With
a minute and 30 seconds to go and trailing by one point, Dulac
University faces fourth-and-10 at the 40-yard line of State University.
Quarterback Elmer Higgins switches out of the punt call and
instead shoots a "bullet-like pass" to his wide receiver, who
evades the oncoming tackler and darts over the goal line. Dulac
has beaten the odds again, and Elmer has proven to his detractors
that smarts can transform 135 pounds of heart into an athletic
weapon.
So ends The Four Winners--the Head--the Hands--the Foot--the
Ball, the first and, as far as anyone knows, only novel written
by Knute Rockne.
According to Ralph McInerny, Grace Professor of Philosophy and
prolific author of philosophical texts and the Father Dowling
mysteries, Rockne's novel remained little known even within the
Notre Dame community until 1955, when he and a colleague discovered
a copy of the book hidden inside the Main Building.
Recalling the day, the professor lifts a worn, turf-colored
book off the front of his desk -- a second edition of the book,
brought in by a visitor; the copy he and his colleague discovered
now resides in the University Archives. They found it, he says,
when a mixture of boredom and curiosity led them to wander from
their offices in the Main Building in the direction of an enigmatic
and unlocked door down the hall. The room was rumored to be Rockne's
old office.
Inside the "gloomy, chalky" room, he says, they found an old
safe built into a foundational column, which has since been walled
over. They steel door was not bolted. Inside the safe they found
several packages swathed in brown paper, one of which was found
to contain The Four Winners.
McInerny describes the novel as the "pinnacle of non-adult fiction"
contemporary with the 1920s' prep-school-boy book trend. The story
is populated with one-dimensional characters fond of words like
"shucks" and "gee" and reads more like a pep talk or newspaper
game report than a novel. Practice and game sequences consume
more than half the pages.
McInerny is uncertain about Rockne's motivations for writing
the novel -- the immortal coach also published three books on
coaching -- but he smiles and notes that Rockne was "not above
using Notre Dame to create sale."
This wry cynicism may explain why rumors of ghostwriting trail
the book. Blatant Notre Dame parallels certainly suggest easy
commercialism. Either that or a complete lack of imagination on
the part of Rockne.
Like Notre Dame, Dulac University is an all-boys school seeping
with tradition and proud alumni. Its "Victory March" captures
the hearts of all who hear it, and the citizens of Dulac's rural
hometown are mesmerized by the university's "blue-jerseyed men,"
who invariably march the road to glory.
The plot also includes a marbles tournament (Rockne reached
the finals of ND's while a student) and a boxing match (Rockne
boxed semi-professionally). Elmer Higgins works as a janitor in
the science building, just as Rockne did in college. Elmer studies
law but dreams of becoming Dulac's football coach. Rockne taught
chemistry at Notre Dame before becoming head coach.
Dulac's coach also appears to be a Rockne composite. Coach Brown
has an unequaled career record yet is still a man of humor and
heart . He guarantees players no chance on his team if they are
"suffering from a charley horse between the ears." Rockne used
to start games with all second-stringers, who served as "shock
troops," and he introduced complicated pre-snap shifts to keep
"mentally sluggish opponents" from spying weaknesses. Dulac's
Coach Brown does likewise and schedules a secret practice so one
of Dulac's heated rivals won't expect to face Elmer at quarterback.
In addition to the volume McInerny donated to the archives,
Hesburgh Library has several copies of The Four Winners
available in general circulation. For those interested in purchasing
a copy, used-book dealers have been known to market them through
such online outlets as Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. A search
last fall found prices ranging from $75 to more than $300.
* * *
April 2003
archival photo
