Saturday Night Frights: Spooky Stories from College Football

By Denis Crawford

Camp Randall: A House of Horrors

Camp Randall Stadium is famous for tens of thousands of fans doing the “Jump Around” between the third and fourth quarters, but it is also known as being the most haunted venue in college football.

The stadium sits on the site of Camp Randall, a Civil War-era training ground for Union soldiers and a prisoner-of-war camp for Confederates. Disease was almost as great a threat as bullets during the conflict. Hundreds of soldiers perished at Camp Randall, particularly during brutal winters. Confederate soldiers were buried in a mass grave to the west of the current stadium.

Game attendees swear that they regularly see apparitions of Union and Confederate soldiers walking the grounds near the stadium, in tattered uniforms and bandages. Perhaps the tradition of jumping around came less from “House of Pain,” and more with Camp Randall being a “House of Horrors.”

The Ghost of George Gipp

A Hall of Fame player more famous for his untimely demise than his timely playmaking, George Gipp continues to live on at Notre Dame in more ways than one!

Gipp died at the age of 25 from pneumonia related to a severe throat infection. Legend has it that on his death bed, Gipp implored Irish coach Knute Rockne to tell the team to “Win one for The Gipper,” and that phrase resonates in South Bend to this day.

The Gipper himself also allegedly resonates as his spirit is said to roam the halls of Washington Hall. A beloved raconteur in life, Gipp’s ghost is known to play music, laugh, and even ride a horse! Why haunt Notre Dame? While of dubious historical accuracy, the story goes that Gipp was locked out of his residence hall after a fun-filled night, so he slept on the steps until morning and contracted the throat infection that took his life. Gipp was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.

The Poe Boys of Princeton

Princeton end Arthur Poe was one of six Poe brothers to play for Princeton between 1882 and 1902. You could say he was just a Poe boy from a Poe family. Edgar Allan Poe, the father of American Gothic horror, was his great uncle and namesake of Arthur’s brother Edgar.

Edgar, and yes, his full name was Edgar Allan Poe, was an All-America quarterback in 1889, and his talent with an oblong ball (rather than an Oblong Box) was responsible that season for the Fall of the House of Harvard. Arthur was an All-America in 1899, famous for kicking a game-winning field goal against Yale, purloining a certain Eli victory because of his stout leg and Tell-Tale Heart. There is no official word if the Poe’s toasted each victory with a Cask of Amontillado.

Arthur Poe was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969.