Notre Dame Football Unveils New Locker Room

Notre Dame unveiled its new football locker room on Thursday and it’s a really nice balance of modernization meets tradition.  The old school brick from the locker room remains, but Notre Dame has added elements of modernization without sacrificing the old school look and feel that the Notre Dame locker room has always had.

The new locker room is part of the overhaul of Notre Dame Stadium that is near completion as part of the Campus Crossroads Project. It is very apparent that Notre Dame went to great efforts here to make sure that they modernized without going ridiculously overboard like Texas recently did with their futuristic locker room that looks more like a Las Vegas night club than a game day locker room.

The Notre Dame players clearly approve based on their reactions.

That new locker room feeling.#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/We1nGdLwKb

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) August 10, 2017

Notre Dame has kept a lot of its tradition very present throughout the new stadium, but specifically so with this locker room.  The famous “Win One for the Gipper” speech for instance is memorialized in the locker room.

🏈@NDFootball's new game day locker room may be brand new – but they will still be reminded of their rich history on the walls. pic.twitter.com/Rmc6NyHedG

— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) August 10, 2017

Knute Rockne’s famous “we’re gonna go inside ’em, we’re gonna go outside ’em” pep talk is built into the tunnel as well.

"And don't forget, men. Today is the day we're gonna win!"@NDFootball coach Knute Rockne's famous speech is now in the stadium tunnel. pic.twitter.com/J25MzUDFQI

— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) August 10, 2017

While keeping the traditional brick look, Notre Dame added some slick design elements such as the iconic interlocking ND on the ceiling to give it a really nice design pop.  The design is really a good compromise for the traditionalist fans and the younger fans who probably wish the new locker room more closely resembled Club Longhorn.

🏈@NDFootball's new game day locker room bridges past tradition & championships with our future success.

We can't wait for September 2nd! pic.twitter.com/Ap0h3P94R2

— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) August 10, 2017

Here are a couple more looks at the new locker room.

A new locker room needs new lockers…

Take a deep dive into what is included in @NDFootball's new locker set up at Notre Dame Stadium. pic.twitter.com/6KqGBqTU6X

— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) August 10, 2017

If you look closely, there are some modern elements really nicely integrated without being over the top such as charging ports for the players at each locker.

In addition to the new locker room for the players on gameday, Notre Dame has introduced a new recruiting lounge for hosting its official and unofficial visitors each weekend.

Here are a couple tweets of the new recruiting lounge.  More word on if there will be video game systems in the event 5-star linebackers from Hawaii visit during snowstorms.

BOOM 💥!

Our new Stadium Gameday Recruiting Lounge.#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/b9nwbb3xKI

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) August 10, 2017

Take a FIRST LOOK at @NDFootball's Schivarelli Lounge (our game day recruiting HQ) entryway.#NDBiggerThanBrick pic.twitter.com/E0hXiKJjMF

— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) August 10, 2017

In some ways Notre Dame is in no win situations with things like this given how many fans are on both ends of the “modernization” spectrum, but overall they did a good job redoing the locker room and the lounge without going over the top.