Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-09
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.
Jew YORK, December g.
Il AS the amazing narrative

n Jew YORK, December e.
IN AS the amazing narrative
4 Of that Notre Dame South
ern California game at
Los Angeles came over the radio
into an uptown club on Saturday,
a man who follows national foot
ball closely, and whose opinions
are not only bulwarked by knowl-
edge OF the game, but by broad
minded points of view, turned to
"a group Of friends struggling:
What Is the answer to this Notre
Dame foot ball?
You viii say material. You viii say
coaching. You win say greater oppor-
taInity for extended practice sessions.
AL true. But Southern California, for
instance, has no lack Of the best ma.
Cerial, has all necessary time for pfao-
tlce, has an excellent coach. So have
other universities met and defeated by
Notre Dame In the last two years. No.
there Is something over and above those
things, something as elusive as It Is ir-
resistible-I don't know what 1t is. Who
does?"
The writer thinks he does. That mys-
terious element which inspires and in
forms Notre Dame play is a great UNI
oerlylng motive, an organic impulse that
tranScends sport and involves all that Is
highest in the human soul.
Religion Seem ~ Aid.
Notre Dame foot ball, to be explicit,
u inspired by a cause, and that cause is
their religion. BY this Is not meant o
merry, 1ndomttable impulse to prove that
1t takes a Roman Catholic foot ball out
MT to play the best foot ball there LIS.
Not at all. The impulse is deeper than
that.
There Notre Dame players are ex-
pressing upon the foot ball field what
religion means to them individually.
Every game they play Is built upon
substructure of religious aspiration.
This is an age of sophiStication, SD
called. So there will be many. no doubt.
who will smile at the above. Well, let
such as these be not too sure In their
amusement.
There is a lot more in life, in foot
ball, than your sophisticate dreams of
in his philosophy. There are stupendous
things in human life which are not
seen, which cannot be gripped and felt.
To just what saint that particular
Southern California game was dedicated
by Notre Dame the writer does not
know. But it was dedicated to some
saint--all games are. And whether a
Notre Dame player was Roman Cath
Ole or Protestant--there were both on
this outfit, as always-made no differ
ence. No boy, whatever his religious at
filiation, can come in contact with cleo
tricity and not feel it.
In which connection there Is the
story told by Ray Miller, Notre Dame
grad, now district attorney In Cleve-
land. A player in the Notre Dame
dressing room before o game in which
the odds were against the Irish, sug-
gested that they say little prayer be-
fore going out on the field. That
player was George 0ipp, son Of Meth
odist clergyman.
The prayer was offered and the boy
who made It was Chet Wynn, son OF q
Baptist clergyman. There you have
the Notre Dame idea. Knute Rockne
is great coach--the greatest-and he
has a sure knowledge of the heart Of
man and how to get into his SOUL
But 1t may be suspected that not
even he gets to the deep underlying
reasons of all that his men accomplish.
Perhaps only the eaintliest of priests
do. those who have walked In wisdom
al the years and see through the veil.
Princeton, outplay1ng Yale altar the
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