The nickname caught on right away and, along with the camera and aerial shots of the Golden Dome and Sacred Heart, appears on every telecast. It was particulary visible the higher you were in the south portion of stadium, and perfectly positioned for the cameras atop the West side press box in Notre Dame Stadium. Once the ’64 football season started, with Ara’s first year and Heisman John Huarte throwing TD passes to Jack Snow, Touchdown Jesus was born. Obviously, with that setting and that view, it didn’t take long……… How the mural became Touchdown Jesus The tricky part of the stadium view was that you could just see Jesus, but not the saints of learning. You could see it pretty much from anywhere in the South half of Notre Dame stadium, at least before the mid-90’s expansion. You could see it if you were walking on the Southeast portion of the campus. It was presented in front of a reflecting pool just South of the Library. Some would have had a circle with Jesus surrounding by the doctors, teachers or theologians. Some presenters would have chosen a Last Supper style array. Millard Sheets was the artist, and the way he chose to design the his mural was to place Jesus at the top with arms upraised, apparently anointing and rejoicing over the work of the teachers and doctors portrayed below him. The library dedication was planed for May, 1964, just after Note Dame had hired some guy name Parseghian as its football coach. Howard Phalin of Winnetka, at a generous $200,000, in 1963 dollars.
The “Word of Life” mural was donated by Mr. It is breathtakingly compelling regarding the power and synergy and interdependence of the Seven Sacraments.) (if anyone is in the mood for some spiritual reading,or wanting to give spiritual instruction to children or grandchildren, read Aguinas’ treatment of the Seven Sacraments. The usual suspects: the Gregory’s, the Jerome’s, Augustine of Hippo and the great Thomas Aquinas, author of the Summa Theologica. It would show, in a rare setting in Catholicism, Christ surrounded by some of the great theologians, doctors and teachers. The decision was to make a mural commemorating “Christ and the Saints of Learning.” The working title of the mural would be “Word of Life” It would unify the Divine and the Academic. The South panel of the library tower was going to be its visual signature.
The upper portion of the library was a tower designed for specialized and graduate studies. The bottom two floors, the base, had plenty of table space and carrels to accomodate undergraduates who preferred to study with the feng shui of a library, rather than the cacophony and hijinks of the dorms. The new library was designed to be versatile. One of Notre Dame’s most long-standing values is to cherish undergraduate education, and while pursuing greatness as a graduate and research institution, to not do so at the expense of undergraduate vibrance. The library was going to replace the old library which is now the School of Architecture. But the mission given to the architects was to create an imposing structure, eloquent as well as functional. So a decision was made to build the then largest on-campus college library in America. Hesburgh understood symbolism, and the campus was expanding Eastward with Keenan and Stanford, Stepan Center, the Computer Center and the forthcoming ACC. In the early 60’s, Father Theodore Martin Hesburgh was committed to moving Notre Dame to the top echelon of American universities, not just best in class of the Catholic schools.
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