Sports and Recreation

Baseball and Memory

In this historical/philosophical reflection, Lee Congdon writes of the ways in which baseball spurs memory. This is particularly important at a time when many Americans suffer from a form of amnesia that renders them defenseless in the face of concerted efforts to seize possession of the past. “Who controls the past controls the future,” George Orwell wrote in Nineteen Eighty-Four, “who controls the present controls the past.” Baseball can, and does, stand in the way of those whose ambition it is to gain and maintain power by pretending that memory cannot be trusted; what was once thought to be “the past” was merely a fiction that served the interests of a ruling class.

Baseball and Memory
The Phantom Letters

In the Era of Ara from 1964 through the 1974 season, a written chronicle of pre-game information, slogans, mottoes, and ideals emerged. The author was known only as the Phantom. The letters were one or two pages, written in staccato phrases, geared to thoughts that encompassed team goals and the philosophy to win.

Phantom Letters, The
Notre Dame's Era of Ara

Ara Parseghian’s appearance in 1964 to head the Notre Dame football squad put an end to the previous decade of mediocre seasons and returned Notre Dame to the status of a national contender in collegiate football. Over the next eleven years he led the team to an overall record of 95-17-4, coached numerous All-Americans, such as John Huarte, Terry Hanratty, Joe Theismann, Tom Clements, Alan Page, Ross Browner, and Willie Fry, and steered himself, his staff, and his players through the unpredictable social changes of the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Notre Dame's Era of Ara
Heart Stoppers and Hail Marys

“Heart Stoppers and Hail Marys makes you realize why college football is part of America's DNA. These games are the type that cause heartache, tears, and joy . . . all-in-one!” – Beano Cook, ESPN

Heart Stoppers and Hail Marys