Two Minnesotans traveled all the way from Minneapolis to South Bend, Indiana last Saturday to find Torii Hunter.
Well, that’s kind of misleading. Tim Murray and I attended the Notre Dame-Stanford game in search of a classic college football gameday experience. At Notre Dame Stadium we found Torii Hunter, Jr.—the son of the famous Tigers outfielder and former Twins favorite. Torii Jr. is a sophomore wide receiver for Notre Dame and he caught a couple of passes for 24 yards in the Irish’s 17-14 win over Stanford on Saturday.
There were several other players with Minnesota connections at the game including Notre Dame starting sophomore linebacker James Onwualu, the former Cretin-Derham Hall star. Stanford had more Minnesota connections than the Irish but the Cardinal player who really caught our attention with another famous name was Barry Sanders. Like his Hall of Fame football dad, young Sanders is a running back and he gained 14 yards on three rushes Saturday.
But this was no attempt to scour the rosters of Notre Dame and Stanford searching out every name—this was a quest to visit a football shrine and famous university. So our trip to Notre Dame was not a hastily planned affair, although the original intent was to see Alabama play a home game in Tuscaloosa.
Pardon my irreverence, but Tuscaloosa is where “god” once resided and we wanted to see where he did his best work. I am speaking, of course, about former Crimson Tide deity Paul “Bear” Bryant who coached Alabama to six national championships. The Bear passed away a long time ago but his legacy and impact live on. No wonder the stadium video screen at Bryant-Denny Stadium has shown the Bear drawlin’ and growlin’, “I ain’t nothin’ but a winner.”
Tim and I didn’t score seats for a big Bama game this fall so we changed our focus to Notre Dame. The Irish know a thing or two about national titles, too, claiming 13 of them—the most in college football since 1936 when the Associated Press started certifying championships.
Last Saturday we watched two of the better teams in college football as No. 9 and undefeated Notre Dame played No. 14 and one-loss Stanford. With Saturday’s win the Irish moved up to No. 6 in the Associated Press poll and the Cardinal fell to No. 25.
We saw two teams that could push and shove with anyone in the beleaguered Big Ten Conference. The quality of the football certainly made the game special but at Notre Dame there is so much more to the gameday experience including the stadium with its marvelous sightlines and devout fans.
There is a legendary story about Minnesota’s old Memorial Stadium that opened in 1924 and preceded Notre Dame Stadium. Supposedly a group of stadium planners from Notre Dame came to Minneapolis and assessed Memorial Stadium. “Gentlemen, this is how not to build a football stadium,” a group leader reportedly said.
Whatever Memorial Stadium lacked—and that certainly included inferior sightlines—Notre Dame Stadium seems to have. We sat in Section 9, Row 52, Seats 23 and 24 on Saturday. Our location, thanks to a friend with Notre Dame relationships, was on the 50-yard line—probably the best viewing for a football game I have ever experienced and that includes various Minnesota venues, plus the Rose Bowl, Michigan Stadium and Ohio Stadium.
Notre Dame Stadium, with a seating capacity of approximately 80,795, offers amazingly intimate seating. Obviously some seats are much further away from the field than others but most are between the goal lines and there are no “nose bleed locations.”
Last Saturday was a miserable weather day at Notre Dame Stadium but nearly every seat appeared filled at kickoff. The fans were loud and loyal, cheering for the Irish while “bailing” water out of raincoats and wishing they had wiper blades on their eyeglasses.
Prior to kickoff the Notre Dame public address man informed the crowd that local weather conditions included a “31 degree wind chill.” The fans laughed and applauded the announcement. Then he said temps were in the 80s at Stanford’s home in Palo Alto, California. The crowd let loose with boos.
Tim and I chuckled about that, but wished we could have “tweaked” the weather. “I would rather that it had been about eight degrees cooler so it was snowing (not a steady rain),” he said.
I didn’t make Tim feel any better telling him the normal daytime high in South Bend in early October is about 66 degrees—but the weather couldn’t drown our gameday experience. How could it when you step on to campus hours before kickoff and the sound of the famous “Notre Dame Victory March” can be heard from blocks away? Again and again the band played on…”Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame”…and the song never wore out its welcome with us.
There is an extraordinary spiritual and historical feel to the campus, although there is, of course, a touch of commercialization too including $95 tickets. Weeks ago a friend urged me to visit the Hammes Bookstore where Notre Dame clothing, plus foot wear, computers, jewelry and many other items are available for purchase. “They sell everything except books,” he wisecracked.
The Joyce Center adjacent to the stadium is open hours before the game and provides interactive games. The place is a theme park of Fighting Irish football, and part of the on-campus reminder about the school’s football glory and the men who made Notre Dame one of the most famous sports brands in American history.
We stopped at a Knute Rockne memorial in a campus building and listened to a pep talk on film from the legendary coach…”Rock’em, sock’em.” Outside the stadium is a Rockne statue along with statues of other famous Fighting Irish coaches including Lou Holtz. It was Holtz who won Notre Dame’s last national title in 1988 and just three seasons after he coached the Gophers.
Someone wrapped two neckties around Holtz’s statue on Saturday, giving the old coach a livelier look and perhaps trying to make a connection with him. And why not because Notre Dame is a spirited and sacred place where a visitor can stop and pray at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, gaze up at the statue of the Virgin Mary atop the Golden Dome and admire the Word of Life Mural of Jesus on the exterior of the Hesburgh Library. “Touchdown Jesus” as it’s known can be seen at a distance by fans inside the stadium.
From stadium personnel to students to alums to other fans, everyone we encountered at Notre Dame Stadium and on campus was courteous and helpful. They were happy as the hours approached before the game, and after a rain-soaked, windy and cold Saturday they were no doubt even happier. The Fighting Irish, now among the highest ranked teams in the land, will perhaps soon be in the conversation for an invite to college football’s first playoff next January.
As Tim and I discussed our Notre Dame experience on Sunday we knew it would be long remembered. “It was really fascinating, and makes me want to have even gone to school there,” he said.
I knew he meant that. He might have even uttered those words right after we left the stadium last Saturday—sloshing in our shoes and walking nearly a mile back to our rental car.
Enjoyed reading about your trip to the Notre Dame football game, David. I did some summer session graduate study there. I lived in residence on campus. Some of my classes were in the DeBartolo Classroom Building, across the street from the west side of the football stadium. I haven’t been there for a football game, although I hope to do so someday.