The Enduring Legacy of Notre Dame Track and Field
The University of Notre Dame, renowned for its academic rigor and storied athletic programs, boasts a rich history in track and field. As the Fighting Irish compete in NCAA Division I as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), their track and field program has evolved significantly, marked by pioneering efforts, dedicated athletes, and memorable achievements.
Early Days and the Rise of Women's Athletics
The narrative of Notre Dame track and field is intertwined with the broader evolution of women's athletics at the university. For many years, women's involvement in varsity sports was not an option. Instead, female students found outlets in club sports. The club tennis team started things in 1972, followed by rowing and fencing clubs in 1973, and basketball and field hockey clubs a year later. Title IX, a landmark gender equity law passed in 1972, led to a dramatic increase in women’s participation in sports at all levels.
In 1976, fencing and tennis became the first two women’s varsity sports at Notre Dame. Lammers was a key advocate for growing women’s athletics at Notre Dame because of her connection with athletic director Edward “Moose” Krause ’34, who had coached her father, Paul Lammers ’49, in basketball in the 1940s. “He was concerned about our long hair,” Lammers recalls, referring to an early conversation about how Notre Dame women would be expected to compete. Lammers took on manager duties for the club tennis team, calling other Midwestern colleges from her Badin Hall dorm room to set a schedule.
Many of Notre Dame’s first female athletes had no prior experience in their chosen sports. Jody Gormley ’77 signed up for rowing at the club fair on a whim. Luckily for her, the team was on square one as well. The fall of 1973 didn’t bring any races or opponents. That meant they had time to build trust with the men’s rowing staff. The limited number of women in the student body in those early years also meant few were available to advocate for their place in Irish athletics. Despite this, she says male and female rowers got along well, sharing a stretch of the St. Formal competition arrived in spring 1974, when Gormley and others participated in a four-person race against a high school team on Long Island. “It was everyone’s first race,” she says. It took place in a thick fog. She embraced the haphazardness of the early years and laughs now about scavenging for food on team trips. From 1977 to ’79, Gormley coached women’s rowing when no one else would.
Sally Duffy, then the rector of Lewis Hall and coach of the women’s club basketball team from 1975 to ’77, recalls no shortage of interest among Notre Dame women in participating. “Some schools were already starting to bring in women on scholarships . . . and Notre Dame wasn’t there yet,” she says. Sazdanoff spent her first two years on the fencing club before joining the varsity, something she calls an “unexpected treasure.” Before college, her only fencing experience was a high school gym elective. “I don’t count it as really experience because I’m a lefty, and the person who taught fencing did not know how to teach left-handed,” she says. “All of a sudden I’m a part of the Notre Dame sports world, and he and all the coaches treated it and treated us like the football players or the basketball players,” she says. She noted her opponents’ improvement as the years went on.
Read also: University of Georgia Sorority Guide
As women’s sports blossomed at Notre Dame, their aspirations grew as well. Cindy Daws ’97, a co-captain of that 1995 squad, was recruited by many well-established programs before deciding on Notre Dame. Irish women’s soccer had achieved varsity status in 1989. In Daws’ freshman year, the Irish made their first appearance in the NCAA tournament. The next year, the team lost in the championship game to North Carolina, one of the schools that had tried to recruit Daws. Women’s basketball was also growing in the 1990s under head coach Muffet McGraw. Riley’s backstory illustrates changes that had already taken place in girls’ sports. She began her basketball career in the fourth grade, and lettered in basketball, volleyball and track in high school. Growing up in Macy, Indiana, Riley says, Notre Dame was her choice from the beginning. When she arrived in 1997, the women’s basketball team was coming off its first Final Four.
Notable Athletes and Achievements
Over the years, Notre Dame has produced numerous outstanding track and field athletes who have left their mark on the program and the sport as a whole.
One such athlete is Jadin, a three-time NCAA Champion in the pentathlon and twice the NCAA Runner-Up in the heptathlon. She was a ten-time All-American and two-time Olympic Trials Qualifier in the heptathlon. In 2025, she became the fifth four-time indoor champion in ACC history with her fourth consecutive pentathlon title. She also became the first combined athlete ever to accomplish the feat of being a four-time indoor ACC champion. It is the first USA Bobsled Team selection for Jadin, who had earned a spot on the World Cup team for Team USA in September. She was part of a fourth-place finish alongside teammate Elana Meyers Taylor at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup races in December in Sigulda, Latvia.
Molly Seidel is another notable Notre Dame graduate who has achieved significant success in the world of distance running.
These athletes, along with many others, have contributed to the rich history of Notre Dame track and field, showcasing the program's commitment to excellence and its ability to develop talented individuals.
Read also: History of the Block 'M'
Program Overview
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish track and field team represents the University of Notre Dame in intercollegiate track and field competitions. The program includes both men's and women's teams, competing in a variety of events, including sprints, hurdles, distance running, jumps, and throws.
The Fighting Irish compete in NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate athletics, as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). This affiliation provides the program with opportunities to compete against some of the top track and field programs in the nation.
The university colors are gold and blue, and the mascot is the Leprechaun. The exact origin of the moniker "Fighting Irish" is unknown and has been the subject of debates and research. During the Knute Rockne football era, Notre Dame had several unofficial nicknames, among them the "Rovers", "Domers", and the "Ramblers". These names reflected the teams' propensity to travel the nation to play its football contests, long before such national travel became the collegiate norm. Later, Notre Dame was known unofficially as the "Terriers" after the Irish breed of the dog, and for some years, an Irish Terrier would be found on the ND football sidelines. Other popular names were “the Gold and Blue”, “Nomads,” “the Blue Comets”, and “the Horrible Hibernians”. According to historian Murray Sperber, during the 1910s and 1920s, anti-Catholic and anti-Irish stereotypes and ethnic slurs were openly expressed against immigrants, and the press often referred to Notre Dame teams as "Catholics", "Papists", or "Dirty Irish".
Facilities and Resources
The success of the Notre Dame track and field program is supported by its state-of-the-art facilities and comprehensive resources. The university provides its track and field athletes with access to top-notch training facilities, including indoor and outdoor tracks, weight rooms, and sports medicine facilities.
In addition to its physical resources, the program benefits from the support of dedicated coaches, trainers, and support staff who are committed to helping athletes reach their full potential.
Read also: Legacy of Fordham University
Conference Affiliations
Notre Dame joined the Midwestern City Conference (now known as the Horizon League) for all sports except football, basketball and hockey in 1982. They remained in the conference, with the exception of the 1986-87 season, until 1995. They were then members of the "old" Big East Conference, basketball included, from 1995 until 2013. Football, in which the university maintains its status as an independent university. The Men's ice hockey team competes in the Big Ten. Their former hockey conference, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, disbanded after the 2012-13 season due to a major realignment of hockey conferences.
The "Fighting Irish" Moniker
The origin of the "Fighting Irish" nickname is steeped in history and folklore. There are several accounts on the origins of "Fighting Irish". One story suggests the moniker was born in 1899 during a game between Notre Dame and Northwestern. The Notre Dame squad was leading 5-0 at halftime when the Wildcat fans began to chant, "Kill the Fighting Irish, kill the Fighting Irish" as the second half opened. The November 9th, 1912 edition of Notre Dame's student magazine Scholastic attributed the moniker "Fighting Irishmen" to the president of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Another legend in Notre Dame folklore is that the nickname was inherited from Irish immigrant soldiers who fought in the Civil War with the Union's Irish Brigade. Notre Dame's claim to the nickname would seem to come from the presence of Fr. William Corby, CSC, the third president of Notre Dame, who was at the Battle of Gettysburg. Fr. Corby served as chaplain of the Irish Brigade and granted general absolution to the troops in the midst of the battle. This is commemorated in the painting "Absolution Under Fire," part of Notre Dame's permanent art collection. A life-size statue of Fr. Corby stands in front of Corby's namesake building on the Notre Dame campus. A print of the painting "The Original Fighting Irish" by former Notre Dame lacrosse player Revere La Noue is on permanent display at the university's Arlotta Stadium.
One of the first documented uses of the nickname comes from the Notre Dame-Michigan game in 1909 when Edward A. Batchelor wrote in the Detroit Free Press: "Eleven fighting Irishmen wrecked the Yost machine this afternoon. These sons of Erin, individually and collectively representing the University of Notre Dame, not only beat the Michigan team, but they dashed some of Michigan's fondest hopes." Notre Dame football historian John Kryk later wrote: "With that flowery lead, E.A. Batchelor of the Detroit Free Press popularized a moniker Notre Dame teams would later come to embrace - and aptly summed up the greatest athletic achievement to that point in Notre Dame history." Kryk noted that according to Notre Dame folklore, Batchelor had overheard a Notre Dame player trying to motivate his teammates at halftime by pleading, "What's the matter with you guys? One theory associates the popularity of the nickname to the visit from future president of the Republic of Ireland Éamon de Valera, who had been part of the 1916 Easter Rising and was imprisoned and sentenced to death. He was given amnesty, elected to Parliament, and arrested by the authorities again. He escaped and slipped off to the United States to avoid recapture. Barnstorming the country, the future president of Ireland was welcomed as a hero at Notre Dame on October 15, 1919. Accounts in Scholastic indicate that his visit tilted campus opinion in favor of the "Fighting Irish" moniker - though not completely. Notre Dame alumnus historian Todd Tucker from the class of 1990 asserts that the moniker became official in large part as a way of honoring and appeasing the student body after a confrontation with the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan had planned a three-day rally to begin on May 17, 1924. In response to racist and anti-immigration sentiments espoused by the Klan, a large number of Notre Dame students arrived in downtown South Bend to interrupt the Klan's parade with violent harassment. A secondary brawl ensued following the weekend's incident.
Rev. Francis Wallace, a student press agent for Knute Rockne and sportswriter, tried to popularize the name “Blue Comets” starting in 1923 but soon gave up and admitted his artificial attempt at a lasting name failed. In 1927, university president Matthew J. Walsh authorized the moniker "The Fighting Irish" as the official nickname. He stated that "The university authorities are in no way averse to the name ‘Fighting Irish’ as applied to our athletic teams. It seems to embody the spirit that we like to see carried into effect by the various organizations that represent us on the athletic field.
tags: #university #of #notre #dame #track #and
