The stadium Rockne built, 1930

1930

What it replaced: Cartier Field, the old home ground, held about 3,000; when Rockne took over in 1918, Wallace's biography of him puts the home capacity at about 2,500 — the two figures belong to different years of the old ground's life, and both stand as sourced.

The design and build: Osborn Engineering of Cleveland — the designers of Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds and Comiskey Park — took the contract, patterning the stadium at smaller scale on Michigan Stadium. Excavation began in the summer of 1929 and foundation labor in April 1930; the general contractor was the Sollitt Construction Company of South Bend. The finished bowl ran a half-mile in circumference and 45 feet high, with a glass press box 60 feet long; it took more than 2,000,000 bricks, 400 tons of steel and 15,000 cubic yards of concrete. The cost exceeded 750,000 dollars. Rockne was the building's principal designer, and he personally supervised the parking and traffic system around it.

The financing: The university's president, the Rev. Charles L. O'Donnell, refused to put the university in debt for a stadium, and devised the money instead: 240 six-person reserved box-seat options between the 25-yard lines, sold for ten-year terms at 3,000 dollars between the 45-yard lines, 2,500 dollars from the 45 to the 35, and 2,000 dollars from the 35 to the 25 — a precursor of the personal seat license — raising more than 150,000 dollars before a game was played.

The opening: The first game was played on October 4, 1930: Notre Dame 20, Southern Methodist 14, before 14,751. The official dedication followed on October 11: Notre Dame 26, Navy 2, before 40,593 — a ball from that game, signed by the 1930 squad, survives. Sod from Cartier Field had been transplanted into the new ground. Rockne coached one season in his stadium; its first capacity crowd came in 1931, 50,731 for Southern California. The capacity line across the stadium's later expansions is printed in the apparatus.

Sources:

1. Notre Dame Stadium history — Osborn Engineering, the construction dates and contractor, the dimensions and materials, the cost, the opening and dedication games, the transplanted sod, the 1931 capacity crowd.
2. The O'Donnell financing record — the 240 box-seat options, the three price tiers, the sum raised.
3. Wallace's biography of Rockne — the 2,500 home capacity of 1918.