University of Notre Dame

Game Day

Other Traditions

Dorm Barbecue

Kickoff Luncheon

This gathering, customarily at noon on Friday in the Joyce Center fieldhouse, is a great way to get in the mood—and “in the know”—for the game. Usual guests, interviewed or welcomed by local TV sportscaster Bob Nagle, include Notre Dame coaches, select Irish Football players, and dignitaries of various sorts. Reasonably priced tickets that include good food with the “insider” experience are available, but supplies may be limited. To order, download the form from the 2012 Kickoff Luncheon Order Form Site and submit it to the Athletics Business Office, 112 Joyce Center. Tickets are $24 each, with a $3 handling fee per order, payable to University of Notre Dame.

Student BBQs

If you come to campus short on tailgating supplies, feel free to take a stroll through campus. Many of the Notre Dame residence halls conduct food sales on football weekends, with the proceeds going to support dorm budgets.

A stop at the Knights of Columbus booth for a steak sandwich also is a Saturday tradition, starting in time for breakfast appetites, and the student KofC council raises huge amounts of money for charities. The Bagpipe Band is one of the groups that can be found performing here.

Glee Club

You can catch the Notre Dame Glee Club in two regular concerts each Notre Dame football weekend:

Friday – 4:45 p.m., Crowley Hall
Saturday – Two and a half hours before kickoff at Hesburgh Library Horseshoe

Let the bold Glee Club voices take you on a tour through time and around the world of college football; they’ll sing not only Notre Dame’s “Victory March” and “Alma Mater,” but other University classics as well as other schools’ fight songs. They will invite Glee Club alumni onto the stage to reunite in musical solidarity.

Tailgating

While tailgating at many sporting events can become a display of hedonistic and cliquish one-upmanship, tailgating on a Notre Dame Game Day continues to be one of the school’s most salient trademarks of hospitality and community. Corporate tents represent the posh component of the tailgating neighborhood, but there is plenty of room for rank-and-file tailgaters who indulge the notion that everyone can feel like a celebrity with proper feeding and fellowship. Some folks who have been setting up tailgate parties for years show up before sunrise to get their favorite parking spot, but by the time the events are in full swing it seems like one big party, with fans of the opposing team wholly welcome, too.