Football player and coach. He was one of the famous “Four Horsemen” of Notre Dame. ALS signed “Elmer,” two pages both sides, 8.5 x 11, University of Notre Dame Student Activities Council letterhead, September 27, 1924. Sent to his girlfriend, Evelyn Byrne of Iowa City, Iowa, the letter is laden with great football references. In part, “We scrimmage the Mishawaka Athletic Club, and the freshmen. I have shown a little improvement in the past weeks and my chances look better, but I still have a long way to go. Pay no attention to those compliments you hear. Someone may have taken a liking to me, though I don’t see how or why, and they would like to see me get along…Mishawaka is a town connected to South Bend, in same way as Rock Island and Moline are connected. It is a Klan town, so I guess we will have to search the boys for weapons…The Kansas City Nighthawks play here Monday. That doesn’t concern me at all, as it will be the week of our first game. I want to get plenty of rest, and be in good shape for the game.” Intersecting folds, and four small spots to second page, otherwise fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope addressed in Layden’s hand.
Written at the start of what would be one of Notre Dame’s greatest years on the gridiron—an undefeated 10-0 season, a Rose Bowl victory, a National Championship, and the featured performance by the Four Horsemen, perhaps the greatest backfields in college football history—these pages also carry a passing reference to a dark encounter the Fighting Irish had with the Ku Klux Klan four months earlier. Layden had good reason to suggest that they “search the boys for weapons” in the northern Indiana town of Mishawaka, as in May, the KKK focused it hatred of the immigrant population and Catholicism on the South Bend school. When the Klan marched on the university, the students and faculty reacted with violent riots—which some claim gave the school the lasting nickname “The Fighting Irish.” Outstanding content from one of the school’s most famed athletes. Pre-certified Steve Grad/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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