Mystery Location No. 282: December 5, 2021

I think I've got it: This is Washington Hall, Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Indiana. Built in 1881, a time when "buildings were much more aesthetically pleasing," it houses, among other things, a 550-seat auditorium, where there have been guests associated with the arts (Henry James, Tennessee Williams, etc.), politics (President William Howard Taft) and matters of the soul (Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII).

The ghost of Washington Hall is believed to be George Gipp, legendary football player, who supposedly found the doors locked when he had stayed out late one night and was forced to sleep on the steps. He caught a cold, which turned into strep throat and pneumonia, and died December 14, 1920. In fact, most of the time he attended Notre Dame, Gipp lived at the Oliver Hotel in South Bend. Known as "The Gipper," Gipp's jersey number was 66 and in 1940, in the film Knute Rockne, All American, he was portrayed by actor Ronald Reagan, who later became 40th president of the United States. According to legend, as Gipp lay dying, he told Rocke, his football coach: "I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy." Later, "Win one for the Gipper" became Reagan's political slogan.