Notre Dame's Longest Sports Winning Streaks

On Friday night, Notre Dame's No. 1-ranked hockey program recorded a school record 16th-consecutive victory by defeating Big Ten rival Wisconsin, 4-2, at a sold-out Compton Family Ice Arena (5,630).

Probably the most hallowed athletic achievement in Notre Dame lore is the four consecutive unbeaten seasons by its 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).

In 2008-09, Fighting Irish head coach Jeff Jackson's icers likewise went 20 games without knowing defeat (17-0-3), but as with the 1946-49 football juggernaut, the current winning streak is what will be recognized in the record books as "unblemished."

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, here are the top 10 winning streaks at Notre Dame since 1950:

1. Women’s Basketball (2013-14) — 37

Head coach Muffet McGraw’s Fighting Irish entered the NCAA Championship game versus unbeaten UConn 37-0 — but minus center Natalie Achonwa, who tore an ACL in the Elite 8 win versus Baylor. The Huskies dynasty 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, led by senior All-American guard Skylar Diggins, 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, but did not garner the same adulation as warm-weather schools, even though the Irish did get to host the NCAA Tournament in 1971.

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, men’s soccer 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 in a school year when football and fencing won the national title and men's basketball reached its first and still lone Final Four. Eventually, men's soccer won the national title in 2013 under recently retired head coach Bobby Clark.

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 his 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 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. Head coach Lou Holtz's 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 national title.

Alas, the next day in the ultimate letdown, Notre Dame lost to Penn State in the Elite Eight, and La Salle, led by the late Tom Gola, went on to capture the title.

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