"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as pestilence, famine, destruction, and death. These are only aliases. There real names are Studehler, Miller, Crowley, and Layden." Grantland Rice, a well-known sports columnist in the first half of the twentieth century, wrote those memorable words in October 1927 after attending a classic gridiron struggle between Army and Notre Dame, played at the Polo Grounds in New York. With these words a legend was started, for Notre Dame football, the team's immortal coach Knute Rockne and, that day especially, for the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.

Who were the Four Horsemen? Elmer Layden, Harry Studehler, Jim Crowley, and Don Miller were the talented offensive backfield for the Notre Dame foot…