Series Recap: Notre Dame vs. Navy

LAST WEEK TOOK AN L, BUT THIS WEEK WE BOUNCE BACK

He says hopefully.

It’s 2 days away from the last Notre Dame Fighting Irish home game for the season. The Irish are looking to come back with a W against the Navy Midshipmen on Saturday. It would be a very welcome win especially because there have been some recent fits with Navy in the past decade. It’s usually sometimes strangely close when these two teams meet. Navy seems to play us tough. With that, let’s take a look at this storied series between the two teams.

ND vs. Navy: The Series

Notre Dame and Navy began playing each other on the gridiron in 1927, and they haven’t looked back. Notre Dame leads the series in a lopsided record of 76-13-1, with the lone tie being in 1945. From 1964-2006, Notre Dame did not lose, covering 43 straight years of wins. However, we have lost to them 4 times since 2007. Even though I think many people across the country (and even some Notre Dame fans) don’t understand why we play this game every year, there is a pretty awesome reason.

Both teams and institutions show a lot of respect for one another. We pay homage to the help that the US Navy gave to Notre Dame during World War II. The Navy used Notre Dame’s campus as a training ground for the war, benefiting the Navy as well as keeping Notre Dame running when most of the students were training for the war. I personally like the mutual respect and reasoning for keeping this game going every year.

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Lowlights

1963: The last game before the streak of 43 straight wins by the Irish in the series. There was a guy who played QB for Navy this year, you might have heard of him. It was Roger Staubach, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy that same year.

2007: The game that broke the 43-game losing streak for Navy in this series. As if 2007 wasn’t bad enough. We couldn’t get it done in a game that went 3 OTs. This is when it began to scare us to play Navy, which was a weird turn of events. Yikes.

2009: Just wow. A 14-0 deficit at halftime. Jimmy Clausen getting sacked in the end zone in the final minute. This was just painful.

Highlights

1964: The year after the loss to Staubach. This game began the 43-game win streak for the Irish. Also, it was Staubach again, but he was bested by the Hesiman Trophy winner that year, John Huarte. 40-0 final.

2006: I was able to go to this game on weekend trip to Baltimore and Washington D.C. I’m putting this as one of the highlights because this wasn’t a close game and also because of that 2006 team. I know that things didn’t really pan out for how successful that team probably should’ve been, but it was really fun to watch this team and how they fired on all cylinders. Quinn. Samardzija. Walker. Good stuff.

2012: What kicked off the undefeated regular season. Game in Dublin. Also, it was a dominate performance by the Irish, dropping 50 points.

That Tuitt scoop and score is fire, y’all.

Let’s get it back on Saturday. Go Irish. Beat Midshipmen.