This collection consists of football grid graphs created by John J. McGrath while listening to radio broadcasts of Notre Dame football games. McGrath took notes during the game and charted the action on the field as described by the announcers. He recorded and described each play of the game on a football-field shaped diagram, using arrows, lines, and descriptive notes.

McGrath’s grid graphs typically went through several phases. The grid graphs started from notes and diagrams that McGrath quickly wrote in real time during the radio broadcast. For many games, he then drew elaborate and precise pencil diagrams with one sheet representing each quarter based on his notes and sometimes based on newspaper clippings. For some games, he also re-created the pencil diagrams in multi-color ink grid graphs that recorded each event of the game.

The collection contains grid graphs and/or notes for 43 Notre Dame football games between 1939 and 1954. Seven games include multi-colored grid graphs: Notre Dame vs. SMU (1939); Notre Dame vs. Purdue (1947); Notre Dame vs. Northwestern (1947); Notre Dame vs. Tulane (1949); Notre Dame vs. Michigan State (1949); Notre Dame vs. USC (1949); and Notre Dame vs. UNC (1953).

In addition to the action on the field, for some games, McGrath also documented information about the starting lineups, the weather, the radio broadcast, the pre-game radio entertainment, and the half-time radio entertainment.

The collection also includes two letters that McGrath sent to people associated with the Notre Dame football program in the late 1940s.

Formats include statistics, notes, newspaper clippings, letters (correspondence).