Notre Dame enters partnership with Lou Holtz, 'Play Like A Champion Today'

“Play Like a Champion Today” is already synonymous with Notre Dame football, but on Wednesday, the phrase’s association with the university became a little more formal.

Play Like A Champion Today, LLC has signed a five-year deal with Notre Dame that includes exclusive licensing for all PLACT merchandise sales, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. 

Legendary Irish head coach Lou Holtz leads the company’s ownership group. As Schefter noted, the announcement comes nearly 35 years to the day after Holtz hung the now famous sign in the tunnel that leads from the Irish locker room out onto the field at Notre Dame Stadium. 

“I am thrilled to partner with Notre Dame to encourage not only our student-athletes, but the entire Irish family to constantly strive towards being Champions in our own lives,” Holtz said in a statement. 

Holtz was the head coach for the Irish from 1986-1996 and posted a 100-30-2 record plus a 1988 national championship. It remains Notre Dame’s most recent national title. In addition to the Irish, Holtz held head coaching positions at William & Mary, NC State, Arkansas, Minnesota and South Carolina. His overall record was 249-132-7. 

The partnership creates several exciting new opportunities for Irish fans both when they visit South Bend and from home. First, new exclusive products will be featured both on campus at the bookstore and online through Notre Dame’s Fanatics site. While PLACT merchandise is already available, the deal will expand options for fans. 

Last weekend, the partnership debuted “Tailgate of Champions,” a ticketed game day event at Legends, the bar in the parking lot of Notre Dame Stadium. Holtz is set to make an appearance at this weekend’s game against Purdue, and other famous members of the Notre Dame community will attend in the future.

‘Play Like A Champion Today’ in college football has murky origins

Notre Dame is not the only school with a claim to the PLACT phrase. 

Since the 1940s, Oklahoma has had the same slogan plastered above a doorway that they, too, hit when they take the field in Norman. Former Oklahoma head coach Bud Wilkinson hung the original sign as early as 1947, although some from Oklahoma disagree on exactly when it went up. There is speculation that Wilkinson learned the phrase from his head coach at Minnesota in the 1930s. 

The original sign now sits in the Barry Switzer Center museum on campus, but the message has been repainted in the tunnel leading out to Owen Field at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. 

In 1986, Holtz’s first year at Notre Dame, he saw a PLACT sign in a Notre Dame book but could not figure out its origins. Holtz then had the sign remade, and it now hangs in the tunnel. 

When Notre Dame signed their television contract with NBC in 1991, a camera was placed in the tunnel. From then on, for every Notre Dame home game, fans across the country would watch as the players tapped the sign. 

Since the date of the photo that Holtz found is unknown, the schools are uncertain who “had” the slogan first. Regardless, it has certainly become a core part of the Irish fandom and can be seen across the campus on game days in South Bend.