As far as anyone knows there's never been a Hunchback of the University of Notre Dame. It's unlikely there ever will be.
The bells in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart don't require a person -- grotesquely disfigured or otherwise -- hauling on ropes to make them ring. They don't even swing.
The Basilica contains North America's oldest operating carillon, which is a set of bells fixed in place and played by a device that jerks the clappers in response to a keyboard. According to a history of the carillon written by Mary Kay Davies, a senior library assistant in the Hesburgh Library, the church's 23-bell set was cast in 1855 in Le Mans, France, the cradle of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Interestingly, the bells' manufacturer, M. Bollee & Sons, founded in 1715, still makes bells today under the direction of an eighth generation of Bollees.
For most of its history, the Basilica's carillon has been played using a keyboard with batons, instead of keys, and foot pedals like on an organ. The batons and pedals are wired to the bell clappers. That mechanical keyboard still exists in a room one level below the carillon, and it's in good working order. However, since 1990, when the five-year restoration of the Basilica was completed, the original keyboard has been mostly supplanted by a smaller electronic keyboard installed downstairs in the sacristy. The electronic keyboard triggers auxiliary clappers resembling cannon balls that are mounted on the outside of the bells.
In its early days the carillon could be programmed to play various melodies using a large drum that worked something like the rotating drum of a music box. The new keyboard updates that idea, allowing keystrokes to be recorded on audio tape and "played back" later a la the paper rolls of an old-fashioned player piano.
According to Father Dan Jenky, CSC, rector of Sacred Heart, every now and then a music student will try his or her hand at the old keyboard in the steeple, but, sadly, the carillon isn't played "live" very often these days.
Besides the 23 carillon bells, there is one more bell in the steeple, the largest and most famous of the collection. More than seven feet tall and weighing nearly 16,000 pounds, the bourdon or large bell hangs a level below the carillon keyboard room. Also made by Bollee & Sons, it was shipped from France to New York City in 1867. The story goes that when the bell arrived by train in South Bend, city fathers feared that the combined weight of the train and bell would collapse the bridge across the Saint Joseph River. They refused to let the train cross with its cargo, and the bell had to be floated across the river on a special barge pulled by oxen.
When the bell reached campus, the Basilica was still being built to replace an earlier church erected in 1848, so a temporary scaffolding was put up to accommodate the boudon. According to Davies' history, it took four men pushing with their legs to set the giant bell in motion. But it was worth it. It's said when the bell was swinging, (which helps broadcast a bell's sound), and if the wind was right, it could be heard for 27 miles.
In 1888, a visiting bishop consecrated the Basilica and blessed and named the church's bells. The bourdon was dubbed the Saint Anthony of Padua in honor of the revered scholar and theologian.
Today"Anthony," as the bell is referred to around the Basilica, rings solo only on Ash Wednesday and other solemn occasions.
Several ropes still hang from Anthony's mounting apparatus, evidence of when it was rung by hand (it reportedly took six "hefty" Notre Dame students to get it swinging). The pivoting hardware has been bolted in place for decades, however, and the great bell is now rung exclusively by an exterior clapper.
The idea of getting the great bell swinging again appeals to Jenky. But there are currently no plans to do so. No openings for a hunchback.