Northwestern, Notre Dame renew football series

As a junior in high school, Pat Fitzgerald made an unofficial recruiting visit to Notre Dame. Didn’t go so well.

“You can kind of tell when you go on those days whether you’re a good fit or not by the attention that people pay to you,” Fitzgerald said. “We could kind of tell I wasn’t a priority.”

As a junior in college, Fitzgerald returned to Notre Dame with his Northwestern teammates for a visit that went much better from his perspective.

“What do I remember? That we won,” Fitzgerald said. “It was a fun day. Outside of that, I don’t remember much. I got hit in the head a lot.”

Since that 17-15 win in the 1995 season opener — likely the best-known victory in NU annals — the Wildcats and Irish haven’t competed in anything except recruiting.

That changed on Thursday.

NU athletic director Jim Phillips reached out to Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick and the result was a home-and-home series revealed on ESPN2 and ESPN Radio.

The Wildcats travel to South Bend on Nov. 15, 2014, and the Irish come to Evanston during the latter part of the 2018 season. Notre Dame hasn’t played at NU since 1976.

“I hope this isn’t the only two games,” Fitzgerald said. “I’d like to see it come on the schedule more.

“Like I expressed to Jim, if we’re going to have an extended series (with anyone), unless we choose to do something different or unique like last year at Wrigley, we’re going to play home-and-homes at home. That was important to us.”

Notre Dame is the latest BCS school to set up a series with Northwestern as part of the school’s plan to ramp up its nonconference slates.

NU opens with Boston College this year and gets a return visit in 2012. There’s also a home-and-home with Cal in 2013-14.

“When Jim came on board, we talked about our future schedules,” Fitzgerald said. “Number 1, we want to always play academic comparables. We want to look at situations that are similar to us.

“The school in South Bend is No. 1 on the list from a standpoint of the most games that we’ve played (47 dating back to 1889). So it’s nice that we’ve got them back on the schedule. It should be a fun challenge.”

One potential conflict? Bill Rees, Northwestern’s coordinator of player personnel, is the father of Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees.

If Rees (a Northwestern fan as a youth) redshirts one of the next three years, then he’d be in line to play in the 2014 game.

If that comes to pass, how might that affect Bill Rees?

“He’d be fired for the week,” Fitzgerald cracked.