The Notre Dame football program appropriately announced on Friday – St. Patrick’s Day – that it will wear its green alternate jerseys against Ohio State on Sept. 23.
The Fighting Irish initially wore green jerseys instead of their traditional navy in 1921 as a way to distinguish players from opponents wearing similar colors, though there are periods throughout their history where green was considered their primary look.
That includes a 15-year period following World War II and from 1977-80, when they first wore white jerseys with green numbers on the road. The second stint notably began with a 49-19 win over No. 5 USC, when Notre Dame wore blue during warmups but had green jerseys waiting in the locker room.
Since then, green has only been worn occasionally, with the Fighting Irish posting a 11-6 record in green home jerseys or white road jerseys with green accents since 1983. They’re currently on a six-game winning streak in green uniforms.
Some fans believe the color is cursed, though, as Notre Dame suffered heartbreaking losses to Boston College in 2002 and No. 1 USC in 2005, as well as a blowout loss to the 14th-ranked Trojans in 2007. They were also stunned at Michigan in 2011 while wearing road white throwback uniforms with green numbers.
More recently, the green uniforms have been associated with the Shamrock Series, including wins over Army at Yankee Stadium in 2010, Maryland at FedEx Field in 2011, No. 22 Arizona State at AT&T Stadium in 2013, Boston College at Fenway Park in 2015 and Army at the Alamodome in 2016.
Aside from the first win over the Black Knights, the Shamrock Series uniforms were unique and only worn once. The Fighting Irish subsequently reintroduced a standard green alternate during a win over Florida State in 2018, then wore those same uniforms in a win over Cal last fall.
Notre Dame has not knocked off a ranked opponent while wearing green uniforms at home since a win over No. 13 Miami (Fla.) in 1980, which is notable since the Buckeyes will likely come to South Bend as a top-five team.
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