The Tall Grass Game

The poster for the game
The poster for the game

On October 6, 1928, an American football match was scheduled between the the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wisconsin. Notre Dame Fighting Irish was under the head coach Knute Rockne, while Wisconsin Badgers was under Glenn Thistlethwaite. When Notre Dame arrived at Camp Randall, they found that the grass on the football pitch and not been mowed for a week. Although Rockne demanded that the grass should be mowed before the match began, Thistlethwaite refused. It is said that this was a strategy by Thistlethwaite to slow down the Notre Dame players, who were really fast.

The attendance mark for the game was 40,000 and impressively enough, this target was achieved. The Wisconsin Badgers won the game 22 – 6, and the Wisconsin fans still refer to the game as “The Victory In The Tall Grass.� It was called the first win by a Big Ten Conference team – the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States – over Notre Dame in over a decade, but that has been disputed.


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