Four Horsemen – Syndication Server

Marcus Freeman: Army is Notre Dame’s ‘Super Bowl’

Freeman thinks this is the Irish’s toughest challenge to date

Notre Dame football has played multiple ranked opponents this fall, including Texas A&M and Louisville, but this weekend might be different than those matchups.

When Irish coach Marcus Freeman met with the media on Monday afternoon, he called Saturday’s game against Army as the team’s “toughest challenge to date.”

He offered multiple reasons such as the Black Knights winning all of their games this fall by double-digits, their win streak of 13 games spanning to last year and that they’re Navy 2.0. Freeman even went as far as saying this is Notre Dame’s “Super Bowl.”

The Irish coach also broached the subject of playing both service academies in the same year: The 100-year anniversary of the Four Horsemen game is why athletic director Pete Bevacqua made the move. It makes perfect sense for Navy and Notre Dame to see each other on the field, especially considering it was also the Shamrock Series game of the 2024 season.

This weekend is turning out to be a huge one for both teams. There will surely be College Football Playoff implications, and, hopefully, the Irish come out on top.

Nov. 9, 2024; South Bend, Indiana; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman stands with his players for the Notre Dame Alma Mater after defeating the Florida State Seminoles at Notre Dame Stadium. Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

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Major outlet explores history of Notre Dame’s “Four Horsemen”

Notre Dame football historians will love this one.

If you say the words “four horsemen” to a Notre Dame fan, die-hard college football fan, journalism student or sports historian, there will be instant recognition.

Sportswriter Grantland Rice penned those words about Notre Dame running backs Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Leyden on this date in 1924.

Rice wrote what might be the best lede in all of sportswriting history — a lede is the opener to an article — and in so doing, he helped Notre Dame, Knute Rockne, and college football in general gain popularity.

Rice put those words to paper for the New York Herald Tribune after Notre Dame upset Army at the old Polo Grounds in New York by a score of 13-7.

Now ESPN’s Ryan McGee has a deep-dive feature on how Rice’s article came about, how it drove the popularity of Notre Dame and college football, and what became of those four men as they lived out their lives.

Here’s the lede in full, courtesy of ESPN and McGee:

“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 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.”

The whole feature is worth a read for any Notre Dame football obsessive.

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Notre Dame will face Army in 2024 Shamrock Series at Yankee Stadium

There are historical ties to this game.

This year will mark 100 years since the game that gave birth to the famed Four Horsemen moniker took place. This is cause for celebration, so why not do it during the annual Shamrock Series?

Notre Dame and Army, the teams involved in the Four Horsemen game, will face each other Nov. 23 in New York, the city where the game took place. The Shamrock Series is returning to Yankee Stadium for the third time, and it’s the third time the Irish will face the Knights in the annual off-site home game. These teams also met at Yankee Stadium in the 2010 game.

It would be surprising if the buildup for this game didn’t feature many references to the Four Horsemen. They played a big part in making Notre Dame the legendary program it’s been for much of its history. The least they can do is do those gentlemen homage as part of the hype machine.

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Notre Dame football: History of Notre Dame clues on ‘Jeopardy!’

Post how many you got right in the comments.

It has been established more than once on this site that I am fanatical about game shows. With Notre Dame athletics on hiatus until fall save for the track team at the NCAA championships, I have time to try ideas I’ve been wanting to try for a while now. One of them was planted in my head after our own Nick Shepkowski reported on a “Jeopardy!” category that was about ACC schools. I’ve decided to take that idea and narrow the focus to “Jeopardy!” clues about Notre Dame.

Using the site J-Archive, which has records of nearly every game during the show’s current run, I have come across several Notre Dame clues. Many of them were repeats because that’s what happens when you’ve been on for 39 years. However, I feel like I’ve compiled a diverse list of clues that you should be able to respond to if you have even a basic knowledge of Notre Dame, particularly the football program. Check the end of this list for the correct responses:

Did the mob bomb Knute Rockne’s plane?

Yes or no?

I feel like I’m a very passionate Notre Dame fan and know a lot more than just the current day stories. It was as much the history and mystic of the football program that drew me in as a fan in the early-nineties as it was [autotag]Lou Holtz[/autotag]’s teams competing for national championships.

From the [autotag]Four Horsemen[/autotag] to [autotag]Frank Leahy[/autotag], [autotag]Ara Parseghian[/autotag], and [autotag]Rocket Ismail[/autotag], I thought I had heard and at least been aware of everything major in Notre Dame’s football history. I certainly realized I was wrong semi-recently in regards to the man most responsible for Notre Dame football being what it is today, and how that man died.

Or at least a belief some hold about that.

I’m talking about the most notable head coach in college football history of course, [autotag]Knute Rockne[/autotag], and the belief that the mob was responsible for the plane crash that took his life.

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Notre Dame head coaches who also played college football

What Notre Dame coaches have played at the collegiate level?

It’s amazing to think that for all of its rich history, Notre Dame has had only six former college football players as head coach. To make it even more amazing, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the program’s history of coaches to find half of them. What’s more, it has been 36 years since the Irish had a former college player in their head coaching role. With Brian Kelly only four wins away from passing Knute Rockne on the program’s all-time list, it doesn’t appear the Irish will be adding to this short list anytime soon.

Whichever former college football player eventually ends up as Notre Dame head coach will be joining some rare company. We’re talking three apiece in the 19th and 20th centuries with none coming in the 21st yet. Until then, Irish fans will have to settle for these men holding what is a rare distinction in South Bend:

78 Days Until Notre Dame Football Returns!

In 78 days Notre Dame football returns. Find out today what still-standing Notre Dame record Elmer Layden set in the 1925 Rose Bowl.

Just over 11 weeks from now we’ll have Notre Dame and Navy returning to the football field to start their 2020 college football seasons. Until then we’ll be counting the days by sharing memories of players, coaches and games that helped shape Notre Dame’s football legacy.

Yesterday we counted down 79 to go with Jonas Gray’s long touchdown run to take the lead at Pitt in 2011, in a game where Notre Dame struggled for points but walked away victorious. Now the countdown hits 78.

78: Length of Elmer Layden’s pick-six in 1925 Rose Bowl, the longest interception return in Notre Dame bowl history.

Notre Dame’s first bowl appearance came in the 1925 Rose Bowl, a 27-10 win over Stanford that cemented the Irish’s first national championship.

It also led to Notre Dame and USC becoming rivals as the two began their annual series a year later.

Layden was the star of the game, scoring another touchdown on the ground and returning a second interception for a score, this only being returned 63 yards that led to the final difference of 27-10.

The first interception return for a score by Notre Dame in a bowl game remains the longest to this day by any Irish player in a bowl game.

78 days – we’re getting there.

Tag: Four Horsemen