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One hundred years ago, in October of 1921, the legendary football coach Knute Rockne took to the pages of Scholastic to advertise the Fighting Irish home game against Nebraska. Rockne urged Notre Dame alumni to return to their alma mater for the occasion; to “stroll down the ‘quad’ again, past the grotto and the lake”; to watch from the sidelines “with the blue-clad boys fighting there before you, and the whole student body cheering beside you.”

“Will that one scene not be worth coming a hundred or ten hundred miles to witness and to join in?” He wrote.

It’s October, which means we are once again watching from the sidelines as the ‘blue-clad boys’ fight before us. There’s something magical about a Notre Dame home game — about the pomp and circumstance that surrounds Notre Dame athletics. A century later, Domers still travel hundreds — even thousands — of miles to cheer on their Fighting Irish.

This month’s cover story examines how that Fighting Irish brand has become even more important this year, after the NCAA changed its rules on college athletes profiting off their name, image and likeness. A new market is opening up for student-athletes to promote themselves and other businesses. Scholastic explores how this rule change is affecting Notre Dame student-athletes who have the backing of the Notre Dame brand. 

But football isn’t the only thing happening around campus these days. Study abroad is back, and our news section is on it. Construction is underway by the lakes, and our culture section will tell you why. Our new opinion section is making its debut this issue with a rigorous investigation into the lack of street lighting in St. Joseph County. And if you’re gearing up for spooky season, our perspectives section has a Notre Dame ghost story just for you.

Soak up the tradition, the football Saturdays, the fall colors, the days of blue skies before the permacloud sets in. Time moves faster on campus — we’re already halfway through the semester — and I, for one, don’t want to miss a moment of it.

Best,

Genevieve