July of 1994 it was. My family had just ordered breakfast at the Perkins Restaurant in Fort Collins , Colorado. Two year old Lawyer was restless so he and I went on walkabout. I was wearing my Notre Dame Four Horsemen shirt that I had purchased at the Notre Dame bookstore. As we walked around the restaurant, a gentleman noticed the shirt and asked, “Are you a Notre Dame fan?” I replied, “I am from Indiana and I have been to the campus. Did you go there?”
Grinning, he said “No.” pointing to my shirt “But that guy right there is my Dad!”
What, The What!?!
I slide into the booth and have a conversation with Harry Stuhldreher, Jr. He talks about how after his famed career at Notre Dame that “Dad” coached at Wisconsin and he was visiting his daughter in Colorado etc. Lawyer had wandered back to his mom and after a while she came and said that our food had arrived. I shook Harry’s hand and returned to my table. We happened to be leaving at the same time and thought to ask for a picture. You can tell that we both appreciated the visit.
The Four Horsemen were made famous not just by their talent, but also by an article after the Army game written by sportswriter Grantland Rice of the New York-Herald Tribune on October 19, 1924.
“Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are know as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. There real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden.”
Walt’s Diner 