College
Perfect Gifts At Great Prices For The Notre Dame Fan
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Notre Dame athletic teams are known as the Fighting Irish (though students are called "Domers"). Previously, and especially during the Knute Rockne football era, Notre Dame had several unofficial nicknames—among them the "Rovers" and the "Ramblers," because of those teams' propensity to travel the nation to play its football contests, such as at the University of Southern California, long before such national travel became the collegiate norm. Later, Notre Dame was also, again unofficially, known as the "Terriers," after the Irish breed of the dog, and for some years, an Irish Terrier would be found on the ND football sidelines.
Notre Dame's nickname is inherited from Irish immigrant soldiers who fought in the Civil War with New York City's Irish Brigade, recollected among other places in the poetry of Joyce Kilmer who served with one of the Irish Brigade regiments during World War I. Though the Irish regiments and Kilmer were well-known, particularly in the urban ethnic community, during the era between the Civil War and World War II, Notre Dame's claim to the nickname is justified since its third president was a famous Irish Brigade chaplain whose ministrations at Gettysburg are commemorated in the "Absolution Under Fire," part of Notre Dame's permanent art collection.
The most generally accepted explanation is that the press coined the nickname as a characterization of Notre Dame teams in the 1920s as a result of preexisting Irish stereotypes, the widely reported events of 1924, and the grit, determination, and tenacity of Coach Knute Rockne's football teams of the era. Although Notre Dame alumnus Francis Wallace popularized it in his New York Daily News columns in the 1920s with respect to the university, as early as the Civil War Father Corby and the Irish Brigade of the Union Army had been dubbed "The Fighting Irish."[citation needed]
The University of Notre Dame is most notably known for its exceptional football program. Regarded as one of the greatest college football dynasties in history, the Fighting Irish have won 11 consensus national championships and produced 7 Heisman Trophy winners. Some notable football greats are Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, Hall of Fame and Heisman Trophy winning running back Paul Hornung, as well as future Hall of Famers such as wide receiver Tim Brown (the last member of the Fighting Irish to win the Heisman Trophy) and running back Jerome Bettis. The Fighting Irish are synonymous with their coaches, a number of whom have become legends based on their outstanding won-loss records achieved while coaching the team, most notably Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz.
In 2007, Notre Dame played LSU in the Sugar Bowl where they lost to the Tigers.
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