Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IRISH ECHOES JIM LEFEBVRE 42 FEBRUARY 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED W henever I have the opportu- nity to explain to someone who doesn't follow college football closely just where Notre Dame stands in the current atmosphere of the sport, I refer to a popular film from the 1940s. No, not "Knute Rockne: All Ameri- can." But rather "It's a Wonderful Life." The rapacious Mr. Potter, who owns almost everything in town, represents the collusion of the ESPN-SEC-ACC- CFP cabal. And the Bailey Bros. Building & Loan is Notre Dame football. The one thing the cabal can't put under its control. The Building & Loan, says Jimmy Stewart (as George Bailey) to Mr. Potter, "is something you can't get your fingers around … and it's galling you." It's a long story. When Father Sorin and eight Holy Cross brothers arrived at this spot on the Northern Indiana frontier in 1842, he could have just as easily made "Choose Hard" the group's motto. With just a little land and a couple of log cabins, he boldly proclaimed, "This college cannot fail to succeed. Before long, it will develop on a large scale. It will be one of the most powerful means for good in this country." Through Sorin's vision, and the la- bor of Holy Cross priests, brothers and nuns, the institution grew as he envi- sioned, attracting Catholic immigrants from across the Midwest and eventually the nation. An 1879 fire that destroyed the university served only as a tempo- rary impediment to its growth. As the 20th century dawned, football had already taken hold at eastern col- leges. But immigrants, especially Catho- lics from Ireland, wouldn't have a prayer of being accepted at Princeton, Harvard or Yale. Or dozens of other prestigious schools across the country. But Notre Dame opened its arms, and if the family didn't have the cash, sometimes a side of beef could serve as tuition. The school was always an outlier. Al- ways striving to be accepted by the estab- lishment, yet being held at arm's length. In athletics, that meant the Western Confer- ence, later to be called the Big Ten. Michi- gan, and its virulently anti-Catholic coach Fielding Yost from the backwoods of West Virginia, led a boycott of Notre Dame after the Irish defeated his Wolverines in 1909. Jesse Harper and Knute Rockne made numerous attempts to join the confer- ence. In 1916 Harper, and 10 years later Rockne, missed Notre Dame games to go to Chicago and plead the school's case to join the conference. It was all for naught. Even the very name Fighting Irish connotes someone on the outside of acceptable society, striving to get a seat at the table. Catholic immigrants from many countries beyond Ireland found their home at Notre Dame. In the 1920s, the anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan had a major resurgence, especially in Indiana. In the spring of 1924, the Klan planned a major rally in downtown South Bend, to poke a finger in the eye of Amer- ican Catholicism. Notre Dame students, including many football players, rose up and took on the Klan. Subsequently, the Klan's propaganda claimed they were set upon by "Catholic hooligans." The clash served as the backdrop to the 1924 football season, when Notre Dame became the first team to ever play in New York City, Chicago and Southern California in the same season. A two- week odyssey to and from the Rose Bowl showcased the clean-cut team to largely Catholic receptions in Memphis, New Orleans, Houston, Tucson, San Fran- cisco, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, Den- ver and Lincoln, Neb. Notre Dame and Notre Dame football became a source of intense pride for Catholics nationwide. Shut out of the Big Ten, Notre Dame charted its own path. Traveling far and wide to meet quality opponents on the gridiron, often a grueling process that mightily tested their mettle. It became their identity with trips to play Army, Ne- braska, Penn State, Texas, Yale, Princeton and eventually Navy and Southern Cal. The university grew in prestige and accomplishment. It became a national university, with a national student body and a national football program. From Rockne through Leahy on down to Par- seghian and Holtz, Notre Dame was al- ways a jewel on any team's schedule — a game guaranteed to produce attention and buzz. Enough was packed into each year's regular season that the school es- chewed bowl trips from 1925-69. In 1984, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the NCAA's monop- oly on television rights, the landscape of college football changed. For Notre Dame, that meant an exclusive contract with NBC starting in 1991. Over the years, meanwhile, ESPN has become the 800-pound gorilla of the sport. It literally owns the SEC Net- work, the ACC Network and numerous bowl games, and holds rights for the College Football Playoff. And its talk- ing heads all barked the company line repeatedly this fall, denigrating Notre Dame as a CFP entrant — contradict- ing ESPN's own Football Power Index, which ranked the Irish third, behind only Ohio State and Indiana. Las Vegas betting houses, not in the business of losing money, had the Irish as an over- whelming favorite to make the CFP. On Dec. 7, 2025 — a date which will live in infamy in college football history — it all came to a head when Notre Dame was Notre Dame Independence, 'Choose Hard' Ethic: Rooted In History, Front And Center Today When Father Sorin and eight Holy Cross brothers arrived at Northern Indiana in 1842, he could have just as easily made "Choose Hard" the group's motto. PHOTO COURTESY HMDB.ORG