Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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10 PRESEASON 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME A two-game Notre Dame-Wiscon- sin football series in 2020-21 checked the three main boxes Notre Dame vice president/director of athletics Jack Swarbrick seeks when assem- bling a schedule. "The first part is the experience for our students to play football," Swarbrick said Aug. 15 in Chicago at the announcement of the series. "The second is the pending ramifica- tions of the game, and the third is how does it advance the university. What are the connections? What's the story? "I don't know that we could have scheduled a game against an oppo- nent that could have hit those marks more effectively than this two-game series." Part I includes agreeing to play in nearby NFL venues: Oct. 3, 2020 at Green Bay's Lambeau Field, and Sept. 25, 2021 at Chicago's Soldier Field — both of which will be Sham- rock Series games for Notre Dame. "The reaction of our students to those opportunities to play in iconic venues like that creates an extra di- mension and extra excitement, and both of these will do that for us," Swarbrick said. "In both games, the stadium will be split 50/50. That cre- ates a unique atmosphere. That's the same atmosphere you get at a na- tional championship game. "The energy in the stadium when you do that, both sides will be very full and there will be a very robust secondary market I'm sure. … We want to be national and we want to play in iconic venues, and this helps promote both." Part II is that Wisconsin over the past 20-plus years has become a con- sistent top-15 to top-20 program with a physical identity on both sides of the ball that was established by cur- rent athletics director Barry Alvarez while he was the head coach from 1990-2015. In the 12 seasons from 2005-16, the Badgers have averaged nine wins per season (108-40, .730 winning percent- age) and finished in the Associated Press top 10 four times, including No. 9 last year. "As we attempt to create a body of work which makes the case for our inclusion in the College Foot- ball Playoff, we want to be able to have marker games a g a i n s t t h e B i g Ten or against the SEC," Swarbrick said. "We'll always have Pac-12 or ACC markers by virtue of our scheduling agreements." Finally, Part III is the rebirth of the Shamrock Series in 2020-21 after a hiatus this season. NBC will broad- cast the first game at Lambeau while the Big Ten will hold the rights to the second meeting in 2021. "We will designate both as a Shamrock game for us for purposes of all the university activities that go on during the week," Swarbrick confirmed. Despite not having met in football since 1964, there are vast connections between the two schools: • Curly Lambeau, for whom Lambeau Field is named, originally began his football career at Notre Dame in 1918 under first-year head coach Knute Rockne. The founder and player-coach of the Green Bay Packers also moonlighted as the head coach of Green Bay East High — where his unbeaten 1920 team was led by Jim Crowley, one of Notre Dame's legendary Four Horsemen from 1922-24. • Speaking of the Four Horsemen, another member of that unit was quarterback Harry Stuhl- dreher, who was the head coach at Wisconsin from 1936-48. His best season was 1942, when his 8-1-1 Badgers — the tie came against Frank Leahy's Notre Dame team — finished No. 3 in the AP poll, the school's sec- ond-highest finish to this day. • The late Ara Parseghian's first game as Notre Dame's head coach was a 31-7 decision in the rain at Madison, Wis. — a precursor of the glory days to come in his 11 seasons with the Fighting Irish. • Before getting hired as Wiscon- sin's head coach, Alvarez coached at Notre Dame under Lou Holtz from 1987-89. He was originally hired as an outside linebackers coach, but then was promoted to coordinator his last two seasons and helped or- chestrate a school-record 23-game winning streak and the 1988 national title. • Third-year Badgers head coach Paul Chryst's brother Rick is a 1983 Notre Dame graduate who was a starter for the baseball team, a room- mate of All-American point guard John Paxson and the former com- missioner of the Mid-American Conference. Notre Dame-Wisconsin Set For 2020-21 Meetings At Lambeau And Solider Field Athletics directors Jack Swarbrick (bottom left) and Barry Alvarez (bottom right), a former Irish foot‑ ball coach from 1987‑89, put together a two‑year deal that will allow Notre Dame and Wisconsin to play at a pair of iconic NFL stadiums. PHOTOS BY DAVE MCKINNEY