The athletic program is an integral part of the curriculum at the University of Notre Dame. The school believes that a students participation in sports enhances his ability to accept responsibility, work hard and to know what it’s like to function as a team member.

While encouraging their students to participate in athletic activities the school places top priority on scholastic achievements. A student must complete all aspects of his academic program to participate in the athletic venues.

The school has won twenty-five national championships, eighteen of these were won by the men and four by the women with the remaining three by combined teams of men and women. Of the twenty-five championships the most, ten, were won by the football team known as the “Fighting Irish”. Fencing is another popular sport at Notre Dame and the men and women have each won three championships.

At one time in it’s long history the teams from Notre Dame were called the “Rovers’ or “Ramblers” because they traveled the country to play games before most schools did that. One of their biggest rivals is the University of Southern California and that was one of the places Notre Dame traveled in the early days was to Southern California.

Basketball and hockey are two other sports the school has garnered recognition for. In basketball they are known for ending the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) eighty-eight game winning streak in 1974. The streak had begun after the Fighting Irish had ended UCLA’s previous winning streak of forty-five games in 1971.