The land of the echoes

Sporting News, The, August 22, 1994 by Terry Frei

Lou Holtz would prefer that this story was about another football program. Florida State. Michigan. Even William & Mary, where Holtz had his first head coaching job. THE SPORTING NEWS, in its College Football Yearbook and now in its weekly pages, has made Notre Dame its preseason choice as the No. 1 team in the nation.

"I don't want to insult you starting off, but I've never seen a greater display of ignorance than you all have displayed this preseason," says Holtz, otherwise affable during our conversation in the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center. "I mean that sincerely. I wish somebody could explain it to me. I wish someone could explain to me how you picked us No. 1."

Holtz runs down his list of doubts. They include, but are not limited to (woe is Lou): going into the season with an untested quarterback, Ron Powlus; losing seven defensive and six offensive starters and a total of 10 players to the NFL from last season's 11-1 team; and replacing four assistant coaches, including offensive coordinator Dave Roberts and defensive coordinator Bob Davie.

So the coach who was lobbying for No. 1 after last season is indulging in his characteristic late-summer pastime. Notre Dame? Who, us?

"What you all try to do each and every year is to put tremendous pressure on us hoping we won't live up to the expectations of people," Holtz says. "That's the only logical explanation."

Well, if we talked about that at a TSN strategy meeting, I must have been out at the copying machine. There are other explanations.

"Even though people graduated, I think this year we can be as good as anybody," senior linebacker Justin Goheen says. "When I was a freshman and sophomore, we had guys like Rick (Mirer) and Jerome Bettis, these huge superstars. And when they graduated, we were all looking around at each other, wondering what would happen. Then we all just stepped up and played. We all came to this school for the same reason they did -- to win."

That's the most basic, easily quantified Notre Dame football tradition. The Irish win. From Knute Rockne to Holtz, they've won 11 consensus national championships and seven Heisman Trophies and become the lightning rod for fervent affection and acrid hatred. They've had the television deals, from the Dumont Network in the black-and-white days of television's infancy in 1951; to the Sunday morning replay deal that had Lindsey Nelson saying, "After an exchange of punts, we move to further action in the third quarter ..."; to the current sweetheart arrangement with NBC that brings the Irish consistent home kickoff times, $37.5 million (primarily targeted, the university emphasizes, for general "need" scholarships and doctoral fellowships) -- and still considerable resentment from other members of the College Football Association.

Even now, the intriguing mix of mystique and myth continues to be played out on the campus of the small Catholic university to the north of South Bend, Ind.

Co-captain and defensive end Brian Hamilton, a native of Chicago and a Catholic who attended parochial schools from day one, says he "knew a little bit" about the Notre Dame tradition when he arrived on campus. "Then, when I was a sophomore, we were going out to USC and Coach Holtz gave all the freshmen a test about Notre Dame and said they had to pass before they could go out to California. Now he gives it to the freshmen every year."

More than with any other program in the country, in any sport, the past is part of the present at Notre Dame. However, the past quite often has been so polished in the retelling, it has evolved from fascinating American social history into myth. Myth and mystique seem inexorably linked to the program, and sometimes they're hard to separate.

The truth -- warts and all -- is compelling enough.

Mystique: "Notre Dame Victory March"

No contest. Notre Dame has the best fight song in America.

In 1945, James Riehle arrived on the Notre Dame campus as a freshman. Nearly 50 years later, after his short career as a salesman, after his ordination as a priest, after his long service to Notre Dame in a variety of administrative and spiritual roles, one annual moment still can choke up the Rev. James Riehle, C.S.C.

"The band comes back before school starts and before the season," says Riehle, who is in his 19th season as the athletic department chaplain. "They start practicing, just like the football team."

Riehle gestures toward the center of campus.

"The first time they walk across the campus, the first time they play that 'Victory March,' I get a tingle. Still. Every year."

"Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame,

"Wake up the echoes cheering her name,

"Send a volley cheer on high,

"Shake down the thunder from the sky.

"What though the odds be great or small,

"Old Notre Dame will win over all,

"While her loyal sons are marching

"Onward to Victory"

-- Chorus, "Notre Dame Victory March"

Simple. Stirring. Hummable in the shower. Adaptable, which means generations of high school players have run through butcherpaper pep banners as sophomore flutists butcher the song.