SOUTH BEND — Welcome back, Rock.
Visit the University of Notre Dame campus and you'll understand why Notre Dame is Notre Dame.
Step into the administration building with its golden dome. Light a candle in the cave. Walk around two lakes and see the log chapel where Father Sorin started a school in the middle of nowhere in 1842. Afterwards, tour the football stadium, known by many as “The House That Rockne Built.”
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Outside the north end of the stadium, within sight of the famous 'Touchdown Jesus' mural on the south wall of Hesburgh Library, stands the entrance gate and a bronze statue of former Ireland national football manager Knute Rockne. He was the first in a long line of memorable coaches, names and legends associated with the school's storied football program.
The man who made Notre Dame football what it is today is definitely buried somewhere on campus, right? Wait, what?
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To visit the grave of Rockne, who died in 1931 at the age of 43 in a plane crash in Bazaar, Kansas, you had to travel 3.2 miles west of Notre Dame Avenue. It's located just down Angela Avenue, which bisects Route 31, and across the St. Joseph River. Cross Riverside Drive to Portage Avenue. Turn right and head north for a few miles until you reach Highland Cemetery.
A Google search for the cemetery's site shows Rockne Graves, a plot on the east end of the cemetery, as well as the site on the west side of Portage Avenue since 1912.
Let's make it rock-ness former Burial place.
WNDU-TV reported Monday morning that Rockne's grave, as well as those of his wife and grandson, were moved Sunday to Cedar Grove Cemetery on Notre Dame Boulevard, 3.2 miles away. The ultimate transfer portal.
Good times.
You can't write the first, second, or even third sentence of Notre Dame football history without mentioning Lockeun's name. Having Rockne's tomb in the Highlands is like having a Golden Dome in Mishawaka, or a cave in Granger, or a Word of Life mural on the side of an office building in downtown Elkhart. It was something. It never fit.
Why it took him 93 years to return to Notre Dame is up for debate. Legend has it that decades ago, the university actually charged an annual landscape fee to families who buried loved ones in Cedar Grove. Highland Cemetery paid because Mr. Rockne's widow/family refused to pay.
Fact or fiction? This is par for the course at Notre Dame, where you can do anything for a dollar. Even back then. Even The Rock. No matter what the backstory is, this story has a just ending.
“When my father was alive, he just said, 'No!''' He spoke to WNDU about the relocation. “But my brother and I have been thinking about this for quite some time, and we've talked about it a lot as a family. And we just decided this was the best thing to do.”
Football weekend added another item to Notre Dame fans' itineraries. Come September, you'll be hitting the bookstore, attending a pep rally, buying a drink at Bucker's, and visiting the legendary coach's grave before Saturday afternoon (or evening) kickoff.
Bring him a stadium hot dog (no, really, don't do that). Please bring him a drink. Ask him why there were only 10 Irish players on the field (sorry, it's too early) or why he didn't run 4th and 1. Smoking cigars was something fans often did at Rockne's former resting place, and Rockne's former tombstone is marked with a smoked (and left) on the spot in his memory. It was said to have the burn marks of all the stogies.
Even if he's not the most successful Notre Dame football coach at Cedar Grove, home of another legend, Ara Parseghian, who passed away in 2017, Rockne's return to Notre Dame is just that. It feels like the right thing to do.
On a quiet night on campus, you might hear the ghosts of old coaches debating whose resume is better.
Is it rockness? A former player (1910-1913) and assistant coach at Notre Dame (1914-17), he went 105-12-5 during 13 seasons at South Bend, winning three national championships (1924 , 29, 30). Or is it Parseghian? Unlike the era when coaching, winning and sustained success were more demanding and difficult, Ara went 95-17-4 in 11 years and won two national championships (1966, 1973).
Rockn? Parseghian? There are no wrong answers.
Notre Dame superfan and alumnus Regis Philbin, another Cedar Grove resident, will likely be the moderator, and the discussion is expected to be heated on this cold winter night. Some of the residents of his 22 acres in Cedar Grove may join in the discussion or keep the peace, including Moose Claus, Joe Kernan, and Leon Hart.
Each legend.
One day, they are joined by another character, Lou Holtz, who has a plot in the place. No one is worried about him moving in yet. Give him a few more years. That place will still be there.
Mr. Holtz's wife, Beth, who passed away in 2020, is buried in Cedar Grove.
“It is appropriate that I be buried here,” Holtz often told audiences during his speaking days. “Because his alumni were burying me every week.”
Ba-da-bu. Thank you everyone for coming.
Now, I wish they could move the Indiana Toll Road travel plaza a little closer to campus.Nothing is said about the rolling prairies, like the highlands off Portage. Knut Rockne.
Notre Dame Cathedral does. Golden domes, caves, cathedrals and stadiums. Rock's grave. That all applies. It all feels right.
finally.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
