Q: After seeing the movie “Sessions,” I was reminded of a time in the 1940s. I attended a Notre Dame football game and saw a man rolled out of an ambulance and into the players’ entrance. He was in an iron lung and came to every game. Do you know his name and story?
— Patricia Kent, Newnan
A: Frederick B. Snite Jr., who was part of a wealthy Chicago family, graduated from Notre Dame in 1933. Three years later, while on a trip to China, Snite, who was then 25, contracted polio. He might have died except that an iron lung was available, although doctors didn't expect him to live even with the device. Time magazine described it as a "cream-colored, 900-lb. cylindrical respirator." Snite's story attracted worldwide media attention and he surprised his doctors by learning to speak Chinese. After returning to the U.S. in 1937, he began attending Notre Dame football games, viewing the action with the help of a mirror from a ramp at the north end of the stadium. He was nicknamed the "Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse," a play on the famous 1924 newspaper article by sportswriter Grantland Rice, and sometimes was referred to as the "Boiler Kid." Snite often spoke at polio fundraising events, married in 1939 and fathered three children despite spending up to 21 hours a day in the lung, according to his obituary. Snite was 44 when he died in 1954. A book titled "The Man in the Iron Lung: The Frederick B. Snite, Jr., Story," by Leonard C. Hawkins, was published in 1956. Used copies have been available on Amazon.com. The Snite Museum of Art on Notre Dame's campus is named for his family.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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