The Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry started on November 22, 1887 on a muddy field in South Bend.
It ends Saturday night.
Again.
You see, for all of the historic implications of the Wolverines against the Fighting Irish -- it was Michigan who taught Notre Dame students how to play the sport, and now they are the two winningest programs in college football -- the two schools have only managed to play each other 41 times in 127 years.
And if you think this split is ugly, you should have seen the one in 1910. In 1909, Notre Dame beat the Wolverines 11-3. It wasn't just the first time they had beaten Michigan, they were good enough that the Detroit Free Press referred to their players as "Eleven Fighting Irishmen" -- a nickname they decided to keep.
So, with everyone looking forward to the 1910 game, Michigan coach Fielding Yost protested that two Notre Dame players should be ineligible. Notre Dame coach Shorty Longman -- a star for Yost at Michigan -- disagreed, and Yost cancelled the game. He didn't stop there, though. He refused to schedule another game with the Fighting Irish, and he convinced the other members of the Western Conference (now Big Ten) to join his boycott.
In the next 68 years, the schools played each other twice -- a pair of games during World War II. The second, which saw No. 1 Notre Dame beat No. 2 Michigan 35-12, drew the biggest crowd in Michigan Stadium -- 85,688. Things have changed just a bit in the last 71 years.
Finally, after nearly a decade of negotiations between the athletic departments, the series returned in 1978, with Rick Leach leading the Wolverines to a 28-14 win over Joe Montana's Fighting Irish. That was the start of the modern rivalry, with the teams playing in 31 of the last 37 seasons.
That's what ends on Saturday -- the televised era of the series. While there have been scheduled two-year breaks as recently as 2000-2001, no one knows when or where the next Michigan-Notre Dame game will take place. The Fighting Irish added a little fuel to the fire this week when, while they are unable to find time to play the Wolverines, they announced a two-game series with Ohio State.
Michigan has dominated the series in recent years, winning four of the last five games. Denard Robinson beat the Irish with last-minute touchdowns in both 2010 and 2011, but saw his final game against Notre Dame come apart in spectacular fashion with five straight interceptions in a 13-6 loss.
Last season, it was Devin Gardner's night -- he had four passing touchdowns and a fifth on the ground -- and Michigan will need he and Devin Funchess to put up big numbers again to make it five out of six. Funchess will have an advantage against a small Notre Dame secondary, but he knows they will make up for size with bodies.
"They are going to bracket me with safeties and do everything they can to take me out of the game," Funchess said. "That's OK, though, because it will open things up for the rest of the receivers and tight ends, and I'm still going to find a way to make plays."
Michigan will also need to show that last week's dominant performance by Derrick Green and De'Veon Smith wasn't a fluke, especially after a season where the running backs and offensive line left the entire weight of the offense on Gardner's shoulders.
On defense, it will come down to stopping Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson. They did that in 2012 -- he was yanked in the second quarter -- but he regained the starting job and led the Irish to the BCS championship game. He was suspended for the 2013 season for academic cheating, but he came back with five touchdowns in the season-opening win over Rice, including three on the ground.
Gardner and Golson both have great talent, but can be pressured into mistakes. Gardner has a huge advantage -- Notre Dame doesn't have a weapon like Funchess -- but the defense needs to play well enough to give the Devins a chance to finish the rivalry with a Michigan victory.
