Taking a decade-by-decade approach to the University of Notre Dame football tradition, this collection brings together over 40 stories from the most outstanding voices of the program. The spirit of Fighting Irish football is not captured by just one phrase, one season, or one particular game; instead, the student-athletes and coaches who made the magic happen over the decades blend their experiences to capture the true essence of their beloved school. Notre Dame fans will relish the intimate stories told by the figures they have come to cherish.

Drawing insight from nearly 100 former players, coaches, and others directly tied to this storied and revered school, fans will read firsthand accounts about what being a part of the legendary football program means. The ultimate compendium of everything that is special about the University of Notre Dame and Fighting Irish football, this book includes the memories of everyone from John Lujack, Joe Montana, and Aaron Taylor, as well as other Fighting Irish greats. Some highlights include the 100 most important moments in Notre Dame football history, beloved landmarks and hang outs from the Notre Dame campus and South Bend area, the greatest players in the history of the program, and of course, the championship seasons. Fans will relish these retellings of the moments, games, and teams by the dozens of former players, coaches, and fans that are best qualified to share them.

The Shillelagh has become synonymous with stereotypes about the "Fighting Irish." The truth is that shillelagh fighting was originally a form of fencing which required training, discipline and skill. Often combining stick-fencing with boxing and wrestling, shillelagh fighting was a once a complex mixed martial art. Now for the first time "Fighting Irish: The ARt Of Irish Stick-Fighting" describes and analyzes this fascinating sport, its essential nature and techniques. This authoritative classic contains clear cut descriptions of the most important offensive and defensive stick-fighting positions and methods. For the first time in history the basic concepts of Irish shillelagh fighting are laid out and explained for both the martial artist and the the interested reader.

Go Irish is an introduction to the University of Notre Dame for little ones. Colorful pages, combined with simple words, enhance a learning atmosphere for both child and parent. Early association with the spirit of Notre Dame provides knowledge and excitement for future years.

For centuries the Irish have been associated with a stick weapon called the Shillelagh. And for generations of Irishmen, the Shillelagh was a badge of honor - a symbol of their courage, their martial prowess and their willingness to fight for their rights and their honor. In modern popular culture, the Shillelagh has acquired a less appealing image, one that attempts to declaw the Irish through negative racial stereotypes of the Victorian era, which depict the Irish as harmless club-weilding Leprecauns or drunken, half-witted brawlers. John Hurley's illuminating study forever alters our view of this much maligned and misunderstood cultural icon by revealing the true martial arts culture of the Irish people, its history, evolution and decline and the resulting effects on the Shillelagh - the most powerful and controversial of Irish icons.

In his first work of nonfiction, bestselling novelist James Webb tells the epic story of the Scots-Irish, a people whose lives and worldview were dictated by resistance, conflict, and struggle, and who, in turn, profoundly influenced the social, political, and cultural landscape of America from its beginnings through the present day. More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlements of England’s Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland. Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scots-Irish migrated to America in the eighteenth century, traveling in groups of families and bringing with them not only long experience as rebels and outcasts but also unparalleled skills as frontiersmen and guerrilla fighters. Their cultural identity reflected acute individualism, dislike of aristocracy and a military tradition, and, over time, the Scots-Irish defined the attitudes and values of the military, of working class America, and even of the peculiarly populist form of American democracy itself. Born Fighting is the first book to chronicle the full journey of this remarkable cultural group, and the profound, but unrecognized, role it has played in the shaping of America. Written with the storytelling verve that has earned his works such acclaim as “captivating . . . unforgettable” (the Wall Street Journal on Lost Soliders), Scots-Irishman James Webb, Vietnam combat veteran and former Naval Secretary, traces the history of his people, beginning nearly two thousand years ago at Hadrian’s Wall, when the nation of Scotland was formed north of the Wall through armed conflict in contrast to England’s formation to the south through commerce and trade. Webb recounts the Scots’ odyssey—their clashes with the English in Scotland and then in Ulster, their retreat from one war-ravaged land to another. Through engrossing chronicles of the challenges the Scots-Irish faced, Webb vividly portrays how they developed the qualities that helped settle the American frontier and define the American character. Born Fighting shows that the Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only 5 percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army). It illustrates how the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. And it explores how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, hard luck, stubbornness, and mistrust of the nation’s elite formed and still dominates blue-collar America, the military services, the Bible Belt, and country music. Both a distinguished work of cultural history and a human drama that speaks straight to the heart of contemporary America, Born Fighting reintroduces America to its most powerful, patriotic, and individualistic cultural group—one too often ignored or taken for granted.

Tim Newark's The Fighting Irish uses the dramatic words of the soldiers themselves to tell their stories, gathered from diaries, letters, journals, and interviews with veterans in Ireland and across the world. "Tells the story of the Irish fighting man with wit, clarity, and scholarship." —Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War For hundreds of years, Irish soldiers have sought their destiny abroad. Wherever they've traveled, whichever side of the battlefield they've stood, the tales of their exploits have never been forgotten. Leaving his birthplace, the Irish soldier has traveled with hope, often seeking to bring a liberating revolution to his fellow countrymen. In search of adventure the Fighting Irish have been found in all corners of the world. Some sailed to America and joined in frontier fighting, others demonstrated their loyalty to their adopted homeland in the bloody combats of the American Civil War, as well as campaigns against the British Empire in Canada and South Africa. The Irish soldier can also be found in the thick of war during the twentieth century—facing slaughter at the Somme, desperate last-stands in the Congo—and, more recently, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Did you know that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are an independent football team? This means that they are not part of a conference and can play any teams they choose. Learn more about this college team’s history, traditions, uniforms, team records, coaches, and legendary players in Notre Dame Fighting Irish, part of the Inside College Football series.

"Sperber. . .tackles the details, great and small, unearthing a treasure." —New York Times Book Review Shake Down the Thunder traces the history of the Notre Dame football program—which has acquired almost mythical proportions—from its humble origins in the 19th century to its status as the paragon of college sports. It presents the true story of the program's formative years, the reality behind the myths. Both social history and sports history, this book documents as never before the first half-century of Notre Dame football and relates it to the rise of big-time intercollegiate athletics, the college sports reform movement, and the corrupt sporting press of the period. Shake Down the Thunder is must reading for all Fighting Irish fans, their detractors, and any reader engaged by American cultural history.

In a mere twelve years, Rockne's "Fighting Irish" won 105 games, including five astonishing undefeated seasons. But Rockne was more than the sum of his victories--he was an icon who, more than anyone, made football an American obsession. The book gives us colorful descriptions of such Rockne teams as the undefeated 1924 eleven led by the illustrious Four Horsemen, and the 1930 squad, Rockne's last and greatest. A renowned motivator whose "Win one for the Gipper" is the most famous locker-room speech ever, Rockne was also football's most brilliant innovator, a pioneer of the forward pass, a master of the psychological ploy, and an early advocate of conditioning. In this balanced account, Rockne emerges as an exemplary and complex figure: a fierce competitor who was generous in victory and defeat; an inspiring father figure to his players; and a man so revered nationwide that when he died in a plane crash in 1931, at the height of his career, he was mourned by the entire country. "A solid portrait of one of football's most solid figures."--The New York Times Book Review