Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Rivalries - Army and Air Force

Army and Air Force

Army

The first Army–Notre Dame matchup in 1913 is generally regarded as the game that put the Fighting Irish on the college football map. In that game, Notre Dame revolutionized the forward pass in a stunning 35–13 victory. For years it was "The Game" on Notre Dame's schedule, played at Yankee Stadium in New York. During the 1940s, the rivalry with the U.S. Military Academy Black Knights reached its zenith. This was because both teams were extremely successful and met several times in key games (including one of the Games of the Century, a scoreless tie in the 1946 Army vs. Notre Dame football game). In 1944, the Black Knights administered the worst defeat in Notre Dame football history, crushing the Fighting Irish 59–0. The following year, it was more of the same, a 48–0 blitzkrieg. After meeting every year since 1919, Army decided to end the annual series after 1947 because they felt it was becoming too one-sided in favor of the Fighting Irish. The game was played in South Bend for the first time and the Fighting Irish prevailed, 27–7. Since then, there have been infrequent meetings over the past several decades, with Army's last win coming in 1958. Like Navy, due to the small capacity of Army's Michie Stadium, the Black Knights would play their home games at a neutral site, which for a number of years was Yankee Stadium and before that, the Polo Grounds. In 1957, the game was played in Philadelphia's Municipal (later John F. Kennedy Memorial) Stadium while in 1965, the teams met at Shea Stadium in New York. They last met at Yankee Stadium in 1969. The 1973 contest was played at West Point with the Fighting Irish prevailing, 62–3. In more recent times, games in which Army was the host have been played at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Notre Dame leads the series 38–8–4, most recently playing Army at the new Yankee Stadium in 2010, winning 27-3.

Air Force The Fighting Irish and Falcons first met in 1964 with the Fighting Irish prevailing 34–7, and proceeded to play each other annually from 1972–91 (they didn't meet in 1976). Notre Dame won the first 11 contests before Gerry Faust's teams lost four straight in the early 1980s. One of the most memorable games was the 1975 contest in which Notre Dame, trailing 30–10 in the fourth quarter, rallied behind Joe Montana for a 31–30 comeback win. In the match-up in 2007, the Fighting Irish came into the game matching their worst start in Notre Dame history with a 1-8 record. The Falcons won for the first time since 1996 41–24, the largest margin of victory for Air Force in six wins over the Fighting Irish, the biggest by a military academy since Navy beat the Fighting Irish 35–14 in 1963 behind Roger Staubach and it marked the first time they had ever scored 40 points in a game against Notre Dame. It marked the first time Notre Dame had lost to two service academies in the same season since 1944 and it was also a school-record sixth straight home loss for the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame leads the series 23–6. In 2010, Notre Dame and Air Force agreed to a home-and-home football series starting with the 2011 season. The series began when Air Force visited Notre Dame Stadium on October 8, 2011, with Notre Dame prevailing 59–33. The series finale will take place when the Fighting Irish visit Falcon Stadium during the 2013 season.