Five old Notre Dame Football photos for a Friday: Dominating the state of Washington

Undefeated

By Joshua Vowles@TheSubwayDomer Mar 10, 2023, 5:03pm EST

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Welcome back to another Five old Notre Dame Football photos for a Friday — which maybe has never been just five photos, but I do love some alliteration. I also love to dominate, which is something the Fighting Irish football team has done with the entire state of Washington. Notre Dame is 10-0 all-time versus the Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars.

So... tradition.

I do have to say, however, that there weren’t a large amount of photos for these 10 games in our photo editor. You get what you get.

PASSIVE PACIFIC AGGRESSIVE

While I have shouted on many occasions that people should cancel their subscriptions to The Athletic... there remains one absolute gem that I will forever love. Jayson Jenks wrote about this back-and-forth letter writing war between Notre Dame and Washington from the 1948 and 1949 games — and it’s just the best. There are no pictures from those contests in 1948 and 1949... so here’s a nice shot of Frank Leahy with Dwight Eisenhower.

notre dame football frank leahy dwight eisenhower — Frank and Eisenhower

PASS RIGHT

The most memorable thing about the 2005 game, besides Charlie Weis showing up and whooping on former Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham 36-17, was the first offensive play of the game for the Irish. A promise was made to a sick kid, and the kid called the play... pass right. Quinn connected with John Carlson on that play. Here’s Carlson later that day lifting up another kid, sophomore Darius Walker.

A HOLIDAY FROM LOSING

Notre Dame went down 19-0 in the 2nd quarter to WAZZU, and went into halftime down 19-3. The Irish eventually won the game 29-26 in overtime.

Holiday scrambles — SOUTH BEND, IN - SEPTEMBER 6: Carlyle Holiday #7 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish scrambles against the Washington State Cougars on September 6, 2003 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Washington State 29-26 in overtime.

APPLE CUP CHAMPIONS

The Irish played both Washington schools in 2009. The first one was an absolute banger of a game against the Huskies which saw the Irish win 37-30 in OT. Golden Tate was a HUGE part of that win. I guess Jake Locker really wasn’t ALL that.

Washington v Notre Dame — SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 03: Golden Tate #23 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish runs against the Washington Huskies on his way to a 67 yard touchdown on October 3, 2009 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

A few weeks later, Notre Dame went to San Antonio to take on the Cougars in the first-ever Shamrock Series game — although it would take a couple of years for Notre Dame to actually call it that. The Irish crushed WAZZU 40-14 under the magnificence of Jimmy Clausen.