They Played Who?

Author: Reidy, Tyler

Jan Suchý 1973 Czechoslovakia National Hockey Team"
Jan Suchý 1973 Czechoslovakia National Hockey Team. Courtesy of HockeyGods.

These days, the Notre Dame athletic schedules are pretty straightforward. The football team plays a national load of high-caliber opponents, the basketball squads face every team in the ACC and hockey battles the Big Ten gauntlet.

But it hasn’t always been that way. Around the turn of the 20th century, the Fighting Irish lined up against some, well, fascinating teams. Here’s a look at eight of Notre Dame’s strangest all-time opponents and their backstories.

Chicago Dental Infirmary

There are plenty of wild ones scattered throughout the Notre Dame football record books. In 1897, the Chicago Dental Infirmary, the first dental school in Chicago, fielded a team and met the Irish in South Bend. With no cavities in their game, the Irish rolled to a 62-0 victory, handing the Dents their first loss of the season. Later that year, Chicago Dental would face Northwestern University Dental in a game for the title of “Western Dental College Champion,” losing 14-0.

Chicago First Regiment

As the final minutes ticked away in the ugly Notre Dame men’s basketball loss to Duke on Feb. 24, ESPN play-by-play man Kevin Brown mentioned that the Irish were tracking for their worst home loss since they faced the Chicago First Regiment. Brown broke out into laughter upon reading the opponent, but the First Regiment was no joke back in 1898, competing as a prominent amateur team among local YMCA squads.

At the Carroll Hall Gym in 1898, the Chicago First Regiment demolished Notre Dame, 64-8. For context, the winner of Notre Dame’s next and final two games in 1898 scored 19 and 16 points, adding a wow factor to the First Regiment’s 64-point total.

Chicago Physicians and Surgeons

Now called the University of Illinois College of Medicine, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago battled Notre Dame Football nine times. The Physicians and Surgeons actually beat the Irish twice consecutively in 1896 and 1899, winning by preposterous scores of 5-0 and 4-0. They probably would have liked a general anaesthetic for their game in 1908, though, as Notre Dame won the final all-time meeting by a score of 88-0.

Czechoslovakia

During the 1970s, European national hockey teams frequently toured North America to face off against collegiate and professional teams, and Czechoslovakia skated into the Joyce Center in 1973. The Irish, with their program still extremely young, were no match for the national team, losing 12-5. However, just scoring five goals was impressive enough, as Czechoslovakia captured bronze at the Ice Hockey World Championships in that same year.