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.