The 1977 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team's starting quarterback was born in what year?
1956
Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956), nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "The Comeback Kid", is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers and then with the Kansas City Chiefs for the final two seasons of his NFL career.
 After winning a college national championship at Notre Dame, Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with San Francisco, where he played for the next 14 seasons.
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 While a member of the 49ers, Montana started and won four Super Bowls and was the first player ever to have been named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player three times.
 He also holds Super Bowl career records for most passes without an interception (122 in 4 games) and the all-time highest quarterback rating of 127.8.
 Montana was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000, his first year of eligibility.
1977 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
The 1977 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1977 NCAA Division I football season.
 The Irish, coached by Dan Devine, ended the season with 11 wins and one loss, winning the national championship.
 The Fighting Irish won the title by defeating the previously unbeaten and No. 1 ranked Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl Classic by a score of a 38–10.
 The 1977 squad became the tenth Irish team to win the national title and were led by All-Americans Ken MacAfee, Ross Browner, Luther Bradley, and Bob Golic.
 Junior Joe Montana, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, was the team's starting quarterback.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the intercollegiate football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana.
 The team is currently coached by Brian Kelly and plays its home games at the campus's Notre Dame Stadium, which has a capacity of 80,795 fans.
 Notre Dame is one of four schools that competes as an Independent at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Subdivision level; however, they play five games a year against opponents from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), which Notre Dame is a member of in all other sports except ice hockey. Notre Dame Fighting Irish football series records
The following is a list of Notre Dame Fighting Irish football records against their opponents.
 These statistics are current through the end of the 2016 season.
 The following list includes all Notre Dame Fighting Irish football opponents and all current NCAA FBS teams.
 These stats are according to Notre Dame Fighting Irish football school records. Eric Hansen (sportswriter)
Eric C. Hansen is an American sportswriter with the "South Bend Tribune".
 The University of Notre Dame football beat writer and an assistant sports editor for the newspaper, Hansen has also written two books on Notre Dame football.
 "Stadium Stories: Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Colorful Tales of the Blue and Gold" (2004) won a first-place prize for non-fiction books from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
 The book recounted many tales of Notre Dame's football history.
 In 2005 Hansen published "Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Where Have You Gone?"
, a collection of stories and interviews about former Notre Dame football players.
 Hansen has won a number of national writing awards from the Football Writers Association of America, and was a member of the FWAA committee that chose the 2006 college All-American team. Notre Dame–Stanford football rivalry
The Notre Dame–Stanford football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team of the University of Notre Dame and Stanford Cardinal football team of Stanford University.
 As of 2016, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Stanford Cardinal have met 31 times, beginning in 1925 (though the modern series began in 1988).
 The Notre Dame–Stanford game has been played annually since 1997, with the teams meeting at Notre Dame Stadium earlier in the season (late September to mid-October) in even-numbered years, and at Stanford Stadium on the weekend following Thanksgiving in odd-numbered years since 1999.
 The game typically alternates positions in Notre Dame's schedule with its other Pac-12 opponent, USC. 1987 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
The 1987 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented Notre Dame University during the 1987 NCAA Division I-A football season.
 Tony Rice became the starting quarterback for Notre Dame following an injury to Terry Andrysiak.
 The Irish would finish the season 8–4 and earn a berth to the Cotton Bowl Classic. Navy–Notre Dame football rivalry
The Navy–Notre Dame football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Navy Midshipmen football team of the United States Naval Academy and Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team of the University of Notre Dame.
 It has been played annually since 1927, making it the longest uninterrupted intersectional rivalry in college football, and the second-longest never-interrupted college football rivalry overall, after only Kansas St. vs. Iowa St. (uninterrupted since 1917).
 Notre Dame leads the series 76–13–1.
 Before Navy won a 46–44 triple-overtime contest in 2007, Notre Dame had a 43-game winning streak that was the longest series win streak between two annual opponents in the history of Division I FBS football.
 Navy's previous win came in 1963, 35–14 with future Heisman Trophy winner and NFL QB Roger Staubach at the helm.
 Navy had come close to winning on numerous occasions before 2007.
 The Midshipmen subsequently won again in 2009, 2010 and 2016. 2009 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
The 2009 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame in the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
 The team was coached by Charlie Weis and played its home games at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
 Weis entered his fifth season as head coach with the expectation from the Notre Dame administration that his team would be in position to compete for a BCS Bowl berth.
 Notre Dame started the first part of the season 4-2, with close losses to Michigan and USC but ended the season with four straight losses, including a second loss to Navy loss in three years.
 Weis was fired as head coach the Monday after the Stanford loss at the end of the season.
 Although Notre Dame was bowl eligible with 6 wins, the University announced on December 4 that the Irish had chosen not to play in a bowl game.
 Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick hired Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly after a 10-day coaching search. 1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
The 1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame in the 1924 college football season.
 Coached by Knute Rockne and featuring the "Four Horsemen" backfield of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden, Notre Dame completed an undefeated, 10–0 season with a victory over Stanford in the Rose Bowl.
 The team was recognized as the consensus 1924 national champion, receiving retroactive national championship honors from the Berryman QPRS system, Billingsley Report, Boand System, Dickinson System, College Football Researchers Association, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, National Championship Foundation, Poling System, and Jeff Sagarin.
 The 1925 Rose Bowl was Notre Dame's last bowl appearance until the 1969 season.
 The Fighting Irish played their home games at Cartier Field.