Eight Notre Dame Athletes Headed to Beijing

There are eight athletes with ties to the University of Notre Dame who will head to Beijing to compete in the Olympic games. With the kind of overall athletic reputation that Notre Dame has, in all Olympic sports, this was not a particularly unexpected surprise, though it was pleasing to hear nonetheless. All the national teams have been selected, the rosters secure, and apparently UND will have a very large representation in Beijing in a couple of weeks.

Women’s soccer has four Notre Dame alumni playing in the games, fencing has three, and track and field has one—although not all of the athletes are playing for the U.S. team. In fact, it could work out that the American soccer players from Notre Dame play the Canadian soccer players. It will be a great Olympic games to watch for Notre Dame fans. We’ll make sure to keep you all good and posted about how these excellent Fighting Irish athletes do.

NOTRE DAME ATHLETES HEADED TO OLYMPICS

  1. Fencing Kelley Hurley (`10) U.S.A. - Fencing
  2. Gerek Meinhardt (`12) U.S.A. - Fencing
  3. Mariel Zagunis (’08) U.S.A. - Fencing
  4. Thomas Chamney (`07) Ireland - Track & Field - 800 meters
  5. Shannon Boxx (`99) U.S.A. - Women’s Soccer
  6. Kate Sobrero Markgraf (`98) U.S.A. - Women’s Soccer
  7. Candace Chapman (`06) Canada - Women’s Soccer
  8. Melissa Tancredi (`05) Canada - Women’s Soccer

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 31, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Will Play Utah in 2010

If you have your decade-long wall and ceiling calendar out, or a computer calendar, mark down this date: November 13, 2010. It’s not the date that the Aztecs predicted that the end of time would come (that’s December 21, 2012), but it is the date that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team will play the Utah Utes. The two teams have never played before, so this is a once-in-a-universe kind of thing.

The bad thing or Utah will be that they will not play Utah State, their rivals, during the 2010 and 2011 seasons because of the showdown with the Irish. This is bad for local Utah football fans who love the state rivalry, but they will get to play on national television, and the offer was too good to pass up. Notre Dame will not have to travel to Utah the following year to play the Utes in an away game, as the Irish have enough clout in the college football world to get out of the usual home-and-away stipulations that other football programs typically have to make.

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 30, 2008 - Post a comment

Jeff Samardzija Called Up!

Sorry Notre Dame fans, but we have let this story slip for too long. The Cubs called up Jeff Samardzija the other day, and he did a fine job pitching a couple of innings so far. As of right now he has pitched in two games as a closer, but he’s not exactly their go-to guy. It could be possible that Jeff Samardzija gets more playing time as the season progresses, and having some good relief pitchers becomes more important. The Cubs are one of the most likely teams to get to the playoffs, so we could be hearing a lot more from this guys sometime very soon.

As you Domer fans probably are well aware, Jeff Samardzija was a prolific wide receiver for the Irish just two seasons ago. He was also a terrific pitcher, but he was most famous when he was catching passes from Brady Quinn. There are certainly a lot of Notre Dame fans around the Chicago area, so he’s somewhat of a home town favorite. We’ll make sure to keep track of the situation as it develops.

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 29, 2008 - Post a comment

Going Over the Domer Quarterback Situation

If you don’t have an “Insider” account at ESPN, you might want to get one, as this is the time of the year when getting the most in-depth knowledge of the college football world is most critical. There are all sorts of team previews and predictions and summer camp assessments out there, but the guys at ESPN really have their stuff nailed down, so it’s worth the investment. Besides, if you want good stuff from Rivals or other sports news conglomerates, you’re going to have to pay for it as well. But I digress. Here’s the link to the Notre Dame team page at ESPN. From there you can find the Insider preview for the team. This time it’s free. But from here on out, I wouldn’t count on it.

Some of the stuff you will learn if you get the account includes the projected quarterback depth chart. If you’ve been following the situation with the quarterbacks in South Bend, then you are probably well aware who is going to be behind the center for the first play from scrimmage. But who are the other names on the list of possible quarterbacks? Jimmy Clausen is the man for now, but if he goes down, the Irish can turn to veteran Evan Sharpley, who might just be as good of a baseball player as he is a quarterback. Then there’s freshman Dayne Crist, another southern California QB who was sought after by all the top programs.

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 28, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Website No. 2 In the U.S.

Only one of the school in the whole country had more unique visitors and impressions (page views) than the Official University of Notre Dame Athletics Website, UND.com, a regular reference here at the Notre Dame Blog, was ranked second in a recent CBS Sports competition to see which school website got the most traffic. Apparently the North Carolina Tar Heels had more individual visitors and page views, but the Irish were out in front of everybody else, including USC, Penn State, Oklahoma and UCLA. This is a major accomplishment, and, of course, very blog worthy.

The Irish are, of course, the nation’s most popular football team, and their basketball program is nationally renowned as well. Every year the Irish have great rankings in other sports, like soccer, volleyball, baseball, cross country and track, as well as swimming and lacrosse. It would seem to follow that a well-rounded school with one super-popular sports team would rank high in internet traffic. I guess that’s the same for North Carolina, another well-rounded sports program with one super program, their men’s basketball team.

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 25, 2008 - Post a comment

This Blog Is About Farve, Notre Dame, Cubs, Chicago…

If you have a few free moments today, it would be a good idea to check out an article written by Rick Morrissey, a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune and the website Chicagosports.com. Titled “This column is about the Cubs, Farve and Notre Dame,” we found it to a surprisingly quizzical look at why sports writers write what they write about. Although he’s mainly just trying to make some funnies, the truth is pretty clear: sports writers cover what grabs the biggest audience in the hopes of not only becoming a more popular writer themselves, but also selling the most copy. As you might have guessed, Notre Dame stories are big time hits with Chicago sports fans, so simply mentioning Notre Dame in the title is a surefire way to get a lot of attention. Heck, it worked on the Notre Dame Blog. We wouldn’t be here if we haven’t been searching for articles about Notre Dame, right?

But then what’s the problem? If fans want to hear about Notre Dame Football, then that’s what they should get, right? One thing that might pose a problem is that things that are unpopular stay unpopular, while things that are already mega-popular, such as Notre Dame football, get even more popular. There’s no more variety. Also, in the effort to please the readers, the sports media might neglect their other duties, making wider themes and overarching stories more prominent.

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 24, 2008 - Post a comment

Clausen, Harangody No Longer Eligible to Play!?!?!

Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen and power forward Luke Harangody will not be eligible to play in the upcoming season of college sports, as they are no longer amateur athletes. Well. Not really. But that’s the worst that could happen to the future head of the football program and the reigning Big East Player of the Year in basketball, IF Notre Dame actually gets in trouble for the images of Clausen and Harangody being used in an advertisement.

Here’s the scoop: Apparently an online ringtone company used pictured of Clausen and Big Luke in some of their advertisements, but they forgot to follow the old rule that you can’t use college players images while they are still playing. There are ways around it- just ask EAsports. However, it was probably just a simple mistake by a guy who didn’t know the rules. Notre Dame sent a cease and desist order to the company, and the problem should go away very soon. Jimmy and Luke have little to worry about, and so do their fans. Sorry about the dramatic title, but hey- we’re in the media, right? Gotta sell that story.
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Permalink - Posted in General on July 23, 2008 - Post a comment

Former Notre Dame Star Zorich Enshrined in Hall of Fame

Chris Zorich played nose tackle for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team during some of the team’s better years in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, leading a defense that was as intimidating as it was successful. Zorich is now a member of the College Football hall of Fame, a huge honor for any former player to receive. Make sure you check out the story about Zorich at UND.com. They actually have some great stats and stories about what he was able to accomplish while he was playing in blue and gold. We’re all very proud of Zorich here at the Notre Dame Blog! Way to go!

In other Irish news, if you check out this story at the team’s official website, you can see that the Irish have sent one of their great rowers to the Under-23 National team. That’s right. Not only that, but she, one Amanda Polk, helped to lead the team to a gold medal in an international crew competition in Germany. How about that? Nice going, Amanda. Keep up the good work.

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 22, 2008 - Post a comment

New Blog at ESPN Focuses on Fighting Irish, “Others”

ESPN is running a college football blog for several of the biggest conferences, including the Big Ten, Pac-10, Big East and ACC. They also have a blog for the “Others,” basically meaning the Non-BCS teams, the Mid Majors the Independents and all other hangers-on. The Irish, as you know, don’t have a standard conference, so sometimes they miss out on the fun of having a built-in group of competitors within a small group. Oh well. As the biggest and baddest independent team, there’s plenty of Notre Dame blog posts here. Check it out.

There’s a blog about the hiring of Jack Swarbrick, the new Notre Dame athletic director. As you know, the new AD has been the dominant storyline about Irish for the past month or two. I also like how they are keeping it divided from the rest of the major conference teams. For example, they have listed some of the quarterbacks from the little conferences that were listed as award watch list entries.

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 21, 2008 - Post a comment

Irish Football Preview at Sports Illustrated

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is going to be stronger, better, bigger and faster than they were last year. And they’re going to win more games. These are the thoughts of Athlon Sports, via the Irish team preview at Sports Illustrated.com. While this year’s easier schedule will help, the Irish have also added a bunch of great players to their depth, making injuries at key positions nothing that will damper the year.

There are tons of previews out there, and there are sure to be plenty more to come as the football season draws near. Heck- we’re probably going to give you a different outlook on the season every week, as the sports writers of America go through the task of putting together some interesting analysis about America’s most popular team. These outlooks are usually dangerously optimistic, but with the Irish in 2009, you can’t help but suggest that there will be dramatic improvement from last season.

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Permalink - Posted in General on July 18, 2008 - Post a comment


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