1931 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

The 1931 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1931 college football season, led by first-year head coach Hunk Anderson.

1931 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Conference	Independent
Record	6–2–1
Head coach	Hunk Anderson (1st season)
Captain	Tommy Yarr
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium
Seasons ← 1930 1932 →

1931 Midwestern college football independents records

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Wilberforce			–					8	–	0	–	0
Marquette			–					8	–	1	–	0
Saint Louis			–					8	–	1	–	0
Detroit			–					7	–	2	–	1
Western State Teachers			–					5	–	2	–	0
No. 11 Notre Dame			–					6	–	2	–	1
DePaul			–					6	–	3	–	0
Michigan State			–					5	–	3	–	1
Haskell			–					6	–	4	–	0
Michigan Tech			–					3	–	2	–	0
Michigan State Normal			–					3	–	2	–	1
Central State (MI)			–					4	–	3	–	0
John Carroll			–					4	–	4	–	2
Wittenberg			–					3	–	3	–	3
Kent State			–					3	–	4	–	0
Rankings from Dickinson System

Following the death of head coach Knute Rockne in a plane crash on March 31,^[1][2][3] line coach Anderson was promoted on April 10.^[4][5][6]

Notre Dame entered the season on a 19-game winning streak and opened with a road win, but then had a scoreless tie with Northwestern in the second game, played at Soldier Field in Chicago.^[7] Five straight wins followed and the unbeaten string extended to 26 games, until visiting USC won by two points;^[8] the Trojans were the last team to defeat Notre Dame, three years earlier in 1928.^[9] The next week, Army shut out the Irish 12–0 at Yankee Stadium to conclude the season.^[10]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
October 3	at Indiana	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN	W 25–0	12,098–18,000	[11]
October 10	vs. Northwestern	Soldier Field Chicago, IL (rivalry)	T 0–0	65,000	[7]
October 17	Drake	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN	W 63–0	23,835	[12]
October 24	Pittsburgh	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	W 25–12	37,394–42,000	[13]
October 31	at Carnegie Tech	Pitt Stadium Pittsburgh, PA	W 19–0	42,271	[14]
November 7	Penn	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN	W 49–0	39,173
November 14	vs. Navy	Municipal Stadium Baltimore, MD (rivalry)	W 20–0	56,861
November 21	USC	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	L 14–16	50,731	[15][8][9]
November 28	vs. Army	Yankee Stadium Bronx, NY (rivalry)	L 0–12	78,559	[10]

^[16]