SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame Coach Gerry Faust says one of his most vivid recollections of his first tour around the Irish campus was the number of people who had come up to him and said they saw their football team play under the legendary Knute Rockne.
Faust says if everyone who claimed to see Rockne's first game as coach were actually there, 'there'd have been 500,000 people, which is quite a trick in a 60,000 stadium.'
Faust expects the same type of situation Sept. 18 when Notre Dame plays its first night game ever, opening the 1982 campaign against Michigan.
'Twenty or 30 years from now, there will be as many people claiming they were at the first night game in the history of Notre Dame,' Faust said.
Unfortunately, only 59,075 will actually see the first night game. That figure has been standard for years. All Notre Dame home games are sold out months before each season opener.
As most football fans and Notre Dame faithful will tell you, there are no lights at Notre Dame stadium. ABC-TV technicians are providing the illumination for the prime-time national telecast, as they are for several other facilities in the same situation,
Musco Mobile Lighting Inc. of Oskaloosa, Iowa, will light the stadium and the surrounding parking areas. The firm is doing the same thing at several other lightless stadiums in order to accomodate the networks' desires for prime-time games.
'We've been kind of like the Wrigley Field of college football,' remarked one Notre Dame player. 'I don't suppose they ever thought about doing that up in Chicago, did they?'
The Iowa firm has conducted several tests to ensure not only that the lighting is adequate for television cameras but provides no hardship for players. While other games will be shown at night on ABC, CBS and the Turner Broadcasting System, the Irish-Wolverine nocturnal title will be the first nationally televised game for the firm's system.
'They brought in the lights to the University of Iowa in late August,' explained Notre Dame publicist John Heisler. 'They worked so well they really didn't need to have a dry run here but they did anyway and it worked very well.'
Each lighting unit will be positioned on the end of a 140-foot retractable boom mounted on a tractor-trailer truck. Six boom-mounted units will light Notre Dame stadium itself.
'As stadiums go, we don't really have one of the larger ones,' said Roger Valdiserri, assistant athletic director for the Irish. 'When we were approached about the idea, we were convinced that if the lighting could be matched to facilities with permanent lights, things would be alright.'
Neither Faust nor Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler is an advocate of night football but both are aware of the signficance of the large network television contracts with the NCAA.
'Football is meant to be played on Saturday afternoon,' Faust said. 'But I can understand why this game is being played at night. It is a traditional rivalry and I would imagine the audience for the game would be extremely large.'
Schembechler said the scheduling of a night game disrupts a team's regular routine schedule, much the same way Monday night NFL games have affected pro coaches and players.
'You gear yourself up for the kickoff at 1 p.m.,' Schembechler said. 'There's a routine you follow with your meal and for preparing for the afternoon game. It's going to be different for a 9 p.m. (EDT) kickoff.'
Night football is nothing new to the southern or western parts of the country but is a novelty to some of the players who have played college football in the Midwest, said Notre Dame quarterback Blair Kiel.
'It'll be different, for sure, but you've got to realize that a lot of players played nothing but night football on Friday nights in high school,' Kiel said.
While Faust doesn't mind the Saturday night game at home, he hopes it does not signal a trend in South Bend.
'I'm a firm believer that Friday nights should be left alone for high school games. I'd object to that infringement,' said Faust, who coached 18 years of night football on Fridays for Cincinnati Moeller.
Faust probably will be less concerned with the lighting than with his team's opponent -- one of the toughest on the Irish schedule. Michigan is one of five teams on the ND slate considered top 20 material and the Wolverines socked the Irish 25-7 last year in the sunlight of Ann Arbor.
'It won't detract from the fact we're playing one of the finest teams in the nation,' he said. 'I don't think there will be an advantage for either team as far as the lights. Of course, we hope the home field will be an aid for us.'
