There used to be a time Notre Dame would make the short trip to Northwestern and take on the Wildcats at Dyche Stadium (before it became Ryan Field) with regularity.
Notre Dame played there 19 times from 1926-1976. However, the last Notre Dame trip to the venue came in 2018 when a battered Ian Book helped guide the Irish to a 31-21 win to move to 9-0.
In the 20 games Notre Dame played there, the Irish won 17. A fun fact: Two of those Northwestern wins were in 1960 and 1962 when a young head coach named Ara Parseghian led the Wildcats to 7-6 and 35-6 victories. The blowout in ’62 clearly made an impact; he was hired to coach Notre Dame following the season.
In all, Notre Dame outscored Northwestern 428-165 in their 20 all-time meetings at Dyche Stadium/Ryan Field. For the mathematically challenged, that’s an average of a roughly 21-8 Notre Dame victory each time.
Over the past month Ryan Field has been being torn down to make room for a modern football venue in the same location. You can see photos of Ryan Field’s demolition below as well as some photos from Notre Dame’s last trip to the nearly century-old venue in 2018.
If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Express” on Syracuse star Ernie Davis, a good amount of that film was shot at the venue as well.
Personally, as nice as the new venue will be the old place will always hold a special place in my heart as it’s the closest Football Bowl Subdivision stadium to where I call home and a place I’ve spent countless Saturday morning and afternoons.