One night after Johnny Football threw four interceptions in his first Canadian Football League game, I went to see a musical about famed Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.

As I sat there watching Notre Dame’s legendary Four Horsemen backfield tap dance across the stage with their lineman and a bevy of chorus girls depicting the invention of the Notre Dame Box variation of the single formation that revolutionized college football (don’t worry, the play doesn’t get that technical), I couldn’t help but think of June Allyson and Peter Lawford, as a college football player, leading a dancing crowd through The Varsity Drag in 1947’s Good News, a movie based on the 1927 Broadway hit musical of the same name, which introduced the song, The Best Things in Life are Free.

Apparently, there also was a 1930 movie based on that play that was taken out of circulation due to its pre motion picture code censorship content, which included sexual innuendo and lewd suggestive humor. Anybody have a copy?

The Four Horsemen tap dance, along with a number of other scenes, takes place in Jimmy the Goat’s, a then South Bend establishment of ill repute frequented by the players for drinking, gambling, and whatever. The ever-present James Earl Jones II plays Jimmy the Goat, in anticipation of which, prior to the show, I tasted the goat at Evanston’s Mt. Everest restaurant (thumbs, or horns, up), which not surprisingly features Nepalese cuisine.

All American status should be conferred on the entire cast, especially the vocal skills of Stef Tovar (Rockne), Dara Cameron (Rockne’s wife Bonnie), and Rashada Dawan (Thelma, the lady of the house at Jimmy the Goat’s).

Also, I loved the theater, which features comfortable seats, plenty of leg room, and ample parking (the best things in life are free).