Notre Dame-Army Football Game At Yankee Stadium Rekindles Century-Old Rivalry

On Oct. 18, 1924, Notre Dame’s football team traveled to New York for a game against Army at the Polo Grounds, home of the now-defunct New York Giants baseball franchise. That day, not only did the Fighting Irish win, 13-7, but New York Herald Tribune sportswriter Grantland Rice dubbed Notre Dame’s backfield the “Four Horsemen,” still arguably the most famous nickname in college football history.

On Saturday night, a century later, Notre Dame and Army will meet again in a New York baseball venue, this time at Yankee Stadium. It is doubtful fans will remember the game 100 years from now. Still, the game holds special meaning because of the longtime rivalry between the programs, their current success and the Stadium’s football lore.

Army (9-0) has a Football Bowl Subdivision-best 13 consecutive victories and is among just three undefeated teams in the nation. Meanwhile, Notre Dame (9-1) is on an eight-game winning streak and has dominated its opponents since its 16-14 upset loss at home against Northern Illinois in early September. No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 19 Army each remain in contention for a College Football Playoff berth, although the losing team will likely not have a shot at the playoff.

While Army is a two-touchdown underdog, Notre Dame isn’t taking the Black Knights lightly. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame’s coach, remembers when former athletics director Jack Swarbrick informed him the Fighting Irish would be playing Army in New York.

“The first thought was, ‘Navy and Army in the same year? C’mon, Jack?,’” Freeman said. “And then he told me why.”

Swarbrick, who retired earlier this year, told Freeman about the 1924 Army-Navy game, leading the coach to research the Four Horsemen: Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden, Don Miller and Harry Stuhldreher. Stuhlreder, a quarterback, grew up in Massillon, Ohio, where Freeman’s wife was raised, while Miller, a running back, also grew up in Freeman’s home state of Ohio.

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“There’s a little bit of a connection there with the Four Horsemen,” Freeman said. “It’s an amazing opportunity to play a great program that has a lot of history and is a top 25 program. It’s going to be a great challenge on Saturday night.”

The game is part of the Shamrock Series that Swarbrick spearheaded early in his tenure to have Notre Dame play opponents on neutral fields across the United States. The Shamrock Series began in 2009 when Notre Dame defeated Washington State, 40-14, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. All told, the Fighting Irish have won each of its 11 Shamrock Series games, which have taken place at storied venues such as Fenway Park in Boston, Soldier Field in Chicago and AT&T Stadium outside of Dallas.

Saturday’s game will be the third Shamrock Series at Yankee Stadium, following Notre Dame’s 27-3 victory over Army in 2010 and its 36-3 victory over Syracuse in 2018. The previous Army game was the first football game at the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009. The old Stadium, which was one block south, hosted dozens of college football games, including 22 Notre Dame-Army games from 1925 through 1969. The most famous occurred in 1946 when No. 1 Army and No. 2 Notre Dame tied, 0-0, in a game featuring four Heisman Trophy winners in Army’s Doc Blanchard (1945) and Glenn Davis (1946) and Notre Dame’s Johnny Lujack (1947) and Leon Hart (1949).

Soon after Mike Buddie arrived as Army’s athletics director in 2019, he said it was “rumored” that Army would play Notre Dame again for the first time since the 2016 Shamrock Series when the Fighting Irish won, 44-6, at the Alamodome. Over the next few years, Buddie spoke with Swarbrick and agreed to play on Nov. 23, 2024 and have Notre Dame be the home team, but they did not know where it would take place. Buddie said playing at Notre Dame Stadium or even in Dublin, Ireland were options before they announced in February that it would be in New York.

“Deciding on Yankee Stadium was great news to us,” said Buddie, who pitched for the Yankees in the late 1990s. “(Notre Dame) has been great partners in this and communicated very well throughout. We're really happy with where it landed, and certainly playing as well as we are is just an added layer of frosting on top.”

Although Army’s campus is only 50 miles north of New York City, Saturday’s game is considered a Notre Dame home game, as are all Shamrock Series games. As such, Army received a small allotment of tickets, meaning it should be a decidedly pro-Notre Dame crowd.

Both programs have plenty to play for, as they are seeking a berth in the CFP. Army is the only team in the country to have won each of its games by at least 10 points this season. The Black Knights are averaging an FBS-high 334.9 rushing yards per game, 72 more yards than any other team, and are allowing 10.33 points per game, the second-fewest in the country behind No. 2 Ohio State.

Still, the Black Knights have faced a weak slate of opponents. ESPN ranks Army’s schedule 133rd of 134 FBS teams, while analyst Jeff Sagarin has Army’s schedule 137th in Division 1 ahead of just three FBS schools and below five programs in the lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision.

Notre Dame will be by far Army’s toughest test of the season. Since losing to Northern Illinois on Sept. 7, the Fighting Irish have outscored their eight opponents by an average of more than 32 points per game. Aside from a 31-24 victory over then-No. 15 Louisville, Notre Dame has won its other seven games during that stretch by at least 21 points. The Fighting Irish are third in the nation in scoring defense (11.4 points per game) and sixth with 277.1 yards allowed per game.

“For our players, the first time they ever put shoulder pads on and decided they were going to play football, I think they likely hoped that they would have an opportunity to play in a game like this, in this kind of venue, against one of the Blue Blood football programs in the country,” Army coach Jeff Monken said. “Notre Dame is college football. Their history in this game, I mean, it's as far back as the game itself.”

Since their first matchup in 1913, Army and Notre Dame have played each other 51 times. The Fighting Irish hold a 39-8-4 edge and have won the past 15 games against Army. In fact, Army hasn’t defeated Notre Dame since 1958 and hasn’t defeated a team ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll since upsetting No. 9 Penn State in 1963.

The last time the teams met at Yankee Stadium in 2016, Notre Dame returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and cruised to a 38-point victory. Monken said the Fighting Irish “beat the pants off of us” that day and are even better now. But so are the Black Knights, who are 18th in the AP poll, their highest ranking since 1962. They have a veteran quarterback in senior Bryson Daily, who has gained more than 1,000 yards rushing and run for 21 touchdowns, a triple-option offense that is difficult to prepare for and a defense that has held all of its opponents in check so far. And they don’t plan on getting intimidated on Saturday night.

“We don't need to spend a bunch of time demystifying stuff,” Monken said. “It's Notre Dame. You walk around this building and look at all the photos of Army playing Notre Dame and the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium. There's a great history to this game, and the history belongs to Notre Dame. They've won most of them, so it'll take a great effort. But our guys are excited about the challenge and the opportunity, and I hope we'll play well.”