Associated Press
Thirty-nine years ago, there was a college football national championship game arranged not by computer rankings or a rubric of poll results like this season’s Alabama-Notre Dame matchup for the Bowl Championship Series title, but by the kind of primitive challenge heard in a sandlot.
In 1973, Bear Bryant, coach of undefeated Alabama, sent a wily message from the tradition-rich football fields of the Deep South to a single football-centric university in northern Indiana. Bryant was taking his No. 1-ranked squad to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, and his stated opponent of choice was a team that Alabama had never played: Notre Dame.
The undefeated, untied Fighting Irish, who entered the 1973 bowl season ranked third, had been tempted by a more lucrative offer from the...
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- In a draft of storied college football programs, Notre Dame and Alabama would go top five, easy. That's what makes the 37-day window until the Crimson Tide and Fighting Irish meet in South Florida -- with a... more »
I realize a lot of people now expect the Crimson Tide will pummel Notre Dame in a little over a month in Miami in the BCS title game. You know, "grown man football" and all. Of course, the SEC has won six national titles in a... more »
When some obscure football ne'er-do-well like this "Notre Dame" suddenly ups and makes the big-big game, its players exultant on the floor of the great Coliseum, well, in a word, Aw. When a program in this century has lost 38-0... more »
As Notre Dame is quickly discovering, when you're at the pinnacle of the gridiron world, haters gonna hate. Despite vanquishing all that stood in their path, including impressive conquests against Oklahoma and Stanford,... more »
For a guy who preaches the importance of focus, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly isn’t averse to allowing his gaze to wander on occasion. A few weeks ago, he veered from his stated mission of controlling what he can control and... more »
Email
Print
Share