Green Jerseys: Love 'em or hate 'em?

[solo]

I used to love the green jerseys. But now I can't seem to remember when the last time was that we won wearing them. I also think that they were somewhat cheapened when Willingham broke them out agaisnt BC of all teams.

Presently, I feel like the green needs to be retired for a bit.

 

[KMac151993]

I don't think Charlie will use them again anytime soon so I don't think there is any need to worry.

 

[jiggafini19]

http://www.irishenvy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4977&highlight=green+jersey

Welcome aboard Solo.

This has been a topic of passionate discussion out here on more than one occasion. Personally, I say stick with blue at home and white on the road.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

I used to love the green jerseys. But now I can't seem to remember when the last time was that we won wearing them. I also think that they were somewhat cheapened when Willingham broke them out agaisnt BC of all teams.

Presently, I feel like the green needs to be retired for a bit.

I love 'em...but I don't believe in curses. So it would be cool to see them play in them ALL YEAR.

God, that would be awesome.

Enough of this one game crap...let's break them out for an entire sesaon.

We are going to win the National Championship this year, so let's break them out from Day One. Let's make a statement.

 

[scooper]

I loved this past year's execution of them. Those were very attractive and tastefully done. But I think we need to stick with blue for quite some time.

 

[sblxdoc]

I love 'em...but I don't believe in curses. So it would be cool to see them play in them ALL YEAR.

God, that would be awesome.

Enough of this one game crap...let's break them out for an entire sesaon.

We are going to win the National Championship this year, so let's break them out from Day One. Let's make a statement.

I agree with you completely.

 

[grantland]

I LOVED them once:

49-19

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

I LOVED them once:

49-19

You would love them this year, if we wear them...cause we are going 13-0.

 

[Óglaigh_na_hÉireann]

I love the green jerseys, but only as a rare alternate.

 

[PMac]

Sick of this curse thing. We werent expected to win at USC anyway.

ANd I love them for 1 game a year.

 

[BGIF]

As Jiggs noted this has been discussed many times before here's a Search link on the topic

http://www.irishenvy.com/forums/search.php?searchid=8452

I used to love the green jerseys. But now I can't seem to remember when the last time was that we won wearing them. I also think that they were somewhat cheapened when Willingham broke them out agaisnt BC of all teams.

Presently, I feel like the green needs to be retired for a bit.

You can't remember when we last won wearing them. Can you remember the last time we won a bowl game in a Blue or White jersey? ND has lost more games in those colors than in Green. Shouldn't we retire those colors then too?

I also think that they were somewhat cheapened when Willingham broke them out agaisnt BC of all teams

A common and oft repeated misconception among ND fans. Willingham did not break the green jerseys out for BC. He had urged fans to wear green to make a Sea of Green. As the ND fans had done on the road, particularly the week before at Doak Campbell Stadium when the Irish waxed FSU 34-24. I was there with 5000 other ND fans and you should have seen the FSU fan's faces as we marched as a Green Army into the Stadium chanting, "HERE COME THE IRISH!" It was electrifying. There were few of them left in the stadium as we marched out at the end of the game.

Willingham in one of few moments, possibly his only moment, of understanding ND broke out the green jerseys FOR the players AND the fans. It was meant as a tribute to the fans. Along the lines of, "Today, YOU ARE THE TEAM!" It wasn't about an opponent. It wasn't about BC at all.

And kudos to Coach O'Brien, he took it and used it to motivate his troops. The better coach won the game. Not the color of a jersey.

Presently, I feel like the green needs to be retired for a bit.

In one of the other threads on this topic,

http://www.irishenvy.com/forums/search.php?searchid=8452​

that addressed last year's USC game I wrote:

I like 'em. Always have. Thought I didn't care for the shade the last time they were donned before Saturday.

Green Jersey's don't make a player better. Neither does a gold helmet. But if a player THINKS it makes him better ...

A Blue and Gold Jersey wouldn't have made Fitz's last kick slide between the uprights. A Blue and Gold Jersey wouldn't have prevented Fasano's fumble. A Blue and Gold Jersey wouldn't have made Wooden bat away that last pass. But in a Green Jersey, he caught him from behind.​

ND should wear Green Jersey's whenever Coach Weis wants them to.​

Charlie Weis understands Notre Dame.
​

 

[NDAlumSon]

Love the Green. Always have. Regardless of superstitious record implications.

Prediction: We won't see green at all this year.

 

[BGIF]

Sick of this curse thing. We werent expected to win at USC anyway.

ANd I love them for 1 game a year.

PMac, you probably one of the few that realizes ND wasn't expected to win any of the games when the green jerseys were "broken out" except for the BC game and in that game they weren't worn looking for an edge.

 

[grantland]

You would love them this year, if we wear them...cause we are going 13-0.

I love that attitude.

 

[Ultimate Penn St. Hater]

I liked the green numbered road jerseys when we spanked Spurrier and Florida.

 

[luckofirish8]

I love the green jerseys, but only as a rare alternate.

I couldn't agree more. I think that once a year is enough. However, I don't know if we will see them at all this season. If we wore them at one game this season, which one would it be? The first homegame...Penn State.

Love My Irish...I know this may not please you, but I think that the greens would lose a bit of the luster and excitement if they wore them every game. Part of their greatest is that first bit of excitement to see the green jersey.

 

[tgolden]

I actually loved the look of the green jerseys from 2002, and I love that green in the stands, but I don't really care if they never wear it again. blue works for me on the field.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Love My Irish...I know this may not please you, but I think that the greens would lose a bit of the luster and excitement if they wore them every game. Part of their greatest is that first bit of excitement to see the green jersey.

I hear you on that...although we have spent entire years in them before.
http://bluegraysky.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_bluegraysky_archive.html#111636410209829674
"Leahy was also quite fond of the green jersey and his squads wore it often, some years exclusively. Bertelli in ‘43 (below), Johnny Lujack on the cover of Life magazine in ’47 (below), and Johnny Lattner on the cover of Time magazine in ’53 (right), all wore the green jersey those years. Notice the black stripe down the center of Lattner’s gold helmet."

AND

"Terry Brennan continued the practice of wearing green almost exclusively as seen here on Paul Hornung in a 1956 issue of Sport Magazine (left). The leather helmets during this time featured 2 dark stripes: one going from front to back, the other from side to side."

ALSO

"The 11th-ranked Irish were taking on 5th-ranked USC in another important battle between the two rivals. The spirited students made an enormous Trojan horse and Coach Devine pulled out his biggest trick: after warming up in standard blue jerseys, the ND players stormed the field for the game in green jerseys (right). Led by Joe Montana, the Irish went on to destroy USC 49-19. Notre Dame would wear the green jerseys with gold numbers through the rest of the season, including the 1978 Cotton Bowl that gave Devine his one and only national championship (below left).

The jerseys worn in the USC game did not feature names on the back, but names were added sometime before the Cotton Bowl. Devine would outfit his squad in the green jerseys throughout the rest of his time at Notre Dame."

INTERESTINGLY (albeit unrelated)

"Ara did institute one unique change to the ND helmet; he handed out blue stars for big plays, a la the Ohio State Buckeye (right). The 1-inch stars were stenciled on the front of the helmet.

At first, the stars were given out only to defensive players for recovering a fumble or getting an interception, but this changed sometime around ’71 or ’72 when the awarding of the stars was extended to offensive players such as Tom Clements (right, below)."

 

[tommy]

some one could wash the white jerseys with a red rag and still wear them aslong as we win i dont care what color they are goooooooooooooooooo iriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish

 

[Irish Envy]

Weis said they are for the players and will be worn when he thinks they deserve and earn them. I like that mentality.

 

[onenybrother]

Should be worn the first home game of the year and thats it.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Should be worn the first home game of the year and thats it.

Kind of a cool idea actually...

 

[tommy]

yea i like the idea of having a set date for the green jerseys but its kinda heart breaking the way they pull them out in a tough game i dont think i have ever seen them win in the dress greens

 

[rontdtarchala]

I don't like them don't want them and don't want them to use them...don't believe in any dang curse but we don't win using them...We are gold and bluuuuuuuuuuuueee.

We are getting closer guys...man this is great...the only thing I've been saying to my people since I read it on this site is "this is the last weekend without ND football".

GO IRISH

 

[tommy]

i can hear the fight song already they better put that thing on repeat and leave it alone

 

[ausylo]

i dont like them. I like the standard blue for home, white for away.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

I don't like them don't want them and don't want them to use them...don't believe in any dang curse but we don't win using them...We are gold and bluuuuuuuuuuuueee.GO IRISH

We are MOSTLY Gold and Blue. Most recently anyway...

But if you read my previous post you can see that the Jersies have changed MANY times. In fact, if we went back to the original blue, it's Madonna blue. (blech)

 

[kickerbg31]

I would love to see Charlie bust out the white jerseys with Green numbers for this year's away game at Michigan State and then runup the score to about 70-0.

Man do I hate MSU.

 

[punishment]

I think we should always wear the green jerseys against USC. It seems that we have used the green jersey on these "special occasions" against them the most. So I think all ND home games of USC should call for the green jersey. Make that a tradition.

 

[Vince Young]

The green jerseys should be rare. They should carry an awesome aura about them, an air of mystique, a sense of magic.

When Ty pulled them out against BC, I was more surprised than pleased. And I'm a HUGE fan of green jerseys... for the right occasion. The right occasion is rare. When I see them, I usually get pumped, but that day, I wasn't pumped. I was nervous. Green just didn't feel right that day. And we all remember how that game turned out...

In contrast, the Sugar Bowl against Florida with the green numbers... that was pure genius, the perfect response to the scorn that was being heaped upon Lou's 9-2 squad. "What's the difference between Notre Dame and cereal?" "Cereal belongs in a bowl." Lou ran a football clinic that day, and the green just added to the mystique.

And last year against USC... that was special. I don't care that we lost. That game was so epic, so much on the line. The fans were pumped. The players were UP. They practiced so damn hard all week, and Charlie figured the best way to reward their effort was to let them wear those beautiful green-and-gold jerseys. That was the best damn football they played all year, and they took one of the best teams in college football history to the absolute brink. We may have lost, but as far as I'm concerned, that game was a positive addition to the storied history of Notre Dame's green jerseys.

I really don't see anything on the schedule this year that would be appropriate for breaking out the greens again, and it's probably best not to spring them out again too soon. Best to let the mystique build a bit more.

I do see one exception though... if we go 12-0, playing for the national title in green-and-gold would suit me just fine.