The recommended books are a good place to start along with watching the uncut version of Knute Rockne ... particularly the funeral scene as that part of campus still looks similar (preserving history, which ND does pretty well despite a massively expanded campus)
The "something" I learned as a student following the program up close 61-66 ... talked to a lot of old timers (many subway alumni) and to paraphrase a friend: "there is a lot we have seen that isn't in any current history and its likely that all the written histories are like that."
Some of those old time fans had a lot of interesting perspectives about why various coaches were hired or "fired" (not everyone got a public termination like Terry Brennan's christmas "present."
As you see from those books the ND football program is not so much about winning (but a driver for sure) as it is about producing revenue for the ND general fund and the image ND wants to project (kind of pre and post Fr H becoming President). This is an oversimplification of the image perspective but should be kept in mind when reading his excellent book - we moved to "academic excellence" as a mantra (no more PE major - not in most histories BTW) and started fund raising to build what has become a large endowment to improve academics (the change in the no bowl policy was seen as driven by this effort)
There are a lot of interesting stories and hopefully you and your child will enjoy them as a base for your interest in ND and its sports program going forward (BTW the most successful sport by record is fencing). For me has been a good experience starting with radio of the games and an hour long highlight show that was replaced by Ed Sullivan and included being at ground zero for the start of Era of Ara.