It took Notre Dame's footballists, as they were known back then, nine tries to beat the boys who taught them how to play America's new favorite sport. And up until that fateful afternoon on Nov. 6, 1909, the football teams from Michigan and Notre Dame largely enjoyed a cordial and hospitable relationship. That was a long time ago.
The coach who finally led Notre Dame to victory was a Michigan man. Shorty Longman -- of average height for his day -- played fullback for Fielding Yost on the legendary point-a-minute teams of the early 1900s and lived most of the year in Ann Arbor, where he co-owned an automobile dealership.