Notre Dame football alumni dating back to the 1970s got a chance to wake up the echoes and shake down the thunder one more time, defeating Team Japan 19-3 in the first Notre Dame Japan Bowl on Saturday at the posh Tokyo Dome.

Lou Holtz, who coached the Fighting Irish to their last national championship 21 years ago, was at the helm once more, with alums such as Tony Rice throttling a Japanese national team that won the IFAF World Cup of American Football in 1999 and 2003 and lost to Team USA in overtime two years ago.

Tokyo Dome has seen it all, NFL preseason games, regular-season college football games, Japan's annual Rice Bowl national championship, rock concerts; it even staged boxing's arguably biggest upset, when Buster Douglas stunned Iron Mike Tyson in the 10th round 19 Februarys ago.