Stanford vs. Notre Dame

When you think about a rich tradition in college football one team always is at the top: Notre Dame.

Their inaugural game was clear back on November 23, 1887 when the Irish lost to Michigan by a score of 8–0.

Notre Dame has 102 winning seasons in 121 years of football, and only 13 losing seasons.

Notre Dame has the 2nd highest winning percentage in NCAA history (.734), behind only Michigan. (.737). 

The Fighting Irish have been awarded 11 national championships and produced more All-Americans than any other Football Bowl Subdivision school. In addition, seven Fighting Irish football players have won the Heisman Trophy.

The team plays its home games on Notre Dame's campus at Notre Dame Stadium, with a capacity of 80,795. All home games are televised on NBC.

They have one of the best fight songs around (I know, I heard it at least 200 times during the game).

They are loved by their fans.  People flock from across the country to watch their beloved Fighting Irish in action. 

The uniforms' blue and gold are classic football lore.

It was joy to be there to see them play.

Especially when it was against the might Cardinal of Stanford.

We wore our Stanford attire with pride, though we were in the great minority.  It was a sea of blue and green, with two patches of red: a small section near the side of the end zone and the larger group near the tippy top of the stadium. 

You could see "Touchdown Jesus" from our rafter seats.  The small old wooden bench gave us more than one splinter during our use.  The cold breeze whipped at our faces and colored our cheeks.  The da, da, da, da-da, da da echoed from the instruments and wafted up into the air.  The leprechaun danced.  The cheerleaders kicked and the crowded roared, "Goooooooooo IRISH!"

Stanford play with abandon.  They made risky plays.  They had bold moves and soon our victory was secure. 

The Irish fans grew restless and most left with a huff and an evil word on their tongue (ask the boys about the folks 'cursing' by them, while I heard more than one angry last minute rant as they hastily exited the stadium while I roamed with a wiggly Zach, though many were directed at none other than Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh.)

The girls twirled and shook their new 'cheerleaders' (aka pom-poms) while we waited for the game to end.  We met Rich's dad and the older boys down by their lower seats. 

We smiled triumphantly in our post game pictures.

The Cardinal were victorious over the mighty Irish.

It was a day, game and memory I will never forget.

Notre Dame Campus

After we met Rich's parents in front of the stadium, we had an hour and a half before kick off so we ran around campus.  The night before I talked to my brother Jeff who had visited campus before.  He told me a few highlights to hit.  I googled 'what to see on campus' so I had an idea of where to go and what not to miss.  We grabbed lunch from a little club fundraiser BBQ and I started crossing off my list.  We saw the Main Building, Basilica, The Grotto, the Marching Band, the library and strolled through campus (though we were at a near run to get back to the stadium before kick off.)  While South Bend was a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and a place I found to be less than ideal, the campus was beautiful and we loved being there. So much history and tradition.  I felt like I needed to pinch myself to truly believe we were there.

College Football Road Trip

Rich had been working long hours for the entire month of September while he completed 4 weeks (out of 12) of his neurointerventional radiology service.  The alarm clock would sound just after 5 AM and many nights a week, he wouldn't get home until after Zach was asleep in his crib.  Rich was tired and stressed out from the demanding schedule and difficult cases.  He needed a break. 

We had wanted to take the boys to their FIRST (can you believe that?!) college football game this fall and had talked about going to the Cincinnati Bearcats vs Oklahoma on Saturday, September 25 held at the Bengals Stadium downtown.  That was the day after Rich's long month wrapped up.  It sounded like great timing.

Then one night Rich told me that Stanford was coming to South Bend, Indiana to play Notre Dame. We then realized that the Stanford game was on the same day as the UC game.  Why not go to a game we actually cared about and make it a big event?  Rich called the alumni association the next day and we bought six tickets (maximum amount they would sell us) and we started looking at hotel options.  We needed two more tickets as well.

The next day Rich told me that it just happened that his dad was going to a medical conference in Chicago that weekend.  He thought it would be so fun if we could meet them at the game.  Rich brought up the idea with his mom and by the next day she had booked two flights to Chicago instead of one, purchased 4 football tickets online, reserved hotel rooms for the group and rented a car to drive to South Bend to meet us. 

We were thrilled!!  The kids' first college football game.  Every one's first trip to South Bend.  The Cardinal and their #9 ranking.  And a weekend getaway with Rich's parents.  It was perfect!

The countdown to Notre Dame had begun....

We got up early on Saturday morning and drove for 5 1/2 hours to South Bend.  The drive to Indianapolis was fast on the freeway, but slowed down a bit once we hit US 31-North.  It was 121 miles on a divided highway with stop lights through every small town.  We were SO excited to see the South Bend signs and not another tiny town to slog through.