South Bend is probably most famous, at least in the eyes of football fans, as the home of the Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame. A visit to the campus, distinguished by the massive golden dome of the Administration Building, is worth the trip. Indiana University also has a branch here.

Two Frenchmen, Père Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, who traveled through northern Indiana between 1673 and 1675, were the first Europeans to enter the South Bend area. In 1679, the famous French explorer René-Robert Cavelier proceeded from here with 32 men to the Mississippi River. During a second trip in 1681, Cavelier negotiated a peace treaty between the Miami and Illinois Confederations under an oak tree known as the Council Oak. The first permanent settlers arrived in 1820, when Pierre Freischuetz Navarre set up a trading post for the American Fur Company.

South Bend was founded in 1823 by Alexis Coquillard, who, with his partner Francis Comparet, bought the fur trading agency from John Jacob Astor. Joined by Lathrop Taylor, another trading post agent, Coquillard was instrumental in promoting European settlement of the area and in the construction of ferries, dams, and mills, which began the industrial development of the town.

Industries formerly based in South Bend and contributing to its growth were the Studebaker auto plant and the Oliver Corporation. The St. Joseph River runs at its southernmost bend through the center of the city, which was officially named South Bend by the United States Post Office Department in 1830.