This weekend the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame will battle with USC to close out the regular season. It's been a tough one, with more than a few fans and sportswriters calling for the head of coach Charlie Weis. But fans can take heart that they've got more than 100 years of tradition to fall back on.
The South Bend, Indiana school's national following took root during the 1920s, when legendary coach Knute Rockne famously encouraged his players to "win one for the Gipper"! No Notre Dame team was more famous than its undefeated 1924 squad, led by Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley, and Harry Stuhldreher, known in sporting lore as the Four Horsemen.
Sports historian Jim Lefebvre tells their story in the new book Loyal Sons. Eight Forty-Eight's Dan Bindert recently talked with Lefebvre, who says growing up in the same Green Bay neighborhood as one of the horsemen got him interested in the team.