Touchdown Jesus!

This awesome iconic mural which is emblazoned on the Notre Dame campus library is inspiring to all who have seen it, including the Fighting Irish football team. It is visible over one of the end zones in the Notre Dame stadium, and it is aptly named as it shows Jesus with his arms raised as if signaling a touchdown. I thought of this artistic design as soon as I saw this question about inspiration and decided I could respond by first exalting Touchdown Jesus and then use that acclaim as a lead-in to what I really want to relate, i.e., a Notre Dame football weekend.

I have been a fan of Notre Dame football since early childhood. The Irish identity was certainly part of the reason for that allegiance, as well as the fact that Notre Dame is a Catholic institution. Several of the nuns at my parish school were fans and one of them would even end the Friday afternoon class by saying “let’s all say a prayer now that Notre Dame wins tomorrow”. There were other reasons for my fandom as well, of course. A local connection to Notre Dame football was established by the renowned sports columnist, Grantland Rice, when he wrote a famous article naming the players in the Notre Dame backfield as “The Four Horsemen”, one of them being from Scranton. Then there was the popular Knute Rockne movie which was a film about the legendary coach of Notre Dame, a film in which a young Ronald Reagan portrayed a star quarterback. Plus, and probably most relevant, Notre Dame had some great teams over the years, winning 11 official national championships and another 10 unofficial championships.

I saw Notre Dame play games in Baltimore and in Philadelphia, but I did not see a home game at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana until 2004. That came about from estate planning I was doing for a client. He was a proud alumnus and benefactor of the University of Notre Dame. He desired to set up a charitable trust at his death for the ultimate benefit of Notre Dame, with an initial $1 million to fund the trust upon its creation and another $1 million to be added to the trust upon his wife’s death. He put me in contact with the regional Notre Dame development office to work out the details. The manager of that office was based in Atlanta and came to Bethesda to meet me at my office. I mentioned to him that I have been a lifelong fan of the Fighting Irish and commented that I was happy to be of assistance to my client in arranging for his charitable gifting to the University. When our meeting ended he asked me if I had ever been to South Bend to see the team play and when I replied negatively he just said “well, we’ll have to fix that”. About a month later his secretary called me and said she was sending two tickets to me for the Notre Dame-Pittsburgh game scheduled for a week Saturday. She gave me instructions as to how to contact her boss when I arrived at the Notre Dame campus, emphasizing that he wanted me to arrive by mid-day on the Friday before the game. I was completely floored by this exciting news.

I invited my son Justin to attend the game with me. I made reservations for an early Friday morning flight to Chicago. I picked Justin up that morning at a College Park location where he said he would be. He was running late and seemed a bit shaken. It became clear to me that he had an unpleasant experience during his overnight stay, and, well, we’ll just leave it at that. By the time we got to Chicago he was fine. We rented a car for the 95 mile eastward trip from the Chicago airport to the Notre Dame campus. It was weird and confusing to travel from the Eastern time zone to the Central time zone and then immediately drive back into Eastern time zone. I didn’t know whether we would arrive early or late. When we did arrive I called the fundraiser guy and he came immediately to not only greet us but to also give us a tour of the campus which was really appreciated. At the end of the tour he suggested we hang around the campus center because in the late afternoon the band, cheerleaders, and students would emerge from the classrooms and dorms, gather on the quad, and march over to the Joyce Center (the school’s basketball arena) for a Friday night pep rally. We were provided with special seating tickets for that event, which was very enthusiastic to say the least. The band played, the cheerleaders led the cheers, and the coach and a couple of the players spoke. The whole idea, of course, was to get the multitude hyped up for the Saturday game, and it clearly worked.

We were also invited to a special breakfast hosted by the President of the University on the morning of the game (along with about 100 other people who were specially invited). After that we went to the Notre Dame Bookstore, a two-story shopping site for not just books but all sorts of souvenirs and paraphernalia embossed with Notre Dame logos. I became focused on a showcase displaying a leather jacket which was just like the jacket Rudy wore in the very likable and uplifting “Rudy” movie. As I recall the price was $240. I was hesitant to spend that much on an article of clothing that, the truth be known, I didn’t need, but Justin came by, noted me continuing to stare at that wonderful jacket, and said “Dad, all your life you’ve wanted to come to Notre Dame to see a game, now you’re here, so just buy the damn jacket”. Well, my first reaction was shock that my son, who was only 20 years old, would speak the word “damn”, but then I realized he’s right, so I bit the bullet and bought that goddamn jacket. I still have it, although it has apparently shrunk with age so that it no longer fits, and I hereby bequeath the Rudy jacket to my favorite grandson, Asher Cruwys Tyrrell.

We had terrific field level seats for the game in the stadium. As I recall they were on the Notre Dame side of the 40 yard line. The game itself had a lot of scoring and was a very close contest, but ultimately disappointing because the Irish lost. What was quite impressive, though, is that when the game was over no one left their seats. They stayed to watch and sing along the school’s alma mater with the entire football team, swaying back and forth with arms extended around each other. That is a tradition carried out after every Notre Dame game, whether the team wins or loses.

I so enjoyed that first Notre Dame football weekend that I wanted to go back for a game during the 2005 season, hopefully for a win. I still had periodic contact with the folks in the Notre Dame development office regarding the status of my client’s charitable trust and so one day I got up the nerve to let them know that I would love to see another game. My fundraising friend came through again and sent me two tickets for the Notre Dame-Navy game. I invited Coleman White to join me for that game. I met him in Chicago as he was already there visiting his son. We got to the Notre Dame campus in time for the late afternoon festivities and the pep rally. It was special the next morning to see the fully uniformed midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy march towards the stadium. While I again enjoyed the experience of a Notre Dame football weekend this second visit did differ from the first in that there was no sense of a VIP treatment. We did not have a special tour of the campus, we were not invited to a President’s game day breakfast, and our seats were down on the 25 yard line. There were two positive differences from the first visit, however, i.e., Notre Dame won the game and I did not foolishly spend $240 again. Also after the game ended it was moving to see and hear not only the Notre Dame alma mater but also to witness “Anchors Aweigh” being played and sung in front of the Navy midshipmen. Coleman and I patronized a sports bar in Mishawaka (about 3 miles from South Bend) after the game and found a fine Italian restaurant for dinner, so all in all it was a great weekend.

It was 10 years before I returned to South Bend for another game. The Notre Dame development office had nothing to do with that visit in 2015. It happened because Miriam Kranton’s son, Sam, lived and worked in South Bend and she was planning a trip to visit him. She knew I was a big Notre Dame fan and suggested that perhaps we could get tickets to a Notre Dame game. We were able to obtain tickets for the game against Wake Forest, so we flew to Chicago and then drove to South Bend. We attended the pep rally on Friday night, but it was a lot different than the rallies I attended in 2004 and 2005. One reason was that instead of the basketball arena it was held in a considerably larger building on the campus, with no seating and with a lot of noise. On game day we joined a tailgate party held by Sam’s co-workers. There was plenty of food and booze there, but it started about five hours before game time and for me that would be too much partying. So after about two hours I left the tailgate area and wandered about on my own for a while, as I didn’t want to be smashed and unable to enjoy the game. I was in my seat at the stadium as soon as it was opened up for fans to come in. Our seats were midway up the stands in the end zone, so they were not nearly as good as I had in 2004 and 2005. I struck up a conversation before the game with several other diehard fans sitting next to me and in front of me and continued to chat with them throughout the afternoon on game action. I didn’t see Miriam and Sam again until shortly after the game started, and then they disappeared for a bit after halftime. I don’t think they had the same interest in the game as I had. The good news, though, is that Notre Dame won and I celebrated at a restaurant recommended by Sam.

I won’t be seeing another game in person at Notre Dame Stadium, but I will, of course, continue to root for the Fighting Irish every time their games are televised, cheering them on with my favorite version of their fight song, which is:

Cheer, Cheer for old Notre Dame

You bring the whiskey, we’ll bring the same

Send the freshmen for the gin

And don’t let a sober sophomore in

Juniors will stagger, seniors will fall

We’ll sober up on pure alcohol

While our dear old faculty

Lies drunk on the barroom floor