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Devin Hunter
April 1st, 2014
5th hour
Notre Dame: A Brief History
The University of Notre Dame has one of the highest amount of history amongst any of
the other colleges in the United States. Their history goes back over 125 years in the late 1800s,
and they have been through many different times in the United States during the uncertain times
of the 1900s. Notre Dames history is divided into three places, and they are its early Catholic
beginnings, its football history, and how it is doing today.
Notre Dames school history goes back over 125 years ago and it has one of the richest
amount of history over any other college in the United States, even the world! Notre Dame was
founded by a reverend of the catholic church, Edward Sorin, and was originally made as a place
to spread catholic religion in that region. It was a school mainly to teach catholicism, but
eventually they got a lease to be able to teach liberal arts, science, law, and medicine. At the time
they didnt have the buildings for those courses, but eventually were able to add the buildings
(Colleges and Schools). As time went on, even more courses were available by 1911, over 25
courses were available. The number of students also increased significantly from the start to
about 1911. In 1885 there were only about 25 students attending the school, however in 1911
those numbers skyrocketed to over 1000 in 1911.This was due from all the catholic immigrants
from Europe, Canada, and South America migrating to South Bend, IN to be able to go to this
safe haven college to freely practice their religion with other catholics (University of-). Notre
Dames history is very rich with its catholic history, but it also has a large amount of football
history too.
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Notre Dames football history goes back almost as far back as the schools history itself.
Football was introduced to Notre Dame in 1887, and it was practically love in first sight
between the two. Notre Dame has won more football national championships than any other
college in the United States! The school has borne many heisman trophy winners and also many
pro football hall of famers as well, such as Joe Montana and Dave Casper. Notre Dame also has
many sports icons that will always be remembered through the tests of time such as Knute
Rockne and The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.( Notre Dame-). The greatest Notre Dame
Coach of all-time was Knute Rockne not only because of the large amount of wins, but also
because he was able to inspire his players every game. Rockne has the highest career winning
percentage to this day of any coach with a crazy .881 percent! His players often talked about how
he was able to connect with everybody in the locker room and make them want to compete at
their highest level. He was tragically taken from the world on March 31, 1931 after a plane crash
that he was riding in. He will always be remembered as arguably the greatest football coach of
all-time. The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame were a group of four players that were made
during the Rockne era of coaching, that completely dominated the game when they played. The
Four Horsemen consisted of QB Harry Stuhldreher, left halfback Jim Crowley, right halfback
Don Miller and fullback Elmer Layden were the Four Horsemen ( History of-). Notre Dame
has arguably the best football history of any college ever.
These days Notre Dame has a much larger campus and an even larger education than
those early stone days of Notre Dame in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Notre Dame, back in
1905, only offered about 50 classes, however now Notre Dame offers over 700 different classes
catering to various different subjects for different types of careers. All of these classes are
organized into eight different areas and they are Architecture, Arts and Letters, Business,
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Engineering, Early History, Graduate School, Law, and Science (University of-). The current
Notre Dame football team may not be as good as the ones in the early parts of the schools
history, but they have been playing very good recently. In 2012, the team finished with a record
of 12-1 and played in the BCS National Championship. Then in the 2013 season, they finished 9-
4 and played rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl and won 29-16. The current head coach head coach of
the football team is Brian Kelly and, obviously, he has been doing a very good job as the coach
so far since he joined in 2010 (Notre Dame-). Notre Dames history has greatly shaped what
Notre Dame is today.
Notre Dames history is one of the greatest in all of the colleges ever, be it football,
academics, or even its catholic culture. It is one of the most prestigious schools in the United
States, and it only accepts about 22% of its applicants. Notre Dame is one of the most Elite
schools in not only the country, but also in the world!
