Sorry...Fredo? As in Fredo Corleone
Yes. And it's actually a bad reference, a misnomer. Several years ago on NDNation there was a discussion on rivalry teams, USC, UM, etc. Somebody mentioned BC as a rival. Others objected that there weren't enough games played between the two schools. They weren't often on the schedule. They were a major program. They lacked tradition. The only thing they had going from them was Frank Leahy, an ND grad who coached their for 2 seasons before returning to ND for greatness. And one big upset win by Coughlin. Not the material of rivalry.
He was shouted down that it's a rivalry only in the minds of BC students. "Backup College" jokes and others of that sort ensued. The thread digressed into BC wants to be a rival but it's inferior. Bottom line was they are not a "rival" and ND fans were only bolstering the BC fans illusion of rivalry by even including them in the thread.
Somebody then posted that BC was like Fredo. As a Catholic institution BC and ND were the only member of the "family" playing Div 1 ball. Fredo was the older, weaker brother resentful of the younger stronger brother. Sniping, plotting, deceitful. It caught on.
Unfortunately it provides BC exactly what those ND fans were objecting to. The Fredo label gives them credibility as a rival - however weak. Fredo was a sibling rivalry with Michael. Fredo had an unquestionable birthright, one that Don Vito chose to ignore.
BC isn't family. They're Jesuits.
As for older:
ND was founded in 1842 and was granted a charter by the state of Indiana 14 months later in
1844.
BC started out in a basement of church as a school for local youth in
1827. The Founder of the one basement room school, Bishop Fenwick, left in
1843 to start a real college - Holy Cross, 45 miles outside the city. Still seeing a need for a local college John McElroy SJ, got approval from his Jesuit superiors and in
1857 purchased land for "The Boston College" on Harrison Street. The college's two buildings — a schoolhouse and a church —
welcomed their first class of scholastics in 1859.
Two years later BC closed again. Its
short-lived second incarnation was plagued by the outbreak of the Civil War and disagreement within the Society over the college's governance and finances. BC's inability to obtain a charter from the anti-Catholic Massachusetts legislature only compounded its troubles.
Finally in 1863 Boston College's charter was formally approved by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Johannes Bapst SJ was selected as BC's first president and immediately reopened the original college buildings on Harrison Avenue. For most of the 19th century, BC offered a singular 7-year program corresponding to both high school and college.
Its entering class in the fall of 1864 included 22 students, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years.
In 1907 BC abandoned Boston and moved to the suburbs to "the farm" on Chestnut Hill. In 1972, BC's president, following the lead of ND's president Theodore Hesburgh of 5 years earlier, instituted a lay board of directors.
BC doesn't make it as "older" or a brother. BC can embellish a resume faster than George O'Leary. A one room basement school is a "college". They closed the doors multiple times but they're "older". BC was chartered 20 years later and even then was an elementary school.
ND is know as The Fighting Irish. BC also has a history of educating Irish immigrants. The parallel to a sibling rivarly in a murdering mafia family doesn't apply.
