Notre Dame Fighting Irish

From Hoopedia

The University of Notre Dame is a Roman Catholic institution located in Notre Dame, Indiana, immediately northeast of South Bend, Indiana. "Notre Dame," meaning "Our Lady" in French, refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The original and official name of the school is The University of Notre Dame du Lac (the university of Our Lady of the Lake). The school was founded on November 26, 1842, by 28-year-old Rev. Edward Sorin, CSC, and six Holy Cross Brothers who were members of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Total enrollment stands around 11,500, of which 8,300 are undergraduates.

Notre Dame is a member of NCAA Division I. Its basketball teams are members of the Big East Conference. School colors are blue and gold.

Notre Dame athletic teams are known as the Fighting Irish (though students are called "Domers"). Previously, and especially during the Knute Rockne football era, Notre Dame had several unofficial nicknames—among them the "Rovers" and the "Ramblers," because of those teams' propensity to travel the nation to play its football contests, such as at the University of Southern California, long before such national travel became the collegiate norm. Later, Notre Dame was also, again unofficially, known as the "Terriers," after the Irish breed of the dog, and for some years, an Irish Terrier would be found on the ND football sidelines.

The most generally accepted explanation is that the press coined the nickname as a characterization of Notre Dame teams in the 1920s as a result of preexisting Irish stereotypes, the widely reported events of 1924, and the grit, determination, and tenacity of Coach Knute Rockne's football teams of the era. Although Notre Dame alumnus Francis Wallace popularized it in his New York Daily News columns in the 1920s with respect to the university, as early as the Civil War Father Corby and the Irish Brigade of the Union Army had been dubbed "The Fighting Irish."

Notre Dame's basketball teams call the Joyce Center home. It has a capacity of 11,418.

Men's Basketball

The men's basketball team has made 28 NCAA Tournament appearances and made it to the Final Four in 1978. They are also known for ending UCLA's 88-game winning streak in 1974, a streak which had begun after Notre Dame had previously ended UCLA's 45-game winning streak in 1971.

Women's Basketball

Notre Dame's women's basketball team, coached by Muffet McGraw, also has made numerous tournament appearances, and won the National Championship in 2001 by beating the Purdue Boilermakers, 68-66.