Everyone knows the famous story of Knute Rockne's "Win One for the Gipper" pep talk at halftime of the Notre Dame-Army game in 1928. The Gipper speech is one example of Rockne's incomparable ability to motivate his players. For thirteen seasons, he led the Notre Dame football squad, taking the relatively unknown Catholic university in northern Indiana to unimagined heights. His motivational abilities were the stuff of legend. He always seemed to know just the right things to say when he needed to get his team ready for a big game. Indeed, 75 years after his untimely death, he still holds the record for best winning percentage of any coach in the history of college or professional football (88.1%).
Long before the "Gipper" speech, Rockne's players could remember a similar pep talk used by the coach. For the 1922 season, Rock had arranged for Notre Dame to play at Georgia Tech, the first meeting between the two schools. Tech had a proud tradition, most notably through their famed coach John Heisman, who had left Tech after the 1919 season. (During his tenure, the "Rambling Wreck" rolled up an astounding 222-0 victory over Cumberland College in 1916, a record that seems certain to stand the test of time.) In 1922, Tech was in the midst of their sixth conference championship season in seven years, and was a formidable opponent for Notre Dame. Rock knew he had to have his players up for the game. The stakes were high, as the Irish were the midst of a potential national championship season.
During his pre-game remarks in the visitors' locker room, he read a number of telegrams from significant well-wishers. Then, just as the team was preparing to leave the locker room, Rock pulled from his pocket another telegram. Reading from the piece of paper, he told the team that his six-year-old son, Billy, was in the hospital back in South Bend, critically ill. Billy Rockne purportedly had the telegram sent to convey to the team how important this game was, imploring the team to win the game for his father. An emotional locker-room full of Notre Dame players exploded onto the field. Tech never knew what hit them. Despite a vitriolic, anti-Catholic reception from the partisan crowd, the boys of Notre Dame won 13-3, a result much more convincing than the score would indicate. Returning to South Bend on the train several days later, the players disembarked to find a crowd of well-wishers at Union Station. There, front-and-center was a healthy and happy Billy Rockne. Jim Crowley, one of the famed Four Horsemen, later recalled that, "[y]ou never saw a healthier kid in your life. He hadn't been in a hospital since the week he was born." It seems that Rock had pulled another fast one on his players.
Despite being separated by some 600 miles, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech share a rich tradition. Since that first game back in 1922, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech have played one another 32 times, making the Jackets one of the ten most frequent opponents on Notre Dame schedules through the years. Overall, the Irish hold a 26-5-1 advantage over the Yellow Jackets in the all-time series. Notre Dame holds an 11-2-1 record in series games played in Atlanta.
Given the strong tradition that both teams bring to this game, it is not surprising that they have played a number of memorable games. In 1953, Notre Dame was in the midst of its sixth undefeated season during the Frank Leahy Era, when the #1 Irish hosted the #4 Jackets. The Irish prevailed in that high-profile game, 27-14. For movie aficionados, the 1975 game featured a 24-3 Irish victory, including a game-ending sack by Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, later immortalized in the 1993 film Rudy. In 1978, the visiting Irish dodged empty liquor bottles and other projectiles thrown by rowdy Tech fans for long enough to notch a 38-21 victory. In November 1980, in the last series game played at Bobby Dodd Stadium before this year, the #1 Irish were stunned by a Tech team that finished the year 1-9-1, as the two teams played to a 3-3 tie. Most recently, Notre Dame defeated Tech in 1997 in the Notre Dame Stadium Rededication Game, 17-13. The following season, the Jackets defeated the green jersey-clad Irish, 35-28, in the Gator Bowl following the 1998 season.
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Other notes:
-The Irish have won 16 of their last 20 season openers, dating back to the start of the Holtz Era in 1986. The only four years during that period in which they failed to start the season with a win were: 1986, when the Irish lost to Michigan at home, 24-23; 1995, when they lost to Northwestern at home, 17-15; 2001, when they lost at Nebraska, 27-10; and 2004, when they lost at Brigham Young, 20-17.
-The Irish began last season with a victory on the road at night, when they won at Pittsburgh, 42-21.
-This is the third consecutive year in which the Irish are starting their season on the road, something Notre Dame has never done before.
-The Irish are 7-2-1 in the last ten series games against Georgia Tech, dating back to 1974. Similar to this year, that season a #2-ranked Irish squad played Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium, winning 31-7.
- Pending NCAA sanctions from an investigation into Georgia Tech's football program, the Jackets' 35-28 win against the Irish in the 1999 Gator Bowl from that season may be transferred to Notre Dame.
-Freshman offensive lineman Sam Young is slated to become the first true freshman to start on the offense line in a season opener since at least 1972, when the NCAA lifted rules restricting freshman from playing in varsity competition.
-Georgia Tech is 2-19 under head coach Chan Gailey (2002-) when allowing opponents to score 21 points or more.
-In 12 games last season, Notre Dame was held to fewer than 21 points only twice: their 17-10 victory at Michigan; and their 34-20 loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
-The Irish have opened two seasons with games against the Yellow Jackets, the aforementioned 1974 game, and the 1997 Rededication Game at Notre Dame Stadium. That 17-13 win was Bob Davie's first game as Irish head coach.
-Notre Dame has an all-time record of 98-14-5 (.859) in season opening games.
-The last time Notre Dame was ranked in the top two in the nation was during the early weeks of the 1994 season.
-The Irish have been ranked in the top five in eighteen season openers since 1950, when the Irish enjoyed the program's only pre-season #1 ranking. In those eighteen season openers, Notre Dame holds a 16-2 record.
-These schools are scheduled to meet again in next year's season opener in South Bend.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand going into the 2006 season:
Michigan finished 7-5 last year, moving their record to 849-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7442. This week, #14 Michigan opens at home against unranked Vanderbilt.
Notre Dame finished 9-3 last year, moving their record to 811-266-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7435. This week, #2 Notre Dame opens on the road at unranked Georgia Tech.
Michigan's lead over Notre Dame stands at 69/100,000ths of a point, the equivalent of a one-game lead for the Wolverines.
The 118th season of Notre Dame football kicks off on Saturday night at 8:00 EDT on ABC.
Go Irish! Beat Jackets!
Big Mike
-Special thanks to the Blue Gray Sky Blog for information about Rockne's Georgia Tech pep talk. Their blog can be visited at http://www.bluegraysky.blogspot.com/.
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
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