Throwback Thursday: Notre Dame Football Firsts — Georgia Tech 1922

My off-season series of “Notre Dame Football Firsts” continues this week with the first meeting between Notre Dame and Georgia Tech, 1922.

So far I’ve covered USC, Stanford, Navy, Purdue, the first Spring Game at Notre Dame, Michigan State, Pitt, Army, Michigan, Boston College, Miami, and Florida State. This week I’m going to take a look back at Notre Dame’s first matchup against Georgia Tech in 1922.

Notre Dame and Georgia Tech have played each other 37 times, with Notre Dame winning 30, Georgia Tech winning 6, and one tie game. The largest margin of victory for Notre Dame was 69-14 in 1977, and the largest margin of victory for Georgia Tech was 33-3 in 2007. Notre Dame’s longest win streak is six (1922-1927), and Georgia Tech’s longest win streak is one (1928). Notre Dame currently has a win streak of three (2015-2021). The two teams played for the first time on October 28, 1922, in Atlanta, Georgia, and Notre Dame won by a score of 13-3.

The following excerpt of the game summary is from Vol LVI, No. 10, of The Notre Dame Scholastic, from 1922. (Written by James P. Coyle)

The next game with Georgia Tech was the first high mark of the season and the game toward which the young Irish had been pointed. The Yellow Jackets had never been defeated on their home grounds by a northern team and seemed to possess some sort of an unholy edge in their own backyard. Warm weather, stage fright and what not were feared in this game which was recognized as the season’s test tube.

When the boys came through with a 13-3 by the simple process of stopping Red Barron, the Georgia star, their greatest all-round game of football of the year was displayed by Rockne’s kids that day. Degree and Cotton performed brilliantly on the defense and Captain Carberry was in the thick of the battle until he was forced out in the first quarter with a knee injury which handicapped him for the rest of the year. McNulty, who went in for the captain, made the prettiest tackle of the season on Red Barron in the open field. Vergara played clean ball on the other end.

Offensively, the flashy backfield was never better. Castner proved himself the big star of the game by playing effective ball in all departments. Stuhldreher tossed the first touchdown to Castner back of the goal line and then sneaked through for the second marker following flashy runs by Don Miller and Layden. True to form, the team famous for its passing, gave the southerners a lesson in overhead.

Socially, the trip was an unexpected success. The boys liked the south and the south liked the boys and asked them to return. Tech will come here next season for the Homecoming game.

At the season’s end, monograms were awarded to the following men: Capt. Carberry, McNulty, Collins, Mayl, Vergara,. Lieb, Oberst, Ed Miller, Stange, Cotton, Brown, Degree, Kizer, Flinn, Weibel, Regan, Walsh, Stuhldreher, Thomas Layden, Bergman, Crowley, Maher, Don Miller, Connel, Cerney, Livergood, Castner.

NOTRE DAME

N is Nebraska for whom there’s in store Such a beating next year as she ne’er got before.
0 is the others we played off their feet. Techs or Purdues or whoever we’d meet.
T is the tie that showed that we can Overcome odds twenty pounds to the man.
R is for Rockne, reliable Rock; We’d cash our last cent in on his stock.
E is for everything our team could do, Punt, pass or drop-kick, or smash a line thru.
D is the dough put up for our side,
A is the Army, and Atlanta’s bruised hide.
M is the many dreams tha t we dream.
E is for every blamed man on the team!

~S.L.D.

Next week I’ll look at the matchup between Notre Dame and Nebraska, 1915.

Cheers & GO IRISH!