Feb. 11, 2013
Notre Dame, Ind. – When the Notre Dame hockey team takes the ice on Sunday, Feb. 17 at Soldier Field in Chicago for the opening game of the OfficeMax Hockey City Classic, the Irish players will be sporting special jerseys from an era when Notre Dame played all its games outdoors – the club era from 1963 to 1968.
During that time, prior to Irish hockey getting Division I status for the 1968-69, the Notre Dame club program played all its games outdoors at South Bend’s Howard Park Rink.
The Reebok jerseys were designed using photos of games played during the club era. They are blue with white shoulders and a gold neck and contain a white-blue-gold striping pattern on the elbows and around the bottom. The name IRISH is displayed down the diagonally down the front of the sweater and is trimmed in white. The throwback jerseys have a string tie at the neck just like hockey sweaters from that era. The jersey will have just one number and that’s on the back in gold and trimmed in white. Inside the tail of the jersey is a commemorative patch with the name of the teams and the date of the game.
The Irish players also with wear blue Reebok socks with the white-blue-gold striping pattern in the middle.
Fans can purchase replica jerseys now at the Follett’s Bookstores on the Notre Dame campus, including the Irish Hockey Shop located on the main concourse of the Compton Family Ice Arena. It also will be available at the Notre Dame catalog site at www.NDcatalog.com, at the Notre Dame official online store at www.und.cbscollegestore.com and on FansEdge at www.FansEdge.com.
The OfficeMax Hockey City Classic will be played on Sunday, February 17 at Chicago’s famous Soldier Field on an outdoor rink. The classic features two games with Notre Dame facing Miami (OH) in a CCHA conference game at 12:05 p.m. (CT). Minnesota and Wisconsin will square off in a WCHA contest at 3:30 p.m. (CT).
The Irish and RedHawks will meet in the opening game of the series on Friday, Feb. 15 at 7:35 p.m. in Oxford, Ohio. Miami, ranked third in the nation with an 18-7-5 record, opens the weekend in first place in the CCHA with a 13-5-4-4 record, good for 47 points in the conference. Notre Dame, currently ranked 12th in the country, is 18-11-1 on the year and is in third place in the CCHA with a 14-7-1-1 mark and 44 points, just three behind the RedHawks in the battle for the top spot in the league.
For Notre Dame, this is the first-ever outdoor game for the program since the varsity program began 45 years ago.
Tickets for the OfficeMax Hockey City Classic are on sale to the general public through Ticketmaster.com. For information, including ticket sales, breaking news and schedule information, check out the website at hockeycityclassic.com.