Born and raised in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Dorais arrived at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana in the summer of 1910 at ft in ( m) and lb ( kg). He started four seasons for the Fighting Irish at quarterback, but it was during his senior season that he became part of college football history. During the summer of 1913, Dorais and his Notre Dame teammate Knute Rockne worked as lifeguards and busboys at Cedar Point Resort at Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio. During their free time there, the story goes, the duo practiced passing on the beach with Dorais throwing to Rockne, an end.[citation needed]