Do You Know Facts About Notre Dame That May Only Interest Tom Hammond? Take Our Quiz!

My pandemic-related hobby has been buying old Notre Dame Fighting Irish football programs on eBay.

It’s admittedly not the best investment of money, but I am enjoying reading stories that have been otherwise lost to history. I’ve been using them for ongoing shillelagh research and to marvel at how publicity photos were taken. I’ve laughed at a story about Notre Dame publishing a piece about “Phony Resumes” long before George O’Leary and at wildly bad predictions.

I have long been amused by Ty Hildenbrandt’s “Random Factoid that May Only Interest Tom Hammond” bit on The Solid Verbal. It’s defined as: “Information of zero consequence that former Notre Dame football color commentator Tom Hammond would mention during pivotal game moments. ‘Fourth and one for the Irish and Everett Golson, who is an exceptional piano player...’

In that spirit, I’ve created a 20 question, multiple-choice quiz. Most of the answers cannot be found through a Google search. All of the questions are immaterial, but may spark your curiosity.

I’m also personally offering an incentive for you to try this free quiz. The person who gets the most correct answers by 11:59 p.m. July 1 will be gifted a T-shirt from the South Bend Collection at Breaking T. To be clear, this isn’t our SB Nation overlords buying you a shirt. This is me buying you a shirt and sending it to you (so use an email you check often so I can notify you if you’ve won!)

I’m not going to use your email for anything else than to notify you of your score and if you are the winner.

So far, 44 individuals have taken the quiz. The best score, so far, is 10 correct out of 20. So take five minutes, try it out and have some fun!

The hardest questions so far:

• Which Irish defensive player missed his first game since second grade Pop Warner when he suffered a hamstring injury in 1986?
• What did it cost a Notre Dame student to attend the 1946 season opener at the University of Illinois?
• How much did it cost for tuition, room and board at Notre Dame in 1844?
• What was the first Notre Dame home game to be played under the Musco portable lights and broadcast on ESPN?

I’ll have a separate post on July 2 with the correct answers and the winner!

LEGAL

• This quiz contest, and any prize given, is in no way sponsored, affiliated, endorsed, administered by, or associated with, SB Nation, One Foot Down, or Vox Media, LLC (or any of their respective parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates).
• The names of any companies, products, and logos have been used for identification purposes only and may be the copyrighted properties and trademarks of their respective owners. The mention of any company, or the inclusion of a product or service as a prize, does not imply any association with or endorsement by such company or the manufacturer or distributor of such product or service and, except as otherwise indicated, no association or endorsement is intended or should be inferred.