Excerpt: The Official Illustrated History of Fighting Irish Football

Preface by

ARA PARSEGHIAN

Foreword by

LOU HOLTZ

Introduction by

DON CRIQUI

Afterword by

BRIAN KELLY

THE OFFICIAL ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF FIGHTING IRISH FOOTBALL

TIMELESS. “Those who know Notre Dame, no explanation is necessary.

Those who don’t, no explanation will suffice.”

—Lou Holtz The mystique of Notre Dame football comes from more than its eleven consensus national championships, seven Heisman Trophy winners, and record number of players and coaches enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Notre Dame forged its football heritage through the extraordinary young men who represented the university on the field every Saturday, players who were held—and held themselves—to higher standards than anywhere else in the country. The Official Illustrated

History of Fighting Irish Football tells the illustrious story of the Fighting Irish through the words of those who helped create it.

With more than 400 rare photographs and images from the university archives, The Official Illustrated History of Fighting Irish Football is the definitive explanation of the Notre Dame experience.

THE OFFICIAL ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF FIGHTING IRISH FOOTBALL The indicia featured on this product are protected trademarks of the University of Notre Dame.

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WITH ORIGINAL ESSAYS BY

Joe Montana

Paul Hornung

Johnny Lujack

Joe Theismann

John Huarte

Johnny Lattner

Mike Townsend

Luther Bradley

Bob Crable

Murray Sperber

Bill Fischer

Dave Casper

Ken MacAfee

Reggie Brooks

Bob Williams

Brady Quinn

Ross Browner

Tony Rice

Bob, Greg, Mike, Mike Jr. & Jake Golic

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The Official ILLUSTRATED HISTORY of

FIGHTING IRISH FOOTBALL Preface by

ARA PARSEGHIAN Foreword by

LOU HOLTZ Introduction by

DON CRIQUI Afterword by

BRIAN KELLY

Table of contents

20

Preface by Ara Parseghian

24

Foreword by Lou Holtz

28

Introduction by Don Criqui

32

The Early Years From Obscurity to National Fame & Fortune

by Professor Murray Sperber

Coming Home

36 62

102

Making History by Johnny Lujack

114

Inside Competition by Bill Fischer

126

A Season to Remember by Bob Williams

138

Practice Makes Perfect by Johnny Lattner

148

Total Impact by Paul Hornung

160

No Breaking Point

168

Unwavering Support by John Huarte

176

Against All Odds by Joe Theismann

188

The Right Path by Dave Casper

208

My Coach by Mike Townsend

228

Better Players & Better People

242

Playing Against the Best by Luther Bradley

252

Mission Accomplished by Ken MacAfee

262

Two Championships, Two Coaches

by Ross Browner

272

Family and Football

by Bob, Greg, Mike, Mike Jr., and Jake Golic

282

Starting from the Bottom by Joe Montana

296

Choose Your Own Adventure by Bob Crable

306

Trust, Love, Commitment

316

Persistence Pays Off by Tony Rice

338

Timeless Tradition by Reggie Brooks

360

Working Together by Brady Quinn

382

Afterword by Brian Kelly 402

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preface

ARA PARSEGHIAN 25

D

uring the great 2012 season, Notre Dame beat a highly ranked Oklahoma team on

the road. It was a heckuva ballgame—a near-perfect win. There was lots of jubilation at maintaining the team’s perfect record and all that. And I remember dropping a note to Head Coach Brian Kelly, telling him to be wary: A football team has to come down from that high. It can’t live off last week’s performance. Your expectations and everybody’s expectations are soaring, and that’s the time you’ve got to be the most protective. A big win like that makes you a target for the next team that comes in.

Of course, when you play at Notre Dame, you’re always a target.

Everybody wants to beat Notre Dame because of our reputation, because of who we are. When a young man puts on the Notre Dame uniform, he can expect that. He can also be expected to do things the right way. He is expected to do things with class. Notre Dame has a great academic reputation, a tremendous athletic reputation, and a religious affiliation.

When you put those three things together, you’ve got what Notre Dame is: well recognized and well respected.

The Golden Dome and the statue on top stay on top in many ways beyond the football field. Still, people recognize Notre Dame for its football superiority, beginning with being dominant for so many years under head coaches Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy. The university is so successful and so well known that everything is magnified. It’s funny, because the image of Notre Dame is so magnified that before I got here, I had the impression the school is much larger in enrollment than it actually is—8,475 undergraduate students in the 2012–13 academic year, for example. Part of that impression, too, is because I had walked onto the field at Notre Dame Stadium as an opposing coach at Northwestern. And the entire stadium just erupts when Notre Dame comes onto the field. So the size of the school was a revelation when I first became the head coach in 1964.

I was so proud of the guys who went on to great careers, even outside of football.

Another revelation was that Notre Dame hadn’t had a winning season in five years when I got here. You would never think that Notre Dame could go five years without a winning record. But just like any other program, Notre Dame has had its ups and downs over the years. Things were kind of in disarray when I became the head football coach. I had some knowledge of the university and had established some relationships already because when I was the head coach at Northwestern from 1956 to 1963, we played Notre Dame four times. I had already had an 26

opportunity to meet university president Father Theodore Hesburgh, university vice president Father Edmund Joyce, and Moose Krause, the athletic director.

I saw some of them, particularly Moose, on social occasions. We might be at the same banquet together or the same golf outing together, and I had a good relationship with him. So we built on that and got the program turned around.

By our third season, we won the national championship.

In 2007, they dedicated the statue of me at Notre Dame Stadium, and I made some remarks. I looked around at a couple hundred of the players I had coached.

I was so proud of the guys who went on to great careers, even outside of football.

I told them they had been at Notre Dame four years, but I was there eleven years as the head coach, and I saw eleven classes graduate, and I had seen what they’d done since they left. We had doctors and lawyers and successful businesspeople.

We had people who had gone to work for nonprofits and people who were serving the needy.

And that’s what made an impression. That is the reason you go to this university and get an education. The Lord gave these guys football skills and the opportunity to get a scholarship. They capitalized on that opportunity, and they came back with wives and children and families and success they may not have enjoyed otherwise. That’s what Notre Dame is all about.

When Ara Parseghian was hired in 1964, he was the first Notre Dame head coach since before Knute Rockne who hadn’t attended the university. But Parseghian soon found a home in South Bend.

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The

36

Early Years 1900–1931

1

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

1924 1929 1930 37

Many legendary figures are integral to the myth-like history of the University of Notre Dame—college football’s Camelot—but there can be only one King Arthur. His name is Knute Rockne.

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Football was played in South Bend before Rockne’s arrival in 1910, and football has continued to be played there since he was tragically killed in a plane crash nearly twenty-one years thereafter, in 1931.

Never, though, has the game witnessed the success, at Notre Dame or anywhere else in the land, that the former postal clerk achieved as both a player and a head coach.

The program debuted in South Bend on November 23, 1887, when the team lost to Michigan 8–0. The rise to national prominence wasn’t immediate, but there was plenty of success, highlighted by undefeated campaigns in 1903, 1907, and 1909.

Rockne arrived on campus as a twenty-two-year-old freshman in 1910. At the time, no one could’ve envisioned that the 5-foot-8, 160-pound young man would change the college football landscape.

But in his three years as a starting end, the Irish didn’t lose a game, and after four seasons as an assistant, he was named head coach in 1918.

His teams went 105-12-5, finished undefeated five times, and won three national championships. His .881 winning percentage is the highest in college football history.

The legendary innovator and motivator was a favorite of the media, which greatly assisted in growing the program’s appeal around the country.

Alas for the Irish, Rockne wasn’t the lone hero to die young. The program’s first All-American, George Gipp, is regarded by many as the greatest player in school history. He could do it all: run, throw, kick, and defend—all with a graceful ease. Two weeks after being named Walter Camp’s most outstanding player in the land, however, Gipp died on December 14, 1920, from a throat infection.

Then there are the famed Four Horsemen, who became part of the national lexicon when the legendary sports journalist Grantland Rice wrote these words on October 18, 1924: Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley, and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.

Left: A letter penned in 1892 from Notre Dame machine shop instructor James H. Kivlan to Yale Coach Walter Camp, the premier football expert of the era. Notre Dame first fielded a team in 1887 but stopped playing in 1889 before starting up again in 1892.

Below: Notre Dame’s 1892 squad, which played two games, winning one and tying the other. Note the oversized ball of the time held by the team captain, Pat Coady.

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Above: The 1894 team went 3-1-1 over a five-game schedule.

Captain Frank Keough is holding the ball in the front row.

Left: It cost only 25 cents to gain admission to Notre Dame’s game against visiting Wabash in 1894. Notre Dame won 30–0.

Opposite, top: Ticket booth, circa 1894.

Opposite, bottom left: Tackle Frank Hanley models the Notre Dame football uniform of 1896.

Opposite, bottom right: Notre Dame’s band, circa 1890.

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Top: Members of Notre Dame’s first team in 1887 ham it up for the camera on the Main Quad.

Above: A vintage football scene from 1888 as Notre Dame hosts Michigan.

Above, right: In 1889, Notre Dame traveled to Northwestern to play its first road game. This clipping from Notre Dame’s Scholastic magazine recounts the 9–0 triumph.

Opposite, top: Notre Dame’s 1903 squad, which did not allow a point en route to an 8-0-1 record.

Opposite, bottom: A season ticket for 1903.

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Opposite: A cover of the sheet music for “Victory March,” which first was played at football games in 1909.

Above, left: An Irish setter sports a Notre Dame monogram blanket in 1930.

Above, right: Brick Top Shaun-Rhu was the first of the Irish terriers to serve as Notre Dame’s mascot.

He was given to Head Coach Knute Rockne before the Irish played Pennsylvania in 1930. Notre Dame won that game 60–20 and went on to win the national championship.

Right: Fighting Irish mascot Clashmore Mike is up and over the hurdle in this photograph from the 1930s.

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Above: A postcard from 1909 with Notre Dame’s schedule and a photo of its 7-0-1 championship team.

Left: Notre Dame versus Michigan in 1909.

Notre Dame won the Western championship by virtue of its 11–3 victory in Ann Arbor—its first win over Michigan after eight losses.

Opposite, top left: A boy and a dog “fight” over the Western championship football in 1909.

Opposite, top right: The view from the sideline at the 1909 Notre Dame–Michigan game in Ann Arbor.

Opposite, center: A ball to commemorate Notre Dame’s historic victory over Michigan in 1909.

Opposite, bottom left: A silver loving cup awarded in 1909 to first-year Notre Dame Coach Frank Longman after his team’s championship season.

Opposite, bottom right: Action from Notre Dame’s 38–0 rout of Wabash in 1909.

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GNDL 21/21: Football Game Scene - ND vs. Michigan, 1888/0421.

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Above: Game action at Cartier Field in Notre Dame, circa 1910.

Far left: The legendary Knute Rockne in his student days, circa 1913.

Left: Knute Rockne’s Monogram Club certificate for his play on the football team in the 1911, 1912, and 1913 seasons.

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Top, right: Head Coach Jesse Harper (left) poses with assistant coach Knute Rockne (center) and freshman coach Deak Jones in 1915.

Above: Fans gather on a South Bend street to await news of Notre Dame’s game at Texas in 1915. Notre Dame won 36–7.

Right: Blocking drills at a practice in 1915.

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Top: The Notre Dame football team, before a game at Army in 1913.

Center: Notre Dame end Knute Rockne on his way to a touchdown against Army in 1913.

Left: Team members and fans en route to West Point for a game against Army in 1913.

Notre Dame won 35–13 for its fourth of seven victories in an undefeated, untied season.

Opposite: A profit-and-expense statement from Notre Dame’s trip to West Point to play Army in 1913.

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Left: A schedule card, including football and track and field, for 1918.

Above: First-year Head Coach Knute Rockne with his 1918 squad. Rockne’s players include Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Curly Lambeau (third from left in the back row) and Notre Dame legend George Gipp (fourth from left in the back row).

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Postcards from Notre Dame’s perfect 9-0 season in 1919.

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Opposite: Newspaper clippings and photographs of George Gipp, one of college football’s all-time legends. Walter Camp named Gipp college football’s player of the year for 1920, but the versatile Notre Dame star died in December that year after contracting strep throat late in the season.

Left: Football helmets ready for practice in the 1920s.

Below: George Gipp with the ball during a 16–7 victory at Nebraska in 1920.

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Above: A panoramic team photo of Head Coach Jesse Harper’s 1914 squad (left to right): Coach Jesse Harper, Joe Pliska, Bill Kelleher, Freeman (Fitz) Fitzgerald, Alvin (Heine) Berger, George Kowalski, Eddie Duggan, Carleton Beh, John Miller, Emmett Keefe, George (Ducky) Holmes, Harry Baujan, Allen (Mal) Elward, Art (Bunny) Larkin, Alfred (Dutch) Bergman, John Voelkers, Lorenzo Rausch, Hugh O’Donnell [later university president], Hollis (Hoot) King, Art Sharpe, Gilbert (Gillie) Ward, Captain Keith (Deak/Deac) Jones [holding football], Charlie Bachman, Stan Cofall, Rupert (Rupe) Mills, James Odem, Ralph (Zipper) Lathrop, Charles (Sam) Finegan, Leo Stephan, Ray Eichenlaub, and assistant coach Knute Rockne.

Notre Dame went 6-2 that season, falling only to powerful squads from Yale and Army.

Left: Captain Frank Coughlin is pictured on this postcard from 1920. Notre Dame’s back-toback victories over Army and Purdue were part of a 9-0 season.

Below: A big crowd is on hand for Homecoming against Nebraska in 1921. Notre Dame won 7–0.

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Opposite: Notre Dame’s schedule and results for 1924.

Head Coach Knute Rockne’s first national championship squad added a 27–10 victory over Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

Above: Days after New York Herald Tribune sportswriter Grantland Rice coined the “Four Horsemen” nickname for the 1924 Notre Dame backfield, student publicity aide George Strickler arranged this iconic photo of (left to right) right halfback Don Miller, fullback Elmer Layden, left halfback Jim Crowley, and quarterback Harry Stuhldreher.

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The 1923 offensive starters posed in formation on Cartier Field: Front row (left to right): Clem Crowe, Gene Oberst, Noble Kizer, Adam Walsh, Captain Harvey Brown, Gus Stange, and George Vergara. Back row: Don Miller, Harry Stuhldreher, Elmer Layden, and Jim Crowley.

and welcomed students of all faiths. Thus, Knute Rockne, a Norwegian Lutheran, came as a student in

From Obscurity to National Fame & Fortune

1910 and stayed to become Notre Dame’s greatest

by Profes sor Murr ay Sperber

sports map, and defeating Army in 1913 brought

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If you drive in northern Indiana on Interstate 65, you pass the town of Renssalaer and a sign announces “St. Joseph’s College.” If your car could become a time machine and return to 1900, you would find St. Joseph’s, a small Catholic school as obscure at the time as another small Catholic school located about sixty miles directly northeast: the University of Notre Dame.

During the twentieth century, both schools grew, but today, according to US News & World Report, Notre Dame is ranked eighteenth overall among universities in the United States, not far behind Cornell and Brown, and

football coach as well as the entrepreneurial genius who built Notre Dame football into a national institution.

Rockne’s greatest player, George Gipp, was Protestant, and although many of the coach’s other All-Americans were Catholic, some were Protestant or Jewish.

Other photos reveal some crucial facts about Notre Dame history: In 1909, beating the University of Michigan, a football powerhouse, helped put Notre Dame football and the school on the Midwest attention to Notre Dame in the east. But in the first game against Army, as important as the use of the forward pass was the scheduling of the game itself.

In 1908, Notre Dame had applied to join the Western Conference (forerunner of the Big 10) and been turned down, in part, because of Notre Dame’s small size but also because of the anti-Catholicism of faculty members at the conference’s member schools. As a result, Notre Dame had to look beyond the Midwest for major opponents. In 1912, Jesse Harper, Notre Dame’s athletic director and football coach, wrote to a number of eastern schools, including Army, one of the great teams of the time, and obtained a game at West Point.

St. Joseph’s is twenty-seventh in the Regional College

This began the long and profitable series with Army;

(Midwest) category. Moreover, Notre Dame’s endowment

moreover, in the 1920s, the schools moved the annual

is over $6.3 billion, while St. Joseph’s is $20.3 million.

game down the Hudson to the large baseball stadiums

How did Notre Dame become so rich and important,

in New York City, and it became an important national

whereas St. Joseph’s remained a small Catholic college?

sporting event.

Two words explain it: winning football. Notre Dame had it and used it well, and St. Joseph’s never tried to have it.

In 1926, Notre Dame applied again to the Western Conference and was again turned down; this rejection

Notre Dame, because of its athletic culture—begun

forced Notre Dame to schedule other games in distant

by the priests in the nineteenth century to keep students

places, and the series with USC started in 1926 and

active and out of trouble—emphasized athletics as part

the one with Navy in 1927. Fans throughout the country

of the school experience. The boys played all sports and

wanted to see the Fighting Irish. The key to Notre Dame’s

wanted to try new ones, such as football. The priests

success was winning—the more games the school won,

organized them into hall teams, and interhall games

the more fans it attracted. (To this day, Rockne has

soon evolved into the best players forming a varsity

the highest winning percentage of any major college

team to play the varsities of other schools, first in

football coach.)

baseball and track, then in football.

Up to the 1920s, most fans of college football were

The photo of the 1895 team reveals a crucial

students, alumni, and middle-class people who lived in

demographic fact about Notre Dame in this era: Many

the area around the school. Notre Dame had these fans,

of the players were Catholic, but others were Protestant,

but with the success of Rockne’s teams in the 1920s,

and at least one was Jewish. Unlike most Catholic

particularly their great triumphs in New York City, many

schools during this period, Notre Dame was ecumenical

working-class people—who previously had no interest

63

The 1895 team went 3-1 under Head Coach H.G. Hadden.

in college sports—started supporting Notre Dame.

By the time of Rockne’s death in 1931, the fame

Many were Catholic, but many poor Protestants and

and good fortune of the Fighting Irish had become

Jews also became Notre Dame fans. The press called

self-perpetuating, with the fan base ever growing and

these supporters “the Subway Alumni”—people who

young fans dreaming of playing for or at least attending

loved and identified with Rockne’s ethnic mix of players

Notre Dame. As a former executive vice president,

and cheered particularly loudly when Notre Dame beat

Reverend Edmund P. Joyce, CSC, who was in charge of

snooty Ivy League opponents like Princeton.

Notre Dame athletics for thirty-five years, told me,

Rockne and other Notre Dame officials were well aware of the Subway Alums. Thus, when national

“From the 1930s and for many years after, we didn’t recruit players; we gathered them.”

radio began in the 1920s and other schools sold their

The Hollywood film Knute Rockne, All American

broadcasting rights to the highest bidder, Notre Dame

solidified Notre Dame’s fame and success with a large

gave away its rights for free: The school’s premise was

part of the American public. Part fiction, part fantasy, it

to allow as many fans as possible to hear its games and

became a mythic work, and the actor who played George

to keep building its fan base. As a result, all national

Gipp went on to become a two-term US president who

and many local networks broadcast Notre Dame games,

loved his association with the University of Notre Dame,

and as the team continued to win, Subway Alumni

all thanks to winning football.

appeared in all parts of the country. (This free-rights policy continued until after the end of World War II.)

Murray Sperber is a visiting professor in the Cultural

Success on the football field also provided a river of

Studies of Sport in Education program in the Graduate

money for the University of Notre Dame. The box office

School of Education at the University of California,

receipts helped build many parts of the campus in the

Berkeley. He is the author of Shake Down the Thunder:

1920s and aided the school during the Great Depression.

The Creation of Notre Dame Football, for which he

The money also helped Notre Dame hire additional lay

had access to previously uncatalogued material in the

faculty during these and subsequent decades.

university’s archives.

64

Top: A game ticket to the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day 1925.

Above: Jim Crowley carries the ball in the 1925 Rose Bowl.

Notre Dame overcame a valiant performance by hobbled Stanford star Ernie Nevers to win 27–10.

Opposite: The game program for the 1925 Rose Bowl against Stanford. It was the first time Notre Dame played in any bowl game.

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316

Trust, Love, Commitment 1986–present

5

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

1988

317

In Brian Kelly’s third season as head coach, he improbably guided the Irish to an undefeated regular season and a berth in the BCS National Championship Game against Alabama. This was historic for many reasons, foremost of which was that Notre Dame had last entered January still in the national-title picture in 1993, nearly two decades before.

318

There was something else, though. Maybe it was a coincidence, but Kelly became the fifth coach in program history to lead the Irish to the brink of the Promised Land in his third season at the helm. Previously, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, and Lou Holtz had each claimed a national crown at the end of his third campaign.

One of the most treasured personalities to grace the South Bend campus, Holtz arrived on the scene in November 1985. After an admitted steep learning curve in terms of just how seriously Irish fans take their football, Holtz came to the realization in spring 1988 that the expectation was really quite simple: His team was required to win every game—history and tradition demanded nothing more, nothing less.

Sure enough, a team judged “a year away” won them all in 1988, going 12-0, including a classic-for-the-ages 31–30 upset of the University of Miami, which entered the contest winners of thirty-six straight regularseason games. The Irish played like champions from start to finish and won the eleventh national title in program history.

Holtz holds the record for most games coached (132) and is second to only Knute Rockne in wins with 100. The Irish played in nine straight New Year’s Day bowl games under his watch. And Holtz coached the school’s seventh Heisman winner, wide receiver Tim Brown.

No school has won more national championships and Heisman Trophies than Notre Dame.

And under Kelly’s leadership, the Camelot of college football is poised to win a few more of each in the years to come.

Right: Head Coach Lou Holtz talks at halftime of a basketball game in 1986, shortly after becoming Notre Dame’s football coach. By Holtz’s second season, the Irish were in the Cotton Bowl; by his third year, they were national champs.

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Steve Beuerlein had his finest season in 1986 under Lou Holtz, throwing for 2,211 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Left: A game program from 1986 when Notre Dame hosted Penn State.

Below: The 1986 schedule card, featuring new Head Coach Lou Holtz.

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Top: Lou Holtz talks with a player during his debut game against Michigan as Notre Dame’s head coach.

Above: Defensive tackle Wally Kleine wraps up Alabama’s Bobby Humphrey in 1986.

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Tight end Andy Heck catches a pass against Michigan in 1986.

The student section at Notre Dame Stadium during a game in 1986 as the band plays “The 1812 Overture.�

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Top, left: Tim Brown strikes a Heisman pose. Brown won the award as college football’s top player for the 1987 season.

Top, right: Brown was a flanker, but the versatile star ran the ball and returned kicks in addition to catching passes.

Above: Notre Dame’s Heisman Trophy winners (from left to right): Johnny Lujack, Angelo Bertelli, Leon Hart, Tim Brown, Paul Hornung, John Huarte, and Johnny Lattner.

327

Above: Tim Brown looks for running room against Michigan in the 1986 opener.

Right: Brown launched his campaign for the 1987 Heisman during Notre Dame’s comefrom-behind victory at USC to close the 1986 season.

Here, a ticket from that game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

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Flanker Tim Brown averaged 172 all-purpose yards (rushing, receiving, and returns) in Notre Dame’s twenty-two games in 1986 and 1987.

Persistence Pays Off

by Ton y Rice 1987–89 338

It really wasn’t my decision to go to Notre Dame—it was my grandmother’s. Coming from the South, we always listened to our elders.

I wanted to go home to South Carolina my freshman year because I didn’t like it. I was a Proposition 48 student—I hadn’t yet met the grades and standardizedtest requirements—and I wasn’t playing. But my grandmother was very wise. She told me, “If you start something, you finish it.” It took only one phone call.

You don’t ask things twice. I’m glad she really pointed me in the right direction. Without her, I wouldn’t have been at Notre Dame.

Since I wasn’t playing football my first year, it was like something had been taken away from me that I had been doing almost all my life. I felt as if I wasn’t contributing anything. And it was intimidating for me at first. But part of Notre Dame is that it has guys who really want players to stick it out. They told me, “Listen, you be one of the first Proposition 48 guys to succeed.

You have the resources. You have the tools. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.” Notre Dame is structured so there aren’t that many people in each class. I wasn’t just a number; I was an actual student.

Even though I was not able to practice my freshman year, the people who lived with me in the dorms and were in my classes—my friends—were willing to help.

Throwing the football with them in the quad, that was my practice. I still keep in touch with some of those people who were my classmates and didn’t have anything to do with football. It would be good if schools could do that with every kid, enabling them to just participate in the classroom and get to know the people who are their peers.

Top: Quarterback Tony Rice entered Notre Dame in 1987 and graduated with a degree in psychology in the spring of 1990.

Above: Rice made Head Coach Lou Holtz’s option offense click from 1987 to 1989.

339

Rice quarterbacked the Irish to twenty-eight victories in thirty-one career games as a starter,

It was tough not being able to play. I think I went to only two games; the first was Michigan and the last one

including twenty-three wins in a row from 1988 until late in the 1989 season.

that always stuck in my mind. I knew I would always be blue and gold.

was Penn State. I’d rather sit in the dorm. My roommate,

We won the national championship my junior year,

Dean Brown, was playing, and he helped me understand

but I was most proud of graduating. The most prized

that if you really want something bad enough, you will

possession I have from Notre Dame is my diploma. I gave

do it. He told me, “Here’s your stepping-stone. I’m going

it to my grandmother, and when she passed away, I gave

to help. We’ll go study together. We don’t need to talk

it to my mom. My mom passed away, so now I have it.

about football right now.”

My story is about a guy who didn’t meet Notre Dame’s

As a kid, I always wanted to be in the band. For

academic standards at first, but who worked hard and

some reason, I loved the drums. But I didn’t have

accomplished some things in the classroom and on the

enough money to buy drums, so I went the easy route,

football field. The message is that if I can do it, anyone

and that was playing football and basketball and running

can do it. It started off rocky but turned out great in the

track. But I never wanted people to look at me as just an

end. I wouldn’t go back and change anything.

athlete; I wanted them to see me as a good person: They trusted me on the football field, but will they trust me in the business world?

So that freshman year was very valuable. It made me a

Tony Rice was the starting quarterback on the 1988

better person. Coach Lou Holtz said going to Notre Dame

national

was not a four-year decision, but a forty-year plan, and

Notre Dame in 1990 with a degree in psychology.

championship

team

and

graduated

from

340

Top: Running back Ricky Watters in the open field against Michigan in 1988.

Left: Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winner Angelo Bertelli (1943) on the cover of the game program against Michigan in 1988.

Above: Andre Jones and a Michigan player have a polite disagreement in 1988. Jones and the Irish got in the last word with a 19–17 victory over the ninth-ranked Wolverines.

341

Above, left: The Irish’s option offense relied on quarterback Tony Rice’s ability to read the defense.

Above, right: Rice on the move against Stanford in 1988, with the option to run or pitch.

Left: Tony Brooks bursts through a hole against Stanford in 1988. Notre Dame won easily 42–14.

Left: Quarterback Tony Rice breaks free down the sideline en route to a 65-yard touchdown run in No. 1 Notre Dame’s 27–10 victory over No. 2 USC in 1988.

Center: Stan Smagala is off and running after intercepting a pass late in the second quarter against USC in 1988. Smagala’s 64-yard touchdown return put Notre Dame ahead 20–7 at halftime.

Bottom: Mark Green is over the goal line with his second touchdown of the day to seal Notre Dame’s 27–10 win over USC in 1988. Offensive linemen Andy Heck (66) and Dean Brown (71) help celebrate.

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Opposite: USC had no answer for Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice in a matchup of No. 1 versus No. 2 in 1988. Rice made the following week’s cover of Sports Illustrated.

Opposite, bottom: Football schedule from the 1988 season.

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Above: Tight end Derek Brown caught three touchdown passes for Notre Dame’s 1988 national champs.

Far left: The buildup to No. 4 Notre Dame’s matchup with No. 1 Miami in 1988 was immense, including a preview issue of the campus newspaper, The Observer.

Left: A coveted ticket in 1988.

Notre Dame’s 31–30 victory over Miami helped propel the Irish to the national championship.

Opposite, top: Notre Dame Stadium on game day against Miami in 1988. The Irish’s 31–30 victory snapped the Hurricanes’ thirty-six-game regular-season winning streak.

Opposite, bottom: Safety Pat Terrell on his way to the end zone on a 60-yard interception return against Miami in 1988. Terrell is best remembered, though, for breaking up the Hurricanes’ potential game-winning two-point conversion pass in the end zone in the final minute.

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Above: Big-play wide receiver and return man Raghib “Rocket” Ismail was a freshman starter for Notre Dame’s national champs in 1988. He earned All-America honors in 1989 and was a unanimous All-America selection in 1990.

Left: Rocket scored 15 touchdowns in his career.

They averaged a whopping 61 yards per play.

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Top: The speedy Ismail amassed more than 1,000 yards rushing (1,015), receiving (1,565), and returning kicks (1,607) in his three seasons with the Irish.

Above, left: Ismail receives his Walter Camp Award as the college player of the year for 1990.

(Head Coach Lou Holtz, right.)

Above, right: An NFL Pro Set trading card featuring Rocket.

This page: USC defenders have a hard time keeping up with Notre Dame running back Ricky Watters in a 1987 game. The tenth-ranked Irish won 26–15.

Opposite, top: Quarterback Tony Rice heads upfield against West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl following the 1988 season.

Opposite, bottom: Head Coach Lou Holtz on the sidelines at the 1989 Fiesta Bowl. Top-ranked Notre Dame beat No. 3 West Virginia 34–21 to clinch the national championship.

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Above: The celebration is on after Notre Dame’s national championship–winning victory over West Virginia in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl.

Left: A game ticket for the Fiesta Bowl on January 2, 1989.

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Top: Fans and players swarm the field after Notre Dame beat West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl to cap a perfect 1988 season.

Left: A schedule card for 1988, with game results helpfully filled in.

Above: The 1989 Fiesta Bowl Trophy.

Left: The Sports Illustrated cover after Notre Dame’s national championship–clinching victory over West Virginia in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl.

Below, left: Notre Dame’s 1988 national championship ring.

Below, right: More spoils from the 1988 title-winning season: the USA Today/CNN Top 25 championship trophy.

Opposite: Another line added to the list of Fighting Irish national champions on the locker room stairway.

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Above: Quarterback Tony Rice carries the ball against Colorado in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day 1990.

Left: A program from the Orange Bowl in the 1989 season. The Irish capped a 12-1 year and squashed Colorado’s national-title hopes with a 21–6 victory.

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Above: The Irish defense reacts after a big play in the 1990 Orange Bowl against Colorado.

The Buffaloes were undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country, but Notre Dame won 21–6.

Left: A schedule card from the 1989 season. Pictured from left to right: captains Tony Rice, Ned Bolcar, and Anthony Johnson.

Out of the tunnel and onto the field for the season opener against Michigan in 1990.

The No. 1 Irish beat the No. 4 Wolverines 28–24.

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Above: Tony Brooks takes the ball on a 2-yard touchdown run in the first quarter of Notre Dame’s 28–24 victory over Michigan in 1990.

Left: Rick Mirer capped his first possession as a starting quarterback with a short touchdown run against Michigan in 1990. That moment was captured on the cover of the next week’s Sports Illustrated.

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Above: Notre Dame defenders leap high above the pile on a Miami field-goal try in a 1990 game.

Left: Fans celebrate on the field after the No. 6 Irish toppled second-ranked Miami 29–20 at Notre Dame Stadium in 1990.

Working Together

by Br ady Quinn 20 03– 0 6 382

My overall goal when I first got to Notre Dame was kind of simple: I wanted to leave the place better than it was when I got there.

In high school, I was almost ready to commit to Michigan. It was close to home but not too close, and obviously a great academic school, and it had a great pedigree of quarterbacks going into the NFL. Everything seemed to kind of fit. I hadn’t heard much from Notre Dame, but I had a high school teammate, Chinedum Ndukwe, who had gone to Notre Dame for a visit, and his father told my father that he had to get me up there. We had already set up our visits, and Notre Dame wasn’t one of them. We ended up taking an academic visit, and I fell in love with it. Notre Dame was the only place to which I felt spiritually drawn, where I could develop as a man. But without the encouragement of the Ndukwe family, I don’t think I would have ever given it a second look.

When the freshman class got there in the summer, we couldn’t take classes yet. We were working out and hanging out, and there was a lot more time for different guys to bond. We were extremely close-knit. We always looked out for one another and tried to take care of one another. That’s obviously where it all started.

Trust was probably one of the biggest factors in what made us successful. You could go down the line of the different receivers, and you could trust that they were going to be in the right place at the right time.

They were going to get open when it looked like it’d be tough to get open.

That trust was the culmination of three things: It was the effort we gave during practice. It was the time we

Top: Quarterback Brady Quinn joined teammates Tom Zbikowski, a linebacker, and Travis Thomas, a safety, on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s College Football Preview Issue for 2006.

Above: Quinn wore the gold helmet for Notre Dame from 2003 to 2006. Among his career passing records: most yards (11,762) and most touchdowns (95).

Opposite: Brady Quinn celebrates after Notre Dame defeated Georgia Tech in Atlanta on September 2, 2006.

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spent outside the organized team activities—throwing

the goal line and looking over and seeing the officials

to each other and working out together—that created

signal a touchdown. We were celebrating in the end

a bond. And it was hanging out off the field, going out

zone, and I was thinking we had just beaten the No. 1

Friday and Saturday nights and getting to know each

team in the country. I felt we were going to the national

other so well that we could anticipate how an individual

championship game and everything we had worked for

would react in a given scenario.

was coming together. Obviously, in the ensuing seconds

Statistics are just statistics. As a quarterback, they just mean I played with a lot of great men. I was

of that game, that didn’t happen to be the case. But that’s just how life is.

very fortunate to have had not only great players

When our freshman class came in, we always

as teammates but a great coaching staff as well.

wanted to win the national championship. We made

Coach Charlie Weis was very blunt and up front. You

some strides, but we never got to the big game, like we

always knew where you stood. From Day 1, everything

wanted to. I think that was the one number that hurt.

philosophically made sense. He taught me to be an

But I felt like we left Notre Dame a better place, and

extension of him on the field and to understand what he

we have great memories that we can always cherish.

was trying to accomplish with each play. I think that was

Going to Notre Dame was the best decision of my life.

a big part of our success.

No one ever wants to think of a loss as their most

Brady Quinn set thirty-six Notre Dame records, including

memorable game, but the moment I remember the

most career completions (929), yards per game (239.6),

most was the last shot we had on offense against USC

and touchdown passes (95), and he won the 2006

my junior year, when we went ahead before USC came

Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the nation’s best

back to win at the end. I remember reaching across

senior quarterback.

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When Notre Dame hosted Boston College in 1995, the program cover celebrated 150 years of the Band of the Fighting Irish. No. 12 Notre Dame won 20–10.

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Lou Holtz tips his cap after the final home game—a 62–0 rout of Rutgers—of his illustrious eleven seasons as Notre Dame’s head coach.

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Top: Another sellout crowd—but a larger one after the expansion of Notre Dame Stadium— watches the Irish beat Georgia Tech 17–13 in 1997.

Above: An admission ticket for the Stadium Rededication Game in 1997. In the off-season, Notre Dame Stadium was refurbished and expanded, adding more than 20,000 seats.

Left: The game program for the 1997 season opener against Georgia Tech.

Opposite: Cheerleaders had reason to celebrate during a game against Stanford in 2000. The Irish’s 20–14 win marked their eight hundredth all-time victory.

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Above: Running back Julius Jones breaks off a big gain against USC in 1999.

Left: A game ticket to watch college football’s top intersectional rivalry: Notre Dame versus USC in 1999.

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Above: A view of the scoreboard with time winding down in Notre Dame’s one-point victory over USC in 1999.

The Irish overcame a 24–3 second-half deficit.

Left: This football schedule card from the late 1980s featured a prayer from famed Head Coach Knute Rockne.

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Above: These Irish fans literally wore the green and gold for a game against Nebraska in 2000.

Right: Notre Dame opened the 2002 season with eight consecutive victories. No. 4 in that string was a 21–17 victory at Michigan State, after which Maurice Stovall was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Opposite, top: Helmets raised high after a 17–10 victory at No. 3 Michigan in 2005.

Opposite, bottom: No, those aren’t real jerseys. Notre Dame fans are ready for kickoff in 2002.

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Above: Quarterback Brady Quinn looks downfield against Navy in 2005. Quinn passed for four touchdowns as the seventhranked Irish won 42–21.

Left: The 2006 schedule card, featuring a drawing of Heisman Trophy winner John Lattner. The Irish won ten games and earned a Sugar Bowl berth in the 2006 season.

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Above: Safety Tom Zbikowski and the Irish are ready to take on Navy in 2005.

Right: Notre Dame’s series with Navy dates to 1927; a program cover from the 2009 game.

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The Golden Domers huddle during pregame warm-ups.

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Top: Tight end Tyler Eifert caught 140 passes for Notre Dame from 2009 (he played in only one game that year because of injury) to 2012.

Above: With 63 catches in 2011, Eifert broke Ken MacAfee’s single-season school record for receptions by a tight end.

Right: Eifert hauls in a 31-yard touchdown pass from Tommy Rees during Notre Dame’s 27–3 victory over Army at Yankee Stadium in 2010.

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Left: Manti Te’o pressures Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson during Notre Dame’s 13–6 victory in 2012.

Below: Tight end Tyler Eifert and the Irish celebrate a touchdown during a 50–10, season-opening rout of Navy in Dublin in 2012.

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Above: Running back Julius Jones, who set a Notre Dame record with 5,462 all-purpose yards (rushing, receiving, and returns) from 1999 to 2001 and in 2003, is in the end zone for a touchdown against Navy.

Right: Running back Jonas Gray takes no chances with ball security in a game against South Florida in 2011.

A packed house—as usual—at Notre Dame Stadium for a victory over Pittsburgh in 2012.

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Preface by

ARA PARSEGHIAN

Foreword by

LOU HOLTZ

Introduction by

DON CRIQUI

Afterword by

BRIAN KELLY

THE OFFICIAL ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF FIGHTING IRISH FOOTBALL

TIMELESS. “Those who know Notre Dame, no explanation is necessary.

Those who don’t, no explanation will suffice.”

—Lou Holtz The mystique of Notre Dame football comes from more than its eleven consensus national championships, seven Heisman Trophy winners, and record number of players and coaches enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Notre Dame forged its football heritage through the extraordinary young men who represented the university on the field every Saturday, players who were held—and held themselves—to higher standards than anywhere else in the country. The Official Illustrated

History of Fighting Irish Football tells the illustrious story of the Fighting Irish through the words of those who helped create it.

With more than 400 rare photographs and images from the university archives, The Official Illustrated History of Fighting Irish Football is the definitive explanation of the Notre Dame experience.

THE OFFICIAL ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF FIGHTING IRISH FOOTBALL The indicia featured on this product are protected trademarks of the University of Notre Dame.

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