Traditions - Stonehenge

Running Through Stonehenge

This tradition owes a lot to Craig Heinzen, a former Trumpet graduate assistant. Before I tell you what he did, I should explain what Stonehenge is. Stonehenge is a statue on the Notre Dame campus, officially named the Clarke Peace Memorial. It is a big stone tribute to the Notre Dame alumni who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and who have in peacetime. It also looks remarkably like Stonehenge in England, only with fountains and a pool.

Stonehenge sits where the old Notre Dame Fieldhouse used to be. As a tribute to the past (pep rallies were once held in the Fieldhouse), the Band marches around Stonehenge on Friday nights, en route to pep rallies, and on Saturday mornings, en route to 7:30 am practices.

On one of those Saturday mornings, Craig watched the Band march around Stonehenge and decided to run through it and yell a lot. He felt that if we saw him do something really stupid, we would reach a fever pitch of excitement before the day's football game.

His plan worked. We cheered as Craig ran through Stonehenge and its fountains, and cheered even more when he emerged soaking wet. He repeated his performance each Saturday morning that season, even in November when it meant being soaking wet in bitter cold weather.

Craig is gone now, but his legacy remains. Each Friday night during football season, a few Trumpets run through Stonehenge while the rest of the band marches to the rally. If you happen to be from a warm weather state, this is not a particularly easy task. But with the grace of God and the power of the Trumpet, a true Trumpet is able to succeed. As the band marches around Stonehenge, we take off our shirts and wave them around, then splash through the fountains and risk hypothermia in the cold night air. I guess the message is that we love Notre Dame so much, we're willing to mindlessly risk death for her. It's a message that still gets people pretty excited.

Due to the 2007 pep rally marchout route, this tradition is no longer carried out.

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