In all the years you’ve been reading our fair site, have we ever told you when we first set foot in the hallowed halls of the House That Rockne Built?

Now the truth will come out. A couple of weeks ago our staffers got caught up in a digression in our Slack discussion, as we so often do. This one was about our first Notre Dame games. Here, those stories will be told.

I’ll start. My first game was 1997 against Navy.

Backstory: This was the first ND game to take place after my 11th birthday and my first season in South Bend after my mom had moved me and my siblings back near family following my parents’ divorce. My grandparents had season tickets at the time; neither were alumni, but my grandfather was well-connected all over South Bend, so at some point he’d been able to procure tickets.

My Nana decided that due to the projected cold and wet forecast, she didn’t want to go to the game. So she called my mom that morning to see if I’d be interested. The way my mom tells the story, she sarcastically answered “Yeah, I think I could convince him”.

I don’t remember much about the game, a nondescript Irish victory in a nondescript Irish season, but I do remember the old butterflies in my stomach as I entered the newly renovated stadium for the first time. With ND up 21-17 and Navy seemingly unlikely to come back, my grandfather ended up hustling us out a minute early to beat the traffic. While in the concourse, I heard a giant “WHOA” from the stands. I didn’t find out until later that Allen Rossum had had to make a game-saving play on the Middies’ final Hail Mary.

Since that day in ’97, though, I’ve been fortunate to be able to attend dozens of games, and at least one every season. Many were better, although none were with my granddad, who passed away in 2013. Although nothing memorable happened at the game, it’s my favorite memory of him.

Other staffers’ first games, with backstories if given:

Brendan R

Brendan is one of many staffers, you’ll find, whose first game at Notre Dame was the home opener of his freshman season. Unfortunately for him, that game was the 1994 loss to Michigan.

“One of the guys in my dorm camped out with everyone’s IDs and money (different times, lol), so we had 7th row seats – still freshman section, in the corner, but 7th freaking row. It was great. Back and forth game. Powlus hits Mayes for the go-ahead score right in front of us just under a minute to go, but the stadium is so loud that nobody heard the whistle for the false start, so no play. Back up five yards, everyone’s on edge – and then Powlus hits Mayes again, on one of the most incredible catches I’ve ever seen. Dude turned into Gumby to get his foot down in the back of the end zone. Our section went ballistic, basically turned into a giant mosh pit. One of our guys, in the row behind me, was 6’3” and when he went down he threw his arms out intending to take as many as he could with him. Absolute delirium.

“In a theme that would repeat over and over in Lou’s later seasons, a no-name TE (Jerame Tuman, in this case) picked us right the (bleep) apart to set up Remy (Bleep)ing Hamilton for a game-winning FG attempt with a few seconds left. I think the stadium was literally shaking from the noise as he set up for the kick, and the absolute instant that his foot hit the ball everything went quiet. 60,000 dreams hanging on the four-second flight of a ball.

“The ending was brutal, but for me it didn’t matter, I had been bitten by the bug.”

Tyler Hack

Washington State, 2003. (Notre Dame fell behind 19-3 at halftime, and hotshot freshman quarterback Brady Quinn made his debut as Tyrone Willingham tried to jump-start the offense. It was Julius Jones and Ryan Grant, though, who drove the Irish comeback, and ND won in overtime 29-26.)

First Down Moses

“My first game in-person was in November 2006 when ND waxed Army 41-9 on Senior Day. I’m a huge fan of both schools, as were my parents; all three of us landed tickets, so it worked out pretty nicely. At the time, I still had a few relatives who had gone through West Point, so my parents were quietly rooting for Army (but along the lines of “I just want everyone to have a good time”). We were all smiles at the end of the day, though — those dark green jerseys looked pretty good on the Irish boys!”

Alex Wait

“My first-ever game was 2002 Purdue when I was seven, and I got super lost inside the bowels of the stadium. Spent most of the game standing next to a police officer waiting for my parents to find me.” (The Irish scored three non-offensive touchdowns to edge Purdue 24-17.)

Jaden Holzer

Jaden got started relatively early, attending his first ND game at the age of 14. That game was the 2010 victory over Western Michigan, the first in the Irish’s now-ongoing tour through the MAC. As he remembers it, the day was the perfect introduction to campus.

“Scored seats in the second row right next to the tunnel from a hook-up through the past Dean of College of Arts and Letters. Probably the most perfect fall afternoon imaginable. Also went to the ND basketball night practice the night before and got pictures with Brey, Hansbrough, and Abro…Probably the best experience I could’ve ever imagined for the first time on campus. Pretty much fell in love.”

ND-Atl

Our resident lacrosse expert is in the “first game = freshman year opener” club, and for him, what a freshman year it was: 1988, the Irish’s last national championship. He witnessed ND defeat Michigan behind Reggie Ho and Ricky Watters.

“I didn’t even know my way around campus yet. Night game versus Michigan, pre-any renovation, Musco lights trucked in and craned over lip of stadium. Tailgating began very early in the vast grassy expanse which was Green Field, where DeBartolo, Mendoza, etc. stand now. The field extended unabated all the way to Belmont Beverage, which is hard to visualize now. Game itself was epic. Scoring began with a Ricky Watters 81-yard punt return, and was famously followed by 4 field goals by the diminutive Reggie Ho. Hate of Michigan began early and honestly, with Bo Schembechler successfully arguing for penalties against Notre Dame for excessive crowd noise! To think that was a thing back then!”

Budding lacrosse reporting superstar Luke, ND-Atl’s son, had a less enthralling experience; technically his first game was a win over Boston College, but the first one he remembers was ND’s frustrating 2016 loss to Navy in Jacksonville. At least the post-game activities were fun.

“It was a bowl-like atmosphere outside the stadium, with rows and rows of giant hospitality tents for the assembled Navy crowds. (Luke) reports vividly remembering “Go Irishing” everyone in sight and how cool it was to get “go irished” back, and being overserved caffeinated Coca-Colas at the tailgater. He also reports earning his frustration with Navy, in not understanding why dad and his buddies would say “we’re not going to get the ball back, are we?” at the start of the 4th quarter. He was really upset at the loss, but figured out if he cried long enough, Dad would let him ride the really sketchy carnival rides on the far end of the lot, something that clearly wouldn’t be in the cards if Mom was around.”

ndroyalsfan

As with ND-Atl, ndroyalsfan made his ND Stadium debut in his first game as a student. “2009 – a Charlie Weis defense shut out Colin Kaepernick (35-0 over Nevada). Also cool since my class’s last home game as students was a shutout win over Wake (in 2012).”

Dan-Zibton

Dan also had his first ND game as an Irish freshman – the 2004 win over Michigan. Darius Walker made his ND debut that day and the Irish rallied from a 9-0 halftime deficit to beat a good Wolverines team 28-20, briefly turn the negative tide from the previous week’s loss at BYU, and set off the second field-storming in a row against Michigan at home.

“Goooood times…The rest of the Ls that season were less fun. The game against Pitt (in what turned out to be Willingham’s final home game) created one of the funnier college memories – since at the time all we had was local TV with an antenna in Morrissey, we were drinking in a friend’s common room after the game and local news came on while we were playing cards, and highlights of the game came on every 10 minutes or so (it seemed). Every time Pitt scored in the highlights, someone would yell ‘Pitt scored again! Drink!’

“By the end of the night, people who had been with us but went to a dorm party down the hall would swing by, poke their heads in and yell “Pitt scored again, drink!” and then keep walking. It became a running joke for the rest of our time at ND.”

Eric Murtaugh

“2008 Stanford for me. Clausen had great stats but we barely won (28-21; Clausen was indeed great, going 29/40 with a then career-high 347 yards and 3 TD). Very late-era Weisian game.”

Jim Miesle

“‘96 game vs Purdue. Rossum returned the (opening) kickoff for a TD and they never looked back.” Notre Dame rolled 35-0.

Orlok

Orlok thought he had it made for his first game at ND; smack in the middle of the 2002 “Return to Glory” season, with the Irish unbeaten and ranked #3 in the BCS, he was invited to ND with his best friend’s family to visit the friend’s older sister, who was an Irish sophomore at the time. Then, Boston College happened.

“We made the ten-hour drive from northern Minnesota to South Bend… it was a beautiful, but cold day on campus. I took it all in. Not only was it my first time at Notre Dame, it was my first time visiting any college period. Everyone was super friendly – I remember being amazed at how nice everyone was.

“We were one of a couple undefeated teams at the time. Miami was another. The stadium would cheer when the score came in and Miami’s opponent had scored.

“Talk about disaster. (Author’s note: You don’t need to hear this, but just for the record, ND turned the ball over five times and fumbled seven damn times, losing three.) Afterwards, we went to Mass, and the priest openly addressed that yes, this was a tough one, but he’d seen many hard games in the past and this was part of life.”

Orlok at least had a good time afterwards, hanging out in Carroll Hall with a group of the aforementioned older sister’s friends. He also had a much better time at his first ND game as a student, the Irish’s 2004 victory over Michigan.

Joe Schueller

Joe was another staffer whose first game was his first as an ND student. For him it was 1991 against Indiana, a game the Irish won 49-27 in the first game of the NBC era. Until then he’d been mostly an Irish basketball nut, but it took just one memorable play to add the gridders to his sports-fan stable. “Irv Smith carrying a fool over the goal line had me hooked on ND football.”

PJ Gaughan

PJ, who hails from New England, told us the story of his first game when he previewed the BC game last fall. That game, a 31-29 BC victory in 1999, was yet another in what turned out to be an over-decade-long (1993-2004) era of mostly terrible losses to the Eagles.

“I didn’t expect anything but fun with my dad and uncle exploring the campus I had only seen on television up until that point. Instead, I have two lasting memories. The first involves having to tell an older woman at Bruno’s that August was the only month that doesn’t have a holiday. The other involves a close Irish loss and a drunk middle-aged Bostonian laughing in my face about said defeat. I learned to hate BC after that day.”

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If you have a memorable first-game story, feel free to put it in the comments. I have a feeling that once COVID-19 is in check, the next ND game each of us attends in person might feel like the first all over again.