Historic Reckers

Reckers returned to all-night availability Tuesday, but it won’t receive heavy traffic until this weekend. At the dawn of another season for the late-night ND favorite, here is a little background on its namesake.

Clement Reckers was the first-ever ND student, according to Brother Gatian’s early attendance log.

There’s some debate about this distinction, as Rev. Arthur J. Hope, C.S.C., admitted in his book, Notre Dame: One Hundred Years. Theodore Alexis Coquillard claimed to be ND’s first student, but Gatian’s reputation for “meticulous” note-keeping gives Reckers the upper hand in this race.

The records don’t indicate the specific date on which young Clement arrived or began his studies, but the log says he “paid in work” starting in the winter of 1842-1843, foreshadowing the immigrant work ethic that defined the next century of ND history.

If Gratian’s log had not survived, students living on campus today might end their post-parietals Friday nights at a place called Coquillard. Not to take anything away from the other claims, but Reckers just sounds like it was meant to be.