| New York Herald Tribune sportswriter Grantland Rice was so impressed after seeing Notre Dame's offense ride roughshod over the Army defense during a 1924 game at the Polo Grounds that he bestowed on the backfield of quarterback Harry Stuhdreher, fullback Elmer Layden and halfbacks Don Miller and Jim Crowley the title of "The Four Horsemen" after the destructive quartet of Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death mentioned in the Book of Revelation. As soon as the team returned to South Bend, student publicity aide George Strickler posed the players upon mounts rented from a local livery stable, and the name and image fused to become an indelible part of American sporting mythology. |
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