Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football by Bacon John U

Author:Bacon, John U. [Bacon, John U.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2013-09-03T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

THE RICHEST RIVALRY

On the fourth Saturday of the 2012 season, September 22, the Michigan football team would take on Notre Dame for the fortieth time, in a rivalry that went back 125 years—the oldest in major college football.

Michigan and Notre Dame started going at it when they first met in 1887—by accident. The Michigan football team was traveling to Evanston to play Northwestern when they learned the “Purple” were backing out. So they got off the train at South Bend instead and literally taught those Notre Dame boys how to play football.

After the Wolverines won that first contest, 8–0, Notre Dame treated their guests to a hearty banquet. The mood was so friendly that Notre Dame president Thomas Walsh felt compelled to give a toast, assuring the Michigan players that a “cordial reception would always await them at Notre Dame.”

Promises, promises.

No self-respecting Michigan or Notre Dame fan cannot repeat the history that follows. This synopsis is for the rest of you.

In 1895, representatives from seven schools—Michigan, Purdue, Illinois, Chicago, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Minnesota—met at the Palmer House in Chicago to create what we now call the Big Ten. Because Notre Dame was still an embryonic team at a small, struggling school, no one considered inviting them to join.

Notre Dame’s relationship with the Big Ten became more complicated after coach Fielding Yost arrived at Michigan, and a player named Knute Rockne enrolled at Notre Dame. In 1910, Yost accused Notre Dame of using ineligible players and cut the series off. On the various all-American teams that big-name coaches selected in 1913, only one coach left Rockne off his list—and that man was Fielding Yost.

Things got worse after Rockne became Notre Dame’s coach in 1918, and then blew up beyond repair in 1923—at a track meet. Yes, a track meet. Rockne got into a shouting match with Yost over the distance between the hurdles Michigan had set up. Yost vowed then and there that Notre Dame—which had desperately been trying to get into the Big Ten—would never be admitted.

The animosity between these two giants ran at a fever pitch the rest of their lives. When a Spalding salesman tried to get Rockne to order new equipment, Rockne kept repeating that he was already overstocked with everything he needed. Finally, just before turning to go, the clever salesman sighed and said that was a shame, because Yost liked Spalding’s new footballs so much he’d ordered three dozen.

“He did?” Rockne snapped. “Then I’ll take three dozen and a half.”

• • •

The teams ended the embargo during World War II, when they split two games, before cutting off the rivalry again. Another tradition that goes back almost as far as the rivalry is the mistrust between the teams’ leaders. Like all great traditions, this one has outlived its originators. Michigan’s Fritz Crisler didn’t trust Notre Dame’s Frank Leahy any more than Rockne trusted Yost. Pressed to explain why, Crisler cited this example: Whenever someone asked Leahy if he wanted a cigarette, he’d say yes, then just play with the thing without ever lighting it.

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