The History of Notre Dame Football

The University of Notre Dame was founded in 1842 and debuted the football program on November 23, 1887, taking a loss to Michigan (1). 

The Irish and all of the American football world would be locked in a scrum of dust until rule changes were made in 1906, allowing for the forward pass.  While college teams like St. Louis University adopted and crushed opponents with their newly adopted air attack, most teams chose to remain in the conservative run game of seasons past.  The forward pass would gain slow acceptance among college programs until Rockne, Dorias, and Cedar Point Beach came together one summer in 1913. 

Notre Dame legends Knute Rockne and Charles “Gus” Dorais were Fighting Irish senior teammates and roommates in 1913. Before that 1913 season, Rockne and Dorais spent the summer on the beach at Cedar Point, working as lifeguards. In their spare time, the two practiced the intricacies of the still relatively newfangled forward pass along the beach. Timing, release points, precise patterns, and catching the ball without breaking stride were the points of emphasis for the duo (2).

1. "Notre Dame Football History," accessed October 30, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20170928060038/http://madeira.hccanet.org/project2_spring2013/groenep2/history.html

2. Lou Somogyi, “And It Came to Pass,” Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website (https://und.com/, October 17, 2013), https://und.com/and-it-came-to-pass/.