The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-04-03
here's terrible run in your stock.

there's terrible run Tn your stock- | ing
 sImagine the intense embarrass. ment and modification of old drop the ball and run for the club. house and the game was saved" Rockne liked boys with ideals boys with courage, boys who had character. He liked to see his players wear corduroy pants and sweaters. No raccoon coats on the campus was one of his notices, I've want a school of masculine democracy" Big Three The three most important re- l quisites Rockne demanded from his players were brains, speed and cour- age. As for physical qualities he liked | players with big hands. Rockne's football teams were true expressions of the man himself Football was Rockne's life, his love, his all. No artist ever put more of his soul on canvas. No musician ever put more feeling into symphony than Rockne did into that strange experimentation of humanity-boys of all racial strains-which he welded into super football teams. There has been much said about
 
 a fallacy. The Rockne system was Rockne himself. Rockne's teams stressed speed above everything else. The basis of his offensive was the Napoleonic axiom: Get to the point of attack first.'
 Rockne relied on the shift play to accomplish this. His teams perfected the shift to such an extent that the rules had to be changed. But Rockne had no set formula for developing football teams. He built his plays and his teams around his players. He proved that with his -Four Horsemen"-Harry Stuhl- dreher, quarterback; Don Miller and mer Layden, fullback. None of them had shown any especial promise in football until they came under Rockne's guidance in 1922. He dove- tailed these four boys of strangely different temperaments into the best coordinated and most picturesque backfield in perhaps all football his- tory.
 The -Four Horsemen" performed in 1922, 1923 and 1924, and lost but two games out of 30, both to the heavier Nebraska team. In 1924 they led Notre Dame to an undisputed na- tional championship, defeating Stan ford in the tournament of roses game New Years day, PHO. After this game Pop Warner, Stanford coach, mentioned that his team had made more first downs than Notre Dame and Crowley remarked: Next year in the majors they are going to count the men ldt on base, instead of runs."
 Field GeneraIs
 Stuhldreher was one of Rockne's three greatest quarterbacks. The other two were Norman Barry, 1920, and Frank Carideo, 1929 and 1880. Rockne often said Stuhldreher made only one tactical mistake during his career, and that was to pass over the goal line on second down with the ball on the opponents five yard line in his first year in 1922. That was Stuhldreher's first and only mis- take, in Rockne's opinion.
 The -Four Horsemen" were off, color in game against Northwest ern which Notre Dame was barely able to win. On the train returning to South Bend after the game, the conductor asked an intoxicated man for his ticket.
 Where are you going?" asked the conductor.
 T don't know" was the reply. q guess I'm not going anywhere
 Crowley glumly turned to his teammates after listening to the con- versation, and said:
 He must be one of the four horse men,"
 These were the boys closest to the heart of Rockne-"The Four Horse men" and "The Seven Mules." Rockne perhaps had greater teams, but none he liked to reminiscence about more than the 1924 team.
 Rockne was a master psychologist. He had knack of inspiring his players at critical moments. He did not have peer at snapping a falt- ering and beaten eleven back into lighting and winning mood. Notre Dame trailed 10-0 at half time in the Northwestern game of 1925, and it seemed that the Irish were to suffer thelr first defeat in nearly a quarter of century on old Cartier field at South Bend. He stood silent before his men-then his sharp, staccato voice boomed out:
 You have the honor of being the first team to quit on me-"
 Then he left them to muse over that caustic remark. The final score or the game was Notre Dame 13, Northwestern 10.
 Rockne seldom handled any two boys alike. He had different method for each of them. Between halves of Nebraska game he called one Of his players aside and said:
 Say, that big tackle is playing rings around you. Guess he doesn't know who you are. Better show him your clippings this next half" To another he would merely say: Just play your best game, boy"
 Tomorrow: The final instalI- met will tell more about Rocknc's methods and his last team).