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50 free Notre Dame trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Notre Dame trivia questions with answers. 'Notre Dame' means two things to most people, so this quiz covers both. The bulk of it is the University of Notre Dame and its Fighting Irish: Father Sorin's founding in 1842, the Golden Dome and the Grotto, Touchdown Jesus, the origin of the nickname, Knute Rockne and the Four Horsemen, the Gipper speech, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz, the seven Heisman winners, the 1988 title, the NBC deal, the Victory March and Rudy. The last stretch crosses the Atlantic to Notre-Dame de Paris: who started building it in 1163, the flying buttresses, Napoleon's coronation, Victor Hugo's novel, Viollet-le-Duc's spire, the 2019 fire and the 2024 reopening. Easy questions ask which state the campus is in and what the mascot is; the hard ones want the year Michigan stopped scheduling the Irish, the stadium's original capacity, and which English king was crowned in the Paris cathedral. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the university, the football program, the stadium and the cathedral, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The University of Notre Dame's campus is just outside which Indiana city?
South Bend
The campus itself sits in Notre Dame, Indiana, an unincorporated community next to the city.
Q 02Which Catholic religious order founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842?
The Congregation of Holy Cross
Father Edward Sorin arrived with eight brothers from France and Ireland and started teaching in an old log chapel.
Q 03What is the university's full charter name, 'Notre Dame du Lac', usually translated as?
Our Lady of the Lake
The Indiana General Assembly granted the charter in 1844; the first degrees came in 1849.
Q 04What sits atop the Golden Dome of the Main Building?
A statue of Mary
The current Main Building is the third; fire destroyed its predecessor and the library in April 1879.
Q 05The Word of Life mural on the Hesburgh Library is better known by what nickname?
Touchdown Jesus
It looms over the north end of the football stadium with arms raised like a referee signalling a score.
Q 06The campus Grotto, built in 1896, is a replica of the shrine at which French town?
Lourdes
It remains one of the most popular spots on campus for prayer and candle-lighting.
Q 07Which president served Notre Dame for 35 years, from 1952 to 1987, and made it coeducational?
Theodore Hesburgh
During his tenure the endowment grew forty-fold, from $9 million to $350 million.
Q 08In what year did Notre Dame begin admitting women as undergraduates?
1972
Women had earned degrees since 1917, but almost all were religious sisters in graduate programs.
Q 09What is the official mascot of Notre Dame athletics?
A leprechaun
For decades the teams were represented by Irish terriers usually named Clashmore Mike; the little man in green became official in 1965.
Q 10In what year did 'Fighting Irish' become Notre Dame's official nickname?
1927
During the Rockne era the papers had also called them the Rovers, the Domers and the Ramblers.
Q 11Notre Dame's first-ever football game, in 1887, was a loss to which team?
Michigan
After the Irish finally beat them in 1909, Michigan refused to schedule Notre Dame again for 33 years.
Q 12The 1913 upset of Army at West Point is remembered for Gus Dorais throwing what to Knute Rockne?
Downfield forward passes
It did not invent the forward pass, but throwing to a receiver in stride turned it into a real weapon.
Q 13Knute Rockne was born in which country?
Norway
Born in Voss, he grew up in Chicago's Logan Square and later graduated from Notre Dame with a pharmacy degree.
Q 21Which Notre Dame Heisman winner is the only player to take the award while on a losing team?
Paul Hornung
He won it in 1956 as the Irish finished 2-8, then became a Green Bay Packers legend.
Q 22Frank Leahy's post-war Irish went how many consecutive games without a loss?
39
That 37-0-2 run brought national championships in 1946, 1947 and 1949.
Q 23The 1966 'Game of the Century' ended in a 10-10 tie between Notre Dame and which team?
Michigan State
Ara Parseghian's injury-hit Irish played for the tie and still finished number one in the AP poll.
Q 14What was Rockne's career winning percentage at Notre Dame, still the best in FBS history?
.881
He went 105-12-5 with three consensus national titles before dying in a 1931 plane crash in Kansas.
Q 15George Gipp, the original 'Gipper', died in 1920 at what age?
25
He likely caught strep throat and pneumonia giving punting lessons after his final game, two weeks after being named the school's first All-American.
Q 16Against which opponent did Rockne deliver the 'Win one for the Gipper' halftime speech in 1928?
Army
The 4-2 Irish came back to win 12-6; Ronald Reagan later played Gipp on screen and borrowed the line as a slogan.
Q 17Which sportswriter coined the 'Four Horsemen' nickname for the 1924 backfield?
Grantland Rice
Student publicist George Strickler then posed the four on livery-stable horses, and the wire photo made them legends.
Q 18Which of these men was NOT one of the Four Horsemen?
Curly Lambeau
Lambeau played in Rockne's 1918 backfield before founding the Green Bay Packers; Don Miller was the fourth Horseman.
Q 19Notre Dame Stadium opened in 1930 with what original seating capacity?
54,000
Osborn Engineering, who had done Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, built it in about six months for over $750,000.
Q 20How many Notre Dame players have won the Heisman Trophy?
Seven
Angelo Bertelli was the first in 1943; Tim Brown in 1987 remains the most recent.
Q 24Notre Dame ended a 40-year 'no bowl games' policy after which season?
1969
They lost narrowly to number-one Texas in the Cotton Bowl, then ended the Longhorns' 30-game streak there a year later.
Q 25Which future NFL great quarterbacked Notre Dame's 1977 national championship team?
Joe Montana
He also led the 'Chicken Soup Game' comeback from 22 down in the 1979 Cotton Bowl while fighting the flu.
Q 26For the 1977 'green jersey game', Dan Devine's Irish wore kelly green against which rival?
USC
Notre Dame won 49-19 and kept wearing green for the rest of Devine's tenure.
Q 27Who coached Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship?
Lou Holtz
He left two stars behind for the USC game for being late to dinner, then beat West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.
Q 28Which network has televised Notre Dame home football games since 1991?
NBC
The deal is unique to Notre Dame, which remains an FBS independent while its other sports play in the ACC.
Q 29Apart from football, in which conference do most Notre Dame teams compete?
ACC
Men's ice hockey is the other exception, playing in the Big Ten.
Q 30The 'Notre Dame Victory March' was written by two brothers with what surname?
Shea
Michael and John Shea, both alumni, considered their own song 'amateurish'; it debuted on campus in December 1908.