By Becky Malewitz | December 18, 2024
The telegrams marked correspondence between two legendary sports icons.
“Can you please get ten good tickets for Lou Gehrig and me to see Notre Dame Army Game at New York STOP Advise amount care Christy and I will send check STOP We are pulling for you and Al= Babe Ruth.”
Dated October 25, 1928, the telegram — written by baseball great Babe Ruth — received a reply the next day.
“Can let you have ten tickets. They are four dollars each. Regards. Knute Rockne”
Ninety-six years later, a father, clad in Fighting Irish gear, points out the exchange to his son. “Knute Rockne was hooking Babe Ruth up with tickets,” he said, excitement ringing in his voice while his son smiled looking at the correspondence.
The father and son were among nearly 500 people who had a chance to read the exchange while visiting “The Fighting Irish in New York City: A Conversation with Curators and Archivists.” The exhibit, on display at the New York Yankees Museum prior to the kickoff of the Shamrock Series game, highlighted historical football-related materials from the University Archives and Rare Books and Special Collections in the Hesburgh Libraries. It contextualized and analyzed the rich shared histories of the University of Notre Dame, the New York Yankees and the Fighting Irish football team’s rivalry with Army.
“We are so grateful to the New York Yankees Museum for the opportunity to showcase our sports history holdings," said Margaret Meserve, Interim Edward H. Arnold Dean of Hesburgh Libraries and University of Notre Dame Press. "Projects like this not only allow us to extend the reach of our collections, they also open up new opportunities for research collaboration within the Notre Dame community and beyond. Patrick Milhoan, Elizabeth Hogan and Greg Bond did tremendous work to bring the exhibit safely to New York and home again, and I know fans will remember the experience for a long time to come.”
Waiting patiently in a line that snaked around the perimeter of the museum and out of the door onto the Yankee Stadium concourse, football fans had the unique opportunity to glimpse one-of-a-kind pieces of Notre Dame Football history. In addition to the Ruth-Rockne telegrams, the exhibit included programs, posters, tickets and paraphernalia spanning the decades of the Notre Dame–Army rivalry. It even featured a whistle that the legendary football coach used while leading his Fighting Irish teams.
“Having the opportunity to present our collections in different environments, particularly environments that are relevant to the story, has immense value to the patron,” said Patrick Milhoan, head archivist for the University Archives. “It's an engaging way to showcase our collections to people who may not be able to otherwise see them, and allows for fans to not only learn more about the history of the University of Notre Dame and Yankee Stadium, but also learn about the mission of the Hesburgh Libraries and the expertise of our archivists and curators.”
Exhibits don’t just happen. Curating and transporting a collection of irreplaceable items more than 700 miles from the Hesburgh Libraries to Yankee Stadium isn’t an easy or quick process. It requires the expertise of archivists and conservators. It takes weeks of planning, hours of labor and, quite literally, days of driving.
Telling a historical story through collections
The University of Notre Dame and the New York Yankees have a long-forged connection spanning more than a century. Last summer, New York Yankees Museum Curator Brian Richards wanted to tell the storied history between the University and the baseball club from the Bronx. He worked with Greg Bond, sports archivist and curator of the Joyce Sports Research Collection, to create an exhibit featuring items on loan from the University Archives Collections.
As the Shamrock Series approached, having formed a relationship with the museum, Bond, Milhoan and Elizabeth Hogan, senior archivist for photographs and graphic materials, began working to propose and curate a one-of-a-kind game day exhibit. Their vision was to present an experience that would allow fans to view an array of historical pieces from the Hesburgh Libraries collections prior to the kickoff of the game.
What started as a proposal quickly became back-and-forth efforts between the University of Notre Dame and the New York Yankees to solidify contracts, agreements and logistics to ensure the irreplaceable artifacts stayed safe.
While these details were being settled, the archivists began sifting through Notre Dame's vast collections. Armed with collection expertise and knowledge of the University's football history, the trio worked to identify the right pieces to tell a story that would enthrall and excite sports fans.
“The materials that we maintain, particularly those related to college athletics, are relatively robust,” said Milhoan. “In the 20s and 30s, other universities didn’t always think to save materials documenting collegiate athletics, so our collection materials are unique in their depth and breadth.”
On a Tuesday afternoon in early October, the archivists began laying out the story they wanted to tell.
Taking some items, such as the whistle used by Knute Rockne, were a given. Others became a question of how much room they would take up and if they were stable enough to make the trip. Gradually, after much discussion and arrangement, the exhibit began to take shape.
Preparation and preservation
With a proposal, plan and prospective lineup of exhibit pieces, it was time to talk to the preservation experts.
The Hesburgh Libraries Preservation and Conservation Department works to preserve access to physical collections in support of teaching and research at the University of Notre Dame. The department is responsible for the care of the Libraries’ overall collections, with an emphasis on prolonging the life and usability of records, books or other materials through conservation activities. Their work includes assessing the stability of various collections, treating individual items through specialized work, creating customized housing for exceptionally valuable materials and researching the past use and provenance of objects.
“We are fortunate at the Hesburgh Libraries to have such a stellar Preservation and Conservation team,” Milhoan said. “For this event, we worked closely with them to make sure that the collection materials were stable and that we had appropriate housing to be able to transfer the materials across half of the United States.”
Wanting to make sure that the collection materials not only made the trip to and from the Shamrock Series but also stayed in peak condition for years to come, Liz Dube, Preservation and Conservation department head, and Jen Hunt Johnson, special collections conservator, assessed each of the items to determine stability, safe storage for transport and proper display housing during the exhibit itself.
During a preservation meeting, Dube inspected the proposed exhibit items, including a 1928 poster recently acquired by Rare Books and Special Collections. With the words “Champions of the World, Champions for Al Smith,” the print featured Rockne, Ruth and other champion athletes endorsing Smith for President. Upon examination, Dube pointed out that while the print is stable, at some point prior to coming into the Archives’ possession, it had probably been ironed, an act that usually shortens the print's overall life. She suggested transporting and storing the piece flat in a box instead of rolling it to keep it stable during the journey and into the future.
At the end of the meeting, Dube believed that the items chosen by Milhoan, Bond and Hogan were, overall, stable for travel, but there were still steps that preservation would need to take before the collection could hit the road.
The collection was then packed and sent to the Preservation and Conservation Lab. Once there, Hunt Johnson meticulously photographed each piece of the exhibit front and back to document its condition. She also made any repairs that the items required, like mending a small tear in a 1932 program from the Notre Dame-Army game at Yankee Stadium.
As Hunt Johnson documented each item, Neil Chase, preventive conservation specialist, measured each piece to cut and mold custom mounts to display each artifact and keep them safe during the exhibit.
On the road to Yankee Stadium
On November 21, 2024, Milhoan, Bond and Hogan safely packed the artifacts into a vehicle and started the more than 700-mile drive from the Hesburgh Libraries to Yankee Stadium. They were joined by a Hesburgh Libraries communications staff member to document the journey.
Though the adventure included road trip staples — like music and intense commitment to the license plate game — traveling with irreplaceable treasures is an extraordinary responsibility.
As the miles and hours ticked by, the crew made a stop for lunch somewhere on the Ohio Turnpike. To ensure the collections' safety, one or two people would remain in the car while the others would go inside, switching only when someone had returned. The same rang in the evenings at the hotel when the team took shifts going to dinner.
“The collections were in our line of sight the entire time,” Milhoan said. “That was by design to ensure a level of security and physical control.”
While the first day of driving went smoothly, a snowstorm in the mountains of western Pennsylvania brought slow and sometimes slippery driving conditions on day two.
The snow and icy conditions gradually eased as the Hesburgh Libraries crew entered New Jersey and later crossed over the George Washington Bridge into New York. They headed straight to Yankee Stadium to meet Richards and place the collection materials into secure storage, where they would remain until the exhibit before the game the next day.
The calm before the storm
Not even 24 hours after dropping off the collection at Yankee Stadium, Milhoan, Bond and Hogan returned to the museum. As fans were just starting to line up outside the stadium gates, the trio began laying out the exhibit.
Thanks to meticulous planning and a trial run at the Hesburgh Libraries prior to departure, exhibit assembly was quick work. With time to spare before fans entered the stadium, Richards took a moment to show Milhoan, Bond and Hogan a special piece of history from the Yankees collection. After handing out protective gloves to each member of the group, the curator brought out a wooden bat once used by the Great Bambino himself, Babe Ruth.
“I've been fortunate enough in my career to have worked at and engaged with colleagues at world-class repositories where I have seen amazing materials,” Milhoan said. “That was the first time that I've held a collection item that is truly beyond words.”
The excitement was palpable as each of the visiting curators took a turn holding the bat, feeling its weight, and observing the century-old paint stains. It was almost foreshadowing of the excitement that Notre Dame fans would feel just minutes later as they spilled in to see the game day exhibit.
A must-see event
Soon after, the stadium gates opened. The trickle of people into the museum space quickly turned into a stream and then a flood.
“We saw this was happening and it was a must-see,” one visitor said while waiting patiently in line and taking one of the exhibit promotional cards off the table.
As football fans reached the beginning of the exhibit, Hogan pointed out some of the items on display.
“This is Johnny Lujack’s all-American jersey,” she would say, pointing out the first piece of the collection on display. Many times, she would then call attention to a pair of grid graphs documenting every play from the 1946 “Game of the Century” between Notre Dame and Army, which ended in a 0-0 tie.
Just past Hogan, many visitors would stop to stare at a grouping of programs, each with a design that captured the Notre Dame-Army rivalry but also represented popular art styles of the time period they were created. They would marvel at the collection of vintage tickets and audibly lament their now extinction in the advent of digital ticketing.
Standing at the halfway point of the exhibit, Bond pointed to the Rockne-Ruth telegrams sitting alongside the Al Smith poster, making the connection between Ruth's words, “We are pulling for you and Al,” and the campaign poster featuring the sports figures' faces.
As visitors reached the end of the exhibit housed on two 8-foot-long tables, Milhoan made sure to call attention to the engraving prominently displayed on the whistle.
“Can you read what that says?” he would frequently ask, prompting visitors to lean closer to read the thin engraving, their eyes instantly brightening at the recognition of Rockne’s name.
During the 90 minutes before kickoff, nearly 500 people streamed through the doors of the Yankee Stadium Museum, with Milhoan, Bond and Hogan talking to and answering questions as each new person passed.
“The turnout was extraordinary,” Milhoan said. “The Yankee Stadium security team did an exceptional job controlling the seemingly endless line. The collections delighted the crowds, but adding the expertise of Elizabeth and Greg was truly inspiring to see.”
As quickly as people flooded into the museum to start the exhibit, kickoff marked the event's end.
“My favorite moment during the exhibit was when a family came through with younger children, and you could tell they were enthralled by the engaging conversation and our collections,” Milhoan said. “Our collections are meaningful to people in many ways. They are used by students to do academic work and by visiting scholars from around the world to do research. The impact can be measured in the production of scholarly articles or the next great monograph. In my opinion, it’s also measured in smiles and tears and unforgettable moments.”
Packing up and the return trip home
The Fighting Irish had already scored their first touchdown in the short time it took the curators to pack up and secure the collection in storage, where it would remain until the next morning when it would be loaded back up for the two-day return trip to Notre Dame’s campus.
The crew arrived back at the Hesburgh Libraries on Monday, November 25, in the late afternoon. After five days and 1,400 miles, the collection was finally home.
In the following days, Hunt Johnson inventoried each item and closely inspected them against the photos she had taken to note any damage that could have happened during transport. Thanks to the care taken by Milhoan, Bond and Hogan, the materials remain in excellent condition and are ready for their next adventure.
“I think everyone understood the uniqueness of this opportunity to tell an overarching story documenting the century-long partnership between the University of Notre Dame, the New York Yankees, the Army rivalry and playing at Yankee Stadium,” Milhoan said. “It’s an example of a partnership between two premier institutions, one of higher learning and the other one of the most recognizable brands in professional athletics.”
“Both New York Yankees baseball, and Notre Dame football, are American institutions," Richards said. "To showcase artifacts from the University’s rich football history in New York City was an honor. Notre Dame’s archival staff prepared a first-class presentation. Yankees Museum guests were thrilled to view artifacts from the histories of both teams.”
We will never know what Rockne and Ruth would think about their telegrams being saved for posterity or the lengths the Hesburgh Libraries go to in order to conserve them, along with other pieces of sports history, for future generations.
What the two greats would probably understand, though, is that Milhoan, Bond, Hogan, Dube, Hunt Johnson, Chase and everyone from the Hesburgh Libraries and University who made this exhibit happen did it as a team. And it takes expertise, dedication and teamwork to win at Yankee Stadium.