Dame Football Legend Making Notre Rockne
Dame Football Legend Making Notre Rockne
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame, located in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. The team is currently coached by Brian Kelly. The team competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level, and is a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series coalition. The Fighting Irish have been awarded the most consensus national championships and produced more All-Americans than any other Football Bowl Subdivision school. In addition, seven Fighting Irish football players have won the Heisman Trophy.
Notre Dame is one of only two Catholic universities that field a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the other being Boston College. The team plays its home games on Notre Dame's campus at Notre Dame Stadium, with a capacity of 80,795. All home games are televised on NBC.
Championships and distinctions
National championships
- Notre Dame has won eight wire (AP or Coaches) national championships.
- Notre Dame claims national championships in an additional three seasons, for a total of 11 consensus "national championships." Notre Dame, however, is often credited with 13 in total. The 1938 and 1953 seasons are the reason for the discrepancy. In 1938, 8-1 Notre Dame was awarded the national championship by the Dickinson System, while Texas Christian (which finished 11-0) was awarded the championship by the Associated Press. In the 1953 season, an undefeated Notre Dame team (9-0-1) was named national champion by every major selector except the AP and UPI (Coaches) polls, where the Irish finished second in both to 10-1 Maryland. As Notre Dame has a policy of only recognizing AP and Coaches Poll national championships post-1936, the school does not officially recognize the 1953 national championship.
- Notre Dame has been voted national champion by at least one selector in an additional eight seasons (1919, 1920, 1927, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1989, 1993).
The following is a list of Notre Dame's 11 consensus national championships:
Distinctions
- Notre Dame has the 3rd highest winning percentage in NCAA history (.736), behind only Michigan and the Texas Longhorns (.737).
- As of the end of the 2009 football season, Notre Dame has the 3rd most wins in NCAA history (837), trailing only Michigan (877) and Texas (845). Notre Dame also has the fewest losses of any program (291) (minimum 800 games played).
- Notre Dame has 102 winning seasons in 121 years of football, and only 13 losing seasons.
- The football program is tied with USC for most Heisman trophy winners at seven (Ohio State has seven Heisman trophies that were won by six players).
- Notre Dame has produced more All-Americans (99), consensus All-Americans (80) and unanimous All-Americans (31) in football than any other college program.
- Notre Dame is represented by 48 players and coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame, the most of any university.
- Ten former players are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, second only to USC(11). Notre Dame has produced the largest number of players to go on to play in the National Football League of any program in the country. As of the 2008 NFL draft, 463 players have been drafted.
- Helped by its status as a highly regarded academic institution (ranked 18th by U.S. News & World Report), Notre Dame is second only to Nebraska in Academic All-Americans (43).
- Since 1962, Notre Dame has graduated 98.74% of its football players in four years. As of 2006, only 13 football players in this time have left Notre Dame without finishing their degree requirements. Also of note is the 90% graduation rate of ND's African-American players (only Navy and Boston College have higher African American graduation rates).
- Notre Dame holds the NCAA record for Most consecutive wins over one opponent, beating the US Naval Academy (USNA) 43 times in a row before falling to them in 2007.
- The football program is also known for ending the Oklahoma Sooners' NCAA record winning streak of 47 games in 1957. Coincidentally, Oklahoma's 28-21 loss to Notre Dame to open the 1953 season was the last loss before the beginning of the streak.
- Notre Dame has had 12 undefeated seasons and 10 others with at most one loss or tie.
- Notre Dame is 3-3-1 in games where the national title winners from the previous two years have met in a regular season game. There have only been 11 of these games played in college football history, the most recent being LSU (2007 winner) vs. Florida (2008 winner) in 2009. Notre Dame has played in 7 of the 11 games:
- The Bowl Championship Series' "Notre Dame rule" gives the university unique privileges in the postseason, due to its independent status. If Notre Dame finishes in the top 8 of BCS teams, they are automatically selected. If they finish in the top 12, they are considered for a BCS spot. Notre Dame now receives $4.5 million for playing in a BCS game and $1 million when they do not. In essence, they are treated like a conference team in either case. This is a change from the previous arrangement in which the Irish received $14 million for a BCS appearance and no cash otherwise.
- Notre Dame is one of only three of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) teams to have never played a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) team since the divisions were created in 1978.
Number 1 vs. number 2
Notre Dame has participated in nine "#1 vs #2" matchups since the AP poll began in 1936. They have a record of 5-2-2 in such games, with a 4-0-1 record as the #1 team in such matchups. Here's a list of such games:
Historic games
Notre Dame has played in many regular season games that have been widely regarded by both the media and sports historians as historic or famous games. Notre Dame has played in many games labeled as "game of the century" games as well as several #1 vs #2 matchups, It has also participated in several games that ended record streaks in college football. The games listed are widely regarded as of historical importance to the game of college football and are written about by sports historians and make many sports writer’s lists.
- 1913 Notre Dame vs. Army ("The Forward Pass")
- 1935 Notre Dame vs. Ohio State ("Game of the Century")
- 1946 Army vs. Notre Dame ("Game of the Century")
- 1957 Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma (End of Oklahoma's NCAA record 47 game win streak)
- 1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan St. ("Game of the Century")
- 1988 Miami vs. Notre Dame (Catholics vs. Convicts)
- 1993 Florida St. vs. Notre Dame ("Game of the Century")
- 2005 Southern Cal vs. Notre Dame ("Bush Push" game)
Notre Dame has also played in several bowl games considered by many sportswriters to be among the best bowl games played:
- 1970 Cotton Bowl vs. Texas
- 1973 Sugar Bowl vs. Alabama
- 1979 Cotton Bowl vs. Houston (Chicken soup game)
History
The beginning (1887–1917)
American football did not have an auspicious beginning at the University of Notre Dame. In their inaugural game on November 23, 1887 the Irish lost to Michigan by a score of 8–0. Their first win came in the final game of the 1888 season when the Irish defeated Harvard Prep by a score of 20–0. At the end of the 1888 season they had a record of 1–3 with all three losses being at the hands of Michigan by a combined score of 43–9. Between 1887 and 1899 Notre Dame compiled a record of 31 wins, 15 losses, and four ties against a diverse variety of opponents ranging from local high school teams to other universities.
At the beginning of the 20th century college football began to increase in popularity and became more standardized with the introduction of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906. That organization would become the NCAA in 1910. Notre Dame continued its success during this time and achieved their first victory over Michigan in 1909 by the score of 11–3 after which Michigan refused to play Notre Dame again for 33 years. By the end of the 1912 season they had amassed a record of 108 wins, 31 losses, and 13 ties.
Jesse Harper became head coach in 1913 and remained so until he retired in 1917. During his tenure the Irish began playing only intercollegiate games and posted a record of 34 wins, 5 losses, and one tie. This period would also mark the beginning of the rivalry with Army and the continuation of rivalries with Michigan State.
In 1913, Notre Dame burst into the national consciousness and helped to transform the collegiate game in a single contest. In an effort to gain respect for a regionally successful but small-time Midwestern football program, Harper scheduled games in his first season with national powerhouses Texas, Penn State, and Army. On November 1, 1913, the Notre Dame squad stunned the Black Knights of the Hudson 35-13 in a game played at West Point. Led by quarterback Charlie "Gus" Dorais and end (soon to be legendary coach) Knute Rockne, the Notre Dame team attacked the Cadets with an offense that featured both the expected powerful running game but also long and accurate downfield forward passes from Dorais to Rockne.
This game has been miscredited as the "invention" of the forward pass but is considered the first major contest in which a team used the forward pass regularly throughout the game. (For example, Homer Woodson Hargiss regularly called the play for qu
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Rockne of Notre Dame: The Making of a Football Legend. (1999). 290 pp. Sperber, Murray. Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football.
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