Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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comes from. No one knows where it goes. Not that they're willing to say into a micro- phone at least. Each week before kickoff, the three-foot sledgehammer materializes in Notre Dame's locker room to remind the Irish defense who they want to be. From the looks of it, the hammer is plucked from the dark, damp corner of an old forgotten tool shed, wrapped in crusty duct tape and mystery. It first started to appear on Notre Dame goes to work with a sledgehammer. No one knows where it N ebraska has its black shirts. Virginia Tech car- ries a cast iron lunch pail. Dropping The Hammer MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY the Irish sidelines before games earlier this season, but accord- ing to veteran players it's been around since the current coach- ing staff arrived three years ago — they think. The exact origin remains as shrouded as its daily whereabouts. It makes occasional appearances at practice when the team needs a little extra boost, but who decides when and where the defense's favorite toy is brought out is unclear to the players. The hammer, like the defense, be- longs to associate head coach Bob Di- aco. He's a man who prefers to keep his business behind closed doors. "He likes to keep that in the fam- ily," senior linebacker Dan Fox said For junior outside linebacker Prince Shembo and the Irish, the sledgehammer reminds them of who they want to be on defense. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA while shying away from any discus- sion about the sledgehammer in gen- eral. Fellow upperclassman Kapron Lewis-Moore, who is normally happy to discuss the lighter side of his foot- ball life, kept his lips sealed as well. "You're going to have to ask Coach Diaco about that," he said. "It's pretty awesome, though." Eventually though, as the hammer became more visible on the sidelines, and what it represents became more