Jim Lynch at Notre Dame and Tom Lynch at Navy defined sibling rivalry

The death Thursday of former Notre Dame All-American Jim Lynch at age 76 took me back to 2004 when I had a chance to sit down with Jim and his older brother Tom Lynch as they talked about the proud series between Notre Dame and the U.S. Naval Academy.

In a true case of sibling rivalry, Tom was a senior captain and linebacker for Navy in 1963 while Jim was a freshman linebacker at Notre Dame.

Here’s one story the two shared. 

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Brotherly love?

“I’d be embarrassed to wear that Notre Dame shirt.” 

Those were the infamous words Tom delivered to his younger brother Jim at an Elkhart, Ind., restaurant in 1963, just hours after the U.S. Naval Academy beat Notre Dame 35-14 in South Bend. 

And why not rub it in? 

Tom was playing on a Navy team ranked No. 4 in the country while Jim was playing for an Irish team that won two games that season. 

“I was just trying to rib him a little bit, and he took my joke very seriously,” Tom recalled. “[Jim] had only been on campus a couple of months, so I couldn’t believe he could be that much interwoven into Notre Dame already, but he was.” 

They were two brothers and two football programs taking separate paths. Tom was part of a Navy team that had a stranglehold on its series with Notre Dame, winning three of four games and five of eight. 

Jim had just joined a Notre Dame program that hadn’t had a winning record in the four years before his arrival. 

“I went to Notre Dame because it was a chance for me to get a great education,” Jim said. “I certainly wasn’t going there because I thought it was a great football power, because it wasn’t.” 

Or so he thought. 

Settling the score

Jim and the entire Notre Dame football family got an early Christmas gift in December of 1963 when a man named Ara Parseghian replaced Hugh Devore as head coach. 

With Parseghian at the wheel and Lynch at linebacker, Notre Dame came to John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia in 1964 and throttled the Midshipmen 40-0. 

Nobody could have imagined it then, but it was the first of 43 consecutive victories for the Irish in the series. 

And, don’t think little brother ever missed an opportunity to remind his elder who was boss that day and for the following four-plus decades. 

Tom was dressed in his naval uniform when he caught up with little brother near the Irish team bus after the 40-0 whitewash. 

“[Jim] looked at me for a second and told me, `I would be embarrassed to wear that uniform.’ He obviously didn’t forget,” Tom recalled with a laugh. “Paybacks are hell.” 

Especially when this payback lasted for more than 40 years until Navy finally beat Notre Dame in 2007 to end the losing streak. 

“If anybody would have suggested that Navy wouldn’t have beaten Notre Dame again for 40 years, they would have been checked into an asylum,” Jim said. “It was an amazing turnaround in fortune.” 

Success stories

Growing up in little Lima, Ohio, both boys made good at their separate schools and career paths. 

Tom Lynch retired as a two-star admiral and worked for years at Roger Staubach‘s international real-estate conglomerate. 

Jim became team captain at Notre Dame on the 1966 national championship team. He was an All-American that season after leading the Irish with 106 tackles, and he also won the Maxwell Award as college football’s best player. 

Jim later enjoyed an 11-year NFL career, winning a Super Bowl as an All-Pro linebacker with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970. Jim was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1990 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992.  

After football, Jim co-owned and operated a large food packaging plant in Kansas City for more than 30 years. 

A midwestern Catholic boy, Tom always wanted to play for Notre Dame. But when he was offered only a partial academic scholarship, he accepted a full ride to the Naval Academy instead. 

Throughout his high school years, Jim believed he would follow his brother and attend the Naval Academy. But a last-minute change of heart sent him to South Bend. 

“I think I was the only Irish-Catholic kid from the Midwest who got a full scholarship to Notre Dame, took it, and my parents were disappointed,” Jim said. “They wanted me to go to the Naval Academy.” 

The two brothers watched and relived several Notre Dame-Navy games together after their playing days, including the 1984 contest when Notre Dame was allowed to kick a field goal with no time on the clock to win 18-17. 

“There’s a respect the two schools have built for each other,” Tom said. “There has always been a genuine love and respect between the two schools, and then the fiercest competition on the field.” 

Jim is survived by his wife, Georgia, daughters Megan and Kara, son Jake, and nine grandchildren.