Notre Dame Football Game

In celebration of Brian's 32nd birthday, we recently journeyed to Notre Dame to see the Fighting Irish take on the Utah Utes. But before I delve into the game itself, I want to mention a few of the football-related activities we experienced leading up to Saturday's game.


On Thursday evening, just after arriving on the Notre Dame campus for the first time, we attended the Brian Kelly Radio Show, taped in the Legends restaurant, which is located on campus in the stadium parking lot. (Brian Kelly, seated on the right, is in his first year--and hopefully not his last year--as head coach of the Notre Dame football team.)


On Friday, Brian and I walked down through the Notre Dame tunnel, the same tunnel that the players use during home games. You can't walk out onto the field (well, I guess you could, but you would be escorted out by police), but you can take pictures of the stadium.




On Saturday, prior to the game, we visited the impressive practice fields...


...and strolled through several parking lots where Irish (and Utah) fans were holding tailgate parties.


But we didn't fly 2,000 miles to see the Brian Kelly show (which "my Brian" regularly listens to on his iPhone), walk down the tunnel, take in the practice fields or check out the pre-game parties.


We flew 2,000 miles to see the Notre Dame football team play some ball. And they did just that! Although the Fighting Irish weren't favored to win, they beat the Utes, 28-3.


Experiencing a Notre Dame football game was so much fun, and I'm not even a football fan.

My favorite memories from the game include:

- Seeing Brian's face light up with excitement when the Irish scored

- The students donning "The Shirt," creating a sea of green in the student section

- Wearing lots of layers (For me: a long sleeve shirt, short-sleeve shirt, windbreaker, and sweatshirt)

- Donning ponchos when it started raining

- Drinking two mugs of hot chocolate (which kept me nice and warm)

- With each kick off, raising the index finger on our right hands to the sky and shouting, "G-o-o-o-o Irish!"

-The seniors engaging in a massive marshmallow fight at the end of the second quarter (Food and drink are not allowed in the stadium, so the seniors have to smuggle the bags of marshmallows in by duct taping the bags to their legs and arms and concealing them under their jackets and baggy pants.)

- Cheering on ND, chanting "We...are...N...D!"

- Laughing at the push ups in the student section after each touchdown

- High-fiving the ND fans around us each time the Fighting Irish scored

- Clapping along as the band played the fight song

- Listening to Brian talk football with nearby ND fans

- Watching the gleeful students storm the field after the game

And even though the football game was the highlight of our trip, we had many other enjoyable experiences while in Indiana and Illinois.

In the next week, I'll share pictures and thoughts from our campus tour, an ND basketball game, and our Segway tour of Chicago.

J