ara raoul parseghian taught notre dame how to play football.
ara raoul parseghian taught notre dame how to play football.
who taught notre dame how to play football?
ara raoul parseghian
batchelor also covered the michigan wolverines football team for the "free press". after a predominantly irish notre dame football team defeated michigan, 11–3, in november 1909, batchelor opened his report on the game with a line that gave the notre dame their nickname. batchelor wrote, "eleven fighting irishmen wrecked the yost machine this afternoon. these sons of erin, individually and collectively representing the university of notre dame, not only beat the michigan team, but they dashed some of michigan's fondest hopes ..." notre dame football historian, john kryk, later wrote: "with that flowery lead, e.a. batchelor of the "detroit free press" popularized a moniker notre dame teams would later come to embrace - and aptly summed up the greatest athletic achievement to that point in notre dame history." kryk noted that, according to notre dame folklore, batchelor had overheard a notre dame player trying to motivate his teammates at halftime by pleading, "what's the matter with you guys? you're all irish and you're not fighting worth a lick."
edward a. batchelor
meanwhile, notre dame had difficulty scheduling local western conference opponents because of a ban placed on member schools from playing them. the irish were initially forced to seek out opponents nationally to fill its schedule, often traveling far away to do so. after notre dame started winning landmark games against college behemoths such as georgia tech and army, notre dame started to grow in popularity and could command more money for games it scheduled. notre dame garnered interest from the rose bowl committee to have notre dame come and play a pacific coast conference (now pac-12) opponent for the 1924 football season. coach rockne and the notre dame administration realized how lucrative an annual trip to los angeles would be for the football program. notre dame's west coast alumni began lobbying rockne to bring the team to the rose bowl as a season finale every year. the rose bowl committee favored this arrangement (at the time there was no tie in with the big ten); however, the pacific coast conference had reservations. specifically, two members schools, stanford and california refused to play notre dame "on account of [notre dame's] low scholastic standards." since notre dame was a catholic school, its academics were considered inferior at the time. usc's coach, gus henderson reached out to rockne through correspondence stating that "usc would welcome the chance to play notre dame new year's day in pasadena." while rockne favored playing usc, stanford, which won the pacific coast conference title, had first choice and eventually realized that playing notre dame would be lucrative, and the two played in the 1925 rose bowl.
notre dame–usc football rivalry