Notre Dame has long and storied football history

Notre Dame football is one of the most storied traditions in American sport.

In its 115… Notre Dame football is one of the most storied traditions in American sport.

In its 115 years of existence, the Fighting Irish football team won 11 national championships and participated in 24 bowl games. Notre Dame has produced 39 National Football Foundation Hall of Fame players, more than any other school.

South Bend has been a breeding ground for National Football League talent, including players like San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana, Oakland Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown and Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis. Most importantly, Notre Dame boasts the highest winning percentage in Division I college football, at .749.

But perhaps the most impressive achievement of the Fighting Irish football program has been its ongoing ability to hire legendary coaches to replace each other.

Notre Dame has had a record five head coaches elected to the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame. In 1894, James L. Morrison became the first Notre Dame head football coach.

Morrison compiled a 3-1-1 record in his first and only season as the leader of the Irish. Despite his short tenure as head coach, Morrison established a precedent of successful coaching at Notre Dame and was a pioneer at what would later be called the most prestigious coaching position in college sports.

In 1913, University of Chicago alumnus Jesse Harper left his head coaching position at Wabash College to accept a position as head football coach and athletic director at Notre Dame. In his first season with the Irish, Harper led the team to an undefeated 7-0-0 record.

Harper coached Notre Dame for five seasons, accumulating a 34-5-1 record during his tenure with the Irish, before retiring to a quiet life in 1917. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1971.

Filling Harper’s shoes following his abrupt resignation was a difficult task, but the Irish had to look no further than graduate assistant Knute Rockne. Thirteen years and three national championships later, Rockne’s 105-12-5 record qualified him as the winningest coach in football history.

Rockne led the Irish to five undefeated seasons and their first bowl victory, and his fiery pep talks are legendary in the annals of college football history. Rockne was one of the inaugural inductees National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1951.

The Irish won 63 games in the ’30s under Hunk Anderson and Elmer Layden, but didn’t have the success they enjoyed under Harper and Rockne.

In 1941, the football program looked to Notre Dame alum Frank Leahy for inspiration. Between 1939-1940, Leahy had led Boston College to a 20-2 record and a 1941 Sugar Bowl victory.

His success carried over to Notre Dame, where he led the Irish to an 8-0-1 record in his first season. Leahy entered the Navy in 1944, and returned from WWII to coach the Irish in 1946. He led the team to national titles in 1943, 1946, 1947 and 1949 before retiring in 1954.

Leahy was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1970, and his .855 winning percentage is surpassed only by Rockne’s.

The decade from 1954-1963 proved to be a decade of mediocrity by Notre Dame standards, as the Irish went 49-41 under Terry Brennan and Joe Kuharich. In 1964, collegiate and professional coaching veteran Ara Parseghian was brought in to re-establish the Notre Dame tradition.

Parseghian didn’t disappoint, leading the Irish to a 9-0-1 record in his first season. In 1966, a 9-0-1 record was good enough for the Irish to be named consensus national champions, and in 1973, Parseghian led Notre Dame to an 11-0 record, including a 24-23 Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama that clinched the Irish their ninth national championship.

Upon his retirement in 1975, Parseghian had established a 95-17-4 record at Notre Dame and he won 170 games for a .739 winning percentage in 24 years of coaching. Parseghian stamped his Hall of Fame ticket in 1980.

In 1975, former Green Bay Packers head coach Dan Devine picked up where Parseghian left off, boasting an 8-3 record. Devine’s breakout year at Notre Dame came in 1977, as he led the Irish to an 11-1 record, a Cotton Bowl victory and a national championship.

Devine resigned in 1980 to front office jobs, leaving head coaching with a 53-16-1 record at Notre Dame. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame just five years later.

In 1986, former Arkansas and Minnesota coach Lou Holtz dawned the Notre Dame cap, and in his 11 years in South Bend, he coached the Irish in 132 games, more than any of his predecessors.

In 1988, Holtz led the Irish to a 12-0 record and their 11th national championship. In 11 seasons at Notre Dame, Holtz established a 100-30-2 record and won five Bowl games. Holtz is currently in his fourth season as head coach at South Carolina and he ranks third in career wins among active NCAA Division I-A coaches with 237.

Notre Dame made coaching history again in 2002 when Tyrone Willingham was hired on as the first black head coach in the history of Irish football. Willingham, who established a 44-36-1 record during seven years at Stanford, has so far enjoyed the success of his legendary predecessors, as he is undefeated this season.

Willingham will face the Panthers for the first time on Saturday, but it won’t be the first meeting between the two teams.

Pitt and Notre Dame have faced each other 59 times in a rivalry that dates back to 1909. Notre Dame holds a 41-17-1 edge in the serious, and the last meeting between the two teams resulted in a 24-7 Notre Dame victory on Oct. 6, 2001, in South Bend.

The last Panther victory over the Irish came on Nov. 13, 1999. The 37-27 win was a historic one, as it was the final football game played at Pitt Stadium.