A young woman receives a letter on the eve of her wedding. "I
am thankful that you agreed to marry me," her soon-to-be husband
writes. But the letter, she discovers, was written six years previously,
when both were students at Notre Dame.
When an oversized statue of Father Sorin was spirited to the
1957 Notre Dame-Army game in Philadelphia, what food was it "treated"
to in a toll road restaurant? Exactly why were Father Hesburgh
and Father Joyce, in their full clerical dress, throwing a baseball
around the aisles of the library? And what famed signature can
be spotted in the bowels of the Radiation Building?
"Everybody's got a Notre Dame story," says Larry Wentz '59.
"What's yours?"
The Notre Dame Alumni Club of Philadelphia asked that question
in the mid 1980s, and the result was Love Thee, Notre Dame.
The club published the stories in 1986 as a fund-raiser for their
John H. Neeson Scholarship Fund.
Now the reminiscences are back, in Love Thee, Notre Dame
II. From the amazing letter a bride received to the pitching
practice of two elderly priests, the new gathering offers stories,
poetry, artwork and photography, as well as a preface by Father
Hesburgh.
The collection is for sale at the Notre Dame Hammes Bookstore
as well as from Philadelphia Club historian Larry Wentz, who may
be reached by calling 215-773-0500 or at kkwinc@aol.com.
* * *
Read an excerpt from Love Thee Notre Dame
II.
