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1887 – 1912
No coach of record: The program's first five seasons — 1887–89 and 1892–93 — were played with no head coach of record, and went 7–4–1 in the University Archives' coaching table.
The first coaches: James L. Morison, hired for 1894, was the first head coach of record; his one team went 3–1–1. Frank E. Hering coached 1896–98 and went 12–6–1. A procession of short tenures followed, in a sport still being invented season by season, played on open fields under rules that changed as it went.
The game's shape: The early game was a massed running game. The forward pass became legal only in 1906, and Notre Dame's first touchdown pass came two years after that: in 1908, in a win over Franklin, end Fay Wood caught it.
The standing by 1912: Across its first quarter-century, through the 1912 season, Notre Dame's cumulative record stood at 108–31–13 — a strong regional program that the western conferences would not schedule, which is the fact that shapes the next entry and the 1913 game after it.
Sources:
- University of Notre Dame Archives, football coaching records (archives.nd.edu) — the coachless seasons, Morison, Hering and their records.
- Early program history — the first touchdown pass, 1908; the cumulative record through 1912.