In December of 2021, I posted my first college “photo dump” on Instagram: a collection of scenes from across campus, all adorned with a backdrop of fall foliage and of course, featuring several pictures of the golden dome. A friend from home commented: “WOW, do you go to Notre Dame?”
The remark immediately received dozens of likes from several other hometown friends. What they saw was a few pretty pictures of a wooded quad, a gilded edifice and a couple run-of-the-mill tailgates. What I saw was a lifetime’s worth of diligence and aspirations, a culmination of religious and cultural history and the pinnacle of academic and spiritual enlightenment amalgamating into one glorious university.
This past December, as I posted my final fall “photo dump” on Instagram, I almost hesitated to press submit. I could almost hear the sighs of my followers who, scrolling through yet another corpus of football images, might mutter to themselves, “WE GET IT, you go to Notre Dame!” As a senior, I still believe that this University is every bit as glorious as I dreamt it would be. But I also acknowledge how annoying this statement might seem to anyone who hasn’t drunk the Kool-aid, anyone who might just see us as a college made up of privileged kids who think their school is a thousand times better than yours. Even if it is a thousand times better, having this attitude is gravely detrimental to any outsiders.
There is a common mantra that “people love to hate Notre Dame.” But why is it people love to hate us so much? Maybe it’s because we make it easy for them to hate us. We’ve done great things at this University, but we’ve also done it with a whole lot of elitism and exclusivity. In the words of Coach Lou Holtz, “We're Notre Dame and they ain't.” This statement is a rallying cry for all fans of the Fighting Irish, but it’s also a battering ram into the wedge that already exists between us and the rest of the world.
The thing about Notre Dame fans is that we just can’t shut up about Notre Dame: our prestige, our unparalleled ability to create community, to forge bonds that last a lifetime and trickle down to our children, who we will inevitably force to apply to Our Lady’s University as well. Outsiders ask us to quiet down and we claim that they just don’t get it, which only adds fuel to the flame. Our sense of superiority is among one of the many reasons why we are one of the most hated college football teams in the nation.
But over the break, I felt something shifting.
I heard exponentially more people shout “Go Irish!” at me as I toted a ND sweatshirt. I attended a watch party in an Irish pub full of green-donned fans who marched around to give each other high-fives after Riley Leonard’s touchdown. On Jan. 8, The Athletic posted their analysis of our football team’s rising success in an article entitled: “Is Notre Dame football likeable now?” Ralph D. Russo argues that much of the Fighting Irish’s increasing attractiveness can be attributed to the undeniably attractive Marcus Freeman. The program’s new coach is more than just a young stud with a good hairline: he’s engaging, empowering and inventive.
Maybe the rest of the school could learn a lesson or two from Coach. Freeman speaks plainly about his mistakes and has a sense of calm and cool transparency. He pays tribute to Our Lady’s University, but also applauds his opponents and the uniqueness of their programs. Freeman patched together a crew of transfer students who didn’t select Notre Dame as their first choice, but who now sport golden helmets. He is proud of his team, and yet, never degrades any less “elite” competitors.
Like Freeman, we must be cognizant of the way we speak about our school, especially in comparison with others, even if it really is (in my humble opinion) the best university in the world. Not everyone has the opportunity to go to Notre Dame and not everyone wants to! As our football team marches towards Monday as the amiable underdog, we should celebrate their successes. But, if we ever do want to become as “likeable” as Freeman, we need to be gracious towards those that don’t buy into the whole Notre Dame thing. Otherwise, we run the risk of being seen as the pretentious, elitist school many claim we are. Otherwise, we’ll continue to be hated on … but something tells me a lot of you may be okay with that, and that this attitude of “Notre Dame versus the world” is something to live for.
Gracie Eppler is a senior business analytics and English major from St. Louis, MO. Her three top three things ever to exist are '70’s music, Nutella and Smith Studio 3, where she can be found dancing. You can reach her at geppler@nd.edu.
