"Tramp on the injured and hurdle the dead." Yost and Rockne story (good read)

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7954463/hate-fueled-football-great-rivalries

Kinda sad stuff, if you ask me. Seems like incontrovertible proof our generations (yours and mine) are hardly the only ones which oftentimes lose touch with perspective.

Never knew many of those facts about Yost or his ND adversaries. I did read, however, in SI, the week of the 1978 Leach-over-Montana game that one [alleged] reason it took so long to renew the series was that several Michigan AD's feared the renewal of such a rivalry "Would split U-M's student body along religious lines."

Which made about as much sense to me as the fact so many schools blackballed the Irish in the early part of the 20th century: none. I like to believe my alma mater's student bodies have greater grasps of reality than to allow personal beliefs (e.g., religion) to impact a sports rivalry. And assuming they didn't pull a latter-day-USC/SEC and use "illegal players" on a widespread scale, I have no idea why the blackballing of the Irish...

My father, to this day, hates ND like no other. He doesn't like OSU, and he wants UM to beat MSU, but ND fills him with hatred. He once told a friend of mine in high school to take off is ND hat and leave it outside when he came into his house.

I, on the other hand, don't like ND, and love the rivalry, but I respect their fans and their tradition. I hate OSU, and I'm starting to hate MSU, but ND is different. I hope the series continues for 30+ years.

FGB, if you were to ask your Dad, I'd lay you odds he'd cite the same reason for hating ND as WolvHist (and I, to a lesser extent) always have: that "Holier Than Thou" aura they project, knowingly or unknowingly.

I can distinctly recall the last time they won the N.C. (1988), seeing dozens of cars (and this in the Rochester, NY, area, nowhere near S.B.) sporting bumper stickers: "God Made ND No.1" And hearing one of their players from that team quoted: "This is what's right and good about life: Notre Dame being N.C."

Man, what are they on, anyway? Non-religious as I personally am, I'm sure there are many, many millions of people out there who pray for their (non-Irish) teams' success, too...aren't they allowed to, or something? Are we fans of other teams automatically undeserving heathens?

Sheesh...

Flipping the coin, though, I agree, their fans are several notches above OSU's on the "class" ladder.
(For all that takes). And at least a notch or two above MSU's as well.

The "Holier Than Thou" attitude among ND fans is incredibly annoying, yes. But my hatred towards them has always been fueled by a combination of the many times flukey things and sheer luck has gone their way in critical games through the majority of their history and the continued undeserved admiration towards them from the media today. If you're any other school in the nation and you beat 4 cupcake opponents, the rest of the world wouldn't notice. But if you beat 4 cupcakes and you're Notre Dame, well, you've done something pretty damn special that deserves parades, confetti and endless reports on Sports Center. Return to glory, shake out the thunder, yadda, yadda, yadda. Their fans, their greediness to not join a conference, their undeserved BCS invites for beating no ranked opponents in years past and their undeserved home contract with NBC can't compare to those 2 points above that bug me the most.

Rival fans themselves are a whole other issue. If I as a Michigan have to choose between seeing a UM/ND game in South Bend where Irish fans are kissing their own asses and trying to put a Catholic Voodoo curse on me or Columbus where OSU fans are slashing my tires, punching me and little kids are flipping me the bird, I'm going to pick South Bend. I can deal with arrogant people better than maniacs. OSU has the worst fans in the country by far.

Amen, WH. And there are several more sordid examples which I prefer to suppress...

However, from what I've read, [some of] the fans who facilitate the Alabama-Auburn, and now add Alabama-LSU, rivalries are pretty damned barbaric, too. In the weeks leading up to our 2000 Orange Bowl vs. the Tide, I'd occasionally pop over to BamaLive.com's forum, and see some incredibly uncivil, classless and tasteless posts directed between 'Bama and Auburn fans, in both directions.

In '02 (or whatever year Clarret was there), I had a cup of urine thrown on me as I stood behind the Gameday set.

Ohio is the worst.