Five old Notre Dame photos for a Friday: Conference Championship weekend

Women’s hoops and men’s hockey start a title run

By Joshua Vowles@TheSubwayDomer Mar 3, 2023, 3:54am EST

UNITED STATES - CIRCA 2000: President Bush grins as he is presented with a personalized Notre Dame jersey by coach Muffit McGraw (in spotted blouse) and the NCAA champion Notre Dame women’s basketball team, as Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski (center) and his men’s basketball team look on. Both NCAA championship teams were honored with plaques and trophies at the morning event on the South Lawn of the White House.

All caps tweets of THIS IS MARCH have already been echoing throughout the college sports world with most of it directed at the men’s basketball conference play. Well — we’re going to mix it up over here and pay homage to the Notre Dame Women’s Basketball team and the Fighting Irish Hockey team.

The Women’s basketball team begins its quest for an ACC Tournament championship at 2:00 PM today against the NC State Wolfpack. At 7:00 PM the hockey team takes on the Michigan State Spartans to start the Big Ten Tournament, and not only hopes to win the conference, but to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament and a chance at the Frozen Four.

There’s plenty going on today. You get a total of 10 pics because I love you. LFG!

TANGLED

To be fair... Denver can be a bit tricky most years.

Denver Post Archives — FEB 15 1972, FEB 20 1972 Denver University * Ice Hockey (Action) Hockey’s Siamese Twins? DU’s Pete McNab (white) and Notre Dame’s Eddie Bumbacco had their skates locked. The game had to be stopped so officials could untangle the pair.

cOOl

Ruth Riley made #00 cool WAY before college football got on the bandwagon.

Purdue v Notre Dame X Riley — Ruth Riley

THE ENEMY IN FRONT OF US

The Irish have a long history of battling Sparty outside of Big Ten play.

Notre Dame vs Michigan State - November 8, 2003 — Notre Dame freshman goalie David Brown (30) stops a hard shot during the second game of two consecutive nights in East Lansing. The two teams tied 3-3 after OT.

FRIGGIN BAYLOR

Notre Dame vs UConn is a heated rivalry, but there’s always room to hate the Baylor Bears.

Baylor University vs University of Notre Dame, 2012 NCAA Women’s National Championship — College Basketball: NCAA Final Four: Notre Dame Skylar Diggins (4) in action vs Baylor at Pepsi Center. Denver, CO 4/3/2012

DAMN JESUITS

Notre Dame’s first Frozen Four championship game was in 2008, and suffered a loss to the Boston College Eagles. Sorry to be a downer...

THE BRIGHTNESS

I had another thing in mind for this one... but I couldn’t scroll past Muffet rocking the periwinkle blue blouse and heels combo (while the team is in neon green). It’s outstanding.

LOLing ABOUT A BIG TEN TITLE

It’s not really that old, but I have to throw in that one time when Notre Dame joined the Big Ten and then won the whole thing in that first year.

A GROWING LEGEND

Niele Ivey first came to Notre Dame in 1997 and and has thrived in her excellence. She won a national championship as a player in 2001, and another as an assistant in 2018. Will she add one as the head coach over the next few years? If she does... get that statue ready (assuming that the nonsense is over and they finally have Muffet’s statue up a looking good)