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Outlined against the green-gray November grass, the Four Horsemen rode again.

The chalky, white paint that dotted the blades of grass at the 50-yard line showed them on horseback, suspended in perpetual leap. Below their likenesses, the words “Shamrock Series” had been painted in gothic script.

A century after Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden defeated Army in New York, Notre Dame returned to the city to play Army again in honor of their legacy. They celebrated their memory with Four-Horsemen themed imagery, like the logo at midfield, and tributes to the foursome as the Fighting Irish defeated the Black Knights 49-14.

The legacy of the Horsemen wasn’t just evident on the field, though. In the stands, too, there was a living legacy.

High above the field, 32 Stuhldrehers watched on.

***

Their real names were Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley, and Layden. Grantland Rice made them famous. George Strickler made them immortal. But before the rise of their legend and lore, the Four Horsemen were simply football players. Don Miller, the right halfback, hailed from Ohio, and had come from a line of Notre Dame football players that included four of his brothers. Jim Crowley, the left halfback, was from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and had been coached by Notre Dame alumnus and eventual founder of the Packers “Curly” Lambeau. Elmer Layden, the fullback, came from Davenport, Iowa, and had been recruited by the University of Iowa before sustaining a leg injury in high school.

Then there was the quarterback, Harry Stuhldreher. Stuhldreher was born in 1901 in Massillon, Ohio, and enrolled at Notre Dame in the fall of 1921. Though by far the most famous, Harry was not the first Stuhldreher to attend the University — that title belongs to Walter, his older brother, who graduated with the class of 1922 and urged Harry to join him at his alma mater. Harry agreed.

The pieces in place, coach Knute Rockne united the foursome as sophomores in 1922. Miller was named an All-American in 1923, but sustained a season-ending rib injury. He returned to health in 1924, and Rockne’s team won their first two games before Notre Dame boarding a train bound for New York City.

On Oct. 18, 1924, four football players became the Four Horsemen. In front of 55,000 fans at Polo Grounds in New York, Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden helped Notre Dame defeat Army, 13-7. In attendance was writer Grantland Rice, who penned the following words for the New York Herald-Tribune:

“Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names were Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden ... ”

Upon returning from the game, Strickler, Rockne’s publicity aide, staged a photoshoot with the foursome on horseback. The photo was circulated around the country as Notre Dame ripped off seven consecutive wins, including a Rose Bowl victory over Stanford, en route to the school’s first national championship.

The rest, as they say, is history. But as history will so often have it, the triumphs of the Four Horsemen have not stayed put in the past.

***

In fact, among the 47,342 spectators peering down on the bewildering panorama spread upon the green plain at Yankee Stadium this year were 32 Stuhldrehers — the grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons and great-granddaughters of Walter, Harry’s older brother who began the family’s tradition at Notre Dame.

They had not originally planned to be in New York that evening. The idea didn’t hatch until February, when ESPN’s Heather Dinich reported that Notre Dame would fill a vacant schedule spot with a game against Army in honor of the Four Horsemen.

“I forwarded it to my brother Kurt, just him and a couple others,” said Mike Stuhldreher, a Notre Dame graduate and grand-nephew of Harry. “I forwarded it via text and I wrote in there, ‘Hey, look, it’s going to be a good year to revive the ghosts and wake up the echoes.’ Honestly, it didn’t cross my mind to go.”

On the receiving end of Mike’s message, Kurt Stuhldreher had other ideas.

“I immediately just sent a text out to maybe a couple of brothers and my cousins the Kessings, Joe Kessing and Bobby, really without much faith that you know it would go much farther,” Kurt said. “Kind of tongue in cheek almost. It was later that day that what I was hearing back was, ‘Let's do it,’ ‘I'm in,’ that kind of thing. From there, it just kind of blew up.”

From a handful of text messages, the conversation grew. The cousins opened a Slack, making the planning a collaborative effort. They found a common place to stay. Family from all over the country leapt at the opportunity to come together and celebrate their family, remembering loved ones they had lost and passing on the Notre Dame tradition to a new generation.

“2024 was the first year none of our parents were living,” said Carolyn Stuhldreher Hadlock, a cousin of Mike and Kurt. “My aunt died in 2023, my dad died in 2022. And so that was, I think, kind of a galvanizing force. I think the core group would have gone anyway, but I think we all felt like, this is kind of a nod to Harry and to our parents.”

And so, the family of the first horseman rode into town. They came from Oregon, Texas, Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee. In all, 32 Stuhldreher relatives came together in New York.

Most of the group arrived in the City on Thursday, before the game. That night, they found an Irish pub to celebrate the 60th birthday of Kurt’s younger brother, Pete. Irish pubs would become a theme of the trip, as the family routinely gathered at different pubs to spend time together at the end of each day. During the days themselves, different parts of the family would come and go. Groups made trips to Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty, among other spots.

When game day came, some made the trip to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where Notre Dame president, Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., presided over a standing-room-only Mass. Fittingly, Mike Stuhldreher and his family had the honor of carrying the gifts.

“I lit a candle afterwards,” Carolyn said, “and I lit it for my grandfather because, it's like, I never knew you, but without you, Harry would never have gone to Notre Dame. Walter was the first one to go, and he told Harry, ‘Hey, you got to come to the school, it’s a great school.’ And then, you know, the legacy started, right?”

From Mass, the family gathered at Murphy’s, yet another Irish pub in Manhattan. There, they shared a final pregame meal before boarding the subways and heading to the stadium to watch Notre Dame, just as many fans would have done to watch Uncle Harry a century ago.

“The game was the highlight, but the real joy was having a lot of family members coming from all over the country,” Kurt said. “The whole Four Horsemen thing is so ingrained in our family. It’s just been a point of family pride for generations, and we must be the third generation I guess, and it is being passed down to the fourth generation.”

“It started off as a sports thing,” said Carolyn, “and then it became a family thing.”

***

Back in South Bend, where the candle lights still gleam through the Indiana sycamores, echoes of the Four Horsemen sounded louder this year.

On game days, fans sported this season’s edition of The Shirt with a sketch of the Four Horsemen on the chest. Then, 100 years and one day after the Four Horsemen won Notre Dame’s first ever bowl game, the Irish beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, ending a 31-year period of major bowl losses. A week later, they won another, beating Penn State in the Orange Bowl to advance to the national championship game.

Even at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, before Notre Dame’s heartbreaking 34-23 loss to Ohio State University in the title game, echoes of the Horsemen could be heard. Just before the Irish took the field for warmups, the video-board showed Notre Dame players reading a certain famous sports lede aloud.

“Outlined against a blue-gray sky ... ”

The way in which this year’s edition of the Fighting Irish found success, too, recalls the Horsemen. After suffering an unthinkable Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois University, head coach Marcus Freeman rallied his team around “team glory,” a focus on the collective rather than the individual.

“You may hear the Four Horsemen, but you may never know the names, and that's OK. They would be fine with that,” Carolyn says. “I doubt any one of those men could have done it on their own.”

“I hope it just brings a sense of the collective and even not just the team, but the people who celebrate the team and support the team.”

In that way, the legacy of the Four Horsemen may even go beyond the magic of lore and legend, providing a concrete example of the Notre Dame spirit. Just like this year’s football team, the Four Horsemen will always be remembered as a collective. Notre Dame’s loyal fans embodied that community spirit throughout the run to the national championship, following their team at every stop. None more so than the Stuhldrehers. A handful made the trip to New Orleans, and Mike attended the national championship with his cousin Billy.

“I feel like they're cheering everybody on,” Carolyn said. “I really do. I felt like they were there that night [in New York]. They're being celebrated and I think it's going to be a bit of a revival for the Four Horsemen.”