Retour
This weekend is a little different for the college football season as Halloween falls on a Saturday for the first time since 2020 and the final time until 2037.
No. 5 Notre Dame comes off its bye week and hits the road to take on Navy in Foxborough, Mass., which marks the ninth time Notre Dame will have taken on the Midshipmen on Halloween, and 17th game played all-time on October 31.
Notre Dame's record in those games?
Not only is it 8-0 against Navy, but its 16-0 all-time on Halloween.
It's been a whole lot of treats for the Fighting Irish, and the hope is Saturday again ends up not being a trick.
Throw out the record books when these two used to get together! This win moved Notre Dame to 4-1 in a year it would eventually finish 6-2 under second year head coach Jesse Harper.
After going 10-0 and winning its first national championship the year before, Notre Dame stepped back to 7-2-1 the following year, while winning in Atlanta on Halloween improved the Irish to 5-1.
A Halloween win over Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) moved the Irish to 6-0-1 on the year, but losses to both USC and Army to finish the year held the Irish to a 7-2 final record.
Played 90 years ago Saturday, this remains the last time Notre Dame beat Ohio State, as the Buckeyes have won each of the seven meetings since.
Cleveland used to be a regular host for the Notre Dame vs. Navy contest, hosting 11 meetings all-time, with the most recent being in 1978.
1953 was the final season for Frank Leahy at Notre Dame, and the win over Navy helped the Irish to an impressive 9-0-1 campaign.
Compared to the Leahy era, things were starting to point in the wrong direction for Notre Dame by 1959, but it beat Navy to move to 3-3 on the eventual 5-5 year.
A year after losing to Navy 35-14 in South Bend and going just 2-8, Notre Dame routed Navy in Philadelphia on Halloween in 1964 under new head coach Ara Parseghian. This began Notre Dame's record-setting winning streak over Navy, which lasted all the way until 2007.
Notre Dame moved to 6-0 on the year and would finish 10-1, with its only loss being in the final week of the regular season at USC.
Gerry Faust's first game against Navy went according to plan with the Irish winning in a rout to move to 3-4 on the year.
Eventual Heisman Trophy winnner Tim Brown caught a 51-yard touchdown pass from Kent Graham in this blowout victory in South Bend.
Notre Dame jumped out to a 31-0 halftime lead behind two touchdowns from Reggie Brooks in Notre Dame's most recent Halloween day meeting with Navy.
Notre Dame moved to 6-1 in Bob Davie's second season as head coach. This remains the most recent meeting between Notre Dame and Baylor.
The first Shamrock Series game in program history took place Halloween night 2009, when the Charlie Weis led Irish moved to 6-2 after the blowout victory. It would be the final win for Weis at Notre Dame as the team went 0-4 in November and Weis was fired as head coach.
The Halloween night matchup with the Owls became the unlikely backdrop for College GameDay, as Will Fuller scored late in his hometown to give Notre Dame the victory.
Notre Dame's most recent Halloween showing came in the strange Covid-year of 2020, with the Irish moving to 6-0 behind a two-touchdown performance by Kyren Williams.
I can't say I've looked up many specific dates of how Notre Dame has done all-time, but I was just curious seeing as Halloween is a bit different than the rest of actual fall dates.
I don't know what the record is for most games played by Notre Dame on a single day and winning each, but I have trouble thinking there are many in the same range as Halloween happens to be for Notre Dame.