Notre Dame Football: Giving Green Jerseys Some Love

I’ve spent a lot of time complaining about where Notre Dame Fighting Irish football uniforms have fallen short on this blog in the off-season. Now, it’s time to shine a light on what they’ve done right. Specifically, it’s time to give some props to green jerseys.

While green is not an official school color, a shot of the shade in the occasional alternate uniform makes an excellent nod to an Irish heritage as well as the swagger of the ‘70s game. Let’s put aside any alleged curses on this emerald awesomeness and give some props to the green.

The Gold Standard for Green

The Irish went into the 1977 Notre Dame-USC game without having beaten the Trojans since 1973. However, it wasn’t just the 49-19, Irish win that earned the matchup its place in the Notre Dame history books, but it was also the element of surprise behind these epic unis. Neither the Irish nor the Trojans nor any of the fans in the stadium expected this bold look. In fact, the Irish players spent warmups in their classic blue and and headed back into the locker room to see these jerseys for the first time. Imagine a plot twist like this going down in the age of social media! How long could a surprise like this stay under wraps today?

Jonathan Daniel Getty Images

The Irish paid tribute and turned up the brightness in the 2007 season with these beauties. Let’s just take a moment and appreciate how perfect they are.

Shamrock Series Shoutouts

Let’s take a look at some of the cleanest and greenest Shamrock Series looks.

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They call it the Shamrock Series for a reason, right? It’s the shamrock on the helmet for me... The 2011 alternate is what you see when you look up the word “clean” in the dictionary.

Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Toning it down to army green, the 2016 Shamrock Series alternates pull off a military tribute and an Irish heritage homage, all while complementing the gold of the iconic dome perfectly. There’s no “just because” blue here. For this honoring of the armed forces, we see significantly more effort than just putting some camo and a flag next to a standard logo and calling it a day.

Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

I may have been too hard on the 2015 Shamrock Series uniform in the past. While it is a LOT of green, enough to warrant knocking off a few proportion points, that shade of green does look amazing with those gold shoes and that gold helmet, I do have to admit.

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