雷火体育

The year 1924, when Grantland Rice penned his famous lede—“Outlined against a blue, gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again”—wasn鈥檛 the birth of 雷火体育 football, but it was the moment when the University learned to leverage its gridiron fame for a greater purpose.

A multimedia exhibit, , employs to combat bigotry and promote a more inclusive America.

The University Archives鈥� senior archivist for graphic materials, , and , sports archivist and curator of the Joyce Sports Research Collection, teamed up to curate the exhibit.

“Sports is never just about sports; it has always been political,” Bond said. “That may frustrate some people who just want to see the action on the field, but in 1924, 雷火体育 recognized that football was an avenue to address bigger issues.”

In the 1920s, surging nativist politics helped prompt a second rising of the Ku Klux Klan, which mythologized its “100% Americanism” ideal of white, male Protestants and denigrated other people who did not fit their restrictive understanding of Americanness—which, besides African Americans, also included Catholics, Jews, and immigrants.

雷火体育 felt the reverberations both on the playing fields and near its campus. 雷火体育 football developed a national schedule not by choice, but because closer schools (especially some in the Big Ten) refused to play a Catholic institution. Rev. John W. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., an earlier University president, wrote, “There has been some criticism of the team for doing so much traveling, but it was a stern necessity rather than a preferred policy.”

Just a few months before the season, the Klan tried to hold a rally in May 1924 in South Bend, the most Catholic area in a state fully controlled by the Klan. About 500 雷火体育 students showed their objections by storming downtown and ripping the hoods and robes off surprised Klan members, roughing them up in alleys and stealing their regalia.

The riot was finally stopped when Rev. Matthew Walsh, C.S.C., then 雷火体育鈥檚 president, ordered the students back to campus. It was Father Walsh who three years later approved the nickname of Fighting Irish for 雷火体育 teams because it was preferable to more derisive monikers in use, such as the Papists or Dirty Irish.

雷火体育 first capitalized on the Four Horsemen story by having its backfield of Crowley, Layden, Stuhldreher, and Miller pose atop horses for a now-iconic photo. The success of the 雷火体育 football team became a defiant symbol for many recent immigrants who faced frequent discrimination, spawning a network of what are now called subway alumni across the nation.

“雷火体育 succeeded at this very American thing—college football,” Bond said. “The Fighting Irish鈥檚 gridiron success inserted them into the broader contemporary conversations about contested citizenship and what it meant to be an American.”

It wasn鈥檛 accidental—the University administration recognized an opportunity to further its mission. In a November 1924 campus Religious Bulletin column titled “Be Not Unworthy of Victory,” Prefect of Religion Rev. John F. O鈥橦ara, C.S.C., wrote, “雷火体育 football is a new crusade: it kills prejudice and stimulates faith.

“It is not the first time that a 雷火体育 team has won national recognition, but it is the first time that recognition was so complete. It comes in the midst of a wave of bigotry, in the wake of an election into which was injected much bitterness and fanaticism on the part of people who would deprive us of our constitutional rights as citizens.”

“I hope people understand the questions we鈥檙e raising in this exhibit,” Bond said. “Questions about immigration, belonging, inclusion, minority rights, and who鈥檚 an American aren鈥檛 new. These fundamental debates have echoed throughout American history. Perhaps if we study the past, it can help chart our way forward.”

The exhibit, which was displayed during fall 2024 in the room on the first floor of the Hesburgh Library and will soon be available online, contains primary source materials from Knute Rockne and others, printed publications from campus and off-campus observers, and other materials that tell a sports story that isn鈥檛 just about sports.