It was 90 years ago that a football game, a sportswriter, and a clever student publicity aide created a legend.
"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army football team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds yesterday afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down on the bewildering panorama spread on the green plain below."
We just don't see sports writing like that anymore.
In the creation of the "Four Horseman of Notre Dame" legend, the Army-Notre Dame football game on October 18, 1924 at the Polo Grounds takes the back seat to the words of Grantland Rice and and the quick-thinking actions of George Strickler. The score of the game is often forgotten. Notre Dame defeated Army 13-7. Strickler would later become the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune. In 1924, he was Knute Rockne's student publicity aide. Rice created the "Four Horsemen." Strickler made sure that the name stuck. After the team returned to South Bend, he posed the four players, dressed in their uniforms, on the backs of four horses from a livery stable in town. The wire services picked up the now-famous photo, and the legend of the "Four Horsemen" was insured.
Quarterback Harry Stuhldeher, left halfback Jim Crowley, right halfback Don Miller, and fullback Elmer Layden had made up the Irish backfield since their sophomore season in 1922. They had been dashing the hopes of opponents for more than two years. They formed a great backfield. Perhaps the best backfield that college football had ever seen. Fast and shifty, they could all block and tackle and carry the ball. Layden was the biggest of the four at 164 pounds. Stuhldreher was the lightest at 154. It was a different game back then and the Notre Dame backfield could do it all. The win over Army was Notre Dame's third of the 1924 season. They were rarely threatened the rest of the year. A 27-10 victory over an Ernie Nevers-led Stanford team in the 1925 Rose Bowl gave Notre Dame a national championship and a perfect 10-0 record.
After graduation, "the Four Horsemen" reunited with other Irish stars to play some exhibition games, often against NFL teams. None of the four played in the NFL but all spent some time as football coaches. That was considered the more honorable career path at the time.
Elmer Layden coached at this alma mater for seven years and compiled a 47-13-3 record. He served as athletic at Notre Dame. He was the first commissioner of the NFL guiding the professional league through the challenging World War II years.
Jim Crowley coached at Michigan St. and Fordham. He coached Vince Lombardi and the "Seven Blocks of Granite" at Fordham.
Harry Stuhldreher was the football coach and athletic director at Wisconsin
Don Miller coached at Georgia Tech for four years.
Layden and Crowley turned to business careers after football. Miller turned to law.
In the days before around the clock media coverage, writers were needed to tell everyone else what they saw on game dasy. Only 55,000 saw Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley, and Layden take apart a strong Army team on October 18, 1924. Millions would see it now. There was no TV in 1924. Not everyone had a radio. Grantland Rice had to tell the story and he certainly did that. He told the story in a way that made millions feel like they were at the Polo Grounds. Feel like they were on the field with the Horsemen. He created a legend.
No comments:
Post a Comment