From "Out of Bounds"

Two from the Rockne era:

Knute Rockne drove a Studebaker. His maid drove a Cadillac. Somewhere Karl Marx is smiling.

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Halftime of the 1927 Minnesota game.
Golden Gopher Coach Doc Spears had assembled his team for a pep talk when through the walls came the blaring staccato of Knute Rockne's voice. What mesmerizing oratory! A wall away, Rock blasted and fired his players; the Minnesota squad sat at hushed attention. When the long harrangue ended, Doc Spears stared hard at his team and shouted: "You heard what he said. Now go out and do that to Notre Dame!"
Final score, fittingly enough, a 7-7 tie.

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Two from the Leahy era:

You need a little something extra to play football at Notre Dame. For some it is courage; for others, zeal. And for a select few, it just takes being a little crazy.

The gang of Lee Getschow, Neil Worden, Big Joe Katchik, and Bobby Josephs fits that last category. They did some, uh, pretty unusual things together.

In the Notre Dame administration building, there is a rotunda. Three stories up is a walkway with a railing. This was too much for our boys to pass up. They took turns doing handstands on that railing, trying to see who could stay up the longest. Down below, students and instructors twisted their unrisked necks for a look at the daredevils, who went blithely about taking their lives into their own handstands. It got to be a regular event between classes, sort of a three-story circus. It's a wonder Ed Sullivan never picked up the act for his Toast of the Town television show.

Then there was the time Lee, Big Joe, Bobby, and Neil decided to jump off one of South Bend's busy bridges into the St. Joseph River.

We asked one of the quartet about this.
"That's nothing," he scoffed. "We jumped from all sorts of places. Cliffs and such. We'd try practically anything.,,
So the bridge was a small challenge? "Well," the man smiled, "that's what we thought at first."
  
The four stood on the Michigan Avenue bridge and peered into the swirling waters below. Bobby, showing a modicum of common sense, backed off. But Neil, Lee and Big Joe went over the side and into the drink.

Neil and Lee popped up immediately and swam to shore. They looked back for Big Joe and saw him far out in the river. The big man surfaced in a gasp of air, then sunk out of sight. Bobby, watching from the bridge, ran for help. Big Joe bobbed up twice more. Neil and Lee sniffed trouble and waded back into the stiff current.

They searched frantically for the spot where their friend had last gone under. Big Joe suddenly splashed up in front of them. "Help me!" he spluttered. "I lost my shoe down there and I can't find it."

Now, coaches have a rather decided distaste for losing players to injuries suffered while hand- standing and bridge-jumping. Neil Worden was especially irreplacable at the time. Lee, Bobby, and Big Joe were finally warned to stay away from the hard-driving fullback - for the good of the team. But the four were inseparable. The warning had no effect.

Cuckoos of a feather...

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In the 1952 tussel with Texas, the Irish found themselves stalled on the Longhorn thirty-five.Leahy flashed the signal for a kick, meaning a punt.
Notre Dame lined up in field goal position. Panicked, Leahy grabbed the person next to him - a student manager who was towelling off a football - and shoved him onto the field. "Get in there and stop that play!" Leahy shouted.

The manager spurted halfway to the quarterback before he realized who and what and where he was. He wheeled and gaped at the coach. "Hey," he screamed in awe, "I can't do this!"

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