Even Before Rockne, We Were Known as the Fighting Irish

How and when did a small college located in the “Land of the Indians” (the meaning of the name Indiana) and founded by a 28-year-old Catholic priest from France end up with the nickname the Fighting Irish?

No one seems to know for sure. But it may surprise you that documented references to Notre Dame’s football teams as the Fighting Irish go back much farther than you might think, even preceding the arrival of an end named Rockne, a halfback known as the Gipper, and a backfield that became famous as the Four Horsemen.

The earliest known documented use of the nickname by a major newspaper appeared in the Detroit Free Press on November 7, 1909. Interestingly, it appeared in the very first sentence of a story about Notre Dame’s very first victory ever over the Michigan Wolverines.

The sportswriter, Edward Armistead Batchelor, Sr., wrote these words: “"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 ..."

Whether the use of the Fighting Irish nickname began precisely with that story in the Detroit Free Press or not may still be open to question, but it is clear that many students at Notre Dame made frequent use of the nickname in the next few years, as documented in the pages of The Notre Dame Scholastic, the University’s student weekly.

There’s this reference In the November 9, 1912, issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic: “The spirit at Notre Dame has ever been that of work, honor, and democracy. Before the president of Illinois University called us “fighting Irishmen” we were fighters; nor can the influence of our University’s early hardships ever pass away….our University is no hibernating camp for the full pocket and the empty head, but a place where the spirit of honorable work is ruler.”

The September 27, 1919, issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic offered this passage about the football team: “As to the men who are fighting for places on the Gold and Blue teams of this year, and who will again carry the “Fighting Irish” spirit with them to the four points of the compass…,” and this one, which clearly suggests the name had been in use at the University for quite some time: “The famous ‘fighting Irish spirit” has typified Notre Dame athletic teams, and the football team in particular, for many years.”

In the November 29, 1919, edition of The Notre Dame Scholastic, an account of a 33-13 Notre Dame victory at Purdue, there is this specific reference to the football team: “Every man in the press box voted the “Fighting Irish” the best seen on Stewart [sic] Field this season even though the Hibernians were going only at half speed during the contest.” The same story also noted a Notre Dame halfback named George Gipp completed 12 of 20 passes for 162 yards during the game.

The 1919 football squad finished 9-0, undefeated and untied, which prompted one of many references to “the Fighting Irish” in the 1919 Notre Dame Football Review, including perhaps one of the first to link the name of Knute Rockne directly to the Fighting Irish in the same sentence: “ALL- AMERICAN CHAMPS: This indeed is a fit title for Coach Rockne’s squad of “Fighting Irish.”

In an editorial in the October 29, 1921, edition of The Notre Dame Scholastic, the editors vigorously promoted and defended the name: “Another matter frequently brought forth is this: “What has happened to the name, ‘Fighting Irish?’ “ Nothing whatever, excepting that it has been misunderstood so largely that local sportswriters have believed it advisable to use something else. Notre Dame wants to be recognized as a purely American school, which favors or discriminates against no one because of possible national descent. As such she has expressed deep sympathy with the Irish cause upon occasions beyond number as such she has understood as well, that student publications and University bulletins should avoid rash expression of opinion on difficult problems or involved the entire Notre Dame public by generalizations which a large number may find distasteful. But publicity and the “Fighting Irish” are other matters.

“Everyone ought to see that no name half so good as this has been or can be thought of. It is rich with tradition; it has stuck better than the brick in the campus buildings. “Fighting Irish” no more signifies that everyone hails from County Galway than “Sorin’s Sons” – which sounds like “Sorensons” – means that everybody hails from Scandinavia. There are other people at Purdue besides boilermakers, and a considerable portion of the Chicago student body have never spent a night on a desert island (editor’s note: the University of Chicago’s team nickname was the Maroons.  Since they named their teams after the color, the Scholastic writer is having a bit of fun at their expense.). Really we think that everybody ought to forget squeamishness when it comes to a big thing like a football team with N. D. monograms, and be glad to see “Fighting Irish” in print.”

As you might note, every one of these references preceded the dramatic rise and soaring popularity of Notre Dame’s football teams in the Roaring Twenties.

As Rockne’s teams dominated the college football landscape in the 1920s, the six most exciting words in sports – the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame – became more widely used by the nation’s sportswriters and radio announcers and finally were considered “official” when the nickname received a public blessing by the Holy Cross priest serving as president of Notre Dame in 1927.

When a reporter from the New York World wrote the president of Notre Dame a letter in the fall of 1927 seeking his opinion on the popular name, Rev. Matthew Walsh, C.S.C. responded in this way:

“The University authorities are in no way averse to the name ‘Fighting Irish’ as applied to our athletic teams… It seems to embody the kind of spirit that we like to see carried into effect by the various organizations that represent us on the athletic field. I sincerely hope that we may always be worthy of the ideals embodied in the term ‘Fighting Irish.’ ”

Just like the editorial in that 1921 issue of The Notre Dame Scholastic had expressed, “no name half so good as this has been or can be thought of”…it is unquestionably “rich with tradition”…and “it has stuck better than the brick in the campus buildings.”

Go Irish.