Ty calls for Sea of Green
Andrew Soukup
News Writer
When Notre Dame beat Michigan three weeks ago, Irish head coach Tyrone Willingham donned a green shirt to match the Kelly green "Return to Glory" shirts.
Now, he's calling for Irish fans to follow his lead and turn Notre Dame Stadium into a "Sea of Green" for Saturday's game against Stanford.
"Our fans should buy into making our stadiums something special," he said Wednesday. "When we have 80,000 of them … unifying around our colors and buying into the spirit and the enthusiasm and participating in the game, then you create that special environment and that's what we want this place to be, to be that special environment."
To help Willingham's vision turn into a reality, Irish officials printed 70,000 green placards – similar to the flags printed to commemorate Sept. 11 last year – and plan to distribute them Saturday at the Stadium gates. School officials are also calling on fans to wear green clothes to the game.
The idea to create a single unified color inside Notre Dame Stadium started bouncing through administrators' minds last year. After The Shirt committee selected a Kelly green design and the Irish jumped out to a quick start, Willingham felt it was a good time to make a push for a sea of green inside Notre Dame Stadium.
"We had a group called the spirit committee working on a lot of things," said Chuck Lennon, president of the Notre Dame Alumni Association. "[The green signs] are just one of them."
Lennon said fans can also purchase The Shirt for $15 and the towel for $5 from the bookstore. Notre Dame received an additional shipment of 20,000 shirts this week after the initial run of 44,000 sold out after the Michigan game.
"When alumni turn on the television, they'll see the green," Lennon said. "That will travel by word of mouth, and by the time we get to Boston College [on Nov. 2], all you'll see is them. Everything else will be green."
All News Stories for Friday, October 4, 2002
