Ed. Note: Walter passed away October 1, 2001. We are fortunate to have his recollections of these years - Please send your anecdotes and thoughts to Kevin McNevins to be added to the historic record of our club.

Soon after Graduation in June, 1940 -- Jim Swift ('24) called and told me that his group had decided that I was to take his place as President of the Notre Dame Club of Dallas. I was honored -- but something seemed a little too easy. Within a few weeks we met in Room D on the third floor of the Dallas Athletic Club, which was on St. Paul Street between Elm and Pacific. That room, which would hold about thirty, became the Notre Dame Club's meeting place for the next few years.

Present at this meeting were the majority of Graduates and Ex-students in the area: Jim Swift and Pat Buell of the Class of '24 Arthur Simpson (about the Class of 1900) Bill Grady (about the Class of 1910) Harold Delaney (about the Class of '16) Jim Walsh (about the Class of '26) Dr. Lloyd Bellamy, Class of '32 Jim Simmons (about the Class of '32) Ed Haggar, Class of '38

Jim didn't turn over any money to me, because there was no treasurer -- and no treasury. I immediately called Ed Haggar and Jim Simmons and asked them to kick in a little, and I kicked in a little -- so we were off and running. I had the necessary office equipment -- an Addressograph, a Multilith Printing Press (and someone to run it), a Pitney-Bowes Metered Stamp Machine, which I had the company purchase after several summer tours as Office Boy, etc. -- and had vowed to lick no more stamps.

The big drive by the Alumni Association in those days was a concentration of effort toward raising the percentage of contributors from all of the Alumni Clubs. By early Fall we had a pretty good mailing list, largely due to the fact that we had one club member by the name of Bill Defferari'26, who happened to be the Hiram Walker Distilleries' Distributor. At that particular time, Hiram Walker was pushing Ready-Mixed Martinis.

With Bill generously providing free cases of Ready-Mixed Martinis, everyone who was at our Club parties was sure that he and his spouse or date had to have had a very good time. Word of mouth spread, so before long we had a big turnout for every affair.

Besides the luck of the Martinis, Gordon McLendon, who owned KLIF, called me and offered to re-broadcast all the Notre Dame games played in South Bend -- and had the whole Club to his Penthouse Broadcast Studio for a cocktail party for the first game of the season.

With a little cohesiveness among the Club members we began to pursue the 100% participation objective of the Annual Fund. Before long we had about 85% participation -- and for the 10 to 15 or so who did not respond to my almost monthly appeals, I sent in the minimum contribution with separate checks for all of those -so we were the first club in the nation to claim 100% participation.

This got us a little recognition from the Alumni Association, but the tragedy of World War ll developed, and, naturally, that was the end of our activities from 1942 to 1946. Most of us were in uniform -- and, unfortunately, 15% of my Class of 1940 were killed in action.

May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, Rest In Peace, Amen.

In 1946 we were ready to renew a normal life and the Notre Dame Club activities were a good place to start. In 1947 we persuaded the Alumni Association to allocate 100 tickets to the Notre Dame Club of Dallas for what was to be the biggest game of the decade -- Notre Dame vs. Army at South Bend. During the twenties -- thirties -- and forties -- the Army-Notre Dame game was one of the most important series, and was always played at Yankee Stadium in New York. This was the first time Army had ever visited Notre Dame.

We got the 100 tickets in a block in temporary stands behind the goal line. We and the Alumni Association sent invitations to the Alumni all over the state. The Dallas Club used the majority of the tickets, but we were joined by Notre Dame graduates from Fort Worth, Houston, Beaumont, and Port Arthur. Since there were no travel agencies for this kind of activity, I enlisted some help from one of our Company freight agents, who handled most of the I railroad Pullman reservations, including several Parlor Cars on the New York Central that were parked on the St. Mary's Railroad siding, from which we all walked to the stadium.

In Chicago we all stayed at the Stevens Hotel (later called the Conrad Hilton), where we had a party the night of arrival, and a Victory Party after the game. We assigned the younger members, like myself, what we thought were the worst seats -- Row 1 behind the goal line -and just as we settled in our seats, Terry Brennan returned the kick off for a 95-yard touchdown -- couldn't stop -- and landed right in our laps.

In those years, some of the Graduates and Ex-students and Friends who helped get the Club organized -- besides those listed at the first meeting were Alumni: George Becker, John Brogan (Tyler), Bill Carey, John Darrouzet, Mike Doran, Steve (Art) Durbin, Father Lawrence Ferguson, Dan Foley, Leo Freitas John Giles, Joe Haggar, Bernard Haberer (Fort Worth), Dick Lajoie, Bill Lajoie Mike Linehan, Charlie Lohr, Bob Moran, John Neuhoff, Phil North (Fort Worth) John Poore, Jake Reichenstein, Jack Schroeter, Hal Tehan, Sam Wing and Friends of the Club such as Tom Braniff, John Costello, Henry Neuhoff, Sr., Rev. Arthur Hughes, Joe Fechtel, Jim Shea, Ed Furlow, and J. L. "Slats" Latimer. (My apology to anyone whom I failed to list. This was almost 50 years ago, and my memory probably skipped a few names.)

In 1948, Ed Haggar took over as President of the Club and Jim Simmons in 1949. After the last game of the season with SMU in 1949, I had the honor of having that great Notre Dame team at a party for four hundred and fifty guests at our home. It was a Great Victory and a good party with a tent over the driveway and the Highland Park Police helping to handle the traffic.

Leon Hart and Gus Civella got our three children out of bed and carried them around the party on their shoulders. A niece of mine by marriage -- and a student at SMU -- arranged for dates for most of the Notre Dame players who were interested in dates. Apparently that went well, because a few years later at a party at Joe Haggar's -- when Joe introduced me to Paul Hornung -Paul asked, "Where are all the girls?" From this point on, whenever the Notre Dame team came to Dallas the University President, Administration and Team could always count on the royal hospitality provided by the Haggar family - Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Haggar, Sr., Ed and Patty, Joe and Isabel and Rosemary.

Walter Fleming '40