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For most college football programs, digging up historical documents feels like a scavenger hunt. The quest for long-lost files leaves fans sifting through sketchy websites and grainy YouTube videos older than most students. However, thanks to the Scholastic Magazine’s Annual Football Review, that isn’t the case at the University of Notre Dame.

Since its inception, the football review has provided a cohesive library of Notre Dame football history. As time has passed, however, so has the way Scholastic writers describe the game. There was once an age in which words such as lacedaemonian appeared in the football review. Today, however, in what some might call the “brain-rot era”, our universal standard of English has changed considerably – for better or worse.

It’s a delight to look back at football reviews of old. After digging through these ancient editions, I compiled a list of my three favorite Scholastic football review articles of all time.

#3) Are Football Players People - 1926 Football Review by James E. Armstrong

Armstrong began his striking 1926 piece with, “There is an idea that Notre Dame football players are a race apart. Super-men. Quasi-deities of the football world, whose worshippers have spread their fame beyond the narrower sphere into the religious and scholastic worlds.”

By 1926, Notre Dame football players were becoming celebrities and Armstrong played into that like never seen before.

He later wrote, “For Rockne, Notre Dame players, and the Notre Dame system, have been so long a symbol of the highest type of football and the Milky Way of the constellations that dot the football sky that the unexpected has become the commonplace in Notre Dame’s football relations with the world.”

I would never in a million years think to relate Notre Dame football to the Milky Way Galaxy. For that reason alone, I love it.

#2) 1947 Player Bios

There was once a time when Scholastic writers were assigned the task of compiling player bios for the varsity football squad. What intrigues me most about 1947 player bios is the sheer amount of intimate details shared.

Heisman Trophy recipient John Lujack’s bio provides the best example: “[Lujack] hopes to connect for a TD on a ring pass to a certain young lady from Davenport, Iowa, shortly after Christmas.”

Michael Swistowicz’s bio is a close second. It reads, “[Swistowicz] is a student in the Arts and Letters School and still undecided about the future… but there’s no hurry for sophomore Mike [he] has two more years to figure that out and keep Irish football fans happy in the meantime.”

As a current sophomore in Arts and Letters, that sentiment was rather reassuring. Still, it is hard to imagine that any of these ultra-personal tidbits of information would fly in 2026.

#1) “A Viking Goes To Rest” 1931 Football Edition

There is something serene about the 1931 Review. Notre Dame had just completed its first season following the tragic death of the great Knute Rockne, and the review served as a heartfelt tribute to the man that built Notre Dame football to the legendary position it holds today.

The 1931 Review deserves an article of its own. In my estimation, it stands as the single greatest review ever made. Unfortunately for our 2025 crew, I must concede that the best we can muster up is second place.

Naturally, it was a difficult task to choose just one favorite piece. However, on page 52, nationally known sports cartoonist Werner Laufer drew a special piece exclusively for the Review. The drawing portrays a Viking Ship in the sea with a large portrait of Rockne’s face watching on. To the side of the drawing is a beautiful passage. My favorite excerpts are the first and last sentences.

The former reads, “Rockne was a viking. Sailing dark uncharted seas of football, he made more important discoveries than any man in the game.”

The latter: “ Rockne has gone to his death. In a broken ship, like other brave Norsemen before him. But he remains at the helm at Notre Dame. Peering into the vague darkness and his crews still carry on.”

If that doesn’t capture the mystical spirit of Notre Dame Football, I’m not sure what else will.