I did "best" a few weeks ago and was just talking to some people today about how much our senior day sucked... got me thinking about some of the god awful experiences I've had in Notre Dame stadium.

The one that takes the cake though was definitely the USF game back in '11. Not just because of the inexplicable 5 turnover loss... but because of the lightning storms that interrupted the game multiple times and how I had to trudge through a Biblical torrent of rain to reach the car and ride back 2 hours to Chicago soaking wet and pissed off. Definitely the worst experience I've ever had at a sporting event, period.

Navy last year... DK looked bad in warm ups throwing high on sideline passes and the team just looked uninterested in warm ups. Knew we were in fro a long day and boy was it ever.

NC State 2016 was miserable from beginning to end. I'll never attend a game in a hurricane again. Plus their stadium sucked.

South Florida 2011 was by far the worst home game I have ever been to. Had high hopes going into the season. The team played like hot garbage against a South Florida team that they should've beat by 3 touchdowns. The strip fumble that was returned 99 yards for a touchdown set the tone for the game.

Navy 2016 was bad too. At least the Florida sun was nice and I was still extremely happy that the Cubs were World Series champs lol.

South Florida 2011. Bad football added to really bad weather and 5 plus hour game with delays left a very bad taste in ones mouth.

shawneeki said:

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South Florida 2011. Bad football added to really bad weather and 5 plus hour game with delays left a very bad taste in ones mouth.

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Me, too. Worst by far. Just a horrible experience.

Navy 2010. I was excited because it was Kelly's first year, my wife and I planned a trip to New York City (our first time).....and we got drubbed by Navy.

We could not stop the FB dive......

As we're walking out, the ND Fans were shaking their heads saying "4-4.....what's changed, we still suck" I retorted back, "Hey, at least we've got Tulsa next week....." We all remember what happened next....

The USF game was terrible (Almost 100 degrees at the start of the game, then the storms/delay, and I just decided to drive home when the first delay happened) but my worst was the 1997 Purdue game in West Lafayette. Lost to Purdue for the first time in ages and the fans were terrible. Oh and my car broke down and had to beg some Purdue fans to drive me and my buddy back to Chicago (They were very nice though. Only good thing about that day).

Senior year at USC - 1974; leading 24-0 late in the 2nd Q, lost 55-24. Horrible horrible horrible experience.

MSU 2016. Never in the game, was never exciting, crowd was awful, I drove 7 hours one way to overpay for myself and my Fiance's to attend.

She had never been to a college football game before, and thought the crowd was boring. And it was. Trying to get her back to the Georgia game, and she doesn't understand why we'd spend the time/money.

Her only experience was a lame loss against a crappy team.

Also - my stay was terrible. Stayed in a house with an awful person who locked my keys in my car (inside joke).

One of the few horrible experiences I had as an ND fan was attending the Orange Bowl after the 1972 season. We were demolished by Nebraska 40-6 and Johnny Rodgers ran wild. I can still remember sitting in the upper deck, freezing, yes, freezing in Miami, watching that debacle come to a close. That had to be Ara's worst game, but the very next year ND was undefeated and won the National Championship.

I was at the USF game as well, but losing to Syracuse really takes the cake for me. That was the infamous snowball game. And no, the student section was not chucking snowballs at the players.

I've been going to ND games since 1985 at ND stadium. Last season I took my 14 year old daughter to her first game and her first time seeing the campus. We went to the Duke game. The whole game had that bad vibe. Just knew ND was going g to give it away. Worst game I've seen at ND. Otherwise the day couldn't have been more special.

I'll give you one for the old timers: 1960, Purdue 51 ND 19. There were a lot of bad games during my years at ND but that was the worst. So bad we even booed Purdue's Golden Girl.

Northwestern 2014. And I was at Michigan 2007.

Tulsa. The whole campus was in mourning. The student section particularly took Declan's death very hard.

No music, no festivities on campus, which was appropriate. It felt like everybody was going through the motions, especially the football team.

2001 Fiesta Bowl vs Oregon ST, we were totally outplayed. We should not have a losing record to these guys.

I have watched many games worse than Navy 2007. But I was there for it, on the side of the stadium where the cold rain was blowing in my face all game, behind the giddy uniformed midshipmen. Ugh. I always enjoyed my trips to South Bend for games, win or lose, even that one. But that at the time was probably the nadir. It got a whole lot worse thereafter, but the first loss to Navy in decades was a shock to the system.

I have to add a crazy story to the USF game experience. As you know, we played like crap and there were 2 or 3 extensive rain delays. I was darn near 100 degrees that day. We stayed to the very end. I think the game finally ended about 10:00 pm (3:30 start). We started off sitting up high, in the upper deck, behind about the Sophomore Class. After the first rain delay, a decent number of people left, so we moved toward the 40. After the last delay, I want to say only half the stadium was filled, so we sat down on about the 50 yard line, about half way up. Great seats!!! HOWEVER, just before play resumed that last time, a guy sitting close to us had a heart attack in the stands, so the place was very disturbed for about 15 to 20 minutes. So, not only did we lose and we had to sit through all those delays, but we were involved with a heart attack. What a crap day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stanford 2016...brutal. Stadium was as quiet as I have ever heard and it was a night game.
My wife and I brought another couple...they are not in a rush to return. It was just awful

USF. That was a nightmare.

rockne75 said:

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Senior year at USC - 1974; leading 24-0 late in the 2nd Q, lost 55-24. Horrible horrible horrible experience.

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Ditto. Being raised in the Southern California and exposed to non stop SC propaganda and their obnoxious fans made it all but unbearable. Sadly, having watched them for years, I knew it was all over after Davis ran that second half kickoff back for the TD. Prior to that the Coliseum was like a tomb and we were loving it! The crowd exploded like a match hit dynamite and I turned to the guy next to me and warned him to "hang on these guys may go nuts now." All these years later, I'm still waiting for a ND team to go out to LA and return the favor. Needless to say, it's been a long wait. One can only hope!

By far the worst for me was when Ty was still the coach and we lost to Boston College at home in 2004. Listening to BC fans chant who's your daddy on the way out of the stadium was the worst.

shawneeki said:

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South Florida 2011. Bad football added to really bad weather and 5 plus hour game with delays left a very bad taste in ones mouth.

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I watched this one from the couch... the game was so bad, I got so drunk so fast, then throw in the rain delay and at some point NBC started showing an old ND game to fill time. I actually thought it was live, much to my disappointment it was not.

2008 loss to a 3-8 Syracuse team in the cold-wet on Senior Day - and all the senior parents were introduced before the game. Wow was that miserable.

Penn St. game in the rain,36-6 one year after beating them at ND 44-7. Faust's last year.

chi-rishfan45 said:

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2008 loss to a 3-8 Syracuse team in the cold-wet on Senior Day no less with all the parent introductions before the game. Wow was that miserable.

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This is the one that came to mind as one of the more unpleasant to watch ever. Thankfully, I was not there...

Either 1996 Air Force (my first game) or 1999 at Pitt, which was the last game at Pitt stadium.

Navy 2007 for the obvious reason but also because it was the last time my wife and I would see our daughter in the band.

The game ended and I muttered "let's get the f*** out of here" to which my wife replied "don't you want to watch the band. It's the last time we'll see Michelle". Of course my response was "I don't want to watch the ****in band".

It's a family classic.

Syracuse in 08, to this day I believe that was the lowest point in the history of Notre Dame football.

I haven't been to many ND games, but 2004 against Purdue sucked. Just the thought of Purdue kicking our ass was unthinkable...but it happened

Nov 1985 at Penn State. My fiancee and I had just become engaged the week before (we lived in Rochester NY) and I had secured 2 seats on the 45 yard line from a friend of mine at work, and my younger sister at SMC had secured 4 endzone seats for my older sister, brother-in-law, fiancee and me.

It was raining all before the game, so my fiancee and I just chatted with my future in-laws in the car. We were getting all six of us together at a pizza place after the game.

I honestly do not recall any details from the game, but we were getting shellacked and looked as hapless as only a Gerry Faust team could look. Sometime in the second half, the 4 of us in the end zone all agreed we were not enjoying the game, and we were all soaking wet and cold. For the first and only time, I was considering leaving a game early. This might give us some time to dry off and find the restaurant, as we had another 4-5 hours of driving after we finished eating.

My fiancee and I walked over to mid-field (did I forget to mention my future father-in-law got his PhD from Penn State?), we walk up to future father-in-law (future mother-in-law had LONG since returned to her car), he turns and looks at us and exclaims "Isn't this GREAT?!). So we sat down with him and watched to the bitter end (the Penn State fans had long since cleared out already so there were plenty of empty seats).

I think someone else in this thread said the score was 36-6 Penn State ... that feelsd right, but I did not verify it.

Michigan at ND 2006. My wife and I were smack dab in middle of Michigan section. Dude in front of me was yelling so hard throughout the game there were several instances where I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He was red faced the entire game.
But by far the worst experience was the next year at Michigan. Absolutely brutal. Michigan fans around me actually felt sorry for me. Also, at Michigan in 2003 was pretty bad; Quinn's freshman year. Again, surrounded by Michigan fans.

I agree that the Fiesta Bowl 2001 against Oregon State was brutal. It was clear before the first quarter was over that we had no chance in the game. That would be my worst game ever attending. On the opposite side where we actually won, at Washington in 2005. It was clear within the first 2 offensive series by Washington that the game was over. Seeing Washington's offensive line perform brought back bad memories of o line play under Ty Willingham. It was like watching Notre Dame from the prior year but instead they were wearing Washington uniforms. I actually felt bad for the Washington QB.

Georgia Tech 2007. The only game I ever left before it was over (I really needed some brown liquor).

2nd place - Ty was the coach. We played at Syracuse. Team was pathetic and my brother and I drove through a blizzard from NJ to go. (I stayed to the end of this one but at the end of it I needed both brown liquor and strippers to make the pain go away). Edit - it was December of 2003. We lost 38-12