Matt Cashore ’94
Knute Rockne’s body is back home again. Early one Sunday in April, the legendary football coach’s casket was exhumed from Highland Cemetery on South Bend’s northwest side and reburied in Cedar Grove Cemetery at the entrance of campus.
The graves of Rockne’s wife, Bonnie, a son and a grandson also were moved. The original headstones mark the new site. Bonnie Rockne chose Highland Cemetery in 1931 after her husband was killed in an airplane crash at age 43.
The decision to move the graves was made by seven surviving Rockne grandchildren, WNDU-TV reported. The family members were concerned about corners of the coach’s gravestone being chipped away and burn marks where people had snuffed out cigars while making pilgrimages to the gravesite. They said they believe the graves will be safer on campus.
In related news, the Rockne family’s 1920s home was moved in May four blocks west from its spot on St. Vincent Street near campus to a lot on Foster Street.
The house was the third of four that the family lived in during Knute Rockne’s tenure as football coach. It will be renovated and sold as a single-family home, and new condominiums will be built on the now-vacant lot on St. Vincent.
Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war occurred throughout the spring on many American college campuses, including at Notre Dame, where 17 peaceful demonstrators were arrested during a May 2 gathering.
The protesters demanded that the University divest from military contractor firms, reevaluate Notre Dame’s ties with Israeli universities and eliminate the “15-minute rule” created in 1969 by former University President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC — which gives disruptive demonstrators 15 minutes to cease and desist before facing possible arrest and expulsion.
The gathering started near the Eck Visitors Center and moved to a spot outside the Main Building. Participants were warned that if they chose to stay they would face arrest. While some dispersed, all who remained were taken into custody by Notre Dame Police for misdemeanor criminal trespass. The arrests included 10 graduate students, six undergraduates and one alumna.
Those arrested face conduct proceedings through the University’s Office of Community Standards and possible court hearings for any charges filed by the county prosecutor.
In an age of political polarization, Notre Dame’s commencement speaker, Rev. John I. Jenkins, CSC, ’76, ’78M.A., urged this year’s graduates to engage in respectful conversation with people on all bands of the political spectrum so they might solve problems through compromise and together pursue the common good.
“My message to you today is very simple: Don’t succumb. Don’t be seduced by hatred. Rather show the world that your commitment to your convictions does not require that you show contempt for those who do not share them,” Jenkins said during his May 19 address in Notre Dame Stadium.
The University’s 179th commencement marked Jenkins’ final time presiding at the ceremony, as he stepped down as president at the end of the academic year to return to teaching and ministry. Jenkins’ speech is believed to be the first at Notre Dame delivered by the University’s standing president.
The Sunday morning commencement ceremony included a performance by The High Kings, an Irish folk group formed in Dublin in 2007. The group sang three songs for the enthusiastic graduates: “Glorio (For Notre Dame),” “Notre Dame, Our Mother” and “The Parting Glass.”
“Glorio,” a new High Kings original dedicated to the University, pays homage to the gridiron tradition. The chorus:
Glorio Glorio Glorio for Notre Dame
Lay it all out on the line for the winning
of the game
Glorio to be there when the Fighting Irish came
Today we stand with Notre Dame
Glorio
Glorio
The Notre Dame Police Department’s newest four-footed member is Órla, the unit’s first therapy and outreach dog.
Therapy dogs undergo specialized training to be social yet gentle, obedient and calm and to welcome being petted. As she adapts to her new role, Órla may be called on to work with people who have experienced trauma, a task she’s been preparing for since she was eight weeks old.
Individuals and departments on campus will be able to request visits from the dog, whose name was chosen by a vote among department staff. Órla is Irish for “golden princess.”
The city of South Bend, in partnership with the University, is building an urban trail for bicyclists, pedestrians and runners that will further connect campus with downtown South Bend. Work is underway this summer and is expected to be completed by December.
The new trail will run from the Main Gate and alongside Notre Dame Avenue, South Bend Avenue and Hill Street to LaSalle Avenue near the Morris Performing Arts Center, and it will take no space away from existing sidewalks or tree lawns. The goal is to provide a safe way to get around town on foot and to encourage visitors to travel between campus and the city.
The trail is just one of several new walking, biking and safety improvements near campus. The Stephen J. Luecke Coal Line Trail, named for South Bend’s longest-serving mayor, opened in the spring on a former railroad line that once led to Notre Dame. It stretches from Indiana 933 west across the St. Joseph River to a trailhead near Lincoln Way West.
Work also is underway to calm traffic along Angela Boulevard, which divides campus from Eddy Street Commons and nearby neighborhoods, and to add a multipurpose path near Burke Golf Course. Angela will be narrowed from four lanes to two travel lanes with a left turn lane in the middle, in order to make the area safer for pedestrians.
The No. 1-ranked Notre Dame lacrosse team repeated as NCAA champions, defeating seventh-seeded Maryland 15-5 in the title game May 27 in Philadelphia.
The Fighting Irish, under 36th-year head coach Kevin Corrigan, became the eighth men’s lacrosse program in history to win back-to-back championships.
It was one last victory together for the Long Island-native Kavanagh brothers, departing Pat ’23, ’24M.S., and rising senior Chris, who was named most outstanding player after scoring five goals in the game. Pat set the Notre Dame program record for assists in an NCAA Tournament game with six that afternoon.
On May 30, Pat received the Tewaaraton Award, which honors the best American college lacrosse player. He is now headed to play professionally with the Premier Lacrosse League’s Boston Cannons, where he’ll be a teammate of older brother Matt Kavanagh ’16.