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How Notre Dame Became a National Football Brand: It Dates Back to the 1920s
A new Notre Dame docu-series looks back at how the Irish became a national team.
College football is a hugely popular sport, but for the most part, teams generally have regional fan bases in the state and area around the university.
The University of Alabama? Most Crimson Tide fans are in Alabama. Michigan fans? Not surprisingly, you’ll find most of them in Michigan. But Notre Dame (whose home games are on NBC and Peacock this season) has always been a different kind of school, with a fanbase and appeal that spans from coast to coast. The reason? An innovative approach to scheduling more than a century ago by former Irish coach Knute Rockne.
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Rockne was one of the most successful coaches in Notre Dame history, leading the Fighting Irish from 1918-1930, piling up an incredible 105-12-5 record during his tenure — making Notre Dame one of the most dominant football teams of the era. And even though the university is located in Indiana, it has massive fanbases in cities ranging from New York to Chicago.
Why does Notre Dame have fans all over the country?
When Knute Rockne took over as coach of Notre Dame, he made a point to take the team on the road and schedule marquee games with football programs all over the country, which made the Fighting Irish a national brand when no other college football team was taking its players on the road for marquee games outside their traditional area and conference footprint.
The history of how Rockne’s scheduling left such a massive impact on Notre Dame and its sustained success and popularity is chronicled in the new Notre Dame docu-series Here Come the Irish, which is embedded with Notre Dame’s 2024 football team and releasing new episodes periodically throughout the season on Peacock. The first two episodes are streaming now.
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Rockne took Notre Dame to play highly-publicized games in iconic sports venues, including stops at Yankee Stadium, making the Irish a national college football team and inspiring fans across the country to become lifelong Notre Dame fans.
The strategy worked, helped by the fact that Rockne was an excellent coach and won most of those games. And families that became Notre Dame fans all across the country in the 1920s and 1930s raised their kids wearing the blue and gold, too.
Catch every Notre Dame home game on NBC and streaming on Peacock this season, and be sure to check out Here Come the Irish streaming on Peacock now.
