An Apology and the Irish's Fight

You have my deepest apologies for not updating these past few days... it just seems like I haven't had a spare moment to do so! But now I'm here--Wednesday is my "least-busy" day of the week, so I finally have time to update. :) I shall try my hardest to make sure these long periods between posts does not become a habbit. *scared look*

This is an article that I wrote for Grammar & Composition... I was racking my brain all week as to what I was going to write my article on. It had to be six paragraphs, so I knew it needed to be something I was interested in and knew something about... but what in my life is interesting?? It got to Saturday night, late, and I still had no idea what to write on... and then it struck me. I'll write it on Notre Dame's Fighting Irish!

A little bit of backstory as to why I chose this topic...

My family and I love watching Notre Dame football, partially because my great-grandpa went to school and taught at Notre Dame, and also because they're just an amazing football team. And also, I faaaar prefer watching college football as opposed to pro football because, in college, the players play because they love to play, whereas pro players most likely play for $$$. If you get my drift...

So anyways, on Saturday night my dad, mom, sister, and I watched the Irish face-off with UCLA at The House that Rockne Built--ie, Notre Dame's home stadium. It was a spectacular game--one of the best I've seen in a long time. And as I lay in bed Saturday night, anguishing over what I was going to write my article on, and still on an adrenaline rush from the game, I suddenly realized: "For heavens sake, write it on the Irish!!" Strangly, I was immediately able to go to sleep. It's amazing what a withdrawel of stress will do... So, on Monday, I started my article. Here is the finished result! It's not as good as I would have liked it to be, but we'll see if Mrs. Troxell likes it... :)

Fight on, Fighting Irish!

In the city of South Bend, Indiana, in 1887, one of the greatest college football teams ever known leapt onto the playing field, although in all honesty, they did not exactly leap to the best start. Notre Dame’s “Fighting Irish” began their career with two nearly winless seasons, their first win coming at the end of the 1888 season when they defeated Harvard Prep by a score of 20-0. Although this may not seem the best start for a football team, by the end of the 1912 season, the team had amassed 108 wins and suffered only 31 losses, and Notre Dame has continued to climb the ranks of college football ever since. Many brilliant coaches have taken the helm of equally brilliant teams, leading the Irish through many glorious seasons. Building on the success of these men, the current Notre Dame team continues to follow a long-standing tradition of sports excellence—and fans love the Irish more than ever.

At the beginning of the 1918 season, Knute Rockne became the head coach of the Irish and ushered in one of the most famous and successful periods of Notre Dame’s football history. Rockne recruited George “the Gipper” Gipp as an Irish player in spite of the fact that Gipp had never even played organized football, and Gipp went on to become one of Rockne’s star players. Gipp proved himself to his coach and to the world as an extremely versatile player, but in 1920, two weeks after becoming Notre Dame’s first “All-American,” Gipp sadly died an early death from pneumonia. History did not forget Gipp, however, and in December of 1951, on the 31st anniversary of his death, his name entered the College Football Hall of Fame. In addition, during the second World War, the United States named a liberty ship after him—the SS George Gipp. However, his dying words eventually brought him the most fame as he reportedly spoke his “win just one for the Gipper” line. President Ronald Reagan used this line as the political slogan for his presidential campaign, and coach Knute Rockne later used Gipp’s words to inspire the Irish team when the US Army team threatened to defeat Notre Dame.

Army came into its match with Notre Dame in 1928 as an undefeated team, while the Irish had already suffered two losses. For the first half of the game, Army led and seemed entirely in command of the match. At half-time, however, Rockne came into the locker room, looked around at his players, and delivered his account of Gipp’s last words:

"I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy."

Knute’s speech, although possibly fictional, inspired the Irish to upset the game and win 12-6. This example shows only one of many spectacular wins for the Irish achieved under Rockne’s leadership.

After Knute Rockne died in a tragic plane crash in 1931, his place as head coach passed from man to man—some talented, some not. Notre Dame rocked back and forth between recognition as one of the best teams of the time to one of the worst. Frank Leahy proved one of the more notable coaches after the Rockne era, holding the second highest win percentage in college football—just below his predecessor, Rockne. Leahy coached the Irish for eleven seasons and led them to 87 wins with a mere 11 losses, pushing them forward into 39 straight games without a single loss. Under his leadership, the Irish won four national championships and celebrated six undefeated seasons. When Leahy departed from the team in 1954, the Irish suffered the same fate as they had after Knute Rockne retired, passing from coach to coach with only a few brilliant victories mixed in among the grave disappointment of many losses. Yet now, in 2006, the Fighting Irish have regained a great deal of their former Rockne and Leahy glory under the careful watch of Charlie Weiss, Notre Dame’s 18th head coach.

As the start of the 2005 season drew near, the Irish inaugurated Weiss as head coach of the team, and in that first year he led the team to nine victories and three losses, with a post-season appearance in the Fiesta Bowl. Although the Irish lost the bowl to Ohio State University, Charlie Weiss had clearly created a strong influence over the team already. One of the most memorable games came when the University of Southern California met Notre Dame at the Irish’s home stadium—“the house that Rockne built”—in South Bend. USC’s Trojans had won the last three matches with Notre Dame by 31 points each, and they came into the 2005 match with 27 straight wins under their belt. However, this game became legendary when Notre Dame’s quarterback, Brady Quinn, took his team down the field for a touchdown within the last two minutes of the game, bringing the Irish ahead 31-28. Notre Dame pushed their opponents to a fourth down, but Trojan quarterback Matt Leinart threw a 67 yard pass which put his team inside the Notre Dame ten yard line. Two plays later, the Irish flushed Leinart from the pocket and forced him to scramble towards the end zone, hitting him at the one yard line and causing him to fumble the ball out of bounds. Despite the fact that the ball had tumbled out of bounds, the clock ticked down to zero, and the Notre Dame students flooded onto the field in celebration, delirious with the idea of finally beating USC. But once the officials regained control of the situation, they placed the ball inside the one yard line and put seven seconds back on the clock. Although initially stopped short by the Irish’s defense, Leinart surged into the end zone and scored the touchdown that won the game. Even though the Fighting Irish lost, fans and critics alike immediately dubbed it one of the best games in college football history, and it will certainly go down in history as exactly that.

Charlie Weiss’ 2006 team promises to deliver as excellent a performance as they did last season, and it boasts essentially the same cast of characters as the ‘05 season—Brady Quinn returns as quarterback, Jeff Samardzija as wide receiver, Tom Zbikowski as defensive back and punt returner, and Darius Walker as half-back, to name just a few. Both Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija hold many school records, and Brady Quinn has broken countless records that he himself set only a few years back. Quinn holds over 30 separate Notre Dame records, and Samardzija recently matched the school record of 22 career touchdown catches—the same day Quinn passed his 10,000th yard, also a record. Add Walker and Zbikowski into this mix, and a fine list of football “stars” appears. But the Irish work as a team; a single player does not separate himself from his teammates and shove himself solely into the limelight. In fact, the Irish players do not even put their names on their jerseys as all other players in the sport do. Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish fight as one, and what a formidable fight they bring to anyone who opposes them!

Many thanks to my sister for reading it over with me, pointing out things I should change, and helping me remove those pesky "be" verbs. :)