We recently caught up with the Legion on Twitter, and quickly jumped at the chance to interview the Lead Lep Legionnaire, Tyler. It’s a great student organization with a great mission, so check them out! And thanks Tyler for taking the time! GO IRISH!
1. How many leprechauns make up the Leprechaun Legion?
While it would appear the legion is made up of only a single Leprechaun, there are in fact 9,992 of us this year (the total enrollment of both undergraduate and graduate students). Technically, every single student is a member of the Legion, there is no formal sign-up or enrollment. And actually, if you include the St. Mary’s and Holy Cross College students that come out and support too, we have even more Leprechauns.
2. When was the group founded and what was the impetus/catalyst?
Actually, this year is the 10 year anniversary of the Legion. It was Basketball Coach Mike Brey’s original idea to name the student section for the basketball games — to give the 6th man an official name and encourage everyone to get a bit rowdier. When it was first started, we had fantastic basketball turnouts, which we are trying to get back to. The students really embraced the name though.
3. What is the goal of the organization?
There are two main goals of the Leprechaun Legion. The first is to optimize the fan experience for all sports to make them more enjoyable, and more intimidating for opposing teams and their fans. The most notable example we have of this is the music that was added to the football stadium this season. We also are now creating more giveaways than ever at the games
The second goal that we have is getting as many students at sporting events as possible. The only real “gimme” we have is football — of course all of the students go to those games, but outside of that, attendance is a huge wildcard. Notre Dame has fantastic teams in almost every sport, so we really need to get student support up. (Homework is not an excuse!)
4. How can fans support the mission?
In short, attend as many sporting events as possible, support your fellow students! Talk about the teams, write about them to the Observer, discuss sports on the Leprechaun Legion Facebook page, basically do as much as you can to make the sports a social necessity, or can’t-miss events. Occasionally the Legion will also send out e-mails looking for volunteers to help with events such as helping with giveaways, scorekeeping at golf tournaments, things of that nature. We also send out a campus-wide e-mail in the spring looking for people to be on the Leprechaun Legion Advisory Board for the following school year. If you want a less hands-on way to contribute though, just write to The Observer about the Legion, write on our Facebook fan page, or Tweet to us @LepLegion with any suggestions you may have on how to get the students out or how to improve the game atmosphere.
5. What sports/groups does the Legion support?
The Leprechaun Legion supports ALL University of Notre Dame sports and athletic teams. We began 10 years ago just focusing on basketball, but that is no longer the case. However, we often battle against the perception that we still only deal with just basketball, mainly because the shirt that season basketball ticket holders get says Leprechaun Legion on the front. However, we have non-basketball Legion shirts that will be coming out very soon. Hopefully everyone will associate us with every sport in the near future.
6. What are the key fighting tactics of a legion of leprechauns?
You know, we aren’t very big, so we tend to have a much bigger bark than bite. However, when we get those fists up, combined with our sweet beards, we are pretty intimidating, particularly with the whole Legion out there. So we tend to scare people off — they don’t really want a piece of us.
7. Where can fans learn more about/contact all of you feisty miniature green people?
Social Media is going to be a huge tool for the Legion moving forward, so the easiest way to get in touch with us would be to become a fan of the Leprechaun Legion page on Facebook, or follow us @LepLegion on Twitter. We are constantly updating both with Notre Dame news, sports scores, articles from around the Web, promotional information, and some good humor as well. But we are also very receptive to any suggestions, questions, or comments sent in to both of those pages. However, if there are any real lengthy suggestions, questions, or concerns, you can also contact Tyler Moorehead at legion@nd.edu and he will be glad to discuss anything.
8. Is there really a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?
I think this picture says it all.
9. Anything else we should know?
One last thing I would like to highlight is while the Leprechaun Legion does work with the Athletic Department for funding, we are not beholden to athletic department influence or approval on most issues. We are the voice of the students, and we approach the athletic department with suggestions that we get from the student body, as opposed to feeding the student body changes that they may or may not want.
Thanks Tyler!
- (Re)Introducing: DANCING LEPRECHAUNS - August 29, 2019
- Ticket Auction: ND vs USC - August 22, 2019
- No Respect! - December 14, 2018
trey
Tyler, if you promise to have weekly discussions with “The Shirt” committee about a single color, I promise to fan you on facebook.
Garrett
I’m late to The Shirt color discussion. Would it be sensible to establish kelly green with a rotating color every 4th year? This ensures continuity in color, but with some flexibility for those worried about decreased sales — student body would need to purchase variable-colored shirt once during their tenure at ND.
If we want to get even more picky, let’s not sell a bright yellow shirt on the years we play Michigan or BC at home — or a royal blue shirt when we play Air Force at home…
James
I’m an undergrad at ND, and no, I am NOT a part of the leprechaun legion. When I enrolled at the university, I was not automatically made a member. To claim that there are 9,992 members is absurd. Keep that number in the hundreds and low thousands that have the official “leprechaun legion” shirt and go to the men’s basketball games. I applaud Tyler and the legion for looking to branch out to other sports beyond the signature basketball games. I attended a women’s tennis match this weekend against North Carolina, and I did not see a sea of legion green. In fact, there were less than 20 students in attendance. Our Fighting Irish athletes deserve more fans to watch them compete at sports they’ve dedicated so much of their lives to excelling at. This is true in all cases except for one. The one sport that does not need any more student attendance at is, obviously, football. Almost everyone is going to go, and in my opinion, the color of clothing that they wear is pretty much irrelevant. The Shirt is commonly worn, but that doesn’t mean then entire stadium has to be blue, or green, or yellow or any other color. As long as the band plays and the team takes the field, we are ND. The students will always enter through gate E, will always fill the NW corner of the stadium, and we will always hate Michigan and USC. The Shirt is purchased and worn by a large percentage of the student body. I have owned the shirt the last 4 years and have always felt a part of the student section for the past 2 football seasons I’ve been a student here. Would I have purchased the shirt this past season if it had been the same kelly green as the year before? Highly unlikely. Does that make me less of a Notre Dame football supporter? I don’t think so. Am I somehow less of a Domer than members of the leprechaun legion? Sounds like they would make me out to be that way. To me, what makes The Shirt so special is not the color or the design—let’s face it, these are not usually beautifully designed articles of clothing—it is the meaning behind the shirt. Student organizations are funded by the shirt, acts of great charity are accomplished because of it. Personally, I would not be able to purchase my textbooks without the rector fund, which is paid for by The Shirt each year. The Shirt is so much more than a cheering section at a football game. It’s more than drunk college kids wearing the same green t-shirt on ESPN with Dick Vitale calling the game. It’s more than the storied history of national championships, and Heisman trophies that our football team has amassed. The Shirt embodies everything that makes out university great—the faculty and students, the grotto, basilica and dome, the men and women who swipe our cards at the dining hall and those who cook and clean and do everything to make this place run, it is all the charities that we sponsor, it is all the alumni that remind us of our great tradition, it is every fan that has ever rooted for the blue and gold whether they went here or not. To say that The Shirt is simply a cheering section at a football game belittles all that it really stands for. So I say, keep the Legion and the Shirt separate, because the goals of these entities are obviously very different. Tyler, I hope to see you and your legion at some obscure sporting event (Hey, why not check out club sports while you’re at it? Men’s volleyball, women’s hockey, rugby, crew… there are so many options). Unfortunately, there won’t be TV cameras, so it’s entirely about the athletes themselves and how unbelievably happy there will be to see students out cheering for them. Imagine the impression this could make on opponents then? Seeing fans when they probably have the same attendance issues back at their own areas and courts. Talk about intimidation. Big East basketball players always have played in front of a packed crowd, but have swimmers done the dame? It would be great to see this expansion of the legion follow through. Maybe we’ll run into each other at one of these less attended but no less important events, and if not, I hope to see you April 20th. Come out and purchase the 2012 version of The Shirt. Because it’s about more than just sports and their cheering sections.
NDtex
James,
I believe you have misunderstood both Tyler and our intention behind the movement of unifying the shirt color as well.
Your mention of the “true” numbers of the membership in the Legion is exactly what Tyler and the Legion are wanting to work against. Why should the Legion be restricted to only basketball?
Granted, I know exactly what you talk about when you speak of other sports not seeing attendance by students. I worked as a manager for swim meets and tennis matches that were practically empty and my entire senior year I worked for a golf team that was lucky to see any fans that weren’t family members or coaches at their events.
I would encourage you to reach out to Tyler and the Legion. Perhaps be the representative for the “obscure” sports and you may find that your goals and the goals of the Legion align more than you think.
As far as the Shirt, we here at HLS and the Legion are well aware of the Shirt’s primary goal. The Legion wanting a mention on the Shirt isn’t just for some publicity ploy, but to show that they aren’t some “drunk college kids wearing the same green t-shirt” and let students and alumni now that the Legion stands behind the University, all of its athletics, and its fundraising efforts, including the books you purchase every semester.
We at HLS simply want to see a unified color in the Stadium, but we do not want the Shirt’s primary goal to ever be missed. We do not think the idea of a single, unified color, and fundraising can in no way be related. There are many colleges that embrace a single color and are easily able to sell their wares and we feel that after so much color swapping, ND has more or less expected a color swap every year. Change that expectation to the same color, yet different design and we see no possible way that the Shirt would not continue to be the success it has been for years.