Nov. 16, 2015

Game Week Central | Shamrock Series Merchandise

The University of Notre Dame’s 2015 Shamrock Series football game Saturday night against Boston College at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, includes a series of events throughout the weekend at various locations in the Boston area.

The Shamrock Series events presented by Sprint annually include not only a football game but also a variety of other activities for Notre Dame alumni and fans.

Here are some of the featured events during the weekend:

— A Friday night event featuring the Boston Pops and the Band of the Fighting Irish, the Notre Dame cheerleaders, Irish Guard and the leprechaun (a ticketed event, with details at gameday.nd.edu; 8:15-10 p.m. EST, at Boston Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston).

The event features NBC News chief environmental affairs correspondent Anne Thompson (a 1979 Notre Dame graduate) as master of ceremonies–as well as musical guest Irish tenor Ronan Tynan.

— “Welcome to Boston,” a Friday social event at Blazing Paddles-Game On! (82 Lansdowne Street, near Fenway Park), sponsored by the Notre Dame Club of Boston and the Notre Dame Alumni Association (4-8 p.m. EST, tickets available via gameday.nd.edu).

— The Notre Dame band’s Drummer’s Circle (10:15-10:45 p.m. EST Friday; Copley Square, 560 Boylston Street in Boston; free and open to the public). The band also will rehearse from 10-11 a.m. EST Friday at Clemente Field, 160 Park Drive in Boston.

— A Saturday Shamrock Series 5K run in downtown Boston (8 a.m. EST; signup/registration details at gameday.nd.edu, including noon-7 p.m. EST Friday at Marriott Copley Place–Arlington Room on 3rd floor–and 6:30-7:30 a.m. Saturday at Boston Common). Proceeds help fund Notre Dame graduate student fellowships. The race begins and ends on Boston Common. The registration fee is $45.

— A Saturday Mass at Cathedral of the Holy Cross (11 a.m. EST; 1400 Washington Street in Boston, free and open to the public). Notre Dame president Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., will preside and give the homily.

— The Notre Dame Shamrock Series Fan Fest pre-game event in the Brookline parking lot adjacent to Fenway Park, featuring food trucks, a beer tent, an Under Armour merchandise tent, live musical entertainment (highlighted by Celtic rock band Barleyjuice from Philadelphia), interview segments with VIP guests (noon-6:30 p.m. EST Saturday, with entertainment beginning at 3 p.m.; entry is free and open to the public). The Notre Dame band pre-game concert will be part of this event beginning at 5:50 p.m. EST.

— Four academic programs, sponsored by various Notre Dame academic departments:

“The Boston Massacre: Re-Imagining the Trial,” sponsored by the Notre Dame Law School (6-7 p.m. EST Thursday at the Old South Meeting House; this is a ticketed event, with details at gameday.nd.edu).

“Irish in America: Immigration, Religion and Politics,” sponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies with the College of Arts and Letters (9-10:15 a.m. EST Friday at the Marriott Copley Place–Salon C-D on 4th floor).

“The Future is Here: Boston as a Model for Sustainable Urbanism,” sponsored by the School of Architecture (11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. EST Friday at the Old South Meeting House).

“Combining Research and Practice to Serve the Poor,” sponsored by the College of Arts and Letters’ Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (3-4:15 p.m. EST Friday at the Marriott Copley Place–Wellesley Room on 3rd floor).

All four Friday academic events are free and open to the public.

— A Saturday with the Saints lecture: “St. Ignatius of Loyola, Reformer: Speaking Up for Catholic Tradition,” by Rev. Brian E. Daley, S.J., Notre Dame’s Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology (1 p.m. EST at Marriott Copley Place–Suffolk Room on 3rd floor; free and open to the public).

— Play Like A Champion Today Character Education Through Sports workshop (1-2:30 p.m. at Marriott Copley Place–Wellesley Room; free and open to the public).

— A Friday service project at Fenway Park sponsored by the Notre Dame Alumni Association (1-4 p.m. EST; wait list signup at gameday.nd.edu). In collaboration with Catholic Charities of Boston, Fenway Park, Aramark Food Services and the Notre Dame Club of Boston, volunteers will be packing 1,200 Thanksgiving food bags for local residents in need.

— The Notre Dame-Boston College football game that kicks off at 7:40 p.m. EST. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. EST. The Yawkey Way hospitality area will be available beginning at 5:30 p.m. EST by showing a game ticket, similar to the arrangement for Boston Red Sox home games.

Alumni headquarters for the weekend will be the Boston Marriott Copley Place at 101 Huntington Avenue in Boston (617-236-5800).

The Marriott Copley Place will include a Notre Dame Hammes Bookstore satellite store, as well as hospitality desks manned by the Notre Dame Alumni Association, Notre Dame University Relations and Anthony Travel.

Go to gameday.nd.edu for a complete listing of all the weekend’s events.

This marks the seventh straight year Notre Dame has taken one of its football games “off-site”–after playing in San Antonio in 2009 (vs. Washington State at the Alamodome), in New York City in 2010 (vs. Army at Yankee Stadium) and in Washington, D.C., in 2011 (vs. Maryland at FedExField), in Chicago in 2012 (vs. Miami at Soldier Field), in North Texas in 2013 (vs. Arizona State) and in Indianapolis in 2014 (vs. Purdue).

The one future Shamrock Series game on the schedule is slated for San Antonio in 2016 (vs. Army at the Alamodome).