1924 - The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame
Grantland Rice pens the greatest article in sports writing history
INTRODUCTION from The Sports Time Traveler
After I finished covering the 1924 World Series in early October, I left 1924 and did not return until this week.
Big mistake!
Yesterday I took a virtual trip back in time, precisely 100 years, back to 1924, to see what was going on.
What I found is a major “still developing story” around a group of Notre Dame football players that have recently become known as “The Four Horsemen.”
I quickly learned the story has its roots in a game at the Polo Grounds in New York “last month” on October 18, 1924, between Notre Dame and Army.
And the story is coming to a crescendo on New Year’s Day, 1925.
In this article I will first jump another month back to the day after the Notre Dame vs. Army game, and the aftermath of that game.
Then I will share a quick story on Notre Dame’s final regular season game of the 1924 season, that took place 100 years ago yesterday.
SPECIAL NOTE - I also want to reveal that one of my goals for The Sports Time Traveler newsletter is to honor not just the athletes, but also the sensational sportswriters of the past.
This article more than any other I have written is a step towards this aspiration.
Now let’s go back to 1924.
GRANTLAND RICE’s ARTICLE ON THE NOTRE DAME vs. ARMY GAME
THE POLO GROUNDS - October 19, 1924
Notre Dame played Army in its first big test of the season yesterday. The Fighting Irish had beaten their first 2 opponents, Lombard and Wabash, by a combined score of 74 - 0. These were pushovers.
Now they would face Army which is a formidable team that had won their first 2 games by a combined score of 37 - 0.
Notre Dame is led by a brilliant backfield quartet, each of whom is a senior:
Quarterback Harry Stuhldreher
Left halfback Jim Crowley
Right halfback Don Miller
Fullback Elmer Layden
They work together with precision in an offensive scheme masterminded by coach Knute Rockne. On each play, any of the four may get the ball.
They have perfected the offense in their 3rd season playing together.
Since the start of the 1922 season, with the four backfield stars leading the team, The Fighting Irish have a a record 19 - 2 - 1. The 2 losses were both to Nebraska.
Against Army yesterday, Rockne used a strategy of starting his 2nd string players in an effort to keep the starters rested. Army drove the ball deep into Notre Dame territory but was stopped.
Then Rockne brought in the starters. In the 2nd quarter, the legendary backfield drilled the Army defense in a long methodical drive that resulted in a touchdown and a 6 - 0 Notre Dame lead at halftime. In that 2nd quarter, Notre Dame had 8 first downs to none for Army.
The ground dominance continued in the 3rd quarter and Notre Dame built the lead to 13 - 0.
Army scored a late touchdown to make it 13 - 7, but everyone who saw the game recognized this for what it truly was - a rout by Rockne’s team.
Sportswriters used all kinds of hyperbole to describe Notre Dame’s great victory.
But Grantland Rice, the king of the New York sportswriters here in 1924, topped them all.
This is the opening paragraph of Grantland Rice’s article as it appeared in the Rochester, New York Democrat and Chronicle on October 19, 1924.
Grantland Rice is already a household name here in 1924. He has been a sportswriter for the New York Herald Tribune since 1914. But more importantly, his syndicated column, appears in newspapers across the country.
It is estimated that Grantland Rice’s daily column is read by 10 million Americans.
Here’s the text of the first 3 sentences again in an easier to read format. I never get tired of reading this:
“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.
The legend of The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame has begun.
NOTRE DAME at PRINCETON
OCTOBER 26, 1924
It’s been just a week since Grantland Rice’s “Four Horseman” article, and sportswriters around the country are already adopting the moniker for the Notre Dame backfield.
On October 22, this photo appeared in the Atlanta Journal and other papers:
And sportswriters described Notre Dame’s 12 - 0 victory at Princeton with references to “The Four Horsemen” like this one in the Nashville Banner on October 26, 1924.
This article appeared in the October 26, 1924, New York Daily News:
PRIMER ON THE PHRASE “THE FOUR HORSEMEN”
So what exactly is meant by The Four Horseman, and where did Grantland Rice come up with this phrase?
From what I can gather, the original phrase, “The Four Horseman,” comes from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, and represents four aspects of the end of days. I’m not a biblical scholar so that’s as best as I can explain it.
But here in 1924, the public had this term on the top of their minds already, because of the blockbuster movie, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” which came out just 3 years ago in 1921. The movie starred Rudolph Valentino and it turned him instantly into an “A-list” actor.
The movie itself comes from a popular anti-war novel, by the same name, that came out in 1916, deriving its title as a symbolic reference to the biblical passage.
So it’s not a real surprise that a literary genius like Grantland Rice would find a way to leverage this famous phrase when seeking an alternative superlative to describe the dominance of the Fighting Irish backfield. With a team like Notre Dame, you had to continually scramble to find new phrases to praise the players.
FINAL REGULAR SEASON GAME - Notre Dame at Carnegie Tech
FORBES FIELD, PITTSBURGH, PA - November 30, 1924
Yesterday afternoon undefeated Notre Dame and their Four Horsemen, coached by Knute Rockne, came to Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field for the final game of the 1924 college football season. Their opponent was Carnegie Tech, which came into the game with a 5 - 3 record, but had lost the week before 3 - 0 to the Quantico Marines.
It was no surprise that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran this headline on the day of the game in their preview article:
Seeing Notre Dame and their Four Horsemen was now like having the circus come to town.
Knute Rockne, up to this point, has guided Notre Dame to a record of 56 - 4 - 3 since he took over the reins in 1918.
Yesterday’s game represented an opportunity for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to continue on a path to become the undisputed national champions for the first time. Notre Dame was 8 - 0 coming to the game, and had outscored opponents 218 - 25 on the season.
The Four Horsemen had already avenged their only 2 losses in 1922 and 1923, both of which were to Nebraska, by crushing the Cornhuskers 34 - 6 two weeks ago.
Thus, Notre Dame has had a victory over every opponent they have faced in the past 3 seasons.
But to become recognized as national champions, for the first time, Notre Dame needed to win 2 more games, yesterday’s against Carnegie Tech and the January 1st Tournament of Roses game, to which Notre Dame has already been invited. Their opponent on January 1st will be Stanford which is coached by Pop Warner and his assistant coach Andy Kerr (who was the head coach in 1922 and 1923 before Warner could take on the role).
In yesterday’s game in Pittsburgh, Carnegie Tech scored first, making this the 4th game in a row that the opposing team had the initial score, as Knute Rockne continued his strategy of starting the 2nd stringers to give the starters a rest.
Carnegie Tech led at the end of 1st quarter 6 - 0.
Now came the time that Notre Dame brought in the regulars and put games away quickly.
But on this day, Carnegie Tech fought hard through the 2nd quarter and the score was tied at halftime at 13. Carnegie Tech was aided by a 48 yard touchdown off a blocked Notre Dame punt.
This was the first time all season that an opponent had Notre Dame tied at halftime.
It would be fascinating if I could ever find out what Knute Rockne told his team during the intermission yesterday, for the Fighting Irish’s ferocious start to the 2nd half was something to feast one’s eyes upon.
Notre Dame ripped apart Carnegie Tech in the 2nd half. After Carnegie Tech had an initial 3 and out, the Irish prevented Carnegie Tech from running another play until late in the game, while scoring 27 unanswered points to take a 40 - 13 lead.
Here’s the description of the 2nd half, written by Charles Doyle, that appeared in a front page article in the Sunday, November 30, 1924, South Bend Tribune:
And here is the description of the 2nd half from the November 30, 1924 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Carnegie Tech managed to score a late game TD to make the final score seem closer than the game really was at 40 - 19.
It was however, a moral victory for Carnegie Tech, as the 19 points were only 6 fewer than Notre Dame had allowed in their first 8 games combined. And Carnegie Tech’s 3 touchdowns were 1 more than the number of touchdowns Notre Dame had given up in the first 8 games of the season.
Notre Dame may have to play better in another month to beat Pop Warner’s Stanford team and claim an undisputed national title. Stanford is unbeaten at 7-0-1 and has only allowed 42 points score on them all season.
FINAL NOTES
LEGACY OF THE FOUR HORSEMAN ARTICLE BY GRANTLAND RICE
For the rest of their lives, Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller, and Elmer Layden were each known, introduced and referred to as one of The Four Horsemen.
Their Wikipedia entries each include a phrase like this, “He was one of the famous ‘Four Horsemen’"
They were eternally grateful to Grantland Rice.
On January 20, 2020, The New York Times described the opening in Grantland Rice’s October 19, 1924 article as, “most famous paragraph in sports, before or since.”
In the October 17, 1999, New York Times, an article appeared with the title, “The Sports Story That Changed America.” The article documented the history around Grantland Rice’s October 19, 1924 piece.
In the 1993 book, “Sportswriter,” author Charles Fountain describes Rice’s article as, “The most famous in the history of sports writing.”
BOOK ABOUT GRANTLAND RICE
“Sportswriter” is a sensational book by Charles Fountain that celebrates the life of Grantland Rice, and has a chapter dedicated to the story of the Four Horsemen article.
I highly recommend it. You can find it on Amazon at this link:
"Sportswriter - The Life and Times of Grantland Rice" by Charles Fountain
VIDEO OF THE FOUR HORSEMEN
Here’s a short YouTube video that describes The Four Horsemen and the one publicity picture that was taken of them the week after the game at the Polo Grounds on October 18, 1924.
The part about Notre Dame and the Four Horsemen begins at the 50 second mark on the video.
COMING SOON!
I will be following up on this story in early January when I cover the 1925 Tournament of Roses game, which is known today as the Rose Bowl.