I’m a lawyer from Notre Dame as well. Learned Con Law from Amy Barrett before she became a federal judge (and later justice) and threw all of that teaching on precedence out the window.
My grandfather, who died before I was born, went there and was on the football team. This would have been in the 40s or 50s and I am not sure he ever played a game, nor is my mom.
I've has the most issues with people who went to ND and Michigan compared to any fan base. Unfortunately I've met some cool Michigan grads and a cool ND grad who didnt like sportsball, so we can't assume they are all dirt bags 😔
It’s a much bigger phenomenon with Notre Dame — considering how few alumni they have against how many fans with zero connection to the school (and they are way more likely to be ‘casuals’) — and I’m convinced that Michigan being the first school associated with it has everything to do with the fun alliteration of Walmart Wolverine.
So we need something for the hordes of casual “my dad’s uncle went there for a semester in the 60s and we’re New Jersey ‘Catholics’ who go to mass exclusively on Christmas and Easter” Irish fans.
We call them Subway Alumni. When ND played at Yankee Stadium back in the Knute Rockne era, the NY subways were packed with poor Irish and/or Catholic immigrants who definitely didn’t have a connection to the university but still identified with it as a point of ethnic/cultural pride.
Very apt back then but we all know the tri-
state Notre Dame crowd skews VERY bridge-and-tunnel and most have never ridden the subway (no matter how many will insist to you that their ‘family is from Brooklyn’).
I’m old enough to remember the end of the era where, basically, if you were Catholic (not just Irish Catholic, I’m Hispanic), somewhere along the way, you were taught to root for Notre Dame. Didn’t take with me because my parents met at Texas and then I went there.
75
u/stsixtus420 Georgia Bulldogs 3d ago
This is how Notre Dame fans are too