Fighting Irish

Notre Dame Stadium fills to 77,622 for autumn Saturdays on campus near South Bend, Indiana. Blue and gold are the team's own colours, though green comes out for St Patrick's Day games, a nod to the nickname itself. "Fighting Irish" only became official in 1927, forty years after the program had already taken shape in 1887, and the Leprechaun did not appear on the sideline until 1960.

The record still cited most is the one Frank Leahy built between 1946 and 1949: 36 wins, no losses, two ties, and three national championships inside that stretch alone. Sports Illustrated later ranked it the second-best dynasty in twentieth-century sport. The unbeaten 1947 season, capped by Johnny Lujack's Heisman, sits inside that same run. Across its history Notre Dame claims eleven national titles, stretching from 1924 to 1988.

No college program has sent more players into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Joe Montana's name still carries furthest beyond South Bend of all of them. On the field, the rivalry with USC turns on the Jeweled Shillelagh; Navy, Michigan State, Army and Purdue fill out most years' calendar.

The stadium empties back into the campus it was built into.