In 1896 the University of Notre Dame, then barely 50 years old, made its first application for membership in the Western Conference. It was only a year after that league’s formation. Told they were rejected because their athletic governance and player eligibility rules were not well defined, Notre Dame quickly amended its Athletic Constitution to match the guidelines of other Western Conference schools and re-applied for admission in 1897. They were denied again, helping clarify that the Conference’s original objection to Notre Dame’s admission wasn’t really about athletic governance and rules after all.

In Murray Sperber’s definitive work on the football program at Notre Dame Shake Down the Thunder, he argues that while part of the initial objections within the Western Conference to Notre Dame’s inclusion were related to anti-Catholic contempt, the schools of the Western Conference shared a fundamental difference in their approach to higher education. As a parochial school that emphasized religious training and open admissions, the Catholic institution was a cipher. The other midwestern colleges were unable to wrap their minds around the idea that a parochial institution like Notre Dame, with a hierarchy that technically reached all the way to Rome, could have a faculty board with any realistic control over intercollegiate sports. In fact, the hierarchical structure of Notre Dame not only worked well, but also helped insulate the school from the type of abuses with which the other schools were contending.

Nevertheless, the rejection by the Western Conference was a setback made all the worse as they watched in-state rival Indiana and midwestern neighbor Iowa quickly gain admission to the league. For a school trying to set up an intercollegiate schedule, lack of access to a regular network of teams was a significant handicap to being taken seriously as a program. The Notre Dame squad was left to arrange competition with a combination of academic and non-academic teams. In a telling anecdote, Sperber relates that “In 1901, the school opened the season against the South Bend Athletic Club, and Pat O’Dea, the Notre Dame coach, played for the opposition!”

Over the next several years, as Notre Dame struggled to build her program, they began to travel farther for games. In 1904 they made their first trip west of the Mississippi to play the University of Kansas. They also had occasional success maintaining games against in-state rivals from the Western Conference — by now also referred to as the Big Nine — Purdue and Indiana. Nevertheless, until 1908 the Catholic university struggled to consistently schedule more than 7 games a season.

Things appeared to take change for the better in 1908 when Michigan, upset over conference rule and eligibility changes, temporarily abandoned the Big Nine. Out of necessity the Michigan program, led by an unabashed anti-Catholic by the name of Fielding Yost, reluctantly agreed to schedule Notre Dame in the interest of playing a complete schedule. It was the eighth time the two teams had met since 1889, when Michigan traveled to South Bend to teach the game to the new school. In 1908 Michigan dealt Notre Dame their only loss on the season, keeping their undefeated record intact. But for the Irish the season was a success, with a nine game schedule and an 8-1 record.

The following year, the Notre Dame team seemed to take its biggest steps yet into the major ranks of college football. Not only did Michigan remain on the schedule, but the Catholics also added other significant opponents like Michigan Agricultural (now known as Michigan State), and the University of Pittsburgh. And the year was highlighted by Notre Dame’s improbable undefeated season, marked by their stunning victory over Michigan in Ann Arbor — the biggest win to that point in the school’s history. The only blemish on their record was a tie against Marquette in the season ending game, which was enough to prevent a claim to the National Championship.

But that highlight would also lead to the most difficult times ahead for the upstart program. Michigan coach Fielding Yost seemed less upset about the loss itself, than the fact that so many were taking Notre Dame seriously. He was embarrassed by the praise directed toward ND by none other than Walter Camp, who had attended the game in person and remarked positively about the strength of the Notre Dame running attack.

He was also furious with the overall news coverage suggesting that Notre Dame, by beating Michigan, was a program to be counted among the elite in the college ranks. Yost himself fumed, “We went into that game caring little about whether we won or lost,” stating that for his squad, the event had been nothing more than a practice game. His assertions led to even more critical coverage from midwestern sportswriters, and deepened Yost’s animosity toward the Catholic university.

The fallout from this episode would change the course of the Notre Dame program, and the shape of college football forever.

Stay tuned.