It’s hard to imagine now, but Notre Dame and Northwestern once had a true rivalry, playing every year in two different stretches of time. If you’ve ever wanted to experience what it was like for these schools to play each other regularly, now you can. And you can thank Northwestern’s online archives for the opportunity.
If you enter “Notre Dame” in the archive’s search engine, you’ll find highlights of numerous times the Irish played the Wildcats between 1931 and 1971. In this particular baker’s dozen’s worth of games, the teams earned six wins apiece and played to one scoreless tie. The games include a 35-6 win for the third-ranked Wildcats in 1962 and a 50-7 victory for the second-ranked Irish in 1971. You’ll also see Ara Parseghian coaching both teams.
With only 114 miles separating the teams’ stadiums, it’s a shame that this rivalry mostly has been dormant for a quarter century. Even during a normal season, it would be difficult to rekindle with Notre Dame’s ACC obligations and annual rivalry games with Navy, USC and Stanford. You have to leave some flexibility for different opponents every year, especially if you remain independent. Still, it’s nice to take a look back at what once was between the schools from South Bend and Evanston.