It is Christmas Eve so first and foremost – a very Merry Christmas to you and your family.
It’s not a day that you usually think too long or hard about football but 15 years ago today Notre Dame was putting a bow on the 2008 season with an appearance in the Hawaii Bowl.
The game came after a disappointing season for Notre Dame. After starting 2-0 and at one point being 4-1, the Irish stumbled down the stretch and finished the regular season just 6-6.
Often times that would have meant Notre Dame turning down a bowl game. Well, it just so happened that a trip to Hawai’i for a bowl game meant another chance to try and recruit then mega-prospect [autotag]Manti Te’o[/autotag].
Was it the only reason Notre Dame accepted the invitation? Certainly not, but it clearly helped their chances with the star linebacker, too.
Anyway, back to the game. Notre Dame hadn’t won a bowl game since New Year’s Day 1994 at this time, having lost nine-straight. Notre Dame came out on Christmas Eve with their names on their jerseys for the first time in decades, and proceeded to roll Hawai’i, 49-21.
Check out some of the highlights below:
It would set the table for what many thought would be a big 2009 season for Notre Dame but unfortunately the Irish would again finish just 6-6, Charlie Weis would be fired, and a bowl game wouldn’t be in the cards.
Regardless, for roughly three-and-a-half hours that Christmas Eve, seemingly everything regarding Notre Dame football was right during an era that it almost always certainly wasn’t.
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