Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 31, 2020 9 UNDER THE DOME 1 NFL player since the 1970 merger between the AFL and NFL who has scored at least four touchdowns receiving and a minimum of two rushing touchdowns in his first five games, per NFL Stats: Pittsburgh Steelers' rookie wide receiver Chase Claypool, Notre Dame's 2019 Team MVP. The second-round draft pick helped lead Pittsburgh to a 5-0 start for the first time since 1978, when it won the third of four Super Bowl titles in a six-year span. 6 Notre Dame players from Georgia who will be returning to their home state for the Oct. 31 game at Georgia Tech's Grant Field in Atlanta. Al- phabetically they are sophomore linebacker JD Bertrand (Alpharetta), junior run- ning back C'Bo Flemister (Williamson), sophomore safety Kyle Hamilton (Atlanta), graduate rover Isaiah Pryor (Lawrenceville), junior tight end Tommy Tremble (Johns Creek) and sophomore safety KJ Wallace (Atlanta). 16-0 Record for Notre Dame's football program when it plays on Hallow- een — which it will again at Georgia Tech this year. It is one of the few days of the year it is unbeaten in its history with at least three games having been played on any date. The first such victory was in 1896 versus Albion, and the most recent was the closest call, a 24-20 win versus unbeaten and No. 22 Temple in 2015 when DeShone Kizer found Will Fuller on a 17-yard back shoulder pass for the winning touchdown with 2:09 remaining. 59 Years old Brian Kelly turned Oct. 25, the day after the Pittsburgh game. No football head coach at Notre Dame ever reached 60. Lou Holtz (1986-96) was the closest when he was 59 years and 10 months when he stepped down from his post in November 1996. The previous second oldest had been Dan Devine, who retired at age 55 in 1980. 75 The Notre Dame athletics department has announced it will celebrate 75 years of black student-athletes' academic, athletic and postgraduate impact on the university and broader community by sharing their stories and experiences during the 2021 calendar year. At the forefront of that effort is Angie Torain, the new senior associate athletics director for culture, diversity and engagement. The celebration has been planned to honor the 75th anniversary of Frazier Thompson, the first black student-athlete, competing in a varsity sport at the University of Notre Dame. Thompson came to Notre Dame in the fall of 1944 by way of the Navy V-12 Program. He would go on to earn two monograms in track and field, and he completed his degree in pre-professional studies in 1947. 126 Ranking of Notre Dame 2020-21 men's basketball (13th in the 15-team ACC) by College Sports Madness — despite an "old" starting lineup that features a fifth- year senior (center Juwan Durham) and four juniors (forward Nate Laszewski, and guards PRENTISS HUBB, Dane Goodwin and Cormac Ryan). CBS Sports' five-man basketball staff was equally pessimistic, with one picking the Irish 11th in the ACC, three 12th and one dead last (15th). Practice began earlier this month, but the full schedule has not yet been released. 1988 The last time two of the most famous sports operations in America — Notre Dame football and the Los Angeles Dodgers — were champions. On Oct. 15 that year, both also had one of the epic moments in their history, with Notre Dame defeating No. 1 Miami 31-30 and Los Angeles winning game one of the World Series against Oakland on Kirk Gibson's dramatic walk-off home run. The Dodgers have been knocking on the championship door more frequently in recent years, advancing to the World Series for the first time in 29 years in 2017 before losing, and doing so again in 2018. Notre Dame played for the title in 2012 and made the four-team College Football Playoff in 2018. Los Angeles also is favored to win its first World Series in 32 years. ✦ BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO BY ALAN WASIELEWSKI/FIGHTING IRISH MEDIA