For 93 Years, A Fixture on The College Football Schedule: No ND-Navy in 2020

What makes college football so special for so many is the sense of history and tradition that permeates the game – its rivalries, its pageantry, all the touchstones which keep its adherents coming back to campus year after year. No other sport, I would contend, retains such enduring loyalty and connection. No matter how the   Read Full Post

Herb Brooks Channeled Rockne in Building “Miracle on Ice” Gold-Medal Team

This weekend, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of what’s widely regarded as the greatest sports moment in American history, the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s titanic upset of the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Games of Lake Placid. The “Miracle on Ice.” It was truly a “remember where you were” moment, when hockey crossed all   Read Full Post

‘Rock’ Will Always Be No. 1 on Our List of Greatest Coaches

Another college football season is upon us. Actually, it’s not just another season; it’s a special one that celebrates the 150thanniversary of that first clash between Rutgers and Princeton on Nov. 6, 1869. Throughout the season there will be various recognitions of the rich history of the sport, starting with several “all-time college football” lists   Read Full Post

Explaining The Rockne Crash: Truth vs. Fiction

By Jim Lefebvre   An author who undertakes the telling of a significant life takes on an awesome responsibility – assuming he or she is serious about truth-telling. For the biographer of integrity, there will be years of research, mountains of materials to sift through, speculation and supposition around certain aspects of the life being   Read Full Post

Rockne’s Connections To SEC History

The Southeastern Conference was created in 1933, when 14 schools – including the 10 institutions that would become the historical core of the league – broke away from the huge, cumbersome Southern Conference. Everywhere you turned at the time, it seemed a former Notre Dame player under Coach Knute Rockne was leading the way. At   Read Full Post

Legendary Figures, Classic Battles Connect Notre Dame, Green Bay, U. of Wisconsin

Today’s announcement of the Notre Dame-Wisconsin series resuming after a 56-year hiatus opens a floodgate of historical connections. The two-game series at iconic venues – Lambeau Field in 2020, Soldier Field in 2021 – promises to be one of the toughest tickets imaginable, given the geography and the enthusiasm of the two fan bases. When   Read Full Post

“The Uber” Tailgater Grew From Gathering of ND Student Managers

It’s an annual tradition in the Joyce Center parking lot. It has its own website. It’s been featured on a CNN story about tailgating, as well as a CBS College Sports Network show. An annual invite goes out that “at least tries to be funny” and typically attracts close to 200 attendees. It’s The Admiral’s   Read Full Post

ND Group Celebrates 25 Years

Gathered for a special 25th anniversary tailgater prior to the Notre Dame-Michigan State game on Sept. 17 was a group known as The Bounty. The Bachelor’s Bounty originally started among a few 1991 classmates from Grace Hall, centered around seven roommates — two that had serious girlfriends and five that didn’t. A wager was proposed   Read Full Post

50 Years Later, It Seems Like Yesterday

The names roll off the tongue like it’s a Sunday morning in 1966, and Lindsay Nelson is bringing the nation yesterday’s Notre Dame football triumph. Terry Hanratty. Jim Seymour. Rocky Bleier. Nick Eddy. Larry Conjar. Alan Page. Kevin Hardy. Jim Lynch. Can it really be 50 years? How many kids across the Midwest – and   Read Full Post

ND Foe A Leader in Study of Concussions

It’s an image etched in the consciousness of Notre Dame fans watching the 2016 season opener at Texas. Senior co-captain Torii Hunter Jr. is prone in the end zone, his arms occasionally flailing, while a coterie of teammates and athletic trainers attend to him. Moments later, the camera picks up his dad, baseball great Torii   Read Full Post