In this episode, your hosts Catherine O'Leary, Hailey Oppenlander, and Tajae Thompson are joined by fellow ND Admissions intern Grace McDermott. They highlight the fun traditions each residence hall has, game day traditions, and other Notre Dame traditions, superstitions, and lore!
In this episode, your hosts Catherine O'Leary, Hailey Oppenlander, and Tajae Thompson are joined by fellow ND Admissions intern Grace McDermott. They highlight the fun traditions each residence hall has, game day traditions, and other Notre Dame traditions, superstitions, and lore!
(00:00):
Welcome to College Bound, Intern Edition. We're your hosts. I'm Catherine O'Leary.
(00:05):
I'm Tajae Thompson.
(00:05):
And I'm Hailey Oppenlander.
(00:08):
The counselors are busy reading your applications, and we are here to give you the student take on
Notre Dame.
(00:18):
Hello, Notre Dame! Welcome to College Bound. I'm one of your hosts, my name is Catherine O'Leary.
(00:24):
Hey guys, it's Hailey Oppenlander.
(00:26):
And it's Tajae Thompson.
(00:29):
And today we are being graced by a special guest. You see what I did there? We are joined by our good
friend Grace McDermott, who's another fellow intern for Notre Dame Admissions. Grace, would you
please do us the honor of giving us your little Notre Dame intro? You know how it goes.
(00:44):
Yeah, thanks for having me on. Like they said, my name is Grace McDermott. I'm from Chicago, Illinois. I
am a senior majoring in American Studies and French with a minor in journalism and I used to live in
Lewis Hall, but I'm off campus now.
(01:00):
Wonderful, wonderful. And so today we are going to be talking about a topic that we've all been very
excited for. Today, we're talking about Notre Dame traditions and folklore. And I feel like, I mean, every
school has their own folklore or whatever, but Notre Dame has some really, really good stuff. And just
stuff like, you know, if you haven't come here, I think you need to know. And if you do go here then like
you're going to know it and you're going, I don't know, you're going to have some, some fun stories with
it. So it's a great, inter-generational Notre Dame connection, in my opinion. So start us off, we're going
to be talking about SYR's.
(01:32):
So I'm not sure when SYRs officially started or when people started to call these SYRs, but I think they've
been around for a while and the SYR itself is kind of a, a dance or an event, but back in the day, people
would actually set up their roommates. And so it'd be kind of like a fun blind date. Nowadays, people
usually ask their own dates, but there are instances where people do set up their roommates, so that's
kind of fun. Every dorm has one SYR per year and certain dorms have super fun ones. So for instance,
the dorm Keough has a Toga SYR, everyone wears togas. Keenan has a "Disco Roll," everyone dresses up
in seventies clothes, and, you know, it goes rollerskating or rollerblading or whatever, and then Stanford
does a pirate dance. So yeah, a couple of dorms have some really fun ones, but in general, and just kind
of either a dance or some kind of fun dorm event.
(02:20):
Up next, we are going to be talking about game day traditions. So Grace, will you explain to us like your
favorite game day traditions and like, you know, what goes on? What, what should you know about?
(02:29):
Yeah. So game days are an essential part of a lot of people's Notre Dame experience. A lot of people, if
you have ever been here before, probably have been on a game weekend, if it wasn't an admissions
visit. So they're a lot of fun. A lot of people will tailgate with parents or friends, just kind of hang out
before the game and see everybody who's come back to campus. A lot of alumni come back.
(02:55):
There's a lot of fun game day traditions for students, specifically. We all sit in the same student section,
and you're split up by class so you're pretty near all your friends. There's a lot of chants and songs we do
during the games. We do an Irish jig sometimes. We sing the fight song. We sing the Alma Mater after
the game and everybody stays. Uh everybody usually buys all the students buy "The Shirt," which is a
charitable fundraiser every year, but we all match so it looks pretty cool when we're all standing in the
student section with that.
(03:27):
After the game, if it is a good win and it happens to be warm out in South Bend that day, we will all run
to the fountain on North Quad that we call Stonehenge and jump into the fountain and celebrate there.
A couple other dorms also do pre-game stuff in the Hesburgh Library reflecting pool. So I know St Ed's
dorm specifically will dress up in the morning in Speedos and floaties and all run into the reflecting pool
to get ready for the game. So there's a lot of fun stuff. It's really fun even if you don't love football,
there's a lot of cool traditions to get behind. And it's really fun to like, be a part of something that big.
(04:06):
Yeah, I agree, man. You just took me right back to game day. Unfortunately, both of our final seasons
have passed, but it's amazing. Truly. Okay, so this is, this is a big one. I think every tour will tell you this,
but today this is obviously it's essential. Will you please explain the what's going on with the main steps
and like "God Quad" and the squirrels and everything, you know, what do we have to be to be aware of?
(04:33):
You know, it's a really weird thing. So they say there's these main steps that lead up to main building,
which is where, like you have your Admissions office, I think Financial Aid is also in there, and I think
Father Jenkins' office is on the top floor. Not too sure. I think he's in there, but there's this superstition
that goes around that if you walk up those main steps to the main building, you won't graduate in four
years. And there's also another one right in front of the main building is what we call "God Quad," which
is just a quad with grass. It's where Mary and Jesus are so it's called God Quad. And if you step on the
grass, they say, you won't pass your first Theology class. And I think I'm not superstitious enough
because I've walked up the steps and I've stepped on God Quad before I took my first theology. I
fortunately did pass my first theology, but I guess we'll have to wait a year and see if I actually do end up
graduating on time, but I think I just need to be a bit more careful moving forward.
(05:30):
Yeah. That's stuff is scary. I stepped on the grass before my first theology, and I didn't fail, but I could've
done a little better. So I don't know, like jury's still out on that one. So Haley, this is a big one to you. The
first snowball fight. Have you been, when does it happen? Give us some horror stories.
(05:52):
Yeah. So it happens the first snowfall every year normally takes place on South Quad and it's kind of a
rival or a battle between South Quad and North Quad folks. So everyone from North Quad will come
running and it happens at midnight. So it's pitch black in the middle of the dark and the sides just start
running at each other and pelting snowballs. And it's really chaotic, but so much fun. But last year my
best friend did end up getting a concussion, so you gotta be careful out there! You got to keep those
eyes open. It can get pretty intense. So have your friends around you, but beware cause sometimes the
people you least expect are the ones that'll get ya.
(06:38):
Yeah, no one's safe. That's crazy. I haven't, I've not been to the first snowball fight and I guess I will
never go to one because it's already passed, but yeah, I've heard that they're a good time. They seem
crazy anyways. Okay. So moving on the next one is a personal favorite of mine. This is "Domer Fest." And
it's really tragic because the freshmen this year did not experience Domer Fest, so I'm really hoping
Notre Dame will make it up to them. Domer Fest is, I believe, the Saturday night of Welcome Weekend,
or maybe the Friday night, but it's, it's one of the two. And it's when all the freshmen come and so it's
mostly under like freshmen on campus. All of the freshmen from Notre Dame, St. Mary's and Holy Cross
all congregate for the greatest night of their lives.
(07:24):
Basically there's like food trucks, bouncy castles, there's like a dance floor and all kinds of stuff. It's
absolutely crazy. I think one of the best parts is that you're wearing your dorm T-shirts. So, the entire
freshman class is usually wearing like matching dorm t-shirts. It's so cute. It's so nerdy. And you know,
you meet a lot of people and honestly, I'm not lying, a lot of couples are formed at Domer Fest and it's
such a meme, but it's actually true. I can name a couple of, so I can name a couple couples. Anyways, we
love Domer Fest. So up next, there's a lot going on in the dining halls. Grace, will you explain to us what
are the best days go to the dining hall? Like what should we look out for? What should we avoid? And
what are we going to see?
(08:16):
Yeah, for sure. So we have two dining halls, North and South, and there is a definitely a big rivalry.
There's some die-hard fans of both North and South Dining Halls. They're both pretty good in my
opinion, pretty different, but there's some good stuff. So on Thursdays for lunch, they serve Southwest
Salad, which is the greatest salad known to mankind. However, you gotta be ready to wait in line for it
because every single student will also be waiting for Southwest Salad on Thursdays. In South Dining Hall,
also, if you drop a plate or a cup, the whole dining hall will applaud for you, so be prepared for that.
Keep a tight hold on your tray, so that doesn't happen. There's some good nights too; I know in North
Dining Hall on Sundays, we have a boneless wings night.
(09:06):
The line gets so long that my friends and I used to show up for dinner at 4:50 PM so that we could get
the wings, but not be in line for the rush because that can be a solid 30 minute line starting at 5:00 PM,
but it just shows you the food is great. We really like eating there, and it's a great community in there. A
lot of dorms have like semi-assigned tables where they always sit so you'll know where to find your
friends. But yeah, they're a great community building spaces. It's fun to be there.
(09:38):
Yeah. No, I totally agree. Have you ever been clapped at for dropping your cups or anything? It's brutal
to see, but it's so funny. It's so funny to watch. Up next, Tajae, the Drummer Circle- what's going on
there?
(09:55):
Yeah. Grace kind of got into some of the stuff with football traditions. So usually that Friday night before
the football games, some of the people from the band, the drummers, will come out, get in a circle and
just play some songs for Notre Dame fans and students. And it's just a lot of fun, it's not as crowded as a
tailgate would be or other football events, like the pep rally, is, but it's just kinda low key. The music's
good. You're hanging out with friends and there's a lot of fun. 10/10 would recommend.
(10:38):
Nice. Okay. Last of all, at least this one is like one of the, one of the more interesting ones. Haley, what is
up with Shrek here? Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the movie, but people keep talking about it and I'm
a senior and I still don't really get it.
(10:53):
Yeah, I can't say that I'm an expert by any means. But there are some Shrek-related conspiracy theories
about our campus. Supposedly some Notre Dame alumni worked on the film and people say that Lord
Farquaad is named after where Carol is because we have names for a lot of our quads on campus, South
Quad, God Quad, like we've talked about, so they think that Farquaad could potentially be a reference
to where Carrol is- way on the other side of the lake, away from everything. And the town in Shrek is
called Du Lac and our full university name is Notre Dame du Lac. So yeah, there are just some suspicious
references possibly to Notre Dame. Don't know if it's been confirmed if it was intentional or not, but we
like to claim the Shrek conspiracies here.
(11:52):
I love it. That is absolutely crazy. And speaking of quads, this never really got fully established, but one
of my friends lives in Dunne. And so Dunne and Flaherty are relatively new, they were built in maybe
2016 and they're so nice, like they're gorgeous. And so my friend tried to call it like the Dunne-Flaherty
called the "Money Quad." I don't really think everyone calls it that, but I just kinda thought that was
funny.
(12:16):
This has been very informative for me and I'm literally close to graduating, so thank you all for sharing.
As for our esteemed guest, Grace, I would love to hear, like, what is your favorite Notre Dame tradition?
Like if you know, you're talking to a freshman or someone, what would you say you cannot miss out on?
(12:35):
Honestly, at my deepest heart of hearts, I'm a Notre Dame football fan. So I got to say for me, it's
probably the Alma Mater at the end of the game, cause I'm a softie and it's really nice to just be
standing there arm in arm with everyone you go to school with. All your friends are near you, and just
taking it all in. And so I'm graduating this year, but I think it's nice I can come back as an alumna and
stand at the stadium and still do that.
(12:59):
That was a perfect answer. Thank you. Thank you for that. So yeah, that's going to conclude this week's
episode. Thank you to our guest, Grace, thank you to my fellow hosts, and make sure to follow us on
social media @NDAdmissions on every platform. We are now on TikTok, we're also on Spotify. Like, you
know, you name it, we're probably on there. So anyways, everyone have a great rest of your day or
evening, and Go Irish!