I would like to defer to the elder statesmen

ga_tech_fan11

ga_tech_fan11

Flats Noob
Joined
Nov 17, 2002
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I am curious...How long has this lovefest in the media of ND been going on? Was ND overrated in the 50's, 60's, and 70's? I know there is a huge legacy, but come on.
 
Lets put it this way ND has been the darling of the media ever since I can remember. I saw my first Tech game before I was ten, I'm a long time football fan, I'm 70 yrs old. Still got it but age is catching up to me. Screw ND and the horse they rode in on. I have friends who went to Bama but are catholic, cheer for Bama no way ND yes.
 
As far as tradition goes, ND deserves the importance it receives.
I don't know why I "hate" them like I do, but there certainly is respect behind all that.
To me, they are the New York Yankees of college football. They are not always the best, but you know when they are coming to town.

On a side note, I would bet a dollar that ND leads the world in Tee- Shirts made and sold by clever T shirt salesmen at their road game sites.

My first notice of ND football was when I was just a kid. I think it was 1972 when SC got down 3 or 4 touchdowns in the first half, but then roared back behind Anthony Davis in the second to bury the Ish.

I do think they are legendary for getting ridiculous calls when they need them.
The only time they didn't was in '90 when the phantom clip call was made against ND during Rocket's touchdown return against CU.
That cost us half of a championship.

Overrated much of the time? Yes. Important? Yes.
 
You really don't know? You haven't heard of Knute Rockne, George Gipp, the 'Four Horsemen'......a book I have by the sportswriter Edwin Pope calls Rockne "the greatest salesman college football ever had" From 1918 to 1931 when his death in plane crash cut short his life age 43, Rockne and the Irish became as large a part of the "Roaring Trenties" as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and Prohibition.

Rockne and the Irish was the first school to travel the nation and play the best the nation had to offer.....Los Angeles to play Southern Cal, New York City to play Army.....and Atlanta to play Georgia Tech.

It could have ended with his death but the legacy of Rockne and more great coaches......Frank Leahy, Ara Parsegain.....and great players......Johnny Lujack, Paul Hornung among them have kept the 'mystique' going to this very day. Though never a Fighting Irish fan I still love to watch the 'Knute Rockne Story' and hear the fight song in the movie.
 
Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong but here is my impression (as a guy born in 1965):

Every town had a Catholic boys school. The public schools and other private schools, before the 1960's, catered to the Protestants. There was a pretty big rivalry in most towns in the US based on Catholic and Protestant football. And many of the Protestant families looked down on the Catholic school boys.

ND was able to attract Catholic school boys from all over the US to play football and had a national following as well, due to the fact that they 'represented' the Catholic general public in alot of people's eyes.

Not many other Catholic based schools were able to harness the football image that ND has. BC to some degree but I can't think of many others in Div I.

I have a Catholic co-worker who is from Kansas City and could care less about college football. However, when ND comes to town he comes to me begging for tickets. I think he sees ND as 'representing' and he likes to see his boys do well. It shows the Catholics in a good light, if they win, and maybe there is a little getting back at the Protestants as well...
 
Growing up in Toledo as I did there were only three team that played college football Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame. You were a fan of one and despised the other two. Funny enough I did not know much about southern football until the Woody Hayes incident against the Clemson player In the Gator Bowl (I think). It was not until I got recruited by some southern schools that I began to become intertested in southern football.

Back to ND. Hate em or love em it is good to have ND back.

By the way, I grew up a Michigan fan and could not and still cannot stan ND football. That being said, I have a couple of good friends that played at ND.
 
I think the yankees analogy is about right. ND definitely gets a lot of special treatment from the media, but they do deserve a lot of it. Theres a lot of great games and stories involving South Bend and the boys from there, and its gridiron holy ground (I could do without TD Jesus though, just seems tacky... like a big velvet elvis in the living room).

They're part of the old guard, that group that was part of defining the first 50 years of football that still has a real chance of taking it home every year. And I'm glad that we're playing one another again and renewing an 80 year old series thats far to heavily weighted in their favor in the W/L columns.

Hate them? Just under the mutts on teams that I like the least. Respect for them? Tons.
 
My Father grew up close to ND and my uncle is a priest from there. My Dad is a Tech fan except when ND is involved, but both of them tell me the 'truth' about playing Tech. We rarely gave ND much of a game over the last 80 years. I see our record of 5-21 and considering that we are historically a Top 30 program, that's pretty tough to swallow. I suspect that ND has beaten a few teams over the years and in Tech's case, pretty healthily now and then. Hence the ire.

I will say that Tech played ND a lot when we were in a down period and rarely when they were down. Heck, Air Force beat ND FIVE years in a row and we didn't get to play them once during that period.
 
Good post BJ.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with ND. I just love to hate them.

Why? Danged if I know, just in the breeding I suppose.

Matter of fact, I really don't even hate them, I just naturally pull for whoever ND & Sou Cal are playing, but then it's that way for anybody GT is playing.
 
RamblinPeck said:
I think the yankees analogy is about right. ND definitely gets a lot of special treatment from the media, but they do deserve a lot of it. Theres a lot of great games and stories involving South Bend and the boys from there, and its gridiron holy ground (I could do without TD Jesus though, just seems tacky... like a big velvet elvis in the living room).

They're part of the old guard, that group that was part of defining the first 50 years of football that still has a real chance of taking it home every year. And I'm glad that we're playing one another again and renewing an 80 year old series thats far to heavily weighted in their favor in the W/L columns.

Hate them? Just under the mutts on teams that I like the least. Respect for them? Tons.
Click to expand...

RamblinPeck, when I read your quote about hate them but respect them it made me think about a famous quote that I read walking up the tunnel entering Cincinnattii Moellers field. It read fear no opponent but respect them all. I still use that today coaching kids.

I hate ND and respect them greatly but I know our players in no way shape or form fear them.
 
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