In Rituals and Traditions today we talked about the role of myths in sport. I started with talking about the two greatest Jacksons in sport, Andrew and Bo.

I told them I know two of the men in that intro, and would believe them. I have heard one of the stories mentioned there from multiple sources, told just differently enough to seem credible. But the truth of stories sometimes isn’t the most important thing, even for people looking for ontological truth. Maybe especially for them. Sometimes, the telling is the truth, and that’s why myths are important.

So I told them about a bunch of the myths around my alma mater. There’s the train thing and the pajama parade. A number of students, the story goes, snuck out in their pajamas and greased the railroad tracks so the train bringing their opponents couldn’t stop. The train had to pull in at the next station, the players had to lug their equipment five or six miles back to town, were exhausted, and got shut out 45-0. The story goes that the visitors were so offended they refused to play the next year. The story dates to the 1890s, but you can’t find anything at all about it in the historical record until the 1930s. Good story, though.

I told the two or three stories about rolling the corner. I gave them all three versions of the origin story of the phrase, “War Eagle.” I asked them which one they thought was correct. Everyone guessed that it was the most romantic story. That one was made up by Jim Phillips, a college newspaper editor. I showed them his copy. (He later urged various university people to work to make sure that his story didn’t get accepted as the truth. They still highlight his story. Well, part of his story. The version I learned when I was a senior in high school and getting ready to enroll goes a step further. Someone improved on his myth!)

I talked about myths from other universities, too, and some of the great stories that major league baseball gives us as myth. Some of them evolve much like the old gossip games. Some of them are quite deliberate. Both are, to me, fascinating in their implications. A friend just told me about the origin story of a new mascot, Noigel. No one will believe that one, of course, because it’s about a mascot, but it demonstrates to us the power of our stories. I hope the class was picking up on that today.

I drove it home with The Gipper, which works because, true or not, it’s accurate enough to at least blend with what we know. And we want to believe.

(Rudy, by the way, is largely cinematic and not perfectly truthful. Sorry.)

Did Rudy read that plaque and do his little impersonation? Probably not. Did Knute Rockne have that moment with George Gipp? Historians disagree. We’re pretty sure (much of) it is inspired by the movie.

Is that plaque even there in the Irish locker room? Yes it is.

Does Notre Dame know where they got the nickname, The Fighting Irish? It comes from one of several places, maybe. I reeled off a few of those, and asked for their thoughts on which one it might be. I don’t know. I know which one I want it to be. But all of that, I said, gets back to identity, doesn’t it?

One of my students said I should do a class just on myth. I’d love to; I doubt I’d be allowed to.

In Criticism we talked about two class-selected stories. One was Global sports face challenges from ‘AI slop’ misinformation:

A study by AI risk management platform Alethea into the surge in artificial intelligence-generated fake content, dubbed “AI slop,” has warned sports teams, leagues and fans of the risks posed by increasingly sophisticated digital misinformation.

Retired NFL player Jason Kelce never said 2026 Super Bowl halftime singer Bad Bunny’s critics were “a bad fit for America’s future”.

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San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle never ranted about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk and politics in football.

However, thousands of people believed they did and that is the problem.

Well, sure it is. The students recognize that. They’re worried about it. They should be. That let me work in this little explainer focusing on Jaden Ivey.

We also discussed this one, Tiger Woods fights subpoena for prescription drug records. And there I said, “If you join me in org comm in the fall, we will discuss at some length, the strategy behind all of this.

Sometimes when the different pieces click together it is quite satisfying.

You can probably tell, but I’m one of those annoying campus spirit guys. I’ve always held that you learn a lot from class, but the rest of the college experience is the most educational and the most influential and the most memorable. That’s what makes the drive in worth it, where you make the friends, build the lasting memories, the stuff that can fill your heart with cheer later in life, the sort of thing that encourages alumni to be donors.

Or, put another way, I know of one alumni who wanted to make donations because of my pedagogy. But a lot more people are thinking of other things when they get ready to donate. And so we were out an event this evening and the marching band rushed the stage.

If the marching band “crashed” events from time to time, that’d be fun. I want every part of a student’s time on campus be about their studies or about memorable events full of good cheer.

Maybe I’m not alone in that. Maybe one day I’ll be allowed to bend more of my work that direction. It’d be better than rowing aimlessly.

Tonight’s event was a special one. It was one of those nights when some of the superior networkers made a bit of magic happened and a folk hero turned up.

Started late, ran long. The food in the VIP room was still great. My current hypothesis is that all events should use the guest of honor’s menu.