1924 The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame Signed Photograph....

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1924 The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame Signed Photograph. Sportswriter Grantland Rice penned these famous lines creating football immortality, "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore their names are Death, Destruction, Pestilence, and Famine. But those are aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below." George Strickler, then Knute Rockne's student publicity aide made sure the name stuck. He had pitched the idea out loud at halftime of the Army game in the press box as a tie-in to the 1921 Rudolph Valentino movie "The Four Horseman Of The Apocalypse." After the team arrived back in South Bend, he posed the four players, dressed in their uniforms on the backs of four horses from a livery stable in town. The wire services picked up the now-famous photo, and the legendary status of the Four Horsemen was assured. Offered here is the "best of the best," as far as Notre Dame collectors are concerned, while this 8x10" original photograph is signed by Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley and Harry Stuhldreher. The Miller exemplar exhibits a degree of fading, while the additional signatures average solid 8/10 quality. Likely signed in the 1940's or 1950's. Light soiling is exhibited on the verso, but the overall presentation of the piece remains superb. A remarkable gridiron artifact, this "Holy Grail" caliber lot will surely be the centerpiece of any Fighting Irish collection. Full LOA from PSA/DNA. Auction LOA from James Spence Authentication.