Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Tickets - NCAA Football Tickets - Notre Dame Stadium Tickets

Staff Writer Russell Puntenney
Americans just can’t get enough of Irish culture and its many symbols: leprechauns, four leaf clovers, and that unmistakable accent find their way into everything from the movies we watch to the cereal we eat every morning, and St. Patrick’s Day has become as much an American holiday as an Irish one. No Irish entity is celebrated quite to the same extent as the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, however, and rightfully so ; the prolific university in South Bend, Indiana has housed one of the most elite teams in the history of college football since its founding in 1842.

Surprisingly, there is no definitive answer as to where or when their nickname originated, but the team spent most of the 1800’s as simply the “Catholics.” The media began to consistently refer to them by their now nostalgic title around the 1920’s, already recognizing the team as holding a unique place in the world of sports. In 1928, the team’s anthem, “Notre Dame Victory March,” first appeared under the copyright of the University of Notre Dame, a song which would later be recognized by college football as “the greatest of all fight songs” in 1969.

This was indeed the golden age of Notre Dame football, under the guidance of legendary coach Knute Rockne, who set the record for all-time winning percentage during his 13 year career at 88.1 percent and winning anywhere from three to six national championships between 1918 and 1930, depending on who you ask (there was no official “national champion” determined during this era, so the designation is unfortunately left to interpretation). He also coached the team to five undefeated seasons and secured his place in history with his 1928 “Win one for the Gipper” speech, which refers to Notre Dame’s multi-talented star, George “Gipper” Gipp, who mysteriously died of pneumonia in 1920 just two weeks after being named the school’s first All-American.

After Rockne, the team continued to thrive, winning four national championships during the 1940’s and accumulating at least 11 altogether (again, the early years are arguable) with its 1988 win over West Virginia. They became easily the nation’s most loyally supported team along the way, and surely no team in college football can match the legions of Notre Dame fans that walk among us.

Since 1988, however, the team has failed to produce the results expected from a squad that used to dominate the rankings so often, as other schools have grown in both size and ability and the playing field has finally been evened. In seven bowl game appearances between 1994 and 2004, Notre Dame could not notch a single victory, even suffering an embarrassing 41-9 loss to Oregon State in the 2000 Fiesta Bowl.

Hope arrived, however, with the 2004 hiring of former New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis as head coach, and the brilliant performance of quarterback Brady Quinn in 2005. Under Weis’s system, Quinn broke virtually every Notre Dame passing record that season and is on pace to break even more in his senior year. He already owns all-time Irish records for career passing yards, touchdown passes, attempts, completions, and yards-per-game.

Weis, meanwhile, has signed a contract to coach the team for another ten years, a promising deal for both him and the countless Irish fans filling the seats of Notre Dame Stadium, which was remodeled in the 1990’s to hold up to 80,000 of them at any given time. The stadium of course lies just feet away from “Touchdown Jesus,” the awe-inspiring shrine to which all college football fans revere, an enormous painting of the holy figure with his arms outstretched as if to indeed signal a “touchdown” on the wall of the Hesburgh Library.

The Fighting Irish’s biggest rivals are the University of Michigan and the University of Southern California. Other important games on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish schedule each year are; Notre Dame vs. Pitt, Notre Dame vs. Michigan State, and Notre Dame vs. Purdue.

The Notre Dame mascot is The Leprechaun and the team colors are blue and gold. Notre Dame Fighting Irish games draw fans from all parts of the country. Notre Dame Fighting Irish fans are some of the most loyal fans in the country. Fighting Irish fans know how to party. Rockin tailgators can be found in all the parking lots outside Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame Stadium parking can fill-up early on game day.

South Bend hotels book-up many months in advance of each game. Finding a hotel room on football Saturday in and around South Bend can be difficult. Nearby cities where you may be able to find a hotel room include; Niles, Michigan, Mishakawa, Elkhart, St. Joseph, and La Porte.

Swickets.com is your source for Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets and all NCAA football tickets. Swickets.com has a huge selection of Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets available online or over the phone for all home and away games. Once the Notre Dame Stadium box office and the Notre Dame Stadium ticket windows are sold-out, Swickets.com is your source for cheap Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets. Swickets.com has the best prices on Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets guaranteed by the Swickets.com price-match policy. See the Notre Dame Stadium seating chart for ticket locations. Notre Dame Fighting Irish parking passes can typically be purchased on Swickets.com. They are listed along side the game tickets. You can buy Notre Dame Fighting Irish football tickets and parking passes up until game-time in many cases.

For more information about Notre Dame football, visit http://und.cstv.com/.