Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/109499
where have you gone? just deal with that stuff when it does happen." Nor was Heck troubled about his alma mater being as much as a 10-point underdog to No. 2 Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game Jan. 7 in Miami. As it turned out, he should have been worried; the Crimson Tide went on to crush the Fighting Irish 42-14. What Heck sweated at the time was the fact that his 16-year-old triplets were all about to receive their driver's licenses on Jan 2. Charlie, Molly and Evelyn would soon legally hit the streets while their dad watched nervously. "I have no hair," Heck said about the prospect of losing it following his children's milestone. "I lost enough of it to where I had to go not completely clean-shaven, but pretty tight." Heck has four children with wife Jennifer, and the oldest, Jon, is a 6-6, 290-pound sophomore-to-be offensive lineman at North Carolina. Heck looked forward to having a few days to relax in Miami, where he joined several former teammates in a celebration of what the Fighting Irish accomplished 24 years ago — the program's last national title. The 1988 All-American, who played his first three seasons at tight end for Notre Dame, enjoyed what little free time he had on Saturdays to watch a historic undefeated run to the championship game by the Fighting Irish in 2012. "I probably caught three or four games, starting with the game against Navy, and, of course, followed the Manti Te'o story," said Heck, who received a bachelor's degree in American Studies at Notre Dame. "It was a fun year to be a Fighting Irish fan." Heck was a key player on the last Irish squad to play Alabama in 1987, a 37-6 victory in South Bend when Notre Dame outgained the Tide 465185 and put a stamp on Alabama's worst loss in three decades. The Irish were 7-1 and ranked No. 7 in the country heading into the contest. Alabama traveled to Indiana with a 7-2 record and ranked No. 10 overall. Heck, who caught a three-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tony Rice in the second quarter, doesn't look back on the victory as a watershed moment leading up to a championship season the following fall. But it was a sign that, despite three losses to finish the '87 campaign — a 21-20 defeat at Penn State, a 24-0 loss at Miami and a 35-10 disappointment versus Texas A&M Jan. 1 in the Cotton Bowl — head coach Lou Holtz had the program moving on an upward trajectory. "As I recall it, it was just more of a great victory, especially because it was the year after we had gone down to Birmingham and really gotten badly beaten down there [28-10]. So to come out the next year and have a big win like that over a great opponent like that was huge. "If there was a pivotal moment in that '87 season, it was probably in the locker room after the Cotton Bowl after we lost to [Texas] A&M. Chris Zorich spoke and Coach Holtz spoke with great resolve about where we