Three Yards, Three Generations: James Flanigan’s Lambeau Touchdown

Three yards can carry a lot of history

When CJ Carr found James Flanigan for Notre Dame’s first touchdown against Wisconsin on September 6, the play gave the Irish an early breakthrough in what became a 41–13 victory. But the setting and the surname made that short reception at Lambeau Field worth lingering over. A kid from Green Bay had scored for Notre Dame in the stadium where his family’s football story already had deep roots. The Associated Press game recap supplies the details; the symbolism almost writes itself.

Flanigan came to South Bend from Green Bay’s Notre Dame de la Baie Academy. His father, Jim, played defensive tackle for the Fighting Irish before an NFL career that included a season with the Packers. His grandfather, also Jim, played for Green Bay’s Super Bowl II championship team. Those connections are recorded in Notre Dame’s official player biography. On Sunday night, three generations of football history met in one end zone.

There is something especially fitting about the youngest Flanigan making that contribution in a Notre Dame uniform. He returned to his hometown representing the school his father had represented, on the home field of the franchise both his father and grandfather had served. For an Irish fan, it is hard to imagine a more personal bridge between South Bend and Green Bay.

That bridge existed long before the Flanigans. Curly Lambeau played for Knute Rockne at Notre Dame in 1918 before helping found the Packers. The Packers’ history of Lambeau makes the connection explicit: the man whose name is on the stadium was himself a Notre Dame player. An Irish touchdown there belongs to a shared football history stretching back more than a century.

The family story also carries a note of loss. Flanigan’s grandfather died in December 2025. As Packers historian Cliff Christl documented, he had appeared in both the Ice Bowl and Super Bowl II. We cannot know what James was thinking when he scored. Still, knowing that history gives the moment an added poignancy: a grandson making a new memory on the field where his grandfather helped make old ones.

We talk about tradition so often in college football that the word can become background noise. A play like this gives it a face. Tradition lives through people: a family name on another roster, a hometown player returning, a familiar school becoming part of a new generation’s story.

James still had to make the catch. The family connections explain why the moment resonates; the touchdown itself is his. That is what makes this such a satisfying image of continuity. He added something of his own to a history he inherited.

Notre Dame left Lambeau with a win. James Flanigan left his own mark on a place already woven into his family’s life. Three yards were enough to bring those stories together.

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Jim Flanigan, Jr. is one of my Notre Dame heroes and I love seeing him from time to time in the North Tunnel…