The history of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team begins in 1887, when the University of Notre Dame fielded its first football team for a game against the Michigan Wolverines. The first football coach, James L. Morrison, started in 1894. Until 1913, the team played in a mix of intercollegiate games and games against local high schools.
One of the most famous coaches was Knute Rockne (coached 1918-1930). Under Rockne, the Irish would post a record of 105 wins, 12 losses, and five ties, and have 5 undefeated and untied seasons. After Rockne's death in 1931, he was replaced by assistant coach and former player Hunk Anderson, who resigned in 1933. He was replaced by another former Rockne player, Elmer Layden, who was able to convince the Michigan Wolverines team to resume playing after they'd stopped in 1909. That game would take place under the coaching of Frank Leahy, yet another Rockne alum and one of the winningest coaches in college football history.
After Leahy's departure due to health issues in 1954, the team faced a downward slope under Terry Brennan, partly due to cuts in football scholarships that made recruitment difficult. The 1956 season included only 2 wins, one of the worst in team's history. The next coach, Joe Kuharich, was the only coach to have a losing record at Notre Dame. Kuharich's replacement was Ara Parseghian, who brought the team back to success, with a winning percentage of .836 and a cover story in Time magazine. Under Parseighan, Cliff Brown became the first African-American quarterback to start a game for Notre Dame. Parseighan was replaced by Dan Devine, who changed the team's jerseys from navy blue & white to kelly green & gold in October 1977. Despite winning a national championship in 1977, he lacked the popular appeal of his predecessor. His successor, Gerry Faust, also struggled, and resigned in 1985 to avoid firing.
Lou Holtz, who coached from 1986 to 1996, was notable for his option offense, recruiting many future NFL players, and coaching the team's most recent undefeated season and national championship in 1988. He was replaced by his defensive coordinator, Bob Davie, in 1997. In 1999, Notre Dame was placed on probation by the NCAA for two years based on two scandals connected to the football team. The scandals and mediocre on-field results led to Davie's dismissal in 2001. He was briefly replaced by George O'Leary, but quickly resigned after misrepresentations were found in his resume. He was replaced by Notre Dame's first African American head coach, Tyrone Willingham. Willingham's first season started with an 8–0 record, but the team faltered over the following two seasons, with weak recruitment particularly in 2004.
Charlie Weis, a Norte Dame alum, became the thirtieth football coach in 2005. The 2007 season (3–9) included various negative milestones: the most losses in a single year (9); two of the ten worst losses ever (38–0 losses to both Michigan and USC); and the first 6-game losing streak for home games. Weis was eventually fired in 2009 and was replaced by Brian Kelly. On November 18, 2012, Notre Dame was ranked No. 1 in the nation in both the AP and Coaches' polls after reaching 11–0 during the regular season for the first time since 1993, also ranking No. 1 in the BCS standings for the first time in the 14-year history of the selection system.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of regular season scheduled games, Notre Dame joined the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in football for a single season and played a full slate of conference matches. They finished the season with a seven-game winning street. Kelly left the Irish in 2021 as the program's all-time winningest head coach, and was replaced by the defensive coordinator, Marcus Freeman.
Overview Early history (1887–1917)
Football did not have an auspicious beginning at the University of Notre Dame. In their inaugural game on November 23, 1887, the Irish lost to Michigan by a score of 8–0. Their first win came in the final game of the 1888 season when the Irish defeated Harvard Prep School of Chicago by a score of 20–0. At the end of the 1888 season they had a record of 1–3 with all three losses being at the hands of Michigan by a combined score of 43–9. Between 1887 and 1899 Notre Dame compiled a record of 31 wins, 15 losses, and four ties against a diverse variety of opponents ranging from local high school teams to other universities. In 1894, James L. Morison was hired as Notre Dame's first head football coach. Notre Dame took a significant step toward respectability, prominence, and stability when they hired Morison. He wrote an acquaintance after his first day on the job: "I arrived here [Notre Dame] this morning and found about as green a set of football players that ever donned a uniform... They want to smoke, and when I told them that they would have to run and get up some wind, they thought I was rubbing it in on them. "One big, strong cuss remarked that it was too much like work. Well, maybe you think I didn't give him hell! I bet you a hundred no one ever makes a remark like that again." Morrison had been hired for $40 plus expenses for two weeks.
In 1908, the win over Franklin saw end Fay Wood catch the first touchdown pass in Notre Dame history. Notre Dame continued its success near the turn of the century and achieved their first victory over Michigan in 1909 by the score of 11–3 after which Michigan refused to play Notre Dame again for 33 years. By the end of the 1912 season they had amassed a record of 108 wins, 31 losses, and 13 ties. Jesse Harper became head coach in 1913 and remained so until he retired in 1917. During his tenure the Irish began playing only intercollegiate games and posted a record of 34 wins, five losses, and one tie. This period would also mark the beginning of the rivalry with Army and the continuation of rivalry with Michigan State. In 1913, Notre Dame burst into the national consciousness and helped to transform the collegiate game in a single contest. In an effort to gain respect for a regionally successful but small-time Midwestern football program, Harper scheduled games in his first season with national powerhouses Texas, Penn State, and Army.
On November 1, 1913, the Notre Dame squad stunned the Black Knights of the Hudson 35–13 in a game played at West Point. Led by quarterback Gus Dorais and end Knute Rockne—who was soon to be legendary coach—the Notre Dame team attacked the Cadets with an offense that featured both the expected powerful running game but also long and accurate downfield forward passes from Dorais to Rockne. This game has been miscredited as the invention of the forward pass. Prior to this contest, receivers would come to a full-stop and wait on the ball to come to them, but in this contest, Dorais threw to Rockne in stride, changing the forward pass from a seldom-used play into the dominant ball-moving strategy that it is today.
Knute Rockne era (1918–1930)
Irish assistant Knute Rockne became head coach in 1918. Under Rockne, the Irish would post a record of 105 wins, 12 losses, and five ties. The 105 wins account for 12.3% of all wins in Notre Dame football history. During his 13 years, the Irish won three national championships, had five undefeated seasons, won the Rose Bowl in 1925, and produced players such as George Gipp and the "Four Horsemen". Knute Rockne has the highest winning percentage (.881) in NCAA Division I/FBS football history. Rockne's offenses employed the Notre Dame Box and his defenses ran a 7–2–2 scheme.
Rockne took over in the war-torn season of 1918 and posted a 3–1–2 record; he lost only to the Michigan Agricultural Aggies. He made his coaching debut on September 28, 1918, against Case Tech in Cleveland, Ohio and earned a 26–6 victory. Leonard Bahan, George Gipp, and Curly Lambeau were in the backfield. With Gipp, Rockne had an ideal handler of the forward pass. The 1919 team had Rockne handle the line and Gus Dorais handle the backfield. The team went undefeated and won the national championship.
Gipp died at age 25 on December 14, 1920, just two weeks after Walter Camp elected him as Notre Dame's first All-American. Gipp likely contracted strep throat and pneumonia while giving punting lessons after his final game on November 20 against Northwestern. Since antibiotics were not available in the 1920s, treatment options for such infections were limited and they could be fatal even to young, healthy individuals. Rockne was speaking to Gipper on his hospital bed when he was purported to have delivered the famous, "Win one for the Gipper" line.
John Mohardt led the 1921 Notre Dame team to a 10–1 record with 781 rushing yards, 995 passing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, and nine passing touchdowns. Grantland Rice wrote that "Mohardt could throw the ball to within a foot or two of any given space" and noted that the 1921 Notre Dame team "was the first team we know of to build its attack around a forward passing game, rather than use a forward passing game as a mere aid to the running game." Mohardt had both Eddie Anderson and Roger Kiley at end to receive his passes.
The national champion 1924 team included the "Four Horsemen" backfield of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden. The line was known as the "Seven Mules". The Irish capped an undefeated, 10–0 season with a victory over Stanford in the Rose Bowl. The 1926 team beat Army and was led by Christie Flanagan. For all his success, Rockne also made what an Associated Press writer called "one of the greatest coaching blunders in history." Instead of coaching his team against Carnegie Tech, Rockne traveled to Chicago for the Army–Navy Game to "write newspaper articles about it, as well as select an All-America football team." Carnegie Tech used the coach's absence as motivation for a 19–0 win; the upset likely cost the Irish a chance for a national title.