Manti: A Sense of Knowing

Following an afternoon of steady showers, the skies had opened into an all-out downpour on rain-soaked Notre Dame Stadium.  Students romped with student-athletes, celebrating a dramatic goal-line stand that ended a classic, overtime victory against fellow heavyweight Stanford. Manti Te’o stood with his arm around his coach, Brian Kelly, explaining for a national audience what   Read Full Post

To The Fighting Irish…

I understand you fellows have a big game this Saturday in Los Angeles.  Please indulge me, to tell you a little about some of the big games of my day, and how Notre Dame was able to come out on top. You may have heard that in 1913 – my final year as a player   Read Full Post

A Second Chance at Senior Day

(This special contribution to Forever Irish is from Liz Lefebvre, ’09) A friend of mine had been pestering for me for weeks to consider coming to the Wake Forest game. “It will be Manti’s last home game!” he urged. I was hesitant, feeling at this point—as we were strolling around campus before the BYU game—that   Read Full Post

Mahalo Nui Loa, Manti

For more than 80 years, senior football players at the University of Notre Dame have walked down the north tunnel onto the field for the last time in their college careers.  It happens again this Saturday, when the Irish host Wake Forest, with a perfect season on the line. But it seems fair to say   Read Full Post

Irish Bring Out Best in Opponents

Watching the first half of the ND-Pitt game brought back ugly memories of quite a number of flat performances by the Irish against underdog opponents at Notre Dame Stadium in recent years. The Panthers ripped off chunks of yardage, while Notre Dame missed tackles and assignments. On offense, the Irish seemed lost, and settled for   Read Full Post

On Sportsmanship and ‘Hating’ Opponents

The most remarkable line from our coverage of Notre Dame’s 7-0 victory which ended Oklahoma’s record 47-game win streak in 1957 was this from the AP report of the game: As the game ended, when Oklahoma’s desperation passing drive was cutoff by an intercepted aerial, the crowd rose as one and suddenly gave the Notre   Read Full Post

College Football Loses a Great Friend

Not to be lost in the hubbub surrounding the Notre Dame-Stanford game was the news last week that revered college football analyst Beano Cook died in his sleep at age 81. For many of us, Beano was one of the most colorful commentators the college game has ever known.  Often imitated, never duplicated, his unique   Read Full Post

Spector Of Tragedy Haunts ND

Notre Dame is celebrating 125 years of football this fall, and it seems like the specter of tragedy is somehow linked to Irish football. From the untimely deaths of George Gipp in 1920 and Knute Rockne in 1931, to the more recent tragedies claiming the lives of recruit Matt James and videographer Declan Sullivan, the   Read Full Post

A Compromise to Remain National

The announcement of Notre Dame’s move to the Atlantic Coach Conference is probably most viewed as prudent and, in a way, inevitable.  In the ever-changing landscape of college sports, and football in particular, it makes sense to find a compromise between full-out football independence and conference affiliation.  This appears to be it. With the uncertainty   Read Full Post

Catching Up With Former ND Players

The start of the NFL season is also right around the corner and a handful of former Irish are making their marks and staking a claim to roster spots on several NFL teams. We’ve linked to stories on Brady Quinn, Ryan Harris, Tommy Zbikowski and David Bruton.  Check out where they are and what the   Read Full Post