Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IRISH ECHOES JIM LEFEBVRE 58 NOV. 7, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED What made Ross Browner No. 3 on the list of Notre Dame's best players of the past 50 seasons? The following excerpt from The Gold Standard: The Best of Notre Dame Football, 1976-2025 explores the career of the Irish legend. Published by Coman Publishing Co., a division of On3 Sports LLC, and produced by Blue & Gold Illustrated, this 192-page, full-color hardcover celebrates 50 years of Fighting Irish football — a keepsake for your col- lection or a gift for a fellow fan. Order your copy for $44.95 at BlueGoldOnline.com. A n early September 1973 game-like scrimmage for the Notre Dame football team resulted in this re- port in the South Bend Tribune: "Particularly and consistently no- ticeable Saturday was freshman Ross Browner, the 6-foot-3, 223-pound defensive end from Warren, Ohio. Browner spent most of the morning chasing first-team quarterbacks Tom Clements and Cliff Brown all over the backfield, catching Clements once for nine yards. He also blocked a punt by Brian Doherty that set up a touchdown, forced a fumble by Brown and recovered a fumble by Wayne Bullock." "It's pretty hard to hide him now," noted coach Ara Parseghian, not in the habit of praising freshmen. Browner quickly became the team's starter at left defensive end and made an impact for his entire time with the Irish. Browner had finished his high school career by blocking three punts in the "Big 33" all-star game matching the best of Ohio and Pennsylvania. And early in the 1973 opener against North- western, he got his hands on a punt at the Wildcat 10-yard-line. It bounded out of the end zone for a safety. That set the tone for a 44-0 Irish rout in which Northwestern managed just 62 yards on 47 rushing attempts. "We had lost a number of players to injury that we had expected to start for us that season," Parseghian recalled years later. "We were in desperate need of two defensive ends, a defensive back and a running back. Ross had just ar- rived on campus, but he played like he had been there for years. "It was very apparent that this guy was going to be something special." The next week, in a swarming 20-7 win at Purdue, Browner and mates Wil- lie Fry and Steve Niehaus led a defensive effort that held the Boilers to 78 rushing yards on 35 attempts. So it went through the '73 season, when the Irish defense held 10 regular-season opponents to an average of just 6.6 points per game. In the pivotal Oct. 27 meeting with Southern Cal, the Irish again held an opponent to fewer than 100 yards rush- ing. The Trojans managed only 68 yards on 27 tries in Notre Dame's 23-14 vic- tory that ended a 23-game Trojans un- beaten streak. Going into the Sugar Bowl against Alabama, the Tribune offered this as- sessment of defensive line coach Joe Yonto's group: "A man who has coached Alan Page, Mike McCoy, Walt Patulski and Greg Marx is not easily satisfied," the report said. "But when Joe Yonto was asked what he would have wanted for the 1973 defensive line, he said, 'What they gave us is what we would have asked for. We had to improve on our pass rush, and I feel that's just what our guys did.'" In the Sugar Bowl win over Alabama that clinched the national champion- ship, Browner's third-down sack of Tide quarterback Gary Rutledge in the clos- ing moments preserved Notre Dame's 24-23 lead and ultimate victory. Frank Pomarico, 1973 captain and of- fensive lineman, had the unenviable task of trying to block Browner in practice. "Ross was just at another level," Po- marico said. "He was an elite defensive lineman and he had an attitude, too. He was like the terminator. Like, 'I'm going to getcha,' and there was no stopping him." After sitting out the 1974 season due to suspension, Browner came back strong. He won defensive player of the game honors in the season-opening 17-3 victory at Boston College. His con- tinued strong play was a highlight of an 8-3 season for the Irish. In his final two years at Notre Dame, Browner became one of the most deco- rated defensive players in the history of college football. He earned unanimous All-America honors his junior and se- nior seasons. In 1976, he won the Outland Trophy as the nation's best interior lineman; also in 1976, United Press International named him Lineman of the Year. In 1977, Browner led a Fighting Irish defense The Terminator: Defensive End Ross Browner Was An Unstoppable Force For The Irish Browner terrorized opponents while amassing 340 total stops, 77 tackles for loss and 43 sacks during his four-year Irish career. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS