan team that had not lost in 20 games and allowed only 32 points total during that streak, Grange returns the opening kickoff for a 95-yard score and then tallies from 67, 56 and 44 yards — in the first 12 minutes. He adds a fifth score and runs for a sixth while amassing 402 yards in the 39-14 upset. Meanwhile, at New York's Polo Grounds, sportswriter Grantland Rice of the New York Herald Tribune inks the most famous football lead ever after Notre Dame's 13-7 victory versus Army. "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again," he wrote. "In dramatic lore their names are Death, Destruction, Pestilence and Famine. But those are aliases. Their real names are: [Harry] Stuhldreher, [Jim] Crowley, [Don] Miller and [Elmer] 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." George Strickler, Rockne's student publicity aide, planted the seed in the press box by invoking the 1921 Rudolph Valentino movie "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." Days after Rice's story, Strickler — a fu- ture sports editor for The Chicago Tribune — posed the all-senior backfield in their football uniforms, on the backs of horses. Stuhldreher was the quarterback, Miller and Crowley the halfbacks, and Layden the fullback. Head coach Knute Rockne originally chided Strickler for taking his players off the field for a publicity stunt, Anniversaries In Notre Dame Athletics History: Oct. 14-20