The Original Nickname Notre Dame Football Tried to Use

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish nickname is not just one of the most recognizable in all of college sports, but is also one of the most iconic of any sports team worldwide. Imagine for a second, though, that instead of being "Fighting Irish," it was something incredibly lame.

That was nearly the case roughly 100 years ago when Notre Dame's football team still traveled to play any marquee opponent it could, but didn't carry an official nickname.

A few of the unofficial nicknames spoke to Notre Dame's traveling ways. Rockne's Ramblers, Rockne's Rovers, and the Rambling Irish were just a few of them.

Notre Dame brass didn't like those names, though, because they believed they made the football players sound like they were always traveling and never in class.

Meet Francis Wallace.

Wallace was a former Notre Dame student and press agent for Knute Rockne. After graduating from the university in 1923, Wallace began working as a sportswriter in New York. That's when he developed a not-so-great idea.

Wallace noticed the nicknames being used in the New York papers and was well aware of what the administrators back in South Bend thought of them. His solution?

Start calling Notre Dame's football team the "Blue Comets."

According to Murray Sperber's Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football, from 1993, Wallace created this nickname based on Notre Dame's blue uniforms and quick offense.

Needless to say, the nickname worked about as well as a Tyrone Willingham game plan against USC - essentially gone and forgotten about before it ever had a chance.

By 1925, Wallace had already moved on from the Blue Comets disaster and instead started referring to the football team as the "Fighting Irish." When Wallace moved to the New York Daily News in 1927, he found a significantly bigger audience, which he used to popularize the "Fighting Irish" nickname.

Not long after, Notre Dame's administration responded to a mailed question about the use of "Fighting Irish," essentially saying that it's an honor to display the fight of the Irish, regardless of one's ethnicity.

And hence, Fighting Irish wound up sticking.

Looking back, what a fortunate miss by Wallace and by Notre Dame. Comets is a lame nickname that feels like it belongs on a Midwest high school consisting of 400 students that stands in the shadow of a nuclear power plant.

Then, to throw blue in front of it makes it even worse.

Thank goodness for Fighting Irish coming into the picture soon after.