Four Horsemen of Notre Dame: II

The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame rode into national prominence after Grantland Rice’s article in the New York Herald Tribune and a staged picture of the quartet which was printed in the Chicago Tribune a few days later. In the picture, the four Notre Dame football players were seated atop four horses on a football field. After the publicity stunts the Notre Dame Fighting Irish went on a winning streak. The Horsemen became the most famous college football players of their day.

In 1924, they completed an undefeated season with a win over Stanford in the Rose Bowl. They were declared National Champions, one of the greatest Notre Dame teams in history. Though by today’s standards the Four Horsemen probably would not have made very good college football players, they ended up playing 30 games together and only lost two.

Impressed by tales of the Irish of yore? Well get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets at StubHub.com to see a team that could be legendary years from now.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 31, 2007 - Post a comment

The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame

One of the most famous groups of players in Fighting Irish history, and indeed American sports history, is the legendary “Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.” The Four Horsemen were comprised of the backfield of the 1924 Irish team coached by Knute Rockne. The phrase was coined by a sports writer for the New York Herald Tribune named Grantland Rice, who was famous for his colorful, poetic descriptions. After Notre Dame beat a favored Army team he wrote,

“Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.”

The Four Horsemen were actually quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, left halfback Jim Crowley, right halfback Don Miller and fullback Elmer Layden. They enjoyed great success over the years. Stay tuned tomorrow for more info on the famous Horsemen. While you’re waiting to learn about the legends of Notre Dame, you can check out StubHub.com for some Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets for games next season.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 30, 2007 - Post a comment

Another “Cool” Joe Notre Dame QB

Because this is the dead part of the year so far as Notre Dame Football tickets goes, we’re going to take a step back and look at a few of the more famous Notre Dame figures and moments over the years to get everybody good and caught up. Today, we will take a look at Joe Theismann, the former Fighting Irish QB, who had a successful NFL career, and is now a sports commentator.

Joe Theismann was barely 5′7”, 145 when he arrived as a new recruit at Notre Dame in 1968. He sat the bench his freshman year, but then an injury to the starting QB gave Joe a shot at starting his sophomore year. He was an instant success. Theismann went on to set Notre Dame records for most passing yards in a game (526), yards in a season (2,429) and touchdowns in a season (16). Few people probably know that you also could have gotten Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets (which would have been available at StubHub.com if the internet had been around then) to see Joe Theismann play baseball in college. In fact, he was drafted buy the Cleveland Indians out of college.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 29, 2007 - Post a comment

Former Irish Wideout Now a Pitcher

Last year Jeff Samardzija was the number one wideout for the University f Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He caught 78 passes, racked up over 1,000 yards and scored 12 touchdowns. His stats for the year before that were just slightly better. Samardizija was supposed to be a number one pick- low first rounder or maybe a high second rounder. After being Brady Quinn’s go-to receiver, Samardzija might have even been picked before Brady himself. Instead, he ran a route from the draft… to a minor league baseball team in Florida.

It’s true. Those of you who got Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets at StubHub.com to see Jeff Samardzija catch might not have known that this multi-sport athlete could also throw. Right now he is guaranteed $16.5 million over the next five years, a pretty sweet deal- almost surely better than he would have gotten in the NFL. He has a loyal Notre Dame fan base wherever he pitches.

I think it might have been nice to see another two sport athlete out there. We haven’t had a good one since Deion Sanders.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 25, 2007 - Post a comment

Joe Montana: Part VII: The Conclusion

In the record books Joe Montana was probably not one of Notre Dame’s most prolific passers, but he sure knew how to win a game in dramatic fashion. After his college career was over with the Fighting Irish, he was taken in the third round of the NFL Draft, number 82 overall. Prior to the draft, Montana was given very little respect. One scout wrote of him, “He can thread the needle, but usually goes with his primary receiver and forces the ball to him even when he’s in a crowd. He’s a gutty, gambling, cocky type. Doesn’t have great tools, but could eventually start.”
After his NFL career was over, many would consider him the best quarterback in football history. Whenever any respectable publication puts out a list of the greatest players and/or greatest quarterbacks, Joe Montana is always in the top five. In 2004 The Sporting News rated him as the #2 QB of all-time.

If StubHub.com had been invented back in the late 1970s, and you had gotten Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets to a game with Joe Montana playing, you might have thought he was just lucky. However, a few decades later in hindsight we can see that Joe Montana exhibited at Notre Dame all the makings of a football legend.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 24, 2007 - Post a comment

Irish’s Montana Comes Back… Again!

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football ticket buyers had not seen the end of Montana’s comeback potential. It was not until 1979 that the full extent of Joe Montana-at Notre Dame football glory would unfold and blossom into a beautiful, legendary pigskin flower.

Wikipedia described the morning of Notre Dame’s 1979 game against Houston as “freakishly cold.” Joe Montana, forced to leave the game at the end of the third quarter to battle a rapidly deteriorating case of hypothermia (Joe Cool, indeed), could only watch in agony as his team went down by 22 points before the start of the fourth quarter. Prior to the game, Montana had been diagnosed with a bad case of the flu. So the odds were against him coming into the game. He had the flu, a bad case of hypothermia, a three-plus touchdown deficit, and only one quarter with which to mount a comeback.

No hope, no chance, no way? Nope… No problem.

Joe Montana stormed back onto the field after downing a bowl of chicken soup, probably using both hands, bringing the bowl to his mouth and spilling a lot of the broth out along the corners of his mouth… probably. About a half hour later Joe Montana was throwing the winning touchdown pass with no time left on the clock. Notre Dame wins 35-34, and Joe Montana is officially at Legend Status in Notre Dame history. StubHub.com can’t promise to get you tickets to games as exciting as some of Cool Joe’s, but then again, you never know when a legend will be born in South Bend.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 23, 2007 - Post a comment

Joe Montana Rises to Stardom at Notre Dame

The game that most people will look back on as the moment where Joe Montana began to shine as a Notre Dame quarterback was a high-profile match up against the Purdue Boliermakers in the fall of 1977. After Notre Dame’s head coach Dan Devine had sent in three other QBs to try to get an offense going, he gave Joe Montana the nod with 11 minutes remaining. The Fighting Irish were down 24-14, but by the time the final whistle blew, the Irish had won 31-24.

After that game, Montana was considered a hero. He would end up starting every game for the Irish for the rest of the season. Eventually Notre Dame earned a spot in the Cotton Bowl, where they were to play the heavily favored Texas Longhorns. If you would have gotten Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets to that game, you would have seen Joe Montana break down the Longhorn defense with his precision passing and cool-headed decision making. The Irish ended up blowing out the Longhorns 38-10. If only StubHub.com could sell tickets to games in the past, it would be a great game for Notre Dame fans to get tickets for. Of course, there’s the whole time machine thing that we still have to work out…

Permalink - Posted in General on May 22, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame’s Cool Joe: Part III

The University of Notre Dame sat quarterback Joe Montana for the entirety of his freshman season. While he was a sophomore he was finally able to prove himself on the field, coming off the bench to win three games for the Fighting Irish. In dramatic fashion, Joe Montana entered a game versus Navy, with the Irish down 30-10 with just 13 minutes remaining in the game. Cool Joe was able to put together three touchdown scoring drives to win the day 31-30. He also had a two-touchdown comeback earlier in the year against North Carolina. Both of these games Joe Montana stepped into a game with Notre Dame down and the time running out.

Montana’s fame as a great clutch QB was just beginning to blossom, when suddenly injury struck. A broken finger sidelined Joe for most of his sophomore year, and a shoulder injury kept him from playing his junior year. When he returned to action he was the starting QB, but his legend was still in its infancy. It wouldn’t be until a game in 1977 against Purdue that Joe Montana earned the nickname “The Comeback Kid.”

While you await the next installment of the Joe Montana series, check out StubHub.com for Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets for a future game that does not involve Joe Montana. It might, however, involve Montana’s daughters, who both attend the University of Notre Dame, and might well be attending home games next season.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 21, 2007 - Post a comment

Joe Montana Comes to Notre Dame

Joe Montana is one of the most famous Notre Dame QB’s of all time. He’s so famous in fact, that a U.S. state and a sandwich at Arby’s were both named after him. Actually, that’s not entirely true. What is true is that a town was named after him. Indeed, Joe, Montana has a population of about 30 people. It was named Ismay, Montana until 1993 when word of Joe Cool’s football prowess reached the town by the Pony Express. An old man at the post office read the note aloud at first, then adjusted his spectacles to reread the note silently. He burst from the doors of the building, running down Main Street waiving the letter in the air and alerting the citizens of Ismay. The church bells were rung for three minutes, a town meeting was called, and the rest is history.
Joe was actually an exceptional athlete in basketball, baseball and football. He declined an offer for a scholarship to play hoops at North Carolina State University, wanting to see how far his football career would go with the Irish, considered to be the best in the business at the time. Joe was recruited out of Ringgold High School in Pennsylvania, where he received Parade Magazine All-American honors. Many believe that a game Montana played against rival school Monessen High, where he led his team to a 34-34 tie against an overwhelming favorite, was the game that convinced Notre Dame to recruit Montana.

It’s a shame you can’t still get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets to see Joe Montana play in South Bend. If StubHub.com could make it possible, I’m sure they would.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 18, 2007 - Post a comment

Notre Dame’s Joe Cool: Part One

Since the regular season of college football is still months and months away, spring football ended a few weeks ago, and about the only thing going on for Notre Dame football news is that a few high schoolers are making decisions, I though that maybe a little Fighting Irish history might be in order. There is a lot to cover with Notre Dame, but I’ll try to cover a few of my own favorite players, traditions, movies, personalities, coaches and games. Yesterday you got a little bit of coverage about the famous “Win One for the Gipper” game. One could write a book about that quote, let alone a few sentences in the Notre Dame football blog. I might get back to it. Right now, though, we will focus on Joe Montana.

In light of the current quarterback situation with the loss of Brady Quinn, I though that making a few comparisons and talking about previous great Notre Dame QB’s would be in order. The very first one to come to mind- for whatever reason- was Joe Montana. Everybody is well aware of Joe Cool’s NFL exploits (four Super Bowl victories, NFL MVPs, records, legendary comebacks…) but what was he like at Notre Dame?

While you’re thinking about the great Notre Dame players of yore, you can imagine yourself getting Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets at StubHub.com to watch them play in their prime. StubHub wasn’t around in Montana’s day, of course, but hey, it’s your fantasy; you figure it out.

Permalink - Posted in General on May 17, 2007 - Post a comment


 Page 1 of 3  1  2  3 »