Top 25 Players
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#1 George Gipp: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
George Gipp, HB, QB, P, DB, KR PR, 1917-1920 Unique – adj. being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else. It is an absolute, binary term. Something is either…
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#2 Johnny Lujack: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
Johnny Lujack was born in Connellsville on January 3, 1925. He was born under a good sign as that was just 3 days after Rock and the Four Horsemen had…
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#3 Leon Hart: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#3 Leon Hart, TE/DE 1946-1949 Leon Hart was the strapping son of a Westinghouse Crane operator who lived in Pittsburgh’s Southeast suburb of Turtle Creek. He was one of Notre…
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#4 The Four Horsemen: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#4 -Four Horsemen, Backs. 1921-1924 Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Sleepy Jim Crowley The Four Horsemen are a single entity. As a Catholic University, Notre Dame and its true…
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#5 Angelo Bertelli: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#5 Angelo Bertelli, QB, 1940-1943 Angello Bertelli was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA to Italian immigrant parents. A generation later, also in Springfield, Nick Buoniconti, #21 on our list of…
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#6 Ross Browner: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#6 Ross Browner, DE, 1973, 1975-1977 Ross Browner was a high school phenom at Western Reserve High School in talent-rich Warren, Ohio. ROSS BROWNER’S PROPHET-GREG BLACHE There were two great…
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#7 Johnny Lattner: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#7 Johnny Lattner, HB/DB 1950-1953 As Frank Leahy was looking to replenish the glistening treasure of the ’46 recruiting class that was finally depleting in 1949, he looked to the…
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#8 Tim Brown: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#8 Tim Brown, WR/RB/KR/PR, 1984-1987 Tim Brown may have been unique in that he might have been influenced by Notre Dame’s Bowl Appearances, which began after the ’69 season, with…
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#9 Paul Hornung: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#9 Paul Hornung, QB 1953-1956 Paul Hornung was a legendary schoolboy athlete at Flaget High in Louisville. Hornung eventually became a member of the High School Hall of Fame. Hornung’s…
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#10 George Connor: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#10 George Connor, OL/DL/LB, 1946-1947 George Connor may have had the most unusual recruitment of any player on this hallowed list. He was in Notre Dame’s back yard and was…
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#11 Luther Bradley: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
Luther Bradley was recruited from Muncie to join the Irish in 1973. Muncie had not been known for football players; it was more famous for Ball Home Canning Jars (whence…
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#12 Jim Lynch: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#12 Jim Lynch, Linebacker, 1964-1966 Jim Lynch was recruited from Lima Central Catholic as part of the ever loyal Hugh Devore’s parting gift to Notre Dame: the 1963 freshman class,…
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#13 Alan Page: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#13 Alan Page, Defensive End, 1964-1966 Alan Page was a High School All-America at Canton Central Catholic when he was recruited by Hugh Devore to come to Notre Dame in…
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#14 Frank Carideo: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#14 Frank Carideo, quarterback 1928-1930 A native of Mount Vernon, New York; Frank Carideo was compact at 5’7” 175 pounds. While many of Notre Dame’s early legends were multi-sport athletes,…
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#15 Creighton Miller: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#15 Creighton Miller, Halfback 1941-1943 Creighton Miller was the nephew of Don Miller, one of the Four Horsemen, and perhaps the first legacy player at Notre Dame. Miller was a…
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#16 Jaylon Smith: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#16 Jaylon Smith, Linebacker, 2013-2015 Notre Dame’s most athletic linebacker of all time also ranks, along with Luther Bradley, as one of the greatest natives of Indiana to ever don…
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#17 Raghib “Rocket” Ismail: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#17 Raghib “Rocket” Ismail, WR/KR/PR/RB 1988-1990 Notre Dame’s most explosive player ever was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, but was a prep star at Elmer L. Meyers High School in…
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#18 Tom Clements: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#18 Tom Clements, Quarterback, 1972-1974 Born in McKees Rocks, Tom Clements was a multi-sport athlete at Canevin High School in Pittsburgh. Beyond being a prep football phenom, Clements was so…
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#19 Chris Zorich: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#19 Chris Zorich, Nose Tackle, 1988-1990 More Notre Dame fans have driven past Chris Zorich’s High School than that of any other member of the top 25. Zorich played high…
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#20 Aaron Taylor: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
#20 Aaron Taylor, Tackle , 1990-1993 Aaron Taylor was born in San Francisco, but his parents sent him to play high school football for the legendary Bob Ladoceur at DeLaSalle…
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#21 Nick Buoniconti: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
Nick Buoniconti grew up as the son of immigrant Italian bakers in Springfield, MA. As a Catholic he attended Cathedral High School. There was a legend who had walked the…
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#22 Ken Macafee: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
The seeds of Notre Dame becoming “Tight End University” were planted by Leon Hart in 1946 and then watered and tended by Hart culminating when he reaped the crop and…
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#23 Bill “Moose” Fischer: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
Bill Fischer made the short trek from Chicago and played for Hugh Devore’s ’45 team while Leahy and Lujack were in the service, and Leon Hart was making high school…
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#24 Todd Lyght: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
Todd Lyght arrived in 1987, ready to be groomed as the heir apparent to Tim Brown. But his coaches had other plans and announced their intention to move him to…
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#25 Red Salmon: Notre Dame Football’s Top 25 Players
Excellence creates unconventional challenges. Mere mortals struggle to comprehend and describe greatness The rich glorious history of Notre Dame Football make compiling a list of the 25 greatest Fighting Irish…
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