Of course for fans of the Fighting Irish, the extraordinary history of the team is seared into our hearts, but although it sounds unlikely, not everyone knows a lot about the Irish. Here is a short top 12 that will help you explain the team to those less fortunate.
- The Fighting Irish played their first season in 1887, and they play in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level.
- Football was first brought to the university by the Michigan Wolverines football team.
- The team’s colors are “Madonna blue” and “Papal gold”, with green worn in honor of the team mascot, the Notre Dame Leprechaun.
- Team members mostly practice either at the Cartier Field or the Guglielmino Athletics Complex (aka the gug) their two training grounds.
- The team play at the Notre Dame Stadium, which first opened in 1930 and with a capacity of 80,795.
- The stadium is famous for the Touchdown Jesus that pokes over the top of the stands. The image is a resurrected Jesus, who’s hands happen in the same position as a referee signalling a touchdown.
- The Touchdown Jesus is on the side of the Hesburgh Library and was painted by the Californian artist Millard Sheets in 1964.
- The Notre Dame University football team picked up the name Fighting Irish in the early 1920s, and the famous leprechaun mascot was designed in 1964.
- The team have won won 11 national championships, produced 96 All-Americans and 7 Heisman Trophy winners, which is more than any of their rivals in the Subdivision.
- The Band of Fighting Irish, composed of 350 members, lead the team onto the field before each home match.
- The University of Southern California Trojans are the primary rivals of the Fighting Irish and the teams have been playing each other since 1926.
- The Fighting Irish and USC fight yearly for the Jeweled Shillelagh, an irish cudgel or club. A trophy that was introduced in 1952.