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Throwback Thursday: Notre Dame VS Maryland, 2002

For this week’s Throwback Thursday post, I’m going to look back at the 2002 Notre Dame season opener on the road (at Giants Stadium) against Maryland. It was Tyrone Willingham’s first year as head coach of the Fighting Irish football team. He was the first black head coach in any sport in Notre Dame history, and only one of three black coaches coaching Division I-A football programs at the time. He was the first Notre Dame football head coach to win 10 games in his first season. He won Coach of the Year, returned the Irish to glory, and was proclaimed a “legend in the making.