For the first time in school history, two sophomores have been elected as student body president and vice president for the 2010 - 2011 school year, in a vote Monday at Notre Dame. Catherine Soler and Andrew Bell garnered 54.6% of the vote. Soler become Notre Dame's fifth female student body president.
The Fighting Irish Men's & Women's Fencing Teams finished their regular seasons undefeated. This is the fourth time in the program's history that both teams were undefeated. The Irish Men's & Women's teams are currently ranked #2 in the country.
While this story is not just about the Fritts organ in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Notre Dame -- it does showcase this beautiful instrument. If you ever get the chance to take a tour of this facility -- please be sure to see the Chris and Anne Reyes Organ and Choral Hall. The organ took fifteen months and 18,000 hours to build. Click on the link below:
Notre Dame has had six of its former players score a Touchdown in the Super Bowl game. Which is second amongst all college football programs. Ricky Watters and Joe Montana lead the Irish TD parade, in the Super Bowl, with two each. Ironically, the two schools in this year's BCS National Championship game; Alabama and Texas -- haven't had a TD scorer in the big game. Here's the link to the list:
Did you know that 37 former Notre Dame Football Players have won a Super Bowl ring? Did you know that 29 of the 43 Super Bowl winning rosters have had a Notre Dame alum on its roster? Did you know the first tackle ever made in a Super Bowl was by a former Notre Dame running back? Here's a link to this article:
In a shocker, the song Here Come The Irish wins the poll of favorite Notre Dame song -- edging out the Victory March (the #1 College Fight Song in the world) by one vote -- in a vote amongst visitors to ND GO IRISH blog. Somewhere former ND All American John Scully (the writer of this song) has to be smiling. Here's a link to Scully, on the piano, performing his song -- the singer of Here Come the Irish is Cathy Richardson (that's her in the picture).
Twenty-three young men signed a National Letter of Intent yesterday to attend the University of Notre Dame on a football scholarship. The class has student athletes from as far away as Hawaii, California and Florida. The Recruiting Rankings have the Irish class anywhere from 13th to 21st. The most highly acclaimed of the bunch are Louis Nix a 315 lb. DT from Miami and Matt James a 6'-7" 290 lb. offensive tackle from Cincinnati. James is a First Team USA Today All American.
Notre Dame's Head Football Coach will be holding a National Signing Day Press Conference today at 4 PM EST. You can watch this event live on Notre Dame's Official Athletic website; www.und.com. But don't wait until 4 PM to go to this site! Notre Dame will be providing coverage all day long -- beginning at 7 AM EST this morning. You'll see interviews with coaches, video of the players that commit to the Irish and other news.
It's become a big business and it's one of the favorite days of the year for college football fans across the country. The Irish are doing surprisingly well -- despite our recent play on the field and only having a staff in place for a few weeks. Coach Kelly and staff are sitting in the conference room at the GUG, awaiting the signed National Letters of Intent from some of the top student athletes in the country. ESPN took a look at ND's recruiting class a couple of days ago -- here's a link to that report:
Tomorrow's the day that every Notre Dame Football fan looks forward to -- it's National Signing Day. The first day members of the Class of 2010 can sign a National Letter of Intent. Coach Kelly has had about seven weeks to sign his first recruiting class at Notre Dame. Last year we had a big "Signing Day" surprise when Manti Teo picked the Irish. Will we have some similar surprises tomorrow?
In the largest voter turn out yet (234 voters) at ND GO IRISH BLOG -- the fans of Notre Dame have spoken and it is GREEN. 77% chose green as the color Notre Dame fans should wear inside Notre Dame Stadium on a football Saturday. The color blue finished a distant second garnering 15% of the fan vote and gold was third with 2%. Let's hope THE SHIRT Committee and the Hammes Bookstore staff are listening.
One hundred and twenty members of The Band of the Fighting Irish appeared in a music video for the band OK Go - performing their hit song; This Too Shall Pass. The music video was shot last fall in an area close to the Notre Dame campus. OK Go got its start as a band in Chicago, before moving to the Los Angeles area. OK Go's music video for "Here It Goes Again" won a Grammy Award for "Best Short-Form Music Video" in 2007 -- maybe a Grammy is in the future for The Band of the Fighting Irish! Here's a link to the video.
Father Theodore Hesburgh - AKA; "Father Ted" - ran Our Lady's University from 1952 to 1987. The longest tenure as President in Notre Dame's history. He holds the Guinness Book of World Records record for "Most Honorary Degrees" with 150. He's been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award. He speaks five languages and even found time to appear in the movie Rudy. Father Ted will turn 92 years young in May. Here's a link to a video tribute of this Notre Dame icon.
You can't talk about the Super Bowl and not speak his name... He's one of the Greatest of All Time -- winner of 4 Super Bowl titles, MVP Awards and numerous other individual awards... But, his game got started in South Bend. Here's a two-part look at Joe Montana's career at Notre Dame - a career that started on the bench, included a National Championship and ended with a touchdown pass to Kris Haines at a frozen Cotton Bowl.
On the eve of National Signing Day (Wednesday, February 3rd), Sports Illustrated ranked the top 15 recruiting classes of all time. The winner: the University of Notre Dame's 1946 Class -- a recruiting class that never lost a game and won or shared three national titles. Leon Hart was the most decorated member of the class; winning the 1949 Heisman Trophy.
The University of Notre Dame does so much more than what we see on NBC, ESPN or the sports pages throughout the school year. Here are two wonderful examples of Notre Dame making an impact on the lives of many.
It was an instant classic and will be for some time. Notre Dame's Golden Tate made a swan dive into the Michigan State Band after scoring a TD in Notre Dame's win over the Spartans. Within hours, the video clip was on YouTube and at last glance had more than 99,000 views. If you haven't seen it -- click on this link.