1967 season
70th season of men's interhall football, 8th season of Mod Interhall
Embedded Files
Season Summary
League Director: Dominic Napolitano
Duration of season: October 22 - December 2
Total teams: 14
Games scheduled: 28
Interhall champion: Sorin (4-0-1)
Unknown games: 1, 1C
Season schedule
Interhall championship
The 1967 interhall football championship game was played on December 2 between Keenan and Stanford halls. Keenan entered as the Division I champion with at least a 4–0 record, while Sorin won Division II and held a 3–0–1 record. Keenan defeated Division III champion Zahm to grant them a spot in the title game.
Sorin defeated Keenan 14–0 on a foggy and overcast day for their first outright championship since 1914, a record fifty-three years between titles. The Sorinites wore green jerseys for the occasion and were accompanied by a marching band that performed at halftime. In attendance was varsity halfback and eventual four-time Superbowl champion Rocky Bleier, a Sorin resident at the time.
Bill "Wheels" Kenealy initiated Sorin's scoring in the first quarter with a 60-yard jaunt to the endzone after a pass from Tim Sweeney. Sorin kept up their barrage of interceptions and scored again in the fourth quarter to seal their victory.
Talking Points
Preseason
There is an overabundance of information on interhall football because the Scholastic and the Observer are both reporting. This would not be the case in coming seasons, as the Scholastic would transition to a student magazine.
Regular season
There were initially two divisions in 1967. A storm that cancelled all opening week games necessitated that a third league be established in order to finish by the November 19 regular season deadline.
An Observer article claims that Sorin won their first game since 1964. However, this cannot be verified because they played in a contest with an unknown outcome in 1965.
Sergeant Tim McCarthy, a staple of Notre Dame home games from 1960 to 2015, attended the Alumni-Sorin game. He even made one of his famous puns relating to the Notre Dame-Purdue game from the day before. He said "Remember fans, the boilermaker you have for the road may do to you what Boilermaker Keyes did to Notre Dame."
Postseason
A Rocky Bleier-coached, green-jersey-clad Sorin Hall defeated Keenan 14-0 for their first outright championship since 1914, a record 53-year curse.
Alumni Stories
Rocky Bleier, '68
1967 Sorin Hall supporter, in attendance for the championship game
Interhall was about the continuation of a game you played in HS…some of the players could have played at a Division 2 or 3 school but wanted to go to Notre Dame so interhall became their outlet….also at the time Notre Dame was smaller, all male, and there was no stay hall…Keenan and Stanford halls where Freshman dorms….after that dorm selection was based on your GPS grades…after freshman year I spent 2 years at Dillon Hall and then because I was captain of the football team I spent my senior year in the Captain’s corner in Sorin Hall…. You have to understand that Sorin Hall / Sorin College…was the first residence hall on campus, thus had and still has a uniqueness about it. I can understand why they had not won a interhall championship in 50 years because dorm selection as I mentioned was based on academic standing, not athletic achievement. In 1967 Sorin had a great group of young men that were not only smart but also athletic…as I recall they all played in high school. I don’t think you can compare interhall football to anything….it’s an outlet to continue to do something you did in HS…it’s the camaraderie, the success or failure you share, an outlet in being apart of a team….the memories and stories you get to share. I was on the sideline for that game to not only support my dormmates, but as Captain of the Fighting Irish, to let them know how special this championship game was to all of us.
Bill Miskell, '70
1967 Sorin Hall player
I was a sub on that championship team. That year, Sorin had a large number of Rugby players living there. Many of those players were, to many of us, quite crazy - if fact a few Rugby players ( Brian Murphy as one) wondered why they needed shoulder pads in games. The late Tim Sweeney quarterbacked that team after playing on the ND freshman team the year before - he was a terrific athlete and could have played at many colleges. It was a thrill to dress up in the varsity’s old equipment. Sad to see that this tradition is history.
Received 22 June 2023
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