As former Notre Dame football coach Dan Devine once said: “There are two kinds of people in the world, Notre Dame lovers and Notre Dame haters. And, quite frankly, they’re both a pain in the ass.”
Notre Dame lovers have a lot to brag about. The Fighting Irish hold the highest winning percentage among college football programs and have 13 national championships recognized by the NCAA. A record seven Notre Dame players have won the Heisman trophy. And as of the 2014 NFL Draft, Notre Dame has produced and had drafted the most NFL players of all-time. Notre Dame has also produced a lot of great quotes, here are the top five…
- “We’re likely to lose the first game that’s been lost on our home grounds in 25 years. That’s a fine story you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren. You once had the honor of disgracing Notre Dame.” —Knute Rockne, addressing his team at halftime
- “You don’t go to Notre Dame to learn something; you go to Notre Dame to be somebody.” – Lou Holtz
- “An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame-Southern Methodist University game and doesn’t care who wins.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “In 1952 there were two ways for an Irish Catholic boy to impress his parents: become a priest or attend Notre Dame.” – TV talk show host Phil Donahue
- “You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football players in the land for 2 years. And you’re gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody but yourself. And after what you’ve gone through, if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen. Now go on back.” – Fortune (Charles S. Dutton) in the film ‘Rudy’
