What was your first ND Game?

[ACamp1900]

The worst game was either watching ND get blown out in the opener against Georgia Tech in 2007 or the loss to USC in 2011 where ND kept getting my hopes up and immediately doing something stupid. Over and over.

This game was surreal... I kept waiting for them to snap out of it and make a run and it just kept getting worse and worse... More than any other game I can remember it had a feeling of, "This shit isn't actually happening, is it? Like, is this really real??"

 

[Greenore]

I started watching ND football in the early '70's with my Dad. I loved those Saturday afternoons!

Finally got to see them live in South Bend in 2015 vs USC. I don't think I could have imagined a better game. Loved that 2015 squad and still feel so privileged to have seen them. One of the greatest experiences of my life shared with great friends! Really wish I could have shared that day with Dad.

Cheers and Go Irish!!

 

[zelezo vlk]

ND vs Syracuase -- 2008

The coldest game they've ever played. The student section was lobbing snowballs all over the field and team. Seeing them lose to Syracuse as a first game was painful. I drank like 8 hot chocolates trying to stay warm.

Then:

ND - USC - 2009 - Painful loss
ND - Mich - 2010 - Painful loss

ND - FSU 2018 - Finally saw a win. I've seen people suggest this was a cold game, lol. The 'Cuse game was 3x worse.

I was at Syracuse in 2008 and BYU 2013, considered to be the coldest games in recent years. Cuse was cold, but I don't recall the awful wind like the BYU game. However, Navy 2017 was just much more miserable due to all the rain and it looking like it'd be consecutive years with losses to Navy.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

This game was surreal... I kept waiting for them to snap out of it and make a run and it just kept getting worse and worse... More than any other game I can remember it had a feeling of, "This shit isn't actually happening, is it? Like, is this really real??"

I was not following the team all that closely as I just finished law school and was entering rented mule associateship. I was totally caught by surprise.

To top if off, it was my last time sitting in my grandmother's amazing seats. I wasted 2 of my final batch of those tickets on my future B-I-L and his wife who have no interest in football or Notre Dame.

 

[fightingirish26]

Rutgers 2000. I was 7. I remember Dad showing me campus (he graduated in '93.) He helped me light a candle (even though we are Mormon, I remember begging him to let me do it.) Got a Notre Dame sweatshirt. We blew them out that game. I think there was a catch by a receiver where it bounced off his foot and came up. I remember walking away and never looking back on my fandom and love for the university.

ND-Rutgers 2000 was in Piscataway! I was there!

 

[BabyIrish]

I think my first one was Notre Dame vs Washington State in 2003. Notre Dame football is one of the few perks of living in South Bend. I'm blessed to have the opportunity to go to as many games as I've been to.

Same, I basically was able to go to a game at least once a year as a kid, and I thought that was normal for most people. Now I know the difference.

I was at that game as well, it was awesome! Too bad the season was a complete let down after that.

Worst games I have been to:
1. 2006 vs Michigan- I thought for sure we were going to roll to the championship game that year with a rematch with OSU, this was a crippling loss for me in the stadium.
2. 2010- Stanford, not as bad since it was a rebuilding year but it was tough getting dominated the whole game by Harbaugh of all people.
3. 1993- vs BC- The game was entertaining once we made our comeback but we all know how that story ended. I'll never forget the complete shock and quietness in the stadium.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

I was at Syracuse in 2008 and BYU 2013, considered to be the coldest games in recent years. Cuse was cold, but I don't recall the awful wind like the BYU game. However, Navy 2017 was just much more miserable due to all the rain and it looking like it'd be consecutive years with losses to Navy.

Can't speak to BYU. I just remember my feet freezing instantly. We kept trying to find buildings to walk into before the game just to warm up. It was a bitter day. Couple that with Syracuse winning by a point and you have the makings of an awful experience.

 

[IrishLion]

I was at Syracuse in 2008 and BYU 2013, considered to be the coldest games in recent years. Cuse was cold, but I don't recall the awful wind like the BYU game. However, Navy 2017 was just much more miserable due to all the rain and it looking like it'd be consecutive years with losses to Navy.

I was at these games... I honestly didn't think BYU felt too bad, considering the temperature. Maybe I was in a good spot in the stadium and wasn't feeling the wind? Or perhaps I just did a better job of dressing warm lol.

Syracuse in 2008 was fvcking miserable. I got a hot chocolate at one point, and it was almost too hot to drink when I got it at the stand, but it was cold by the time I got back to my seat like three minutes later.

And of course the game itself was miserable, too. Trying for a 63-yard field goal instead of letting Clausen lob one up towards Golden Tate was a crime. And off the field, as people were tossing snowballs at the Syracuse cheerleaders, the Syracuse Orange mascot was catching them in a megaphone and then throwing them back.

Even their mascot was winning.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

ND vs Syracuase -- 2008

The coldest game they've ever played. The student section was lobbing snowballs all over the field and team. Seeing them lose to Syracuse as a first game was painful. I drank like 8 hot chocolates trying to stay warm.

I was there too, that was the game that Manti took his official visit for and I remember my cousin and I thought there was no way a kid from HI would come to ND after visiting in such brutal temps, with students throwing snowballs, and losing to Syracuse against a coach who was already on his way out.

We were wrong, but that was the only fond memory I took away from that game.

 

[ACamp1900]

Same, I basically was able to go to a game at least once a year as a kid, and I thought that was normal for most people. Now I know the difference.

I was at that game as well, it was awesome! Too bad the season was a complete let down after that.

Worst games I have been to:
1. 2006 vs Michigan- I thought for sure we were going to roll to the championship game that year with a rematch with OSU, this was a crippling loss for me in the stadium.
2. 2010- Stanford, not as bad since it was a rebuilding year but it was tough getting dominated the whole game by Harbaugh of all people.
3. 1993- vs BC- The game was entertaining once we made our comeback but we all know how that story ended. I'll never forget the complete shock and quietness in the stadium.

Haven't been the same since... strange as I get older knowing it's just a game but looking back it shaped some of my childhood (by ending it really lol) and it admittedly stuck with me for years afterwards.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

Haven't been the same since... strange as I get older knowing it's just a game but looking back it shaped some of my childhood (by ending it really lol) and it admittedly stuck with me for years afterwards.

I missed that game because I was out of town.* Anyway, we must have asked 6 different people for the score after we came back home because we thought they were fucking with us.

*For a spell bowl competition. Laugh all you want, it saved me from experiencing that game.

 

[zelezo vlk]

I remember the sheer amount of snow in the stadium making the Syracuse game very cold, but otherwise I don't recall being that miserable. For the 2013 BYU game, my section was seemingly abandoned and nobody around me was prepared for that wind. At least they won and Jarron Jones started flashing.

Navy 2017 was miserable, I can't express how awful of an experience that was. So much rain, just barely above freezing. No beer

 

[tadman95]

First game was at Wake Forest in 2011. Tuitt and Lynch's freshman year.

Stanford at Notre Dame 2016. Could see the pick 6 as soon as it left Kizer's arm.

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

I remember the sheer amount of snow in the stadium making the Syracuse game very cold, but otherwise I don't recall being that miserable. For the 2013 BYU game, my section was seemingly abandoned and nobody around me was prepared for that wind. At least they won and Jarron Jones started flashing.

Navy 2017 was miserable, I can't express how awful of an experience that was. So much rain, just barely above freezing. No beer

I was at both as well; remember BYU '13 being worse than 'Cuse '08. I was about 11 rows from the field in the endzone and remember bringing a blanket to a game for the first (and only) time in my life. The tailgate was miserable too. We tried to put up the sides for our canopy but the wind was too much even with the stakes in the ground and weights on the corners.

 

[Greenore]

Stanford at Notre Dame 2016. Could see the pick 6 as soon as it left Kizer's arm.

You really should have said something!!

Cheers and Go Irish!!

 

[BabyIrish]

Haven't been the same since... strange as I get older knowing it's just a game but looking back it shaped some of my childhood (by ending it really lol) and it admittedly stuck with me for years afterwards.

At the time, it didn't impact me as much as all I knew was ND winning all the time. As I've gotten older and we've stopped dominating and winning as much, I've always craved for those dominant ND teams and have yet to seen one. Maybe some day...

 

[NDinMI]

It was either 05 or 06 at Michigan State. Miserable rainy game. Getting our butts kicked the majority of the game and then BOOM 2 picks. One being a pick 6 and then our offense finally decided to actually do something to add another score. Ended up shocking everyone in the stadium. Will never forget the look on MSU fans faces after that crazy comeback. That game made me truly realize it is never over until it's over.

 

[ACamp1900]

At the time, it didn't impact me as much as all I knew was ND winning all the time. As I've gotten older and we've stopped dominating and winning as much, I've always craved for those dominant ND teams and have yet to seen one. Maybe some day...

Not sure if I've always been cynical by nature or what... I knew it was the start of something... ND not even getting a share of the natty cemented it for me. I was fully aware of a now or never feel to it, at least in my mind...

 

[irishtrooper]

Ty Willingham coached ND beating Larry Fitzgerald and Pitt (@ Pitt) with Julius Jones setting the single game rushing record. First game at ND was Brady Quinn led team losing at home to the F bomb dropping Tyler Palko. Crushed by that game as there was an obnoxious dbag Pitt fan sitting near us talking smack all game

 

[stlnd01]

My dad took me to the Stanford game in 1990. I was 12. We were #1 in the country. I’ll never forget the pep rally the night before in Stepan. Standing-room-only, the place was jacked. I’d never seen anything like it.
Of course we lost the next day. Yet I have been utterly hooked ever since.

 

[NorthDakota]

This is a thread that I bet Brick has a good story for.

 

[ACamp1900]

I missed that game because I was out of town.* Anyway, we must have asked 6 different people for the score after we came back home because we thought they were fucking with us.

*For a spell bowl competition. Laugh all you want, it saved me from experiencing that game.

 

[IrishFaninTX]

Cotton Bowl in 1994 (1993 season). I was hooked from that moment

 

[T-Boone]

vs Temple 2017. Wimbush playing his first game. Also the start of Josh Adams great run.

 

[pumpdog20]

First game was 1997 vs West Virginia.

Navy 2017 was definitely the most miserable.

 

[Ultimate Penn St. Hater]

ND@ Pitt 1987. Driving rain storm. QB got hurt. Tony Rice entered. We were down big, Rice brought us back, but lost 30-22.

 

[irishtrain]

1979 southern cal Notre Dame at home

 

[POTUS2017]

2004 at Tennessee was my technical first Irish game. We separated Erik Ainge's shoulder, then had a pick 6 that sealed a close game, 17-13.
First and only home game was versus Navy in 2011 when we crushed them 56-14. Beautiful day.
#GoIrish #MuckFichigan

 

[SeekNDestroy]

1988 vs Air Force. Rocket caught a touchdown. That’s all I remember.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

West Virginia in 97