25 years ago today: Northwestern 17 Notre Dame 15

Every Northwestern fan remembers where they were on Sept. 2, 1995, when Northwestern shook up the college football world with a seismic 17-15 win over No. 9 Notre Dame in South Bend.

I was sitting in the purple section of the end zone at Notre Dame Stadium that day. I still consider it one of the five greatest days of my life.

By now, you’ve heard the story countless times. The Wildcats were 28-point underdogs. They hadn't had a winning season in 24 years. They hadn't beaten Notre Dame in 14 straight games, dating back 33 years.

To get an idea of where Northwestern was as a program at the time, consider this remarkable record of futility: the Wildcats had lost 20 straight season openers. They hadn't won one since 1975, when they beat Purdue. They lost the next 19 curtain raisers in a row.

So the Mildcats not only hadn't had a winning season since 1971 — they couldn't even get to 1-0. They had one tie, in 1978, an ugly 0-0 deadlock against Illinois. But after that, they began every single season 0-1.

In the three seasons before 1995, in fact, Northwestern began the year the same way: with a loss to a Top 10 Notre Dame team. The Wildcats had hung around and even took a lead into the second half against the Irish, but they were on the short end of the score by the time triple zeroes appeared on the game clock. In the three games combined, Notre Dame had outscored then 111-34.

But this time, it would be a different story.

This time, Steve Schnur would throw two touchdown passes, while Notre Dame's Hesiman contender Ron Powlus didn’t throw a single one. This time, Darnell Autry would run all over the Irish for 160 yards on 33 carries. This time, Matt Rice would stop Randy Kinder for no gain on a fourth-and-2 with 3:57 left in the game. This time, Northwestern wound up with the lead when time ran out.

And this time, Northwestern would go on to win the Big Ten and go to the Rose Bowl.

We’ve written about this game, arguably the biggest win in school history, several times now, for the 10th, 15th and 20th anniversaries, and have included links here. NBCSportsChicago is airing NUSports’ The Foundation: Expect Victory series, starting tonight, with the first episode about the Notre Dame game.

This year, we may not have a football season to watch, but at least we have a memory to celebrate.

MORE WILDCATREPORT STORIES

Looking back: NU 17 ND 15 l Matt Rice remembers NU 17 ND 15 l A view from the stands: NU 17 ND 15

The game in its entirety

Highlights