OFD Book Club: “Shake Down the Thunder” #4

Graphic by Brendan McAlinden / @verypirateyWelcome back to the One Foot Down Book Club, where we are reading Murray Sperber’s “Shake Down the Thunder” (Amazon, B&N, IU Press, eBay). This is the fourth meeting of the club, and we’ll cover Chapters 12-14 today.

These chapters detail what Sperber terms Knute Rockne’s “first phase” as athletic director and coach. “He had moved Notre Dame football from its depleted wartime state of 1918 to national recognition in 1920. Most importantly, he has poised N.D. football for its amazing takeoff later in the decade.” (p. 104)

Jesse Harper had left his successor with a practically empty schedule in 1918, so Rockne — like his predecessors — tried to make…