Notre Dame Football Rivalry Trophies: The Legends Trophy and Stanford

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There are few things in the college football world that give me as much joy as the entire collection of rivalry trophies. College football is supposed to be weird, stupid, and full of things that don’t make sense — but yet full of emotion and nostalgia. Nothing makes that more clear than the rivalry trophies that exist in the sport.

Notre Dame is one of those schools that has a rivalry trophy game — hell, they have five of them. Some fans may not know much about them as the Irish used to try and keep them shrouded in mystery like some type of relic from the holy land hidden away in a chapel deep in the woods of medieval France.

So as the year goes on and Notre Dame plays for all of these trophies (except for one in particular), we’re going to talk about them. This week it’s The Legends Trophy and the Stanford Cardinal.

Notre Dame vs Stanford isn’t a rivalry that ranks anywhere near the top rivalries in college football, but it IS a rivalry game. We’ve often talked on this site and on the podcast about “little r” and “BIG R” rivalry games, and the truth of the matter is that the Battle for the Legends Trophy goes back and forth in terms of its stature.

This game might not move the dial for some Notre Dame fans, but as far as rivalry games for the Irish are concerned — they’re the last one left on an annual schedule (for now).

I’m still not healed from what this rivalry did to me from 2009-2017. Call it my Sicilian thirst for vengeance, but I’m not sure if a decade of pummeling Stanford into the ground will make me forget that era… but let’s give it a try.

The trophy for the game is actually one that both schools hype up quite a bit, and it’s the only rivalry trophy I know with its own website (which will be copy and pasted below).

Legends Trophy

The Legends Trophy is a perpetual trophy awarded each year to the winner of the Notre Dame vs. Stanford football game. The winning team retains The Legends Trophy until the next game, following which, the trophy is immediately awarded to the winning coach and team.

The Legends Trophy consists of Irish crystal and California redwood, representing the familiar symbols of the universities. Dublin Crystal manufactured the Irish crystal bowl in Dublin, Ireland, engraving on opposite sides of the bowl the block ‘ND’ and the block ‘S’. The three-tier redwood base includes brass plaques commemorating the score of each game played since 1925.

The Legends Trophy was developed by the Notre Dame Alumni Clubs of Northern California, and was first presented in 1989 to Lou Holtz and Notre Dame.

The Legends Trophy honors both the winning team and the memory of the first game played between the two universities in the 1925 Rose Bowl game, which is considered by many as being played by more ‘Legends’ of college football than in any game in history… Knute Rockne, ‘Pop’ Warner, the Four Horsemen and the Seven Mules, and ‘The Man’ Ernie Nevers. Notre Dame was victorious, 27–10.

Honestly, one of the best things about this particular rivalry trophy is that Notre Dame’s head coach chugs out of it after a victory. Brian Kelly, who failed miserably from 2010-2017 (2-6 vs Stanford), tried to hype of the team before the 2018 game by promising that he’d chug from the trophy if they won.

And he kept doing it.

And, well… it’s a real thing now (as it should be).

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