SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Grantland Rice’s column on the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame signified a truly astonishing time for sports writing in the 1920’s. Rice’s lede lives on in sports journalism lore.
“Outlined by a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame rode again,” Rice wrote following that faithful Notre Dame-Army contest at the old Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan.
Substitute October with January over 90 years later for the 2019 NHL Winter Classic and you have a similar blue-gray sky hovering over Notre Dame Stadium where the Four Horsemen once called.