Tight End Troy Niklas (85) catches a Touchdown. Courtesy of ESPN.
As a die-hard Notre Dame football fan, I was very excited to attend the Notre Dame-Boston College game, known as the “Holy War”, on November 10th. I have been to a number of Notre Dame home games over the years but have I had never been to an away game. The game day atmosphere at Notre Dame is amazing and I was curious to see how it was at BC. I attended the game with my younger brother and his friends, who are currently juniors at Notre Dame. We went to a tailgate party before the game, where we enjoyed meatball subs, chips and beer with some BC fans, who turned out to be very friendly and welcoming despite the fact we were rooting for the opposing team. Although the area for tailgating was much more cramped than at Notre Dame, so much so that some tailgate parties were relegated to BC’s parking garage, the overall pregame atmosphere at Boston College was great, with numerous parties on campus and plenty of hamburgers and beer.
A group of wild and crazy Notre Dame super fans at half time.
We entered the stadium about 20 minutes before kickoff. Because of BC’s poor football season, and Notre Dame’s undefeated season and large alumni presence in Boston, it was difficult to spot any BC fans outside of the student section in the stadium. The game itself was not extraordinary, but we all still had a great time cheering on the Fighting Irish with all the other Notre Dame fans in the stands, including some alumni who helped us do crowd push-ups after Notre Dame touchdowns. The Fighting Irish beat the BC Eagles 21-6 and Notre Dame continued its completely unexpected undefeated season, which has resulted in Notre Dame’s first national championship appearance in over 20 years.
Although the BC football program is not great right now, they have just hired a new coach and are typically a good football team. Because of this, and the enjoyable game day atmosphere at BC, I would highly recommend attending a BC football game. Boston College is just a half-an-hour T ride away and football tickets can be as cheap as $20.
By Patrick Blonigan (SP Newsletter Chair)