Notre Dame's Father Corby Blesses the Irish Brigade -- and the Soldiers of the North and South -- at Gettysburg

One hundred and fifty-one years ago -- on July 2, 1863, the second day of the famous “three days’ fight” known as the Battle of Gettysburg -- a Union Army chaplain serving with the Irish Brigade of the 88th New York Infantry Regiment climbed atop a boulder on Cemetery Ridge to give the soldiers general absolution for their sins. The chaplain was a Holy Cross priest from Notre Dame. His name was Father Corby.

In the fall of 1861, Rev. William Corby. C.S.C., had given up his teaching duties at Notre Dame to become chaplain of the 88th New York Infantry, a unit in the Irish Brigade. He was one of eight Holy Cross priests who would serve as chaplains during the Civil War.

In summer of 1863, as the Irish Brigade prepared to rush into the fighting at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the second day of July, Corby donned the purple stole of the Confessional, mounted a large boulder and offered the men a blessing of absolution from their sins.

St. Clair Augustine Mulholland, an officer who was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action during the Battle of Chancellorsville, was a Union major attached with the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg. Years later, Mulholland gave this eyewitness account of Corby’s famous absolution, originally published in the Philadelphia Times, and soon thereafter transcribed in the pages of an issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic dated April 3, 1880:

“There is yet a few minutes to spare before starting, and the time is occupied in one of the most impressive religious ceremonies I have ever witnessed. The Irish Brigade, which had been commanded formerly by General Thomas Francis Meagher, and whose green flag had been unfurled in every battle in which the Army of the Potomac had been engaged from the first Bull Run to Appomattox, was now commanded by Colonel Patrick Kelly, of the Eighty-eighth New York, and formed a part of this division. The brigade stood in columns of regiments closed in mass. As the large majority of its members were Catholics, the Chaplain of the brigade Rev. William Corby, CSC, proposed to give a general absolution to all the men before going into the fight...

“Father Corby stood upon a large rock in front of the brigade, addressing the men; he explained what he was about to do, saying that each one would receive the benefit of the absolution by making a sincere Act of Contrition, and firmly resolving to embrace the first opportunity of confessing his sins, urging them to do their duty well, and reminding them of the high and sacred nature of their trust as soldiers and the noble object for which they fought. The brigade was standing at “Order arms,” and as he closed his address, every man fell on his knees, with head bowed down. Then, stretching his right hand towards the brigade, Father Corby pronounced the words of absolution. The scene was more than impressive, it was awe-inspiring.” Near by, stood General Hancock, surrounded by a brilliant throng of officers, who had gathered to witness this very unusual occurrence and while there was profound silence in the ranks of the Second Corps, yet over to the left, out by the peach orchard and Little Round Top, where Weed, and Vincent, and Haslett were dying, the roar of the battle rose and swelled and reechoed through the woods. The act seemed to be in harmony with all the surroundings. I do not think there was a man in the brigade who did not offer up a heartfelt prayer. For some it was their last; they knelt there in their grave-clothes — in less than half an hour many of them were numbered with the dead of July 2.”

Today, a statue of Father Corby stands on the battlefield at Gettysburg. Dedicated on October 29, 1910, it was mounted on what some recalled was the exact boulder where Corby had stood on July 2, 1863. An identical statue was placed in front of Corby Hall, the Holy Cross priests’ residence at Notre Dame, mounted on a similar boulder taken from the battlefield, and dedicated on Memorial Day, May 29, 1911. Corby’s statue at Notre Dame, with the right hand raised high in blessing, is often referred to as “Fair Catch Corby” by Fighting Irish football fans.

Father Corby’s blessing at Gettysburg has also has been commemorated in paintings, poems, books and film. One historian described it as “a symbolic depiction of the bond between Catholic faith and American patriotism at the nation’s supreme moment of crisis.”

Father Corby's Memoirs of Chaplain Life: 3 Years in the Irish Brigade with the Army of the Potomac was published in 1893. It is still in print, and has been described as "one of the best Civil War diaries."

In his memoirs, Corby himself wrote, “That general absolution was intended for all — in quantum possum — not only for our brigade, but for all, North or South, who were susceptible of it and who were about to appear before their Judge.”

After the Civil War, Father Corby would twice serve as president of the University of Notre Dame, from 1866 to 1872, and from 1877 to 1881.

The Perfect Notre Dame Joke

As their spouses well know, whenever and wherever Notre Dame alumni gather together, they tell stories about their time as students at Notre Dame…over and over again. They recall shared experiences in the University’s residence halls, classrooms, and athletic arenas like the hallowed Notre Dame Stadium and the neighboring Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center.

Notre Dame alumni rarely tire of talking about the funniest college pranks, the best professors, the depth of the snow in South Bend, and the most exciting games and plays in Fighting Irish history that they ever personally saw (like Eric Penick racing 85 yards for a touchdown against USC one Saturday in October…a truly thrilling run that brought the Irish 85 yards closer to the 1973 national championship)…which is why the following may be the most concise, most insightful, and most perfect joke about Notre Dame alumni ever told:

Question: How many Notre Dame alumni does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: One hundred. One to change the light bulb, and ninety-nine to reminisce about the old one.

Even Before Rockne, We Were Known as the Fighting Irish

How and when did a small college located in the “Land of the Indians” (the meaning of the name Indiana) and founded by a 28-year-old Catholic priest from France end up with the nickname the Fighting Irish?

No one seems to know for sure. But it may surprise you that documented references to Notre Dame’s football teams as the Fighting Irish go back much farther than you might think, even preceding the arrival of an end named Rockne, a halfback known as the Gipper, and a backfield that became famous as the Four Horsemen.

The earliest known documented use of the nickname by a major newspaper appeared in the Detroit Free Press on November 7, 1909. Interestingly, it appeared in the very first sentence of a story about Notre Dame’s very first victory ever over the Michigan Wolverines.

The sportswriter, Edward Armistead Batchelor, Sr., wrote these words: “"Eleven fighting Irishmen wrecked the Yost machine this afternoon. These sons of Erin, individually and collectively representing the University of Notre Dame, not only beat the Michigan team, but they dashed some of Michigan's fondest hopes ..."

Whether the use of the Fighting Irish nickname began precisely with that story in the Detroit Free Press or not may still be open to question, but it is clear that many students at Notre Dame made frequent use of the nickname in the next few years, as documented in the pages of The Notre Dame Scholastic, the University’s student weekly.

There’s this reference In the November 9, 1912, issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic: “The spirit at Notre Dame has ever been that of work, honor, and democracy. Before the president of Illinois University called us “fighting Irishmen” we were fighters; nor can the influence of our University’s early hardships ever pass away….our University is no hibernating camp for the full pocket and the empty head, but a place where the spirit of honorable work is ruler.”

The September 27, 1919, issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic offered this passage about the football team: “As to the men who are fighting for places on the Gold and Blue teams of this year, and who will again carry the “Fighting Irish” spirit with them to the four points of the compass…,” and this one, which clearly suggests the name had been in use at the University for quite some time: “The famous ‘fighting Irish spirit” has typified Notre Dame athletic teams, and the football team in particular, for many years.”

In the November 29, 1919, edition of The Notre Dame Scholastic, an account of a 33-13 Notre Dame victory at Purdue, there is this specific reference to the football team: “Every man in the press box voted the “Fighting Irish” the best seen on Stewart [sic] Field this season even though the Hibernians were going only at half speed during the contest.” The same story also noted a Notre Dame halfback named George Gipp completed 12 of 20 passes for 162 yards during the game.

The 1919 football squad finished 9-0, undefeated and untied, which prompted one of many references to “the Fighting Irish” in the 1919 Notre Dame Football Review, including perhaps one of the first to link the name of Knute Rockne directly to the Fighting Irish in the same sentence: “ALL- AMERICAN CHAMPS: This indeed is a fit title for Coach Rockne’s squad of “Fighting Irish.”

In an editorial in the October 29, 1921, edition of The Notre Dame Scholastic, the editors vigorously promoted and defended the name: “Another matter frequently brought forth is this: “What has happened to the name, ‘Fighting Irish?’ “ Nothing whatever, excepting that it has been misunderstood so largely that local sportswriters have believed it advisable to use something else. Notre Dame wants to be recognized as a purely American school, which favors or discriminates against no one because of possible national descent. As such she has expressed deep sympathy with the Irish cause upon occasions beyond number as such she has understood as well, that student publications and University bulletins should avoid rash expression of opinion on difficult problems or involved the entire Notre Dame public by generalizations which a large number may find distasteful. But publicity and the “Fighting Irish” are other matters.

“Everyone ought to see that no name half so good as this has been or can be thought of. It is rich with tradition; it has stuck better than the brick in the campus buildings. “Fighting Irish” no more signifies that everyone hails from County Galway than “Sorin’s Sons” – which sounds like “Sorensons” – means that everybody hails from Scandinavia. There are other people at Purdue besides boilermakers, and a considerable portion of the Chicago student body have never spent a night on a desert island (editor’s note: the University of Chicago’s team nickname was the Maroons.  Since they named their teams after the color, the Scholastic writer is having a bit of fun at their expense.). Really we think that everybody ought to forget squeamishness when it comes to a big thing like a football team with N. D. monograms, and be glad to see “Fighting Irish” in print.”

As you might note, every one of these references preceded the dramatic rise and soaring popularity of Notre Dame’s football teams in the Roaring Twenties.

As Rockne’s teams dominated the college football landscape in the 1920s, the six most exciting words in sports – the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame – became more widely used by the nation’s sportswriters and radio announcers and finally were considered “official” when the nickname received a public blessing by the Holy Cross priest serving as president of Notre Dame in 1927.

When a reporter from the New York World wrote the president of Notre Dame a letter in the fall of 1927 seeking his opinion on the popular name, Rev. Matthew Walsh, C.S.C. responded in this way:

“The University authorities are in no way averse to the name ‘Fighting Irish’ as applied to our athletic teams… It seems to embody the kind of spirit that we like to see carried into effect by the various organizations that represent us on the athletic field. I sincerely hope that we may always be worthy of the ideals embodied in the term ‘Fighting Irish.’ ”

Just like the editorial in that 1921 issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic had expressed, “no name half so good as this has been or can be thought of”…it is unquestionably “rich with tradition”…and “it has stuck better than the brick in the campus buildings.”

Go Irish.

"A Plan for the Perfection of the Dome"

On October 12, 1883, the statue of Mary was raised to the top of the dome of the main building at Notre Dame, partially fulfilling the promise the University’s founder, Father Edward Sorin, made to Our Lady in 1844, just two years after the founding of the University, to one day “raise her aloft…on a Golden Dome…”

With the statue finally at rest on its pedestal, Father Sorin renewed his efforts to fulfill the rest of his promise to Our Lady by raising the additional funds needed to gild the Dome -- and now, thanks to a new invention, illuminate it with electric light. In the March 29, 1884, edition of The Notre Dame Scholastic, the editors introduce a message from Father Sorin under a very brief headline, The Dome: “The appended communication from Very Rev. Father General sets forth a plan for the perfection of the Dome of the University which will be of interest to friends of Notre Dame.”

Father Sorin begins, “The exterior of the beautiful Dome of Notre Dame is now finished, thank God! and not a dollar expended on it will ever be regretted! It is the grand feature of the place – one of the chief ornaments of the West. But, beautiful as it looks, it is scarcely anything compared to what it will soon be, when covered, as originally intended, with the heavy and imperishable gilding of the purest gold which will reflect magically through the day the rays of the sun, and at night turn darkness into a bright light, from the electric crown of twelve stars with which the whole figure is to be clothed, typifying the prophecy: And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

A few paragraphs later, Sorin pushes for a novel application of a recent invention, Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb, to illuminate the Dome at night:

“But, to come to the point: The Dome is up – majestic in grandeur and in form; the sacred image rests upon it in celestial splendor and beauty; but this grand cupola must shine out, all around, like a diamond in the sky, from the purest gilding; and its crowning Statue must find in its twelve radiant electric stars a new source of light, to replace the sun setting beneath the western horizon. Then we shall have a monument such as the world has probably never seen, owing to the comparatively novel application of electricity to be made here, for the first time, around such a statue at such an elevation above the ground.”

“To secure this light, with its illuminating rays extending for miles around, no expenses, if at all reasonable, should stand in the way. We wonder, indeed, at the modest figure, but we are assured that $5,000 will cover all the cost. Let us say $10,000, and thus feel doubly sure. How many generous souls would vie with each other to secure the merit and honor of this glorious act?”

In closing, Father Sorin notes his fundraising campaign is already finding a small bit of success:

“As I was sending the above to the printing office a purse of $200 in gold was presented to me, in the name of St. Joseph, for the Dome, wholly unexpected and unasked – a surprise, or rather a sanction. A few dozen more will soon prove that I was not mistaken. E. SORIN, C.S.C.”

And so Father Sorin’s "plan for the perfection of the Dome” got underway.

The Notre Dame Grad Who Invented the Teleprompter

Did you know a Notre Dame grad invented the teleprompter?

It’s true. Hubert “Hub” Schlafly – who earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Notre Dame in 1941 – invented the teleprompter in an effort to help a soap opera actor remember his lines.

In the early days of television, many programs were performed and broadcast “live.” Stage actors trying to make the transition to the new medium of television had to memorize new lines on a weekly or sometimes daily basis. Cue cards held by stagehands were initially used to prompt actors who had forgotten their lines, but this system had its drawbacks – especially if a clumsy stagehand dropped a cue card or showed them out of order!

An actor named Fred Barton, Jr., a Broadway theater veteran who was challenged by the demands of live television, approached Irving Kahn, a vice president at Twentieth Century-Fox studios, with the idea of putting some form of cue cards in a moving scroll, so he could rely on prompts with less risk of an on-screen blunder.

Kahn turned to a young Notre Dame graduate, Hub Schlafly, then a broadcast engineer and the Director of Television Research for Twentieth Century-Fox, and asked if such a device might be possible. Schlafly reportedly told Kahn it would “be a piece of cake.”

Schlafly used half of a suitcase as an outer shell for his new device, and rigged up a series of belts, pulleys and a motor to turn a scroll of butcher paper that displayed an actor’s lines in half-inch letters. The paper was turned gradually, controlled by a stagehand using a hand-crank, while the words were read.

On April 21, 1949, Schlafly submitted a patent application for his “television prompting apparatus,” and in the tradition of offstage “prompters” who had been relied upon to feed forgotten lines to stage actors, he called his device the TelePrompTer.

Seeing potential for the new technology, Schlafly, Barton and Kahn presented the idea of developing and marketing the device to Twentieth Century-Fox, but the company declined. So, they quit their jobs and founded their own company: the TelePrompTer Corporation.

At first, the teleprompter was used as first intended, for live televised entertainment. The company sold its first teleprompter to CBS, which put it to work helping actors on the network’s first daytime soap opera – The First Hundred Years – sponsored by Procter & Gamble.

And then, the teleprompter took its place on a far bigger stage.

One day in 1952, after reading that an aging former President Herbert Hoover was having trouble reading his speeches while campaigning for General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Kahn traveled to Chicago, the host city for the 1952 Republican National Convention, and persuaded Hoover and other speakers to give the teleprompter a try. Not only did the Republicans like “Ike” – they liked the teleprompter. The technology was an immediate success with the Republicans in early July and with the Democrats a few weeks later. Between the Republican Convention and the Democratic Convention (held the same month in the same city), 47 of the 58 major speeches were delivered using teleprompters. For the sake of history, let’s note Hoover was the first politician to use it, when he delivered the keynote address at the Republican Convention.

In 1954, Dwight Eisenhower became the first President of the United States to use a teleprompter, when he delivered the State of the Union address. Eisenhower also began the custom of televised addresses to the American people from the White House and the Oval Office using a teleprompter.

Schlafly’s story didn’t end there. He became a pioneer of satellite technology and cable television. Schlafly and Sidney Topol, who worked for Scientific Atlanta, devised a transportable satellite earth station -- the forerunner of today's satellite dishes -- that established satellite-delivered television for the cable industry. He transformed the industry when he executed the first satellite transmission of a cable program from Washington, D.C., to a convention of 3,000 cable operators in Anaheim, California. It was the first time a satellite was used to transmit cable programming and allowed one to go up to satellites from anywhere and transmit everywhere.

Schlafly considered his greatest contribution to be a 26-foot transportable satellite dish. To show its potential, Schlafly engineered one of the first satellite broadcasts, the famous Home Box Office Inc. (HBO) "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali on October 1, 1975. He also developed the first “Pay-Per-View” system that permitted subscribers to order special programs delivered by coaxial cable.

The electrical engineer from Notre Dame was awarded two Emmys for his pioneering contributions to television: one for the teleprompter and another for his outstanding engineering achievements for cable television technology.

The Spirit of Notre Dame (The Movie)

Not long ago a young man who was (very) unfamiliar with Notre Dame asked an innocent question. “You know that movie, Rudy?” he said. “Is that what made Notre Dame famous?”

After a brief (and admittedly, somewhat stunned) silence, the short answer was “No. Actually, Notre Dame has been pretty well known since at least the 1920s. In fact, Rudy wasn’t even the first Hollywood movie made about Notre Dame.”

Rudy, the story of an underdog who dreamed of playing for the Fighting Irish, made its appearance on movie screens in 1993. Some people may be familiar with the second Hollywood motion picture focused on Notre Dame, Knute Rockne – All American, which premiered in 1940 and told the story of the legendary football coach. Fewer people still may be aware of the first, The Spirit of Notre Dame.

Released by Universal Pictures in 1931, The Spirit of Notre Dame tells the story of the fictional Bucky O’Brien, a high school football star from small-town Hookerville High School, who arrives at Notre Dame brimming with confidence about his abilities on the gridiron. The promising but cocky running back must be taken down a notch more than once during the course of the story, first as a freshman on the practice field, and later after he finds success on the field and begins to believe his own press clippings. Ultimately, the head football coach decides to bench Bucky until he finally learns the team comes first. Bucky does get a chance to redeem himself -- and demonstrate the true spirit of Notre Dame -- when the coach puts him back on the field at a crucial moment in the biggest game of the year.

Part of what made the film fascinating to college football fans at the time was the appearance of “real-life” Notre Dame football stars in the movie. In the days before television, when radio was king, fans knew their football heroes mostly through radio and newspaper coverage, and the occasional flickering newsreel. The Spirit of Notre Dame gave fans a chance to see some of the most celebrated football stars of the era, larger-than-life on the silver screen. The film featured all four of the famed Four Horsemen of Notre Dame (Don Miller, Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden, and Harry Stuhldreher). Adam Walsh, an All American center and captain of Rockne’s 1924 national championship team, also appeared in the movie. In a couple of comedy scenes, Frank Carideo, a quarterback who played on the last two teams coached by Knute Rockne (he was 19-0 as the starting quarterback), nearly steals the show.

The Spirit of Notre Dame was dedicated to Knute Rockne, and opens with a tribute to the great coach, including film footage of Rockne himself. Rockne had been killed in a plane crash several months before the film was released (in fact, the crash occurred as he was flying to Los Angeles to participate in the production of the film). The coach in the film is played by J. Farrell MacDonald, who is never identified by name in the film. According to a New York Times review published at the time, MacDonald “gives a splendidly convincing performance.”

The movie starred Lew Ayres as Bucky O’Brien. Ayres had become a star in 1930 in the role of the disillusioned German soldier Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front, and would later star as Dr. Kildare in a series of nine films from 1938 to 1942 that became the model for countless hospital dramas on both the big and small screen. A very young Andy Devine, who had only performed in bit parts in silent films until then, and would one day become one of America’s favorite sidekicks in films and T.V. westerns and ultimately receive a shout-out in a Jimmy Buffet song (“…an autographed picture of Andy Devine”), appears in his first major role in a “talkie.” As the fictional Notre Dame football player Ernest “Truck” McCall, Devine provides comic relief and eventually inspiration to the team, fighting for his life from a hospital bed while his team plays the big game against Army.

The film also includes a number of scenes of high-spirited college pranks – in one, a student is carried to and thrown into a lake on the Notre Dame campus (a not uncommon occurrence through the years). The scene begs an interesting question: did the lake-throwing scene simply reflect a student tradition that was already in place at Notre Dame? Or, did the scene in The Spirit of Notre Dame begin a new one? The answer to that question may be lost forever in the history of life in the residence halls of Notre Dame.

The Story of Notre Dame's Alma Mater

“Love thee, Notre Dame.”

Those four words, beloved by generations of Notre Dame alumni, first emerged in the form of the final line of a poem written by a Holy Cross priest.

At the top of a typewritten page found in the Notre Dame Archives are simply a name and a date: Rev. Charles L. O’Donnell, C.S.C., March 15, 1930. Below are ten typed lines of a poem Father O’Donnell had written, words that within less than two years would become the lyrics of Notre Dame’s new alma mater, "Notre Dame, Our Mother."

Father O’Donnell had a gift for writing and a love for poetry. During his senior year, O’Donnell, a 1906 graduate of Notre Dame, had served as editor of the very first edition of THE DOME, the University’s yearbook. He later became a Holy Cross priest, and served as a chaplain during World War I. In 1928, he became the president of the University of Notre Dame.

It is believed that sometime in 1931, Professor Joseph J. Casasanta of the Class of 1923 -- by then a member of the music faculty who also served as the Director of the Notre Dame Band and as the Director of the Notre Dame Glee Club -- set Father O’Donnell’s poetry to music.

Fittingly, the words and the music were showcased together for the very first time in the very first public performance of "Notre Dame, Our Mother." Both the Notre Dame Band and the Notre Dame Glee Club can lay claim to performing the new alma mater for the first time: the combined Band and the Glee Club -- 85 instruments and 110 voices – united on stage to perform "Notre Dame Our Mother" at the Palace Theatre in South Bend on October 7, 1931. The occasion was the premiere of the first Hollywood motion picture about Notre Dame football, The Spirit of Notre Dame from Universal Pictures. The film starred Lew Ayres (who had become a movie star the year before playing the central character in the Academy Award winning film, All Quiet on the Western Front) and featured several Notre Dame football stars from the Knute Rockne era, including all four of the famous Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.

The movie isn’t easy to find today. The Palace Theatre still stands in downtown South Bend, although it is known today as the Morris Performing Arts Center. But the spirit of Notre Dame and the words of the alma mater -- especially its closing line, “Love thee, Notre Dame” – will echo at Notre Dame forever.

The Gift of Our Lady

Perhaps the most precious gift the University of Notre Dame ever received was a gift from the women of Saint Mary’s.

To begin the story, let’s take a brief detour to one of the most famous squares in Rome, the Piazza di Spagna.

Rising from the plaza of the Piazza di Spagna (also known as the Spanish Square) is the Colonna dell'Immacolata Concezione (Column of the Immaculate Conception), designed by the architect Luigi Poletti. The column was erected on December 8, 1857, with the help of 220 Roman firefighters to celebrate the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which had been proclaimed ex cathedra by Pope Pius IX in 1854.

Standing atop the marble column is a lovely statue of the Virgin Mary fashioned by Giuseppi Obici .

According to tradition, each year on the eighth of December, when the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Pope visits the Piazza di Spagna in the afternoon and, with the help of Roman firefighters equipped with a very long ladder or crane, places a wreath of flowers on the statue to indicate the love and devotion of the Pope, the Church, and the people of the city of Rome for the Virgin Mary.

Now, let’s return to Indiana, and Notre Dame.

In April 1879, a great and terrible fire nearly destroyed Notre Dame. The University boldly decided to rebuild. Within four months, more than 300 laborers working sixteen-hour-days used manpower and willpower to help Notre Dame rise from the ashes, completing the central part of the building just in time for the opening of the fall semester. The east wing, west wing, and dome would be added in the months and years to come (the dome itself was not completed until four years later).

Nevertheless, by July 1879, a plan to raise the money needed for a new statue to adorn the top of the dome was taking shape one mile west of Notre Dame at St. Mary’s Academy (now Saint Mary’s College), inspired in part by the statue of the Virgin Mary in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome.

According to an issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic from 1879: 

“We have received a description of the proposed statue of our Lady which is to adorn the new University, and which the young lady graduates of St. Mary's Academy generously proposed themselves to contribute as their crowning gift to Notre Dame. The model of the statue is that adopted by our late Holy Father, Pope Pius IX, in 1854, on the occasion of the solemn proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (erected by Pius IX in front of the Propaganda College in Piazza di Spagna in Rome). The material will be of highly polished bronze, sixteen feet in height, the crescent with the serpent beneath, and a starry crown above. Nine of the stars will be seen over and on either side of the head. By day the statue itself and its circle of stars will glitter in the sunlight, an object of beauty for miles around; and by night the nine stars will be lit with the electric light, and thus be a beacon of beauty from a still further distance.”

The women of Saint Mary’s set about the task of raising funds for the new statue, and Giovanni Meli, a sculptor in Chicago, was commissioned to create it. Meli’s statue was delivered to Notre Dame in July 1880, and was placed on the front porch of the Main Building -- where it would remain for more than three years before its ascension.

Work continued on the Main Building, and the construction of the dome was finally completed in September 1883. A few weeks later, the statue was carefully – and joyously -- raised to the top of the dome using block and tackle.

The October 13, 1883, edition of The Notre Dame Scholastic described the process of placing of the statue on the dome on Wednesday, October 10, and Thursday, October 11:

“The great event of the past week was the placing of the colossal statue of the Blessed Virgin on the Dome of the University. As is well-known, since it was first brought to Notre Dame in the summer of 1880, the statue has been adorning the front porch of the main building, and awaiting the time when its pedestal – the Dome – would be completed. As announced in the Scholastic, a short time ago, the exterior work of the Dome was finished, and everything was ready for the statue. On last Monday afternoon, the statue was lowered from the front porch and brought to the rear of the College. There it was allowed to remain until the apparatus necessary for raising it to the summit of the Dome could be prepared. Everything was ready by Wednesday noon and that afternoon, slowly but surely, the grand figure ascended to the roof of the College. On Thursday work was resumed, and at length, at five o'clock p.m., amid the ringing of bells, the statue was seen to rest firmly and securely on its grand pedestal.

“The statue is the work of the late Mr. Giovanni Meli, of Chicago, and is the largest of its kind in the United States. It stands sixteen feet in height and weights 4,400 lbs. The work of raising it to its present position was skillfully accomplished under the direction of Mr. Alexander Staples, of South Bend.

"To-day this grand statue, so familiar to the visitor and student at Notre Dame, stands upon her magnificent throne, and, with extended arms, gives the assurance of the continued protection of her whom it represents.”

Our Lady had to wait a few more years before she would be covered with gold, but that’s another story.

But now you know one of the best gifts Notre Dame ever received – the statue of the Mary, the Mother of God, that stands on the Golden Dome -- was bought and paid for by gifts from the Sisters of the Holy Cross, students, and alumnae of Saint Mary's.

Admiral Nimitz, the United States Navy, and Notre Dame

This week marks the anniversary of the most important naval battle in American history, the Battle of Midway.

Fought during the first week of June 1942 – less than six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – United States naval forces in the Pacific theater under the overall command of Admiral Chester Nimitz surprised and defeated a far superior Japanese fleet, winning a battle some said they had no right to win. During the course of the battle, Dauntless dive bombers from the decks of the USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers, and planes from the USS Hornet sank a Japanese heavy cruiser and heavily damaged another. The American naval force also destroyed more than 300 of Japan’s warplanes in the fight. It was a decisive victory for Nimitz and the Navy. However, perhaps because the anniversary of the battle always falls during the same week as the anniversary of the D-Day invasion of June 1944, Admiral Nimitz, the United States Navy, and the Battle of Midway probably do not receive as much attention as they deserve. Many historians, though, call the Battle of Midway “the turning point in the Pacific.”

Why, you may ask, is this story appearing on a blog about the history, traditions, and spirit of Notre Dame?

The answer: because Admiral Nimitz and the United States Navy also played very prominent roles in “a turning point” in the history of Notre Dame, so this seems like a fine week to honor Nimitz and the Navy by telling the story.

During World War II, with millions of college-age men in uniform, many colleges and universities struggled to survive, and some simply ceased to exist. With war raging around the world, Notre Dame faced financial troubles that many feared would force the University to close its doors.

Fortunately for Notre Dame, Admiral Nimitz made an important decision that would keep Notre Dame afloat.

In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Nimitz was to be promoted to Admiral and designated Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet. Before the attack, however, Rear Admiral Nimitz served as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, and it was in that role, in September 1941, that Nimitz established a unit of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (N.R.O.T.C.) at Notre Dame, with headquarters in the Knute Rockne Memorial Building and 169 students enrolled in the first class.

On Monday, October 27, just six weeks before the Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, Nimitz visited Notre Dame for the University’s first observance of “Navy Day” after the establishment of the N.R.O.T.C. unit in September, and addressed the student body and faculty in Washington Hall.

The agreement between Notre Dame’s president, Rev. Hugh O’Donnell, C.S.C., and Admiral Chester Nimitz to train much-needed naval officers during World War II led to a long history of cooperation between the United States Navy and the University of Notre Dame. In time, the Secretary of the U.S. Navy -- at the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Nimitz -- agreed to make Notre Dame a training center for the Navy and paid to use University facilities, allowing Notre Dame to keep its doors open throughout the war.

The first group of N.R.O.T.C. students organized on the campus was comprised of Notre Dame's own students. This group was to be trained during the regular four-year college course.

Shortly thereafter came the U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School. This school would train men who already had graduated from different colleges. They were divided into two groups: those being trained to be deck officers, about 1,000 of whom were commissioned every four months during the war; and others, under training for only two months, destined for some special work. The Midshipmen’s School at Notre Dame even published its own yearbook, The Capstan, and if you were to look through the pages of the May 1943 edition, you might discover a familiar face with a cleft chin. As it turned out, one young man who trained at Notre Dame as a naval officer later became a very well-known Hollywood actor. His name was Kirk Douglas.

Finally, in 1943, the V-12 Navy College Training program came to the campus, with the purpose of granting bachelor's degrees to future officers drawn from both the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps. The program paid tuition to participating colleges and universities for college courses that were taught to qualified candidates. Some of these were men who had seen service already, and were being returned as undergraduates to take special training, especially in mathematics, physics, and other areas of college education most needed by the military for the war effort.

During the war, Notre Dame produced so many naval officers, it was sometimes referred to as “Annapolis West.” A report later prepared by a University archivist estimated that a total of 11,925 navy men completed their officers' training at Notre Dame between 1942 and 1946. In addition to that, certainly the number of Navy trainees, including the Marines, ran into the thousands.

The tradition continues to this day. The NROTC at the University continues to train midshipmen in preparation for careers as Navy and Marine Corps officers.

As for Admiral Chester W. Nimitz?

Admiral Nimitz continued to make good decisions on behalf of his country. On December 19, 1944, he was advanced to the newly created rank of Fleet Admiral, and on September 2, 1945, he was the United States signatory to the terms of the Japanese surrender aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Notre Dame gave him an honorary degree in 1946.

And in a park in Arlington, Virginia, overlooking Washington, D.C., the six words immortalized at the base of the Marine Corps War Memorial (also called the Iwo Jima Memorial) are the words of Admiral Nimitz, describing the courage of the Marines and other American servicemen who fought at the Battle of Iwo Jima: “UNCOMMON VALOR WAS A COMMON VIRTUE.”

The Log Chapel

Today the University of Notre Dame campus covers 1,250 acres, and nearly 150 impressive buildings rise above the land.

At one time, though, there was only one, a humble log chapel that stood just one-and-a-half stories high, and measured just 20 feet in width by 40 feet in length.

The Log Chapel likely might have earned its way into the pages of history for either one of two reasons. The first is that it was built by the first Roman Catholic priest ordained in America. The second is that it would become the first building of the University of Notre Dame.

The priest who built the chapel, Father Stephen Badin, was ordained to the priesthood in Baltimore, Maryland, by Bishop John Carroll (himself the first Roman Catholic bishop and archbishop in the United States) on May 25, 1793. Badin would spend most of his priestly career as a missionary, ministering to widely dispersed Catholics in what became the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. He built the Log Chapel in 1831 when he established his frontier mission in northern Indiana, and named it Ste.-Marie-des-Lacs, or Saint Mary of the Lakes.

When Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., arrived at the same site in November 1842 and founded the University of Notre Dame du Lac, Father Badin’s chapel became the University’s first building.

The Log Chapel that stands at Notre Dame today is a replica, built very close to the site where the original chapel had once stood for a quarter of a century. It is so authentic that many believe it is the original chapel, however, the truth is the original chapel was destroyed by fire in 1856. The present Log Chapel was built fifty years later, in 1906. The plans for the replica were based on the memories of elderly Holy Cross brothers who had actually lived or worshipped in the original. It was constructed by William Arnett of Kentucky, a former slave who knew how to hand hew logs with a broadax.