Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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five days later, on Thanksgiving, the University of Texas in Austin. "He was literally forced to turn to intersectional games," said Harper's son, James, many years ago. "Dad was a modest guy. He never wanted to take credit for getting Notre Dame started as a national power. "I remember he told me once, 'Well, Lord, I was forced to get a national schedule. No one else would play us around Notre Dame. I had to go someplace where I could get some ball games.'" Harper's business acumen often overshadowed the fact that he was an advanced football strategist. To compete against bigger and better teams when he was the head coach at Alma and Wabash, Harper became a creative tactician, including advancing the use of the forward pass, which was implemented by rules changes through the newly formed NCAA in 1906 to help make the game a little safer after numerous on-field deaths led United States president Theodore Roosevelt to consider the elimination of the sport. Harper also was known for a balanced line and shifting ends — later known as "The Notre Dame Shift" under head coach Knute Rockne (1918-31), but begun by his predecessor. St. Louis University under head coach Eddie Cochems (1906-08) was the first school to use the forward pass effectively and even as a deep threat. Still, most schools used the forward pass only as a last-ditch measure, and the strategy was generally raw. Furthermore, for the powerhouse Eastern schools such as the Ivy League teams and Army, the pass was viewed as a gimmick and an affront to the manhood of football. It was a desperation ploy of the weak or undermanned. Once at Notre Dame, Harper implemented timing and overhand throwing motions to two of his star senior pupils: quarterback Gus Dorais and wide receiver Knute Rockne, who continued working on their timing over the summer as lifeguards in Cedar Point, Ohio. Rockne's running skills had served him well on the Notre Dame track team, and Dorais, according to Harper, "could throw the football as well as any man who ever lived." "Mr. Notre Dame": 100th Year In 1913 when head coach Jesse Harper and the Notre Dame football program began its march to national renown, Edward Walter Kraucuinas was born on Feb. 2. The last name later changed to "Krause" for easier pronunciation, but he became better known as "Moose" to all for his size and powerful presence. There was a symbolic, if not poetic, fate to Krause being born the same year that Harper gave "birth" to Notre Dame's football program as we know it today. Recruited by Knute Rockne, Krause earned All-America honors in football and three times in basketball from 1931-34, a time when Harper returned to Notre Dame as athletics director to provide stability to the department after Rockne's sudden death in 1931. Krause would later work as an assistant coach under Frank Leahy during four national title runs in the 1940s, be the head basketball coach for six years (1946-51), and serve as the athletics director from 1949 until the spring of 1981, thus also earning another moniker — "Mr. Notre Dame." When the 77-year-old Harper died on July 31, 1961, in Kansas — on the heels of a 2-8 football season at Notre Dame in 1960 — Notre Dame sent Krause and business manager Herb Jones as representatives to pay respects. The football program had experienced its shares of peaks and valleys from 1913-60, and Harper and Krause had forged a strong friendship and common bond. Ironically, even though Harper was revered as an impeccable man of integrity, organized religion was not part of his fabric, and he requested no formal funeral service or eulogy at his burial. "His whole religion was geared around the Golden Rule," noted his son, James. At the gravesite, just as Harper's coffin was to be lowered into the earth, his widow, Melville, stepped forward to make a request. "As most of you know, Jesse was not a man of religion," she began. "He didn't want any formal funeral service, but in his lifetime, he dearly loved a very religious school, Notre Dame, where we twice spent some enjoyable years. … Even though Jesse may not have wanted it, I would ask Mr. Krause if he would say a few words." With a gentle demeanor that belied his huge frame, Krause briefly touched on Notre Dame's deep appreciation for Harper's work, and then with tears streaming down his cheeks ad-libbed and recited "A Sportsman's Prayer," whose author is anonymous: "Let me live, O Mighty Master, such a life as men should know, "Testing triumph and disaster, joy, and not too much of woe. "Let me run the gamut over, let me fight and love and laugh, "And when I'm beneath the clover, let this be my epitaph: At Notre Dame, Moose Krause starred on the football field and basketball court in the early 1930s, worked as an assistant football coach during four national title runs in the 1940s, was the head basketball coach for six years (1946-51) and served as the athletics director from 1949-81. photo courtesy notre dame media relations "Here lies one who took his chances in this busy world of men, "Battled fate and circumstances, fought and fell, and fought again. "Won some times but did no crowing, lost some times, but did not wail, "Took his beating but kept on going, and never let his courage fail. "He was fallible and human, therefore loved and understood "Both his fellow men and women, whether good or not so good. "Kept his spirit undiminished, never laid down on a friend. "Played the game 'til it was finished, lived a Sportsman to the end." 142 ✦ Blue & Gold Illustrated 2013 Football Preview 140-143.100th Anniversary ND vs Army.indd 142 6/25/13 9:32 AM