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From The Coach’s Bookshelf Jim Lefebvre’s ‘Loyal Sons

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The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame may be the most famous backfield in college football history. But, incredibly, until recently their story had never been explored in book-length form. Author and football historian Jim Lefebvre tells it in great detail in Loyal Sons: The Story of The Four Horsemen and Notre Dame Football’s 1924 Champions. The national award-winning book gives us insight into the coaching greatness of Knute Rockne as he guides his Irish to an undefeated season, Rose Bowl victory and Notre Dame’s first national championship.

Ever since his days as an immigrant lad in Chicago, Rockne had been enamored with the game of football, this testing of wits and warriors. What other competition, Rockne figured, offers such a chance to test oneself, to prove one’s manhood, to work with like-minded fellows for a common goal?
As an assistant coach to Jesse Harper for four seasons, and as head coach since 1918, Rockne was known for his keen football mind. For years, he had tinkered with “the Notre Dame shift,” a series of movements prior to the snap of the ball that confused opponents and all but set the Irish players into motion, opening up a myriad of possibilities for each play. In the passing game, Rockne remained ahead of the coaching pack by using the pass as an unexpected weapon, not as a desperation move like many other teams would.
While most of his coaching brethren continued to take their eleven strongest men and play them nearly the entire game, Rockne had come up with another innovation – his system of “Shock Troops.” An entire second-string unit started most games, keeping the Notre Dame regulars on the sideline for most or all of the first quarter.There, the first team and Rockne studied the opponents’ plays and strategies.When the regulars entered the game, they were fresh, while the other team had lost some of its steam going up against the “shock absorbers” – the Irish subs.
In building a line, Rockne would stress to his players that blocking, far from being routine, should be a source of great satisfaction. He felt it was a special man who worked to become an excellent blocker. “Love to block, and let them know that you like it. If all teams could do just that thing, they would always be winning.”
Rockne sensed this 1924 group had extraordinary potential. He had gathered a group that typified what he cherished most: loyalty, respect for the game, spirit and unselfish service. He could see it in all of them starting with his anchor and captain Adam Walsh, whom Rockne felt would solidify the line. His four senior backs – Miller, Layden, Stuhldreher and Crowley – were set. Their athletic talent was unquestionable, their unbridled enthusiasm waiting to be unleashed.
Rockne smiled as the season was about to start. He was pleased. He had instilled in this group his most trusted idea: “Work, work hard, prepare and then go.”
The pivotal game was the November 15 battle with Nebraska – the only team to have beaten the current Irish, in a pair of hard-fought battles at Lincoln in 1922 and 1923. Now, with a perfect season on the line, Notre Dame would host the Huskers in the biggest game ever played at South Bend.
Rockne began the week by releasing his first team from practice Monday and sending his second unit from the field after a brief workout, leaving reserves to battle one another in a scrimmage. On Tuesday, preparations began in earnest. Still, Rockne kept an appointment to give a banquet address. “The things a coach expects from his men are no more than the qualities an employer expects from an employee, that the world expects from those who endeavor to succeed,” the coach said. “First of these is brains. A successful player must be able to analyze; he must be resourceful.” The coach went on to describe the other key attributes he sought in players – ambition, energy and dependability: “The price of success on the gridiron is effort, self-denial and perseverance.”
Pulling into the station a little after 7 p.m. Friday, the Nebraska contingent noticed the lineup of automobiles decked out in the colors of both schools. To the cheers of onlookers, the Huskers were escorted to the vehicles. The caravan, with horns blaring, wound through downtown and brought the Huskers to the Notre Dame campus, where a huge pep fest was waiting to honor the visitors. The welcome was “one of the most elaborate demonstrations yet staged in honor of a visiting football team” and “will live long in the memories of the men who will meet Notre Dame on the gridiron Saturday afternoon.”
For the final time in their college careers, the famous backfield, its rock-solid line and another 11 blue-jerseyed seniors took the turf at jammed Cartier Field. The appreciative crowd, oblivious to the cold, let out a loud, sustained roar. The final South Bend chapter in a scintillating three-year run – one punctuated by just two losses, both being avenged this afternoon – was about to unfold.
Two years of pent-up frustration was loosed upon the outgunned Huskers. The “wonder team” was at its best and was virtually unstoppable.The final score: Notre Dame 34, Nebraska 6.
One Nebraska writer described it succinctly: “At will, literally at will, Rockne’s hordes drove, hammered, decoyed their adversaries back, back and back….Rockne hasn’t only a marvelous backfield, the smoothest, most beautifully functioning quartet ever assembled, but he has just such an entire first eleven.” u

Excerpted from Loyal Sons: The Story of The Four Horsemen and Notre Dame Football’s 1924 Champions, by Jim Lefebvre, © 2008 by Great Day Press, available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and other national book retailers. Reprinted with permission from Great Day Press. A special offer for readers of American Football Monthly is available at www.NDFootballHistory.com/CoachesOffer.









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