Year
Built: 1957
Capacity: 293
Male or Female: Male
They Call Themselves: Knights
Named For: James Keenan '13, who underwrote
construction of the hall as a memorial to his son, James, Jr.,
who died in 1941 just as his college years were about to begin.
The Keenans were from Fort Wayne and owned and operated a chain
of hotels in the Midwest.
Distinguishing Features: Keenan shares its chapel
(Holy Cross), lobby and entrance portico with its attached neighbor
to the north, Stanford. But Keenan men never enter through the
Stanford doors and vice versa. The chapel features a 13-foot mahogany
cross by sculptor Ivan Mestrovic. Another Mestrovic carving, Christ
as a Young Boy Teaching, can be found in the lobby. The outer
walls of the chapel feature narrow, vertical stained-glass windows
with variations on the cruciform. The windows were designed by
now-emeritus professor of art Robert Leader, one of the last remaining
Iwo Jima veterans who witnessed the famous flag-raising. Keenan's
basement has a movie-screening room, a big-screen TV and game
room, a weight room, a music room, and a student-run restaurant,
Zaland. The name is derived from taking the first three letters
off of Pizzaland. The establishment's slogan is "best pizza in
Zaland," but it also serves hamburgers, chilidogs, quesadillas
and chicken fingers, among other items, and sells stamps and Keenan
apparel.
They Live(d) There: Matt Storin '64, former
editor of the Boston Globe and now Notre Dame associate
vice president of news and information; Michael Morrissey '64,
chairman of the board of the Kauffman Foundation; and Edward Ojdana,
Jr., '65, president of Experian Consumer Direct and creator of
the online credit report. President-elect John Jenkins, CSC, '76,
'78M.A., currently resides on the second floor.
History Made There: Keenan rests on what was
once the playing field and toboggan slide for the University's
grade-school or Minim program, which lasted from 1854 until the
1930s.
Lore: Keenan and Zahm Hall are long-time bitter
rivals. In the early 1990s they met in the interhall football
finals. The game was a scoreless tie until a Keenan player caught
a touchdown pass as time expired. Zahm accused the receiver of
pushing off, but the play stood, and the Knights were champions.
The Zahm rector wouldn't speak to Keenan's rector for some time
afterward. Coach Lou Holtz was once invited to speak at the hall's
end-of-year awards banquet. Holtz was late in arriving, and a
student decided to get on stage and imitate the coach. Holtz arrived
mid-show and watched with amusement from the back. Brother Bonaventure
Scully, CFX, rector from 1985 to 1999, used to donate all confiscated
beer to the rectory of the Holy Cross Brothers.
Traditions: The Keenan Revue, begun in 1977,
is one of the most popular campus events every winter even though
it's performed on the campus of Saint Mary's College in the O'Laughlin
Auditorium. The show features an all-Keenan cast and crew in skits
and musical numbers. Much of the humor derives from stereotypes
about other residence halls. The free tickets are always a hot
item, and this year's three shows "sold out" in 23 minutes. Every
Monday night since 1987 Keenan residents have cooked dinner and
eaten with residents of Dismas House, a halfway home for the formerly
incarcerated. At Halloween, Keenan hosts more than 100 underprivileged
children as part of a program called The Great Pumpkin. They carve
pumpkins with the kids, put on a haunted house, and take them
trick-or-treating in the dorms. One Sunday every December, residents
gather outside for the annual Keenan Reindeer Roast, a cookout
and occasion for hanging Christmas lights. Residents gather in
the basement to make their own kilts to wear to the first varsity
football pep rally of the year. Intrahall sports are popular in
Keenan with the Hambone Trophy going to the winning section football
team. Keenan no longer shares the tradition with some other male
dorms of streaking, but residents enjoy making the experience
less enjoyable for participants from Alumni Hall and Zahm by firing
water balloons and squirt guns at them.
(April 2005)
