Notre Dame: Notre Dame Stadium

I've been here twice now. I would prefer to let someone more clever than me who was there for the second time to comment on Notre Dame Stadium. I give you, the words of S-dot:

Officially, Project 119 still holds no position in the Convicts v. Catholics discussion. Both sides lend themselves to more gay sex jokes than we’re comfortable making on a family-friendly website. But the Catholics may have pulled ahead thanks to a maintenance man named Tom. We pulled into South Bend around 8:20, still lacking confidence thanks to Michigan State. Notre Dame kept up its role as most self-important football institution by putting itself on lock-down. We happened to catch a maintenance worker leaving the stadium, and we asked if he could get us inside to take a few quick pictures. He looked at his watch and told us he had to catch what inning the baseball game was in, but said he would be back if we waited about 5-10 minutes. After a half hour this seemed like the most ridiculous excuse we’ve ever been given. We started walking toward the car, despondent enough that we went looking for Roger Goodell’s private suite. But then, Touchdown Jesus smiled down on three evangelicals. Maintenance man Tom pulled around on his cart, explaining that the game was in the 9th inning, which meant he had to wait until the Golden Domers finished losing to Franklin College before he could clean up the field. We followed his cart back to our starting point, still a little disappointed that we had to wait until dark to get onto an unlit field. But Tom or Jesus or stick-to-it-ivness or whatever smiled down upon us again, and Tom unlocked the door to the very-lit Notre Dame locker room. The same room where all the fake Knute Rockne speeches may have happened. The same room where Lou Holtz inexplicably led a group of men to the National Championship. The same room with the stairwell that leads to the “Play Like A Champion Today” sign. (I’ve got a replica in my apartment, but I always forget to hit in on the way out. Even so, I’d still argue that my life’s going better than 10-3, so maybe the sign isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.) Dave promised that he touched the sign with the hand he didn’t pee on, so no need for any future Irish to fear. Tom’s ride was on his way, so we didn’t have much time on the field, but we were too schoolgirl giddy to care. We got as many bad pictures as possible in about three minutes, and I made sure to call my dad. When you choose to focus on the past, you also tend to ignore technology that includes the word “jumbo” or any seating that could be misconstrued as “comfortable.” But Tom still went above and beyond the call of duty, so at least for the time being, Catholic guilt beats felonious guilt.

First Game: v. Southern Methodist University, 1930

Surface: Natural

Google Map of Notre Dame Stadium