Charles Lamb is currently semi-retired, working as media assistant for Fighting Irish Media. From 1984 to 2018, he was assistant director and senior archivist for photographic and audio/visual collections at the University of Notre Dame Archives. Elizabeth Hogan is senior archivist for photographs at the University of Notre Dame Archives. She has curated exhibits for Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Libraries, including Daughters of Our Lady and Touchdowns and Technology.
Together, they previously authored Notre Dame at 175: A Visual History. The University of Notre Dame Press is thrilled to publish their newest book, Fighting Irish Football: The Notre Dame Tradition in Photographs (August 2024). They recently answered some of our questions about their research and writing processes.
When did you first get the idea for this book?
As photograph archivists, we see hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs on a daily basis as we catalog new collections and assist patrons with their research. The photographs held by the Notre Dame Archives generally fall within our two primary collecting scopes—the history of Notre Dame and the Catholic experience in the United States. The photographs cover a variety of subjects and reflect the history of photography from the mid-nineteenth century.
Patrons usually request photographs as supplemental illustrations, whether in publications or hanging on the wall. When selecting artwork for their offices, many Notre Dame departments shy away from choosing sports-related photographs because there is so much more to life at this university than football. While that is completely true, we recognized that there is a lot of good sports photography held by the University Archives.
We have long thought about creating a book focusing on the football photography held by the University of Notre Dame Archives. After completing the 175 book, we felt that there was room for a book specifically about football. What makes this book different is that we examine the actual photography, which is often an afterthought in history books. It took a long time for photography to be recognized as an art, and it’s been even longer for sports photography to get similar recognition.
Certainly these are unprecedented times in the United States, Europe, and around the world. What can readers find in your book that will resonate with them during this era?
Entertainment and sports are ways to escape the troubles of the world, and we hope that this book can provide the same. Technology has changed all aspects of our lives, and that includes the world of sports. How games are consumed by fans has certain changed over time—from getting reports from newspaper articles, off of telegraph wires, through the airwaves of radio and television to now streaming online. From the perspective of the Notre Dame administration, those changes afforded many opportunities for publicity and Notre Dame has long been at the forefront of leveraging new media types to stay in the national conversation.
As an important a part of American culture, Notre Dame football has generated a number of traditions that continue to connect generations to one another and to connect fans with players and coaches. Those traditions matter and bring a sense of belonging and identity, even to the many Notre Dame fans who have never set foot on campus.
What research was required to complete this book?
We read a lot about sports imagery, art photography, and trends in popular photography. We also studied the history of technological aspects of cameras, film, and print-making. Having been around the stories of Notre Dame football for so long, we had general knowledge of the history. So, instead of researching the bigger picture, we did a lot of topical research on a wide range of smaller aspects of the sport—a particular game, player, or coach. It was important for us to include the words of the people we discussed, so we read a lot of correspondence and articles written by the student publications such as Scholastic and The Observer.
What did you learn while compiling the photographs for this book?
We went into this book knowing that we would be limited to using a very small percentage of the many great photographs from the University Archives. Fortunately, we work very well together, so compromises come easy. It is so helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to have two sets of eyes on the photos and the text.
Since this book is not a complete history of Notre Dame football, the vignettes that we showcase led to discovering many great anecdotes about the program, which has become even easier as more and more newspapers have been digitized. One great article we came across was an interview with Ruth Faulkner, Coach Knute Rockne’s secretary in the last six years of his life. In the article, she claimed that Rockne almost never signed anything and that the signed letters and autographed photographs were done in her hand.
Did the book change in any way from what you initially thought it would be?
Initially, we thought that there would be very minimal text and it would be more akin to an art photography book. However, the University Press correctly knew that Notre Dame fans would want to know the stories behind the images. In the end, we ended up writing more detailed entries than we did for 175.
How did the experience that each of you have in archiving come into play in the making of this book?
We have had years of interacting with many photographs and we instinctually came to know what was a “good shot.” Having seen the photos so often over the years, we had a good idea of which photographs to include in this book, but we also knew which collections to target when looking for an image to represent a particular person or era.
Archivists also know how to conduct research, so finding particular details came to us fairly easily.
How did you choose how to organize the photos?
Very early on, we thought about all of the different aspects of Notre Dame Football and analogies to a theatrical performance kept surfacing. The coaches as directors, the players as actors, the fans as the spectators, the games as the production, and the venues as the stage. Within each of those chapters, the entries are presented chronologically.
The book also mirrors how we would organize an archival collection that arrives with little organizational structure. We try to find commonality where possible and group photographs based on things such as subject matter, date, or even format (negatives with negatives, slides with slides, oversized with oversized).
What advice would you give to a writer who wants to start a book that revolves around photography?
A writer would have to have a strong interest in and knowledge of photography itself to be able to recognize well-composed photos. It helps to have experience behind the camera to understand why a photographer makes certain decisions. From there, a writer would have to discern what they want to say about the photographs—perhaps the book would be about how photographs are created and composed, perhaps it is about the information that an image can impart. It would be a good thing to have more books that examine historical photography in this way—as important elements in their own right, rather than mere filler.
Who would you like to read Fighting Irish Football and why?
Fans of Notre Dame football and those interested in vignettes of its history would appreciate this book. It would also resonate with people who has a fascination with photography in general or with the history of sports in popular culture.
Which photographers do the two of you currently find interesting?
We are drawn to photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, and Vivian Maier who specialized in candid and unexpected shots. Much closer to home, Notre Dame’s photographers Matt Cashore and Barbara Johnston have incredible talent, and they had done a lot to elevate photography at Notre Dame.
What project are each of you working on next?
Elizabeth is working with colleagues in the University Archives on exhibit for Hesburgh Libraries opening in August 2024 about the 1924 football season that saw the celebrity of the Four Horsemen and Notre Dame’s first national championship. The season came in the face of national discrimination against Catholics and immigrants—two demographics heavily represented among Notre Dame’s students, faculty, and alumni. Notre Dame used football and sportsmanship as way to show an alternative to the “100% Americanism” view embraced by the Ku Klux Klan. As such, the Fighting Irish earned a nation-wide fan base early on among Catholics and immigrants who felt outcast in a predominantly Protestant America.
Together, we have a few ideas about future book projects highlighting other types of photography from the University Archives, but nothing has been solidified yet.