Notre Dame, Indiana
Timeline
187 dated events, in order. Each gives the passage that dates it and a link to its full account.
19th century 64 dated mentions
1810s
- 1819–1896Luigi Gregori: the Vatican painter who founded the department
Luigi Gregori (1819–1896): the first artist of the record, and the founder of art teaching on this ground.
1820s
- 1820–1966The Brothers on This Ground Before the College
The teaching brotherhood behind it began in France in 1820, when the parish priest Jacques-François Dujarié gathered young men at Ruillé-sur-Loir to teach in parish schools that had no teachers; they were called the Brothers of Saint Joseph.
- 1824–1887Mother Angela Gillespie, the Virtual Foundress
She was born Eliza Maria Gillespie in 1824 at Brownsville, Pennsylvania. On 17 April 1853, at Bertrand, she received the habit from Father Sorin as Sister Mary of St. Angela.
1830s
- 1832–1875The churches before this one — Badin's chapel and the Old Church of 1848
Claude Allouez established a mission on the south shore of St. Mary's Lake in 1686, Ste.-Marie-des-Lacs, serving the Potawatomi and the French of the area; after the French and Indian War the missionaries were expelled, and in 1832 Fr.
1840s
- 1841–1842The St. Peter's Year and the Bishop's Offer
Sorin's party — the Scholastic's 1893 sketch names seven brothers who sailed with him in August 1841: Francis Xavier, Gatien, Patrick, William, Pierre, Basil, and Vincent…
- 1841–1844The Coming of the Sisters, 1843–1844
The congregation traces to the Reverend Basil Anthony Moreau of Le Mans, who in 1841 gathered the first sisters of Holy Cross in France as the women's branch of the family he had founded — priests, brothers, and sisters of one congregation.
- 1842The Ground Before the College — Ste. Marie des Lacs
Sorin, saying his first Mass at Notre Dame on the feast of St. Andrew, 30 November 1842, recorded that Father Benjamin Petit "so often before me had offered the Holy Sacrifice over the tomb of the saintly Father De Seille"…
- 1842The November Journey — Sorin's Own Account
The party departed St. Peter's on 16 November 1842 — "seven of the Brothers set out with their Superior," the history's narrative says.
- 1842–1844The First Winter and the First Buildings
The winter of 1842–43 was, in the jubilee history's phrase, one of the coldest in a record the book dates to 1607, with snow fifteen inches deep as far south as Georgia.
- 1842–2015The university's people: Sorin, Corby, Hesburgh, and the line of presidents
Offered land at the far end of the diocese on condition he found a college on it within two years, he set out north with seven brothers in mid-November 1842 and reached South Bend on 26 November, going first to Alexis Coquillard's house…
- 1842–2026The University and the City — Town and Gown, and the Present State
The land Sorin described to Moreau in November 1842 as "about 640 acres" in his first impression — 524 acres in the documented grant — now carries a university of thirteen thousand students, and the lakes he found under snow are still at the center of it.
- 1842–2026The Presidencies Whole — From Sorin's Superior Years to Dowd
Sorin, 1842–1865; Patrick Dillon, 1865–1866; William Corby, 1866–1872 and again 1877–1881; Auguste Lemonnier, 1872–1874; Patrick Colovin, 1874–1877; Thomas E. Walsh, 1881–1893; Andrew Morrissey, 1893–1905; John W. Cavanaugh, 1905–1919; James A. Burns, 1919–1922; Matthew J. Walsh, 1922–1928; Charles L. O'Donnell, 1928–1934…
- 1843–1853The Charter and the College's First Decade
The architect arrived unexpectedly on 24 August 1843; Father Marivault offered $1,200 due him from his family in France, and the South Bend merchant Samuel Byerley — whose family Sorin had met in New York in 1841 and who remained lifelong friends of the house — offered $2,000 of credit on his store and a $500 loan.
- 1843–1855Bertrand at Depth: A Mission School on Potawatomi Ground
The depth point the survey leaves thin is how contingent the whole enterprise was in 1843–44. Whose ground Bertrand was: Bertrand was not empty frontier awaiting a school.
- 1843–1893The Congregation's Course — Brothers, Sisters, and the Press
The second colony from France, which sailed on 6 June 1843 under Father Francis Cointet, brought Fathers Marivault and Gouesse, one brother, and four sisters of the Holy Cross; Sorin and Cointet, the record notes, for a long time had but one hat and one pair of boots between them.
- 1844–1855Bertrand: The First Motherhouse, 1844–1855
On 16 July 1844 Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart and four postulants took up their abode there, and the academy opened.
- 1844–1865The Early College Whole — Charter to Civil War
The act of 15 January 1844, whose text and passage stand in the base fragment, incorporated a university in law a full generation before the institution resembled one in fact.
- 1844–2026The Broader Family
The archives' timeline counts the school expansion of 1844–84 across the map — Indiana thirteen cities, Illinois five, Ohio seven, Michigan two, and schools besides in Iowa, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Maryland, and California.
- 1844–2026The Works Web: Schools, Hospitals and Missions Beyond the Bluff
The school web: The base maps the first forty years (1844–84) by state — Indiana thirteen cities, Illinois five, Ohio seven, Michigan two, and schools in a dozen further states — and carries the South Bend parish classrooms whole.
- 1844–todaySaint Mary's College — at Its Civic Position
Four sisters of the congregation arrived at Notre Dame in July 1843 and lived their first two years in the attic of the Log Chapel; told by Indiana's bishop that the state had women religious enough, they opened their school in Michigan: Saint Mary's Academy, opened 16 July 1844 at Bertrand, six miles north, on land…
- 1845The Band of the Fighting Irish, at the boundary
The claim: the band was "born in 1845," is "the oldest university band in continual existence," celebrated its 150th season in 1995, and has been on hand for every home football game since football began at Notre Dame in 1887.
1850s
- 1854–1855The Cholera Year and the Drained Lakes
The epidemic of 1854 was worse than the poverty. Cholera struck the community in the summer of 1854.
- 1855The Move and the Land, 1855
The cornerstone of the new house was blessed on 24 April 1855, and Sorin gave the institution its title: St. Mary's of the Immaculate Conception.
- 1855–2026Saint Mary's College, Whole
The school that moved to the Rush property in 1855 was Saint Mary's Academy, and the state met it the same year: chartered by Indiana in 1855, it stands in the college's chronology of important dates as the first Catholic women's college empowered to grant degrees.
- 1856–2026The Big Old Sanctuary: The Church of Our Lady of Loretto
The sisters' building files date it 1856; the college's chronology of important dates calls the Holy House of Loretto the campus's first permanent chapel in 1859; the college's 2021 release calls it the first brick building on campus, and the archives call it the oldest building on Saint Mary's campus.
- 1856–todayThe tower's voice — twenty-three bells from Le Mans and the great bourdon
The 1856 bells: The Basilica's bells are older than the Basilica.
- 1857–1896The Congregation's Own Course: Separation, Autonomy, Approbation
In 1857 the sisters separated from the priests and brothers.
- 1858Notre Dame's military institutions · the cadets, the Midshipmen's School, and the tri-service ROTC
Father Edward Sorin's Continental Cadets drilled from 1858; Father William Corby — the chaplain who gave absolution at Gettysburg — revived the cadet corps in 1880 as the Hoynes Light Guards, under Colonel William Hoynes.
1860s
- 1860–2026The Motherhouse Buildings
Bertrand Hall, built 1860–62, was the entire school in one five-story building of Notre Dame brick, designed by William Thomas of Chicago and built under Fathers Patrick Dillon and Edward Sorin; it housed up to sixty boarders and was outgrown on completion.
- 1861–1865The University in the Civil War — Chaplains, Cadets and the Armies
Gillen was the first to go: he was at Washington in the late spring of 1861, overtook the 22nd New York volunteers on the eve of First Bull Run, heard confessions until the advance was ordered, gave general absolution to those who had not reached confession, and served, in the magazine's accounting, all four years…
- 1861–1867The Civil War: The Sisters Go to the Hospitals
On 21 October 1861 Governor Oliver P. Morton of Indiana addressed a request to Father Sorin for sisters to nurse the Union wounded.
- 1861–2026Nursing: The Wartime Line Runs Through the College
The college's own history of its nursing programs begins, correctly, in 1861 — with Mother Angela and the six sisters who went to Cairo with no training at all.
- 1863–1888The Le Mans glass — the Carmelites, Rathouis, Hucher, and the signatures in the windows
The Carmel du Mans glassworks — the workshop of the Carmelite nuns of Le Mans — had provided windows for Notre Dame's first church in 1863, including the round windows and the gifted "The Divine Face" told in the first entry.
- 1865The presidents at commencement
The line has a prologue: at the commencement of 1865 the guest of honor was General William Tecumseh Sherman, whose sons Willy and Tommy had been Notre Dame's and whose daughter Minnie was Saint Mary's; Willy had died of camp fever in 1863, and the New York Tablet reported the students gave the general a "hearty cheer."
- 1865The campus and magazine press: Ave Maria, the Scholastic, and the Observer
Ave Maria Press was founded by the Reverend Edward Sorin, C.S.C., with the first edition of The Ave Maria magazine on 1 May 1865 — a sixteen-page weekly, edited by Sorin himself at the start, printed on a press he had purchased in Chicago and set up in Brownson Hall.
- 1865–1893The Building Rises — Science, Law, and the Laetare Medal
The enlarged college of 1865 stood six stories high, 160 feet long by eighty wide, raised on the site of the 1844 building in a single summer and surmounted by a colossal statue of Our Lady…
- 1865–2017The Schools and Colleges — Foundings and Courses
Notre Dame became a university by addition, one school at a time over 150 years, and the sequence — Arts and Letters with the founding, Science 1865, Law 1869, engineering teaching from 1873, Architecture's formal program 1898, Engineering as a college 1920, Commerce 1921, the Graduate School 1918 standing across them…
- 1867–2026The Student Publications — Described, Never Reproduced
The oldest of them began inside another publication: the Scholastic issued its first number on 7 September 1867 as the "Scholastic Year," at first little more than a fly-leaf of the Ave Maria, the congregation's weekly…
- 1869–1871Sorin's French church — the plans that were refused and the plan that was built
The decision: In the spring of 1869 the Congregation's Provincial Council decided to build a new collegiate church dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
1870s
- 1870–1892Rising, 1870–1892 — cornerstone, first Mass, consecration, steeple
The start: Foundations were begun in the spring of 1870. The cornerstone was laid on 31 May 1871 — the tour's word is "blessed" — with six bishops present, among them Archbishop John Purcell of Cincinnati, on the Basilica's history page's account.
- 1870–1992The Basilica of the Sacred Heart
At pointer size here: the university’s church — raised from 1870, consecrated in 1888, named a minor basilica on 17 January 1992 — is told whole in this history’s Basilica record, which follows this section: the building and its Le Mans glass, Gregori’s murals and painted program, the documented restorations of 1931…
- 1873–2006Libraries, the Museum, the Press and the Station — the University's Memory and Voice
Small collections sat in professors' rooms and society shelves until President Auguste Lemonnier conceived a circulating library in 1872, opened in the Main Building in 1873…
- 1874–1893Gregori's painted church — fifty-six murals and the Stations
Sorin engaged Gregori in Rome in June 1874 on the Vatican's recommendation, and the Basilica's own tour counts the result: fifty-six murals in the church, painted by Gregori, artist of the Papal Household and professor of art at Notre Dame — murals and Stations of the Cross painted, in the tour's summary, during the 1870s.
- 1875At the boundary — the university museums
The university's art collection dates to 1875, making it, in the university's own description, one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art collections in America, and its objects number more than 30,000 — nearly 31,000 in the university's count — spanning the principal cultures and periods of world art.
- 1875–2017The organs — Erie in 1875, Cleveland in 1978, Tacoma in 2016
The first instruments of the present church: The organ line of the present church opens while the church is still unfinished: in 1875 Derrick and Felgemaker of Erie, Pennsylvania, installed an organ of 2,000 pipes in the newly built church.
- 1878–1896The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes
A first replica — a wooden structure on a low rock wall beside the church — was built in the summer of 1878. It stood through Sorin's lifetime; he died October 31, 1893.
- 1879The Fire — Wednesday, 23 April 1879
The Scholastic's account of 26 April 1879, printed three days after the fire, is the day's record, and it is carried here at the depth it was written.
- 1879What Lit the Roof: The Notre Dame Fire of 1879
The documented facts: The fire that destroyed the second Main Building at Notre Dame is among the most fully narrated events in this history — the Notre Dame section tells its course: on the morning of Wednesday, 23 April 1879, flames were seen from the roof…
- 1879–1886The Rebuild in One Summer — and the Name
Professor Stace's contemporary account, reprinted in the jubilee history from the Catholic Review of 3 May 1879, gives the community the fire found: thirty fathers, twelve scholastics, 141 professed lay brothers, sixty novices, and twelve postulants, with nearly 400 students and professors in the establishment.
- 1879–1886The fire of 1879 and the Golden Dome
On the morning of Wednesday, April 23, 1879, flames were seen from its roof; the supports of its white-painted wooden dome burned through and the 12-foot statue of Mary atop it crashed down into the interior, spreading the fire.
- 1879–todayThe Golden Dome — the city's face to the world
Cross-reference: The building, the 1879 fire, the dome's construction and the gilding's first refusal are the Notre Dame history's (University of Notre Dame, und-fire-dome).
1880s
- 1883The university's honors, in one boundary paragraph
The boundary: The University of Notre Dame keeps an honors record of its own — its Laetare Medal, awarded since 1883 to an American Catholic and described by the university as the oldest and most prestigious honor of its kind in the country; its commencement honorary degrees, given year by year since the nineteenth century…
- 1883–1962Ivan Meštrović: the sculptor in residence
Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962): the Croatian sculptor who ended a world career as South Bend's professor.
- 1884–1934Charles L. O'Donnell — and the campus poetry line
Charles Leo O'Donnell, C.S.C., was born at Greenfield, Indiana, on 15 November 1884, was formed by Notre Dame, taught English there from 1910 — the appointment came, on his own account, because the university needed teachers who could write…
- 1886–todaySeven chapels, a crypt, and the relics
The Lady Chapel, added in 1886–87 and told in the building entry, was known historically as the Chapel of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, for Gregori's ceiling, and as the Sacred Heart Chapel; its baroque altar was believed — the tour prints it as a belief…
- 1887–1888The first team — Michigan teaches the game, 1887–1888
The first game: Notre Dame played its first football game on November 23, 1887, at home, and lost to Michigan 8–0 before a crowd the accounts put at 400 to 500.
- 1887–1912The rough decades and the first coaches of record, 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.
- 1887–1961Sister Madeleva Wolff: The President Who Rebuilt the Idea of the College
The birth-date conflict in her record is printed whole in the wave note: the weight of the record gives 24 May 1887 at Cumberland, Wisconsin; one widely syndicated profile prints 26 May 1884 in its own text while carrying 1887 elsewhere, and that variant is rejected as an internal error, not averaged.
- 1887–todayThe apparatus VI — Michigan: the oldest rivalry
The shape: The series began with Notre Dame's first games, in 1887, and its grievances shaped the program: Michigan won the first eight meetings, and Notre Dame's first win, in 1909, set off the boycott that emptied Notre Dame's western schedules and pushed Harper's teams east — the 1913 Army game is one of its consequences.
- 1888–1893Sorin's Last Years and Death
The golden jubilee of Sorin's priesthood fell on Sunday, 27 May 1888, and was celebrated on 15 August 1888, the same day the church he had raised was consecrated as the Basilica of the Sacred Heart — the consecration and the church's whole course stand in the Basilica's own record.
- 1888–1992A basilica — Sorin's ask of 1888 and the pope's answer of 1992
In 1888, the Basilica's history page records, Sorin asked that the church be made a basilica. Nothing in the record reached shows the ask renewed in his lifetime — he died in 1893 — and the church served a full century as Sacred Heart Church before the answer came.
- 1888–todayThe Basilica in use — mother church, visitors, and the present state
The Irish Rover 's 2025 account of Basilica weddings states the alumni custom in its documented form: since its consecration in 1888 the basilica has been the favorite place for Notre Dame alumni to marry.
1890s
- 1896–todayThe Grotto — a Lourdes in Indiana, and the candles that arrive by mail
The fame: Behind the Basilica, in a fieldstone cave built in the summer of 1896 over ground filled with the charred debris of the 1879 fire, stands a replica of the grotto at Lourdes — the campus marker gives it at one-seventh scale — built by the Rev. William Corby and dedicated on 5 August 1896.
- 1899Jerome Green's wireless — the message from the Basilica spire
The experiment, as its own week recorded it: Jerome J. Green, head of the electrical department at Notre Dame, began experimenting with wireless telegraphy in his Science Hall laboratory in April 1899, weeks after Marconi's March 1899 transmission across the English Channel — then the longest on record at 32 miles.
20th century 89 dated mentions
1900s
- 1903–2026The Buildings' Courses: Stone, Fire Risk and Second Lives
Its dedication date stands in the record at both 1903 (the college chronology and the catalogue's building line) and 1906 (the college reference record); both print, in the base and here.
- 1904–1932The boundary: Notre Dame's inventions, and Julius Nieuwland named once
His earlier work cuts the other way: his 1904 doctoral research on acetylene and arsenic trichloride produced the reaction from which W. Lee Lewis developed the war gas lewisite — Nieuwland, a Holy Cross priest, never pursued the application and is reported to have been sickened by what his reaction became.
- 1905–1922The Turn to a University — Cavanaugh and Burns
John W. Cavanaugh, president from 1905 to 1919, modernized the educational standards and raised the institution toward the national pattern, in the institutional history's judgment the champion of the movement toward a research university.
- 1909–1910The first win over Michigan, and the boycott that followed, 1909–1910
The game: On November 6, 1909, at Ann Arbor, Notre Dame beat Michigan 11–3 — its first win in the series, after Michigan had taken the first eight meetings by a combined score of 121 to 16.
- 1909–2001Anthony Lauck: the father of art at Notre Dame
The Rev. Anthony J. Lauck, C.S.C. (1909–2001): the priest-sculptor who built Notre Dame's modern art life and brought Meštrović to it.
1910s
- 1912–1917Jesse Harper and the 1913 Army game
Harper: Jesse Harper was hired from Wabash in December 1912 and took up the post in September 1913 as athletic director and coach of all varsity sports.
- 1912–todayNotre Dame hockey — from the Joyce ice to Compton
The origins: Hockey at Notre Dame began as a club sport in 1912–13; the first official game in the program's history came in February 1928, against Michigan.
- 1917–1952The Two World Wars on Campus — Training Station, Influenza and the GI Surge
When the United States entered the First World War in April 1917, military training at Notre Dame was already a student tradition running back to the Continental Cadets of 1859.
- 1917–2026Coeducation at Depth — the Merger, the Decision and the Fifty Years After
The base fragment opens its coeducation entry with the fact, and the depth begins by enlarging it: women had taken Notre Dame degrees every year since 1917, when two women crossed the commencement stage in the Scholastic's 1917 commencement issue's record…
- 1918–1930Knute Rockne, head coach 1918–1930
He came up through Harper's teams as an end — he is the receiver of the 1913 Army game — and succeeded Harper as head coach in 1918.
- 1919The Juggler: campus humor in print
Its first issue is dated December 1919 — the university Archives publishes the cover — launched from Sorin Hall by Delmar J. "Pinky" Edmondson of the class of 1918, Andrew "Shrimp" Moynihan '20, and Laurens "Moonshine" Cook '20, and named for the medieval jongleur of Notre Dame, the juggler of the legend.
1920s
- 1920George Gipp and his death, 1920
The last game and the death: George Gipp — February 18, 1895, to December 14, 1920 — played his final game on November 20, 1920, against Northwestern, and missed the season finale at Michigan Agricultural.
- 1924The Four Horsemen, 1924
The lede: On October 18, 1924, at the Polo Grounds, Notre Dame beat Army 13–7 before 55,000. Grantland Rice's report for the New York Herald Tribune opened: "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again.
- 1924Clashmore Mike: the animals of Notre Dame's sideline
The first was Tipperary Terrence — Terry — presented in 1924 and named by student contest; in May 1924, following two students walking on Niles Road, Terry was hit by a car, and he died a few days later.
- 1924–1986Notre Dame's memorials: the door and the fountain
The World War I Memorial Door, 1924: The cry for a memorial to Notre Dame's part in the Great War began, the University Archives record, shortly after the armistice of 1919.
- 1924–2006Robert Leader: the painting professor
Robert A. Leader (1924–2006): the painter who carried Notre Dame's art teaching through the postwar decades.
- 1924–2007Josip Turkalj: the student who raised the Moses
Josip Turkalj (1924–2007): the Croatian sculptor — in America he spelled the name Joseph Turkaly — whom Meštrović brought to South Bend to succeed him.
- 1924–todayThe apparatus I — the championships, counted honestly
The seasons, with their coaches: 1924, 1929 and 1930 under Rockne; 1943, 1946, 1947 and 1949 under Leahy; 1966 and 1973 under Parseghian; 1977 under Devine; 1988 under Holtz.
- 1926–todayThe apparatus V — Southern California: the intersectional classic
The beginning: The first meeting was played on December 4, 1926, at the Los Angeles Coliseum: Notre Dame 13, Southern California 12.
- 1927–todayNotre Dame men's basketball — the Phelps era and the Joyce Center
The early titles: Before the NCAA tournament existed to settle it, Notre Dame was named national champion by the Helms Foundation for 1927 and 1936.
- 1928Germ-free life: Reyniers and the Lobund Laboratory, 1928
Animals raised without germs: The oldest continuous thread in this section begins in 1928, when James A. Reyniers inaugurated germfree animal research at the University of Notre Dame — the first published report of the work presented to the Indiana Academy of Science in 1932, in the academy's own history of the program.
- 1928"Win one for the Gipper" — the 1928 speech and its afterlife
The setting: November 10, 1928, Yankee Stadium: undefeated Army, before about 78,000. Rockne's team was on its way to a 5–4 finish, his worst season.
- 1928–1952Depression, War, and the Postwar Surge
Charles O'Donnell, president from 1928 to 1934, and Matthew Walsh before him had both served as chaplains in the First World War, in which more than 2,200 Notre Dame students and alumni served; O'Donnell's doughboy helmet hangs as a light fixture in the Basilica's War Memorial entrance, beneath the inscription "God, Country, Notre Dame."
- 1929–1930The last two championships — 1929 and 1930
1929: Nine games, nine wins — and all nine played away from home, while the new stadium was under construction on the campus ground.
1930s
- 1930The stadium Rockne built, 1930
Excavation began in the summer of 1929 and foundation labor in April 1930; the general contractor was the Sollitt Construction Company of South Bend.
- 1930–todayNotre Dame Stadium — the ground the nation watches
The place: The stadium Osborn Engineering — the designers of Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds and Comiskey Park — patterned at smaller scale on Michigan Stadium, and that Knute Rockne principally designed, opened on 4 October 1930 with a 20–14 win over Southern Methodist before 14,751 people…
- 1930–todayThe apparatus III — Notre Dame Stadium's capacity line
The line: 54,000 seats at the 1930 opening, a figure that held to 1965; with temporary bleachers the ground could hold about 61,000, and the largest crowd of the pre-expansion era was 61,296, for Purdue on October 6, 1962.
- 1931The Kansas plane crash, 1931
The flight: On March 31, 1931, Rockne, aged 43, boarded Transcontinental & Western Air Flight 599 from Kansas City to Los Angeles, travelling to work on the film The Spirit of Notre Dame — released October 13, 1931.
- 1931–1940The succession — Anderson and Layden, 1931–1940
Anderson: Hunk Anderson, Rockne's assistant and former player, held the head coaching job for three seasons, 1931–33, in the immediate shadow of the crash.
- 1931–1991Taken apart and put back — the restorations of 1931, 1968 and 1988–91
1931: The first thorough renovation of the church came in 1931, designed by the New York architect Wilfred E. Anthony, on the Basilica's history page's account.
- 1936The universities' money: no local foundations, by design
Indiana University South Bend's private giving is raised through a shared statewide corporation: the Indiana University Foundation, incorporated in 1936 at Bloomington and designated by the university's trustees as its fund-raising arm, which pools gift accounts — some 4,500 of them, by its own filings…
1940s
- 1941–todayNotre Dame Federal Credit Union — Room 329 of the Main Building
The founding: Notre Dame Federal Credit Union was founded in May 1941 by Lou Buckley and John Sheehan, two university men who judged that the people who worked at Notre Dame needed a lender of their own.
- 1943–1970The Graduate School of Sacred Theology, 1943
In 1943 Sister Madeleva founded at Saint Mary's the Graduate School of Sacred Theology — the nation's first graduate theology program for women, in the congregation's own summary of it — at a time when the discipline's graduate doors stood closed to women nearly everywhere.
- 1943–1987The apparatus II — the seven Heisman Trophies
The seven: Angelo Bertelli, quarterback, 1943. Johnny Lujack, quarterback, 1947.
- 1944Francis L. Sampson: Notre Dame's chaplain, boundary-printed
His Distinguished Service Cross was published in War Department General Orders No. 91 of 19 December 1944, for 6–7 June 1944 at Balise Addeville, France — the regiment's first two days in France, in which the chaplain's aid work under fire is the citation's subject.
- 1944–1945The war years — McKeever and Devore, 1944–1945
The interim coaches: Leahy spent 1944–45 in naval service. His assistant Edward McKeever coached the 1944 team and went 8–2, then left for Cornell.
- 1946The 0–0 game — Army at Yankee Stadium, 1946
The billing: November 9, 1946: No. 1 Army against No. 2 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, before about 74,000. It ended 0–0 — "Much Ado About Nothing-Nothing," in the headline the record kept.
- 1946–1949The Leahy run at full weight, 1946–1949
On Leahy's return in 1946 Notre Dame heavily recruited returning war veterans, men often much older than the freshmen beside them; at least twenty regulars from the 1943 champions came back with eligibility remaining.
1950s
- 1951–2008The six coaches
The six, at their induction years: Knute Rockne, of the charter class of 1951; Frank Leahy (1970), whose induction names Boston College and Notre Dame, the two schools he coached; Jesse Harper (1971), the coach who hired Rockne and built the program Rockne inherited…
- 1951–2025Notre Dame's fifty: the College Hall players, enumerated
George Gipp and Elmer Layden entered with the first class in 1951.
- 1952The Morris Inn, at the Boundary
Its dedication is carried in two forms: April 1952 in the encyclopedia's account, May 1952 in Notre Dame's own Facilities record — both printed, neither settled here.
- 1952–1987The Hesburgh Transformation
Theodore M. Hesburgh became the university's fifteenth president in 1952, aged thirty-five, and held the office until 1987.
- 1953–1954The "Fainting Irish" and the end of Leahy, 1953–1954
The game: November 21, 1953, at Notre Dame Stadium: No. 1 Notre Dame against No. 20 Iowa.
- 1954–1963The lean years begin — Brennan, Kuharich, Devore, 1954–1963
Brennan: Terry Brennan, a Leahy player, was hired from the freshman coaching staff in his mid-twenties and coached 1954–58, going 32–18.
- 1957–2025The football note's open pulls, settled
Oklahoma, 1957 — a second source: Brennan's 7–0 at Oklahoma rested at season-summary level on a single source.
1960s
- 1963Dr. King at the Stepan Center, 1963
The visit's civic machinery is part of its record: a motorcade of fifty cars and twenty police officers brought King from the airport to a downtown news conference and a dinner at First United Methodist Church, and at 8:15 that evening, Friday, October 18, 1963 — seven weeks after the March on Washington…
- 1963–1964Ara Parseghian and the 1964 revival
The hire: Ara Parseghian — May 21, 1923, to August 2, 2017 — was hired late in 1963 from Northwestern. He had coached at Miami of Ohio under Woody Hayes and played for the Cleveland Browns.
- 1963–1987The Hesburgh Library and the Word of Life mural
The building: The 14-story Memorial Library opened on September 18, 1963 — the third building to house the university's main collection — anchoring a new research quadrangle on the campus's north side.
- 1963–1987Notre Dame's Hesburgh Library
Fourteen stories above the Notre Dame campus stands the Hesburgh Library, opened on 18 September 1963 as the university's Memorial Library and renamed in 1987, the year of Father Theodore Hesburgh's retirement from the presidency — a university research library whose full record stands in this history's Notre Dame file.
- 1963–2022Canton: Notre Dame's fourteen in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
The thirteen players, at their induction years: Curly Lambeau (1963), a charter member; John "Blood" McNally (1963), a charter member; George Trafton (1964); Wayne Millner (1968); George Connor (1975); Paul Hornung (1986); Alan Page (1988); Joe Montana (2000); Nick Buoniconti (2001); Dave Casper (2002); Jerome Bettis (2015)…
- 1964The Presidential Medal of Freedom: Theodore Hesburgh, seated here
The honor: The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, was awarded by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., on 14 September 1964…
- 1964–19681966: A Junior College for Student Brothers
In the summer of 1964 the chapter of the Midwest Province of the Brothers of Holy Cross considered developing the province's land across State Road 933 from the University of Notre Dame for two joined purposes: a center for the Brothers of Holy Cross, and a two-year college facility for student brothers, where the…
- 1964–todayTouchdown Jesus — a library wall named from a football stadium
The fame: On the south face of the university's great library stands a mosaic of Christ the Teacher, 134 feet tall and 68 feet wide, made of more than six thousand pieces of stone from twenty-five countries…
- 1965–1972The Merger That Was Signed and Unmade, 1971
A co-exchange program began in 1965 with some 200 students crossing the road to each other's classes; by 1971 it carried 2,000.
- 1965–1976Coeducation — the Merger That Failed and the Doors That Opened
The co-exchange program with Saint Mary's College began in 1965 with 200 students crossing between the campuses and grew to more than 2,000 by 1971 — 850 from Saint Mary's and 1,200 from Notre Dame, by the account of Father Thomas Blantz, then vice president for student affairs.
- 1966The 1966 Michigan State game, and the polling printed exactly
The game: November 19, 1966, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing: No. 1 Notre Dame, 8–0, against No. 2 Michigan State, 9–0, shown to a national television audience under a special dispensation.
- 1966–2026The Campus in Buildings
The Holy Cross Provincial Center — the Midwest Brothers' residence and office — was the first building erected on the ground, in 1966, its construction photograph anchoring the province's account of the year.
- 1966–todayHoly Cross College — at Its Civic Position
The Brothers of Holy Cross opened it in 1966, at Notre Dame, as a two-year college to educate the members of their own order.
- 1966–todayThe Leadership Line, Whole
Brother John Driscoll, president and dean, 1966–1987.
- 1968The campus table: the Knights of Columbus steak sandwich
The start is dated two ways in print, and both are carried here: the council's own history and Notre Dame Magazine's account, built on interviews with founder John Walker '72, date the first sale to 1968, when council members grilled about fifty ribeyes for themselves, drew a crowd, and sold sandwiches at the next…
- 1968The university clubs, at the CDP boundary
The University Club of Notre Dame: The university's faculty club was built on a gift: Robert Gore Sr., who never attended Notre Dame, gave $350,000 in 1967 to construct the University Club, which opened in 1968 on Notre Dame Avenue.
- 1968–2026The Whole Course: Junior College, Baccalaureate College, Near-Closure, Growth
The junior college era ran from 1968 to about 1990.
- 1968–todayPurcell Pavilion — the home
The building: The program's home opened in December 1968 as the Athletic and Convocation Center — nine years before the varsity team existed — and was renamed the Edmund P. Joyce Center in 1987 for the university's former executive vice president.
1970s
- 1970–1975Parseghian's close — Texas, Alabama, and the resignation, 1970–1975
The 1970 team finished No. 2 in the final polls. 1973: Eleven games, eleven wins.
- 1972–1977Before varsity — the club years, 1972–1977
The ground: Women were first admitted to Notre Dame as undergraduates in 1972, and organized women's sport on the campus began at the level the era allowed: interhall, bookstore and club teams.
- 1974The night the streak died: Notre Dame 71, UCLA 70
Top-ranked UCLA, 13–0, winners of eighty-eight straight games, met second-ranked Notre Dame, 9–0, at the Athletic and Convocation Center on Saturday, January 19, 1974.
- 1975–1980Dan Devine and the green jerseys, 1975–1980
The tenure: Dan Devine coached Notre Dame from 1975 to 1980 and went 53–16–1, with three bowl wins. He arrived with a college record of 120–40–8 built at Arizona State and Missouri, and the Green Bay Packers' head coaching job behind him.
- 1976The Keenan Revue: the campus stage
It was first performed in 1976, organized by resident assistants Thomas Lenz and Richard Thomas as a deliberate alternative to the campus drinking culture — the Rev. Rich Conyers, C.S.C., under whom it began, said the same of its purpose.
- 1977Marvin Miller: siderophores, Trojan horses, and the tuberculosis program
Smuggling drugs through the iron door: The medicinal chemist of this record is Marvin J. Miller, who joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1977 and held the George and Winifred Clark chair from 1996.
- 1977–1980The first varsity teams — Sharon Petro, 1977–1980
The first game: The varsity program opened on December 3, 1977, at home, with a 48–41 win over Valparaiso.
- 1977–todayThe apparatus I — the honors accounting
The coaching line, from the university's all-time table: Sharon Petro, 1977–80, 49–20. Mary DiStanislao, 1980–87, 115–79.
- 1977–todayNotre Dame women's basketball — two banners
The program: Women's basketball at Notre Dame dates its varsity record to 1977; the program marked its fiftieth season in 2026–27.
- 1977–todayNotre Dame fencing — sixteen national titles
Men's titles: 1977, 1978, 1986. In the combined-championship era the Irish won ten: 1994, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025 — fourteen in all through 2025.
- 1979–2003Notre Dame's earlier ladder: the gifts each era called the largest
In 1979 the Kellogg Foundation gave 10 million dollars. In 1989 Edward J. DeBartolo, the Youngstown shopping-mall developer, gave 33 million dollars — a single benefaction that underwrote DeBartolo Hall, the DeBartolo quadrangle and the Marie P. DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
1980s
- 1980–1987Mary DiStanislao and the Division I step, 1980–1987
The second coach: Mary DiStanislao succeeded Petro in 1980 and coached seven seasons, going 115–79.
- 1981–1985Gerry Faust, 1981–1985
The record: Gerry Faust coached Notre Dame for five seasons, 1981–85, and finished 30–26–1 in the University Archives' coaching table.
- 1981–2015William O'Rourke — the program's founder, on paper
William O'Rourke taught English at the University of Notre Dame from 1981 to 2015 and founded its graduate creative writing program — the institution's course stands in Arts, and the program's own tribute history names him the founder, with the poets John Matthias and Sonia Gernes his faculty colleagues of the founding.
- 1986–1996Lou Holtz and the 1988 championship
The tenure: Lou Holtz coached Notre Dame from 1986 to 1996 and went 100–30–2. The stretch from 1988 to 1993 went 64–9–1 and included a school-record winning streak of 23 games.
- 1987–1988The McGraw hire, 1987
The hire: Notre Dame announced her hiring on May 18, 1987, under athletic director Gene Corrigan. She was the program's third head coach, thirty-one years old, taking over a team that had won two conference titles in a minor league and had never played in the NCAA tournament.
- 1987–todayMalloy, Jenkins, and Dowd — the Line Carried Whole
Edward A. "Monk" Malloy, president from 1987 to 2005, governed eighteen years of rapid growth in the institutional history's accounting: the endowment grew from $350 million to more than $3 billion, the annual operating budget from $177 million to more than $650 million, annual research funding from $15 million to…
- 1988–1995The Midwestern Collegiate years — the first power, 1988–1995
The league: Notre Dame joined the Midwestern Collegiate Conference in 1988 and promptly ran it. The Irish won the conference's regular-season championship in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994 and 1995 — the 1990 team going 16–0 in league play — and its tournament in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994, ten conference crowns in seven seasons.
1990s
- 1990–todayMatt Cashore and Barbara Johnston: the university's cameras today
The staff line now: Matt Cashore, Notre Dame class of 1994, has photographed the university since he arrived as a student in the fall of 1990 — beginning with the Dome yearbook, where he was photo editor — and has been a staff university photographer since 2007.
- 1990–todayThe Notre Dame film record — the department, the student festival, and Fighting Irish Media
Its engine is the Notre Dame Student Film Festival, which screens the films undergraduates make in the department's production courses: founded by faculty member Ted Mandell — the department's chronology places the first festival in the 1989–90 year, its festival pages say founded in 1990, and both forms print…
- 1995–todayThe Connecticut rivalry
The shape: The rivalry began with Notre Dame's arrival in the Big East in 1995 and outlasted the league that made it: fifty-seven meetings through 2025–26, Connecticut ahead 39–18 in the university's series accounting.
- 1996–1997The first Final Four, 1997
The team: The 1996–97 Irish went 31–7 behind two seniors who between them rewrote the record book on their way out: Beth Morgan, the wing from Bloomington, Indiana, and Katryna Gaither, the post player whose 20.4 points a game that season set a school record.
- 1997–2000The road between — Riley arrives, 1997–2000
The 1998 run: The 1997–98 team reached the Sweet Sixteen the hard way, winning at top-seeded Texas Tech in Lubbock before losing to Louisiana Tech.
- 1997–2009The long drought — Davie, Willingham, Weis, 1997–2009
Davie: Bob Davie, a Holtz assistant, coached 1997–2001 and went 35–25. Willingham: Tyrone Willingham coached 2002–04 and went 21–15, dismissed after three seasons.
- 1998The university pipeline: Gigot, McCloskey, Innovation Park, the IDEA Center
The Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship was founded in 1998 in the Mendoza College of Business; its founder, Gary Gigot, dates the awakening a year earlier — "Entrepreneurship came into focus at Notre Dame in 1997.
- 1999–todayNDnano and MIND — the nanoelectronics decade
The centers: Notre Dame's Center for Nano Science and Technology — NDnano — was established in 1999.
21st century 34 dated mentions
2000s
- 2000The Congressional Gold Medal: Hesburgh again, thirty-six years on
The honor: Congress voted Father Hesburgh its own highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, and President Bill Clinton presented it to him in the Rotunda of the Capitol on 13 July 2000, in recognition — the authorizing act's words…
- 2000–2001The first championship, 2000–2001
The season: The 2000–01 Irish finished 34–2 — and the season's shape is told by its three biggest games before the Final Four.
- 2000–2026The Modern Course: Lay Governance, Graduate Return and the Conboy Decade
The century turns on money and mission: The modern course opens with the Eldred presidency's signature transaction: a twelve-million-dollar Lilly Endowment grant in 2000, in the fact book's chronology, supporting the Center for Women's Intercultural Leadership…
- 2002The mosquito's genome: Collins, Besansky, and the Eck Institute
Reading the malaria mosquito: Notre Dame's infectious-disease line runs from the Vector Biology Laboratory of George B. Craig Jr.'s generation — more than four decades of work, in the university's summary…
- 2005–todayThe Center for Research Computing — Notre Dame's computing institution
Founded on the announcement of December 2005: The University of Notre Dame announced the creation of the Center for Research Computing on 18–19 December 2005, established, in the university's words, by the Office of Information Technologies in collaboration with the Office of Research "to build an environment that…
- 2007The bacterial cell wall: Mobashery and the mechanics of resistance
In a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , reported by the university in January 2007, Mobashery and his team characterized the framework of peptidoglycan for the first time, by synthesizing a fragment of the wall through a thirty-seven-step procedure and reading its structure by nuclear…
- 2009Rare and neglected diseases: the Boler-Parseghian Center, 2009
The diseases the market skips: In 2009 Notre Dame established its Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases — the illnesses, thousands of them, each too rare to draw commercial drug development…
2010s
- 2010–2011The barrier-breakers, 2011
The streaks in the way: The 2010–11 team, 31–8, was built around a sophomore guard from South Bend, Skylar Diggins, and it reached the final weekend by breaking the two streaks that defined the era.
- 2010–2021Brian Kelly — the wins, the vacatur, and the departure, 2010–2021
The record on the field: Brian Kelly coached Notre Dame from 2010 to 2021 and won more games on the field than any coach in the program's history: 113–40 across twelve seasons, 54–9 over his final five, with seven seasons of double-digit wins and unbeaten regular seasons in 2012, 2018 and 2020.
- 2010–todayThe Wireless Institute, and SpectrumX — Green's line, institutionalized
The institute: In January 2010 the University of Notre Dame's College of Engineering established the Wireless Institute, to build, in the university's announcement, "upon the rich tradition in wireless communications and networks that has made Notre Dame one of the nation's leading centers of wireless research."
- 2011Fighting Irish Media and the Martin Media Center: the campus as a production house
Fighting Irish Media was founded in 2011 as Fighting Irish Digital Media, by a small group headed by Dan Skendzel, the university's director of digital media, under an initiative of athletic director Jack Swarbrick, who had begun laying the groundwork on his arrival in 2008 for a multimedia organization that could…
- 2011–2013Baylor's forty, and the four Connecticut games, 2012–2013
2012: The 2011–12 team reached the Final Four in Denver and beat Connecticut in the semifinal, 83–75 in overtime — Notre Dame's third win over the Huskies that season, after a regular-season sweep, and its second straight national-semifinal win over them.
- 2011–2026Saint Mary's College: three record gifts in fifteen years
The Mathile gift: On 26 March 2011 Saint Mary's College announced the largest single private gift in its 167-year history: 9 million dollars from MaryAnn and Clayton Mathile — founders of the Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition, and parents of alumna Jennifer Mathile Prikkel '95 — for the renovation of Science Hall.
- 2013–2026Holy Cross College: a small college's record, set three times
In 2013 the college received a gift of 2 million dollars from Guy Gundlach and the Elkhart County Community Foundation, aimed at scholarships for the families and spouses of fallen veterans — a record gift for the college at its date.
- 2014–2015The third straight ending, and Jewell Loyd leaves, 2015
The season: The 2014–15 Irish, 36–3, took both ACC titles again and reached a fifth consecutive Final Four, at Tampa.
- 2014–2025Notre Dame's fifty-million-dollar cluster: a school founded, financial aid endowed, a democracy institute, and a gift shared with the founding order
The Keough gifts: On 1 October 2014 the university announced the first new college or school it had founded in nearly a century — the Donald R. Keough School of Global Affairs — made possible, with the construction of Jenkins Hall to house it, by gifts totaling 50 million dollars from Donald and Marilyn Keough.
- 2016–todayFighting Irish Media: the university as a content plant
The partnership that announced it: Notre Dame's creator infrastructure enters this record on 4 August 2016, when the university and Bleacher Report announced what the school called a groundbreaking social content partnership: the sports site's social team would embed with the football program in South Bend and travel…
- 2017–2018The second championship — the season of seven healthy players, 2018
The attrition: The 2017–18 season is the program's legend, and every piece of it is documented.
- 2018–2019One point short — the defense of the title, 2019
The Irish went 35–4, won the ACC regular-season and tournament championships, and in December McGraw won her 900th career game — against Lehigh, on December 30, 2018, the school where her head-coaching career began.
- 2019–2020The last season, and the sixteen-minute succession, 2020
The last season: The 2019–20 team, rebuilt from the drafted five, went 13–18 — McGraw's only losing season at Notre Dame — and the year ended in suspension: the 2020 NCAA tournament was cancelled in the COVID spring, which is why the program's run of twenty-four consecutive tournament appearances (1996–2019) ends at…
2020s
- 2020The Presidential Medal of Freedom: Lou Holtz, for the Notre Dame years
The honor: On 3 December 2020, President Donald Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Lou Holtz in an Oval Office ceremony, the White House calling him one of the greatest football coaches of all time.
- 2020–2023The Ivey rebuild, 2020–2023
The COVID season: Ivey's first team went 10–10 in the pandemic season of 2020–21 — played, at home, before no spectators, a condition the record book notes against the season — and received no postseason bid.
- 2021–todayMarcus Freeman, 2021–present
The appointment: Marcus Freeman — born January 10, 1986, an Ohio State linebacker who had served as Kelly's defensive coordinator in 2021 — was named head coach in December 2021, the program's 32nd head coach.
- 2023The Dome regilded, 2023 — the statue measured by the restoration record
In 2023 the university regilded the Dome and its statue — scaffolding rose beginning May 22, 2023, immediately after Commencement, the work ran about five months against a mid-October completion target, and the gilding was done by Conrad Schmitt Studios, the same studio that performed the 2005 regilding and the…
- 2023–2025The Hidalgo era opens, 2023–2025
The freshman: Hannah Hidalgo arrived from Merchantville, New Jersey, in the autumn of 2023, having won a gold medal with the United States at the under-19 World Cup and been named USA Basketball's female athlete of the year as an incoming freshman.
- 2024–2026The building program — the fall 2026 openings
Shields Family Hall: The largest of the completions is the football program's new home: the Jack and Kathy Shields Family Hall, a 150,000-square-foot facility on Courtney Lane on the east campus, given by Jack and Kathy Shields and announced on April 20, 2024.
- 2025–2026The Elite Eight again, 2025–2026
The season: The 2025–26 Irish went 25–11, tied for fifth in the ACC at 12–6, and took the season in two pieces: a bruising autumn that included a 93–54 loss to Michigan in Detroit on November 15 and an 85–47 loss at Connecticut, and a 12–3 close from February 1 that carried them through the ACC tournament to a…
- 2025–todayThe Echoes: the alumni podcast
The launch: On 14 July 2025 a new Notre Dame football podcast, The Echoes, began publishing weekly, produced by Sinclair, Inc. and hosted by two alumni: Mike Golic Jr., who played on the Notre Dame offensive line, and Jessica Smetana, a Notre Dame graduate and veteran sports media producer.
- 2026The university's moving lines, re-dated — November 2026
Below him, the provost's chair — the university's second office — is held by John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, in office since July 1, 2022; in May 2026 the university elected him to a second five-year term beginning July 1, 2027.
- 2026The Ground Today
The motherhouse ground in November 2026 holds everything this record has followed onto it. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross is headquartered there, under Sister Sharlet Ann Wagner's leadership for the 2024–2029 term, and holds the 278 acres the college catalog states.
- 2026Holy Cross College in November 2026
Its accreditor is the Higher Learning Commission, with which it stands accredited, most recently reaffirmed in 2016–2017, and with a comprehensive evaluation scheduled in its next reaffirmation cycle on 7 December 2026, weeks after this record closes.
- 2026Re-dated — Notre Dame football as it stands on November 10, 2026
The standing: The football leg's present-state entry was banked on November 9, 2026, with Notre Dame 8–1 and Marcus Freeman's record at 51–13.
- 2026Re-dated — Notre Dame women's basketball as it stands on November 10, 2026
The standing: The team-history leg's present-state entry was verified on November 9–10, 2026, at 2–0 and No. 13 in both polls, with Detroit Mercy next on November 10.
- 2026–todayThe present state — the fiftieth season, November 2026
The standing, as of November 9–10, 2026: The program's fiftieth varsity season, 2026–27, opened with Notre Dame ranked thirteenth in both the Associated Press and the coaches' polls and picked fourth in the ACC's preseason poll, in the polling account carried here.