Has there ever been a university whose success was more dependent on football than Notre Dame?
Go back to the 1920s, when this middling Catholic school near South Bend, Ind., was a household name because the radio networks all broadcast Notre Dame football games. Notre Dame football had Knute Rockne, the legendary coach, and Grantland Rice’s “Four Horsemen.”
Its football team was even the subject of movies: “Knute Rockne — All American” in 1940 (with Ronald Reagan playing George Gipp) and, 53 years later, “Rudy.”
“The whole south campus of the school was built with football money,” says Murray Sperber, who has written extensively about Notre Dame football.