Campus Life

Campus Life will feature a short history of the team jersey colors of green and blue. The chapter on the jersey's is excerpted from a nifty book called Notre Dame Football A-Z by Joe Layden

Although the crowd at Notre Dame Stadium seems to be awash in a sea of traditional Irish green on game days, Notre Dame's official home colors are actually gold and blue. Since Lou Holtz became head coach in 1986, the Fighting Irish have worn green jerseys just once: during a 41-2410ss to Colorado in the 1995 Fiesta Bowl.

Throughout history, though, Notre Dame has been remarkably inconsistent on this issue. In the 1920s, for example, coach Knute Rockne's varsity team wore blue, while the freshman team usually wore green. But on those rare occasions when the opponent's uniform color was also blue, Rockne would have the varsity squad switch to green simply to avoid confusion. [Editor's note: I believe the first time Rock used the green jerseys was against Iowa in 1921. The Irish were shocked 10-7 in a huge upset] Of course, sometimes Rockne's intentions were less benign; he was, after all, nothing if not cunning. So it was that when Notre Dame met Navy (which also wore blue) in 1927, Rockne dressed his reserves in green and sent them out as starters. The starting unit, meanwhile, sat on the bench, dressed in blue. Rockne waited until Navy scored its first touchdown, just five minutes into the game, and then summoned his starters from the sideline. Together they stripped off their blue jerseys, revealing green jerseys underneath. Then they marched onto the field to face the bewildered Midshipmen. From that moment on, the day went exactly as Rockne had hoped: Notre Dame rallied to win the game, 19-6.

The Fighting Irish frequently wore green during the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, although it was never officially adopted as the team's color; instead, teams periodically switched from green to blue -and back to green again- with little or no reason. Hugh Devore's 1963 team, for example, wore blue for its first eight games, then switched to green for the season finale against Syracuse at Yankee Stadium. The strategy backfired, and the Orangemen came away with a 14-7 victory. But Devore could hardly be faulted for trying something different -after all, Notre Dame had won only two games all season.

Ara Parseghian's teams in the 1960s and 70s always wore navy blue. Dan Devine's teams switched to green, however, in 1977, starting with a 49-19 victory over USC. [The famous "Green Jersey Game."] Then, in 1981, first-year head coach Gerry Faust opted for royal blue jerseys with gold and white stripes on the sleeves. Three years later, in 1984, the stripes were eliminated and the color was changed to navy blue. Holtz arrived two years later and made one subtle change to the jersey: the addition of the Notre Dame logo on the shoulder. Since then the jersey has remained virtually unchanged. [Editor's note: Of course Notre Dame will have a new home and away jersey design for the 2001 season, courtesy of their new affiliation with Adidas. The news designs are below]

Home	Away

The rest of the Notre Dame home uniform has undergone fewer transformations over the years, with players typically wearing gold helmets and gold pants.