Notre Dame 2013 Football Trips

Greg B is a rabid Notre Dame fan and attempts to make it to all of the Notre Dame home games during the season.
He always has an open invitation for other club members to join on these day trips (assuming they can get tickets) and experience the Notre Dame mystic. 

ND band celebrates 100th anniversary of the forward pass

100 years ago a small unknown school from northern Indiana took 12 boys on a train ride to the east coast to play THE national power Army football team in what Army anticipated to be merely a warn up scrimmage against a pasty on the their way tearing up the opponents on their schedule. The visitors had a player by the name of Knute Rockne  that was to put this small school and South Bend, Indiana on the map. The forward pass was a legal play in 1913 but really not used much or considered a weapon. However Rockne and his friend the QB named Dorais had spent the previous summer at the beach perfecting their timing with pass plays. They unleashed a dazzling display that day that the heavily favored Cadets were powerless to figure out how to defend and the boys form Notre Dame shocked Army and the entire football world with a 35-13 victory. That game changed the football world by making the forward pass a popular weapon and starting Notre Dame on their journey to arguably the most storied and successful football program in college history. The receiver, Knute Rockne, later accepted a head coaching job at his Alma Mater and became a Legend. Saturday, November 22, at the Notre Dame vs BYU game the ND band decided to commemorate this famous 1913 game with the attached skit depicting Dorais throwing one of his touchdown passes to Rockne.

BYU at Notre Dame - Saturday 11/22

This time outlined against a blue grey November sky the Corvette Indy Irish fans rode again to South Bend, IN to watch the Irish play BYU in their 2013 home season finale. Greg was born in this town so he does know it was named for the south bend in the St. Joseph river but Saturday it seemed like maybe it referred to the south bend of the polar ice cap. With overcast skies, the temperature at 21 degrees at kickoff and snow flurries driven by a 22 mph winds with gusts to about 40 mph the only thing clear was it didn't refer to the south seas. Wind chill at the start was a balmy 9 degrees and fortunately things quickly cooled down! Most fans didn't stroll as much around campus this day as they usually would and many found their way indoors to stay warm while awaiting kick off. Those that visited the main quad soon realized that although Purdue is struggling at 1-10 and the Hoosiers are battling through a 4-7 campaign, the Irish are not very pleased at only being 8-3, especially after last year's 12-0 start. This was visibly apparent when dawn showed Father Sorin (the Founder and first University President) holding a spent bottle of Jim Beam as it was obvious he had spent the night consoling some students on the sub par record...   The more it snowed and the harder the wind blew the more the students cheered! Most of the sell out crowd of 80,000 plus stuck it out to the definitely bitter end. As you saw how much the students like the snow and how the team responded it was easier to understand how Notre Dame's life time record in snow games now stands at 13-1-3 with their only loss coming way back in 1895. Greg has personally witnessed several of these games and his favorites are the contests against the surfer boys from sunny Southern California where the Irish ran wild and the Trojans shivered in their skivvies!   The Irish never trailed and eventually prevailed over a good Cougar eleven by a score of 23-13. Their national ranking improved to 25th although they have already defeated the current 11th, 13th and 23rd ranked teams. Go figure? The Irish finish the regular season next week as underdogs against 8th ranked Stanford in Palo Alto.   Greg B and his son Pat made the trip Saturday. Rich P, a ND grad, also made the trip and prepared himself for the game time weather by pre-chilling in a parking lot tail gate party. Word is that Rich is expected to be thawed out in time for Thanksgiving. After the game they all slid out of town in the lake affect snow storm until they got just south of the arctic circle and the roads dried out!

Navy at Notre Dame - Saturday 11/2

_ On a rainy and gloomy day some of the Corvetters headed to South Bend without the Corvettes of course due to the weather to watch Notre Dame host the Naval Academy for the 87th consecutive year... Greg & Donna B with their son Pat and daughter-in-law Sarah parked in their usual garage off campus... the rain stayed away while they shopped at the book store and took in the campus scenes which were beautiful and cloaked in the fall peak colors! On the final trip to the stadium the heavens cried out and pushed by a north wind they got a soaking! a stop in the basketball arena to dry out for a while before heading into the stadium was in order and there they met James Burt and his father-in-law that were also there for the game...   about a half hour before kick-off they headed to the stadium to brave the elements and were pleasantly surprised that the blue gray November (??) day had shed its tears and remained dry throughout the game... the game itself was interesting if devoid of defense... the Irish struck first with a touchdown on their first drive and that lead proved to be the largest lead of the day... the rest of the game the teams offenses traded scores with the Irish trailing by 3 at half but pulled ahead by 4 at the end of the 3rd Quarter... the 4th Quarter saw the two teams in a dog fight to the end with the Navy sending their torpedo of a running game through the middle of the Irish  for 1 score to come from behind and then after the Irish quickly struck back to claim the lead again the Navy fired the big guns and hit on a long pass for a score to again take the lead... the Fighting Irish with a punishing ground attack supported by an aerial barrage once again fought back to go up by a score of 38 to 34... after 4 lead changes in the 4th quarter alone it came down to could the Irish get a stop on Navy's offense to save the game or would Navy use the last 3 plus minutes to set up the game winning score and pull off the upset win? After a kick off return to mid field the Middies used the next  3 minutes to push deep into Notre Dame territory. Finally on 4th down and 4 yards to go with a bout a minute left in the game, Navy called time-out and set up a reverse play that caught the Irish by surprise and with the Irish in over pursuit it appeared Navy would score on the play and force the Irish to get a desperation field goal in the last minute to send the game to over time. By then the sun had made an appearance and with the Dome gleaming brightly a ND linebacker used superior speed and a sure tackle to stop the Navy back 3 yards short of the first down and save the game for the Irish! On the day the Middies had gained 419 yards of total offense while the Irish managed to rack up 506 yards. The Irish managed to stop Navy only 3 times, once in the first half when it appeared briefly ND would take control of the game, once at the start of the second half when ND desperately needed a stop so their offense could regain the lead and then the final stop near the last minute. The Middies really never did stop the Irish offense but the Irish managed to twice; once in the first half when the Irish had a TD called back for a holding penalty, then dropped a sure TD catch on the next play and then turned the ball over to Navy on the following play when the ND QB threw a strike right to a Navy defender around the 20 yard line, the second time was just before half when the Irish appeared to be driving for the go ahead score when once again the ND QB decided to find a Navy defender with his pass again near the 20 yard line. Navy meanwhile played a near perfect and turnover free game while executing their game plan to perfection.     Just another one of the many hard fought games between the Naval Academy and the Irish through the years. It was followed by what is one of the better sights in college football the ND team escorted the Navy team to Navy's corner of the field and stood at attention with them as the Navy band played Navy's Alma Mater and then the Navy team followed the Irish to their student body section and stood with the Irish as the ND band and the students sang the ND Alma Mater. A hard fought and exciting game between two of the better institutions in our country that share a large and sincere degree of mutual respect! So from the exciting start of watching the Blue Angels buzz the stadium in the opening ceremony fly over, through the non stop scoring throughout the game and the suspenseful conclusion it was a great time and a great day for the Irish!

Michigan State at Notre Dame - Saturday 9/21

Greg took another of his fall trips to South Bend to see the Irish play. He hit a short rain storm as they entered South Bend but then the rains quit by 9:30am and the rest of the day was dry, quite breezy and reached a high of about 65 degrees. At kick off it was 65 and although the forecast was mostly sunny, it was not. Still it was dry! The strong winds affected the passing game throughout the game but despite a dismal showing on offense the Irish slugged it out with the Spartans and held on to defeat Michigan State 17-13 in what turned out to be an old fashioned defensive struggle in the second half. It was the 10th straight home win for the 3-1 and 22nd ranked Irish. ND has now won 46 of the 75 games against the Spartans, 3 years in a row and the last 3 home games against them. There has been 1 tie in the series that began in 1897, the infamous 10-10 contest played at East Lansing late in 1966 when the undefeated and #1 ranked Irish played the undefeated and #2 ranked Spartans in a "game of the century" contest. The Irish won the National Championship the following week when they closed the season out by visiting USC and beating the 10th ranked and Rose Bowl bound Trojans 51-0. The teams from both schools are pretty good this year but both are a bit down from the behemoths that Greg saw play in the contests between these two superpowers in the mid 60s!

Temple at Notre Dame - Saturday 8/31

A Corvette trip to the ND game vs. Temple. "Corvette Parking" is always available as a home owner in South Bend that lives one block off campus saves his garage for Greg to park in. This kept the rain off it during the hours before kick-off but it got plenty wet as the ride home was through a torrential downpour and generous lighting display from just south of Kokomo to Westfield. ND won their season opener 28 to 6 to spoil Temple's first ever visit to South Bend