Kentucky Derby Racehorse Names, Notre Dame Style (2024)

One of the most popular campus landmarks on a campus full of them meets an Elvis classic. One can’t help but think this one might have just a little bit more of that “Notre Dame Spirit” Lou Holtz and others always talk about.

An ode to Notre Dame’s most famous professional player, Joe Montana,who used a little “Chicken Soup for the Soul” to help the Irish to an unforgettable comeback win over Houston in the 1979 Cotton Bowl.

For the first roughly 20 years of his life Joe Theismann’s last name was pronounced “THEEZ-man”. Then at Notre Dame the eventual Washington Super Bowl winning quarterback’s “Theismann rhymes with Heisman” campaign resulted in how his name has been pronounced ever since.

There is no better way to honor Lou Holtz than by using perhaps his most famous quote at Notre Dame (spoken to the team just before kickoff in the ’88 game vs. Miami).

Michael Stonebreaker was a darn good football player for the Irish, helping guide Notre Dame to a 1988 national championship and eventually became a College Football Hall of Famer. The last name alone is horse-naming worthy.

There have been plenty of megastars from the Notre Dame women’s basketball team but no name plays as well when naming a filly as that of skylar diggins.

It may not be the most original but you can’t pass on the opportunity to blend a line from Notre Dame’s alma mater with one of the most electric players in the history of Notre Dame football, Golden Tate.

The Kentucky Derby takes place each year in Louisville so how could you possibly pass up having a horse named after Paul Hornung in the city he grew up in, and the fact that plenty of people would bet on it would only honor the Heisman Trophy winner more!

Frank Leahy was as successful of coach as Notre Dame has had and that includes Knute Rockne. Leahy’s teams went 87-11-9 in his 11 seasons as Notre Dame head coach. On top of all that did we mention he left his post to go serve his country in World War II?

Perhaps that nice lady named Mary on top of the Golden Dome deserves a horse being named after her. She was rather important after all.

You can’t have this makeshift horse race themed around Notre Dame names and not include an ode to the greatest and most important head coach in the history of college football, Knute Rockne.