Category: Notre Dame History

Shakespeare Marathon 1984

In the spring of 1984, English Professor Paul Rathburn organized a Shakespeare Reading Marathon to raise money for Adam Milani, a St. Joseph High School student who was seriously injured in a hockey game the previous December.  April 25-29, 1984, on the Fieldhouse Mall, students, staff, and faculty continuously read Shakespeare for 100 hours.  Among the campus celebrities who participated were Football Coach Gerry Faust (pictured), Men’s Basketball Coach Digger Phelps, Professor Emil T. Hofman, and the Glee Club.  For their efforts, they raised over $5000 for the Milani Fund and earned a Guinness World Record for continuous reading of Shakespeare.

Sources:  The Observer, April 26 and May 2, 1984
UDIS 208/25
GPHR 20/13

University Catalog 1863-1864

The University publishes its annual catalogs and bulletins to inform prospective students and their families of life at Notre Dame.  They often list the faculty, the students, and the academic calendar, and outline activities of the University, such as the available courses, student organizations, and regulations of the University, now known as du Lac.

The 1863-1864 catalog was the University’s twentieth such catalog.  Fr. Edward Sorin was president and the Golden Dome didn’t exist.  The Thespian Society had fifteen members and the Notre Dame Cricket Club had twenty-two members.  Room, board, and tuition was $200.  Each student was expected to arrive with six shirts, four towels, one hat, three pairs of shoes, and one setting of silverware, among a few other personal effects.  The Christmas holiday was only three days long.  Below are the three pages of regulations from the 1863-1864 catalog, which give insight into daily student life at Notre Dame.  Fortunately, students are no longer required to bathe in St. Joseph’s Lake.

[Source:  PNDP 30-BU-02 1863-1864]

Wireless Transmission at Notre Dame

In April 1899, Professor Jerome Green and his assistants were experimenting with wireless telegraphy.  Green is thought to be the first to send wireless transmissions in America and the first to use homemade apparatuses, as opposed to using foreign-made equipment.  The experiments started by transmitting signals from the physics laboratory in Science Hall (now called LaFortune Hall) to other rooms in the building.  They succeeded in sending signals from Science Hall to Sorin Hall, then from the flag pole to the Novitiate (which was located near present-day Holy Cross House).  “They found that everything worked perfectly well here, and so they set about their last and greatest trial.  This was to send a message from Notre Dame to St. Mary’s Academy which is more than a mile away from the University [, using the Basilica of the Sacred Heart for the transmission wire]. … This is the farthest distance a message has been sent in this country as far as we know and the boys in the scientific department feel highly elated over their success.” [Scholastic, 04/22/1899, page 494].

News traveled quickly of Green’s success, which “led the Chicago Tribune to invite Professor Green to Chicago to test the conditions that obtain in a large city.” [Scholastic, 05/06/1899].  The obstacles were great, but after experimenting sending signals to and from various buildings, Green was finally successful in sending messages for half an hour between the Tribune and Marquette buildings.  He was “able, after six hours of trial, to prove the Marconi system practical.” [Sunday Times Herald Chicago, 04/23/1899].

Sources:  Scholastic Magazine, 1899
Jerome J. Green Clippings (CZDD and PNDP 01-Gr-3)