In 1898, Indiana Football Triumphed At Notre Dame – Still The Only Hoosiers To Win There

They played a version of the game that would be unrecognizable compared to modern football, but the 1898 Hoosiers have a place in Indiana history.

The 1898 Indiana football team took its team photo on the steps of Library Hall, today's Maxwell Hall. These Hoosiers would finish 4-1-2 and are the only Indiana team that has won at Notre Dame. / Indiana University archives

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Part of the fun of the Indiana-Notre Dame College Football Playoff game is how infrequent meetings have been between two teams located in the same state.

Apart from Indiana’s 1991 one-off game at Notre Dame Stadium, a 49-27 victory for the Fighting Irish, only the oldest fans of either school have first-hand memories of previous Indiana-Notre Dame games.

The teams did play regularly in the 1950s – six meetings in all – but with only one game played in Bloomington because original Memorial Stadium on 10th Street had low capacity. The one game that was played in Bloomington was a 20-7 Indiana victory in 1950 – the biggest win of the Clyde Smith coaching era and the most recent Hoosiers victory in the series.

Pre-World War II meetings were frequent, too – though most of them are best forgotten from the Indiana point of view. From 1921-49, for example, Indiana and Notre Dame met 11 times and the Hoosiers scored a total of 26 points. Indiana was shut out in five of those games.

Until the Great Depression, there was a mythical Indiana state championship that was sometimes ballyhooed between DePauw, Indiana, Notre Dame, Purdue and Wabash.

That was the case for most of the matchups in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Many of the games were played at Washington Park in Indianapolis – Indiana frequently played home games in Indianapolis into the 1920s.

The Hoosiers earned one of their five wins in the series at Washington Park (1906) in Indianapolis and two more in Bloomington (1900, 1905) in the early days of the series.

Only once, however, has an Indiana team gone into South Bend and claimed a victory on Notre Dame’s home turf. It was the first meeting in the series on Nov. 5, 1898.

This was long before Touchdown Jesus, Notre Dame Stadium, Knute Rockne or even Cartier Field, where the Fighting Irish played before Notre Dame Stadium was built in 1930.

This was also before Indiana joined the Big Ten. The Hoosiers would join what was then the Western Conference a year later. It was the first year that the interlocking I-U logo appeared in the Arbutus yearbook.

An illustration in the 1898 Arbutus yearbook is believed to be the first appearance of the interlocking I-U logo. / Indiana University archives

As for any resemblance to today’s football? It was almost a completely different game.

Football in 1898 was extremely violent by today’s standard – the sport was nearly banned in the 1900s due to multiple fatalities in games. It was a sport that was much closer to its rugby roots.

Colliding flying wedge formations, the “Princeton turtleback,” essentially a weaponized rugby scrum, and other traits that would be foreign to today’s game were how football was played in the 1890s. It was a matter of brute force against brute force.

Scoring was different. Touchdowns and field goals were both worth five points in 1898. The forward pass was illegal.

Given how physical the game was, and how small rosters were at the time, injuries were a major problem.

That’s where Notre Dame was at a big disadvantage against the Hoosiers. Pregame reports noted that illness was working its way through the Fighting Irish. Remember, this was the 1890s, where any form of illness was nothing to brush off.

According to the South Bend Tribune, important Notre Dame players Jack Mullen, a right end, and “giant” center John Eggeman were both in the hospital in the days before the game.

Meanwhile, Indiana was trying to pull off a feat that would also be completely foreign to today’s game.

The Hoosiers, coached by James Horne, decided to make the most of their trip north from Bloomington. Indiana would play at Notre Dame on a Saturday, and then the Hoosiers would play at DePauw two days later on Monday.

“The manager of the State University eleven has been criticised (sic) for bringing the two big games so close together, but Saturday was the only open date on the Notre Dame schedule,” the Indianapolis News reported on Nov. 4, 1898.

The two teams met outside Notre Dame’s Brownson Hall dormitory – the Fighting Irish were still two years away from having a permanent football facility.

Most games in the 1890s were low-scoring by today’s standard, and this was no exception.

Notre Dame lost quarterback Charles Fleming, though Eggeman did end up playing.

According to the South Bend Tribune, “Notre Dame was unable to stop the famous guards back formation. (The guards back formation allowed guards to leave the line of scrimmage and join the backfield to initiate what would be considered a sweep in today’s game.) Indiana also used the Princeton turtle back, a play which masses on the tackles.”

On a windy day, Indiana took the lead when William Youster scored a 60-yard touchdown. With the extra point, Indiana led 6-0. Notre Dame answered when John Farley scored a 25-yard touchdown. Notre Dame missed the extra kick and it was 6-5 at halftime.

Indiana broke the game open six minutes into the second half when Lee Hunt scored via a touchdown of unreported length. The extra point was missed, but Indiana led 11-5 and Notre Dame was unable to score again.

The South Bend Tribune reports a final score of 11-5 and that is the official score used by both schools, but other reports of the day had the score at either 12-6 or 11-6.

What is not in dispute is that Indiana won.

Other than keeping Indiana alive in the mythical state championship, the Hoosiers’ win passed without much note at the time. There was no history to base any excitement on the victory one way or another.

An 1898 street scene on Kirkwood Avenue at the corner of Washington Street looking east towards Indiana's campus in Bloomington. The church on the left was the Kirkwood Avenue Christian Church. That land is now occupied by First Christian Church. / Indiana University archives

Indiana won its second game of three days as the Hoosiers thrashed DePauw 32-0 on Nov. 7. However, that game might have worn the Hoosiers out. Five days after the DePauw victory, Indiana lost 14-0 at Purdue and the state championship with it.

The Hoosiers finished 4-1-2 in 1898. The Fighting Irish would go on to finish 4-2.

All of these years later? Those 1898 Hoosiers are still the only Hoosiers to go to Notre Dame and emerge victorious. The 2024 Hoosiers will hope to join them in that small fraternity when they meet the Fighting Irish at 8 p.m. ET Dec. 20.

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