[2] The first Notre Dame football game took place on November 23, 1887 on the school's campus just north of South Bend, Indiana.

Two players on Michigan's 1887 team, George Winthrop DeHaven, Jr. and William Warren Harless, had previously attended Notre Dame.

In October 1887, DeHaven wrote to Brother Paul, who ran Notre Dame's intramural athletics program, telling him about the new game of football.

[3][7] The Notre Dame student newspaper, Scholastic, reported: "It was not considered a match contest, as the home team had been organized only a few weeks, and the Michigan boys, the champions of the West, came more to instruct them in the points of the Rugby game than to win fresh laurels.

President Walsh thanked the Ann Arbor team for their visit, and assured them of the cordial reception that would always await them at Notre Dame.

[5] The Notre Dame paper reported: "At 1 o'clock carriages were taken for Niles, and amidst rousing cheers the University of Michigan football team departed, leaving behind them a most favorable impression.

On March 24, 1888, the Notre Dame student newspaper reported: "Mr. DeHaven writes from Ann Arbor that the boys from the University of Michigan have such pleasant remembrances of their Thanksgiving game here that they would like to play here again.