Talk:Northwestern–Notre Dame football rivalry

Proposal for deletion or renaming
No offense to the original creator of this page, but I think there is some confusion between a rivalry and frequently scheduled opponent. Notre Dame and Northwestern are in no ways rivals, but due to Notre Dame's independent affiliation Northwestern and Notre Dame have scheduled each other a fair amount over the decades. I would propose this page either be renamed to Northwestern-Notre Dame football series, or be deleted entirely. Otherwise, where does it end? How many rivalries can Notre Dame possibly have??? Tedmoseby (talk) 05:03, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Maybe there's a way to fold the Notre Dame rivalries/important historic opponents articles into one article. What exactly is the accepted definition of 'rivalry' in this case? It might be good to define that first, and fold the articles involving Notre Dame rivalries/significant opponents into a single article until there's a consensus on which games count as rivalries and which are merely important for historic reasons (which I'd argue Northwestern counts as given the focus it was given by Knute Rockne during his time as Notre Dame football's head coach, and the fact that it had a trophy awarded to the winner). Just an idea. Luminece (talk) 22:01, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Rebuttal
Nope, sorry, you're both wrong, and emphatically so. I attended both schools and have family history stretching back to the 1890s and NU and the 1920s at ND. I've lost count of the number of degrees relatives have earned at the two schools, but it's in the mid to high two figures at this point. This absolutely is a rivalry. Is it Notre Dame's biggest rivalry? No, of course not. Neither school would claim it is. But that doesn't mean it isn't is one. Those who say it isn't are, respectfully, new-school and ignorant. There are many reasons for this, among them:

- NU is ND's #7 most-played opponent.

- ND is NU's #1 most-played non-conference opponent.

- NU and ND are two of the four best private universities in the Midwest (Wash U and Chicago being the other two).

- The game decided the national championship in 1930 and cost NU a national championship in 1936.

- NU fans gave ND the Fighting Irish nickname.

- Ara Parseghian's history at both schools

- Knute Rockne's desire to play NU to gain more exposure in Chicago

Just because a rivalry isn't a school's primary one doesn't mean it's not a rivalry. And just because it's not symmetrical, for lack of a better term, doesn't mean it's not a rivalry. Harvard-Yale is a bigger game for Yale than is Dartmouth-Yale. It doesn't mean the latter's not a rivalry game.

15 August 2018 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.138.128.102 (talk) 22:10, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Shillelagh
Information on the rivalry's Shillelagh trophy should be incorporated into this article from reliable sources. Inscription:

Notre Dame – Northwestern Football Trophy Presented by William T Cosgrave President of the Irish Free State 1931

Two stories on the more recent fate of the trophy:

PK-WIKI (talk) 05:19, 25 March 2023 (UTC)
 * 1) Notre Dame’s Lost Rivalry Trophy
 * 2) Meet Joe, Owner of the Notre Dame - Northwestern Shillelagh Trophy