Notre Dame's Greatest Team Winning Streaks
Probably the most hallowed athletic achievement in Notre Dame lore is the four consecutive unbeaten seasons by the football team from 1946-49, with three consensus national titles among them.
Including the opening-game win in 1950 before losing the following week, head coach Frank Leahy’s Fighting Irish played 39 straight games without knowing defeat. They did have ties against Army in 1946 (0-0) and USC (14-14) in 1948, so it wasn’t a “winning” streak but an unbeaten one (37-0-2).
The current Notre Dame hockey team has quietly put together a remarkable 13-game winning streak, highlighted by a 10-0 start in its new Big Ten conference after sweeping No. 12 Wisconsin in Madison this weekend, 3-2 and 6-2, the latter in front of 11,394 in attendance at the Kohl Center.
Since the start of the hockey program 50 years ago in 1968, it is the longest winning streak during a season in which Notre Dame competed in an NCAA Division I conference. Among 60 current teams in Division I, head coach Jeff Jackson’s Irish, who have made it to the Frozen Four three times, including last spring, are:
• Ranked behind only St Cloud State in the PairWise rankings, the most pertinent poll regarding RPI ratings.
• There are only four teams with a winning percentage higher than .6875, and the Irish are at .8250 (16-3-1).
• The 13-game winning streak is the longest active streak in the country.
• The 10-0 start in the Big Ten — sweeping Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan State and Wisconsin — is the best ever in the league, and Notre Dame’s 30 points (three points per win) dwarf second-place Ohio State’s 16.
• The Irish have outscored their league foes 33-13, while no one else has a higher than three-goal separation.
• Notre Dame is 8-0-0 on the road this season and is the lone team in the country without a road loss.
The Irish have the rest of December off to focus on finals and then have Christmas break. They return to the ice for a Big Ten matchup at Michigan on Jan. 5.
What are the longest winning streaks by any Notre Dame team?
First we have to make a distinction from fencing dual meets. Mike DeCicco’s fencers won 122 straight dual meets from 1975-80, and the women fencers won 89 consecutive dual meets from 2009-11. However, the NCAA championship in that sport is determined by individual titles adding up to a team victory, not by true head-to-head team matches.
Thus, beyond the supreme fencing program, here are the top 10 winning streaks at Notre Dame since 1950:
1. Women’s Basketball (2013-14) — 37
Head coach Muffet McGraw’s Irish entered the NCAA Championship game versus unbeaten UConn 37-0 and minus center Natalie Achonwa, who tore an ACL in the Elite 8 win versus Baylor. The Huskies ended the run.
2. Women’s Softball (2001) — 33
In head coach Liz Miller’s final season before retiring from Notre Dame, the 54-7 Irish climbed as high as No. 8 in the country and dominated the Big East regular season to achieve the program’s first No. 1 seed. It won two games in the NCAA Tournament before getting eliminated by Iowa.
3. Women’s Basketball (2012-13) — 30
After losing to Baylor in December, McGraw’s squad won 30 in a row — three of them against Connecticut before losing to the Huskies 83-65 in the Final Four.
4. Men’s Tennis (1965-67) — 29
Head coach Tom Fallon’s program won 514 games during his career and shared the 1959 national title. It won the last five matches of 1965, all 15 in 1966 and the first nine in 1967.
5t. Women’s Soccer (2008) — 26
Randy Waldrum’s Irish were 26-0 heading into the NCAA Tournament championship match but lost to their nemesis, North Carolina, in the finale. Head coach Anson Dorrance (21 NCAA championships) was as much a thorn in Notre Dame’s side as UConn’s Geno Auriemma is now (11 national titles).
5t. Men’s Soccer (1977-78) — 26
After years as a club sport, this became a varsity sport in 1977 while playing mostly local or provincial area schools. It started 0-1-1 before finishing with 16 straight victories. The next year the Irish won their first 10 games to increase the streak to 26.
7t. Women’s Basketball (2000-01) — 23
Highlighted by a watershed victory against UConn, the Irish opened the season 23-0 before losing to Rutgers. Notre Dame then topped Connecticut in the Final Four en route to its first national title in the sport.
7t. Baseball (2006) — 23
In the final season of his 12-year career at Notre Dame, head coach Paul Mainieri’s Irish compiled this winning streak during a 45-17-1 campaign. Notre Dame made the NCAA Tournament each of Mainieri’s last eight seasons, highlighted by the 2002 College World Series.
After this season, Mainieri accepted the LSU job, where in his third season he won the national title. Meanwhile, Notre Dame has missed making the NCAA Tournament in 10 of the 11 years since Mainieri’s departure.
7t. Football (1988-89) — 23
Most amazing about this string by the 12-0 national champs of 1988 and 12-1 unit in 1989 is 11 of the wins came against ranked opponents — seven of them that placed in the final Associated Press poll top 10. The 1988 team defeated four that finished in the AP top 10 (one of only four teams in history at that time to achieve the feat), while the ’89 edition vanquished seven that placed in the AP top 18.
10. Men’s Basketball (1953-54) — 18
All-American center Dick Rosenthal, the athletics director at Notre Dame from 1987-95, led this run that was capped by upsetting No. 1 and defending national champ Indiana in the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament. The Irish were then favored to win the title.
Alas, the next day in the ultimate letdown, Notre Dame lost to Penn State in the Elite Eight, and La Salle, led by Tom Gola, went on to capture the title.
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