Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1368856
A TRIBUTE TO LOU SOMOGYI shrugged and pulled open the gate. We followed him down onto the stadium turf. I imagine this could've been frowned upon, but I felt okay since Lou was with us. So many people stopped him to chat as we walked around campus, I figured he just knew the right guy and told them he had some friends in town for the first time. I now know how special each of those tours were, and still can't believe I got to walk on the turf at Notre Dame Stadium with live narration from such a legend. Lou taught me so much about Notre Dame, but also professionally in the example he set and way he worked on a day-to-day basis. MIKE SINGER BGI Recruiting Reporter Lou had already established himself as a pillar of the Notre Dame athletics community well before I was even born. When I officially joined the Blue & Gold Illus- trated staff on May 1, 2019, I was a complete outsider, but Lou more than welcomed me in. In fact, it was only a few months before Lou would start calling me for guidance on which ar- ticle to write from a press conference and when, among other questions. I often told him that he does not need my stamp of approval on any- thing. Honestly, it should have been the other way around. As I reflect on why he wanted to involve me in that decision-making process, the more I believe that it was his way of integrating me as a leader for our website. Lou always said that he was more of a soldier than a commander, but he truly led by example. I would tell him how much I've learned from him by just reading his articles and listening to him speak, but he would always turn my compliment back to praise me. He is truly the most unselfish person I've ever known. Those who knew Lou the best understand that technology wasn't his strongest suit. I mean, the guy can't be perfect all the time. I'll always remember with a smile the time that he called me asking for the password to get into his own computer. I thought to myself, "How the heck am I supposed to know that?" I told him what the password was to my work computer, and luckily enough, we had the same password installed by Coman Publishing. I loved getting those types of calls from Lou where he needed my help, because I called him daily for Notre Dame football facts. And of course, he always knew the answer. Working with Lou Somogyi for a couple years and being a pallbearer at his funeral are the high- est honors of my life. It will be impossible for me to work and live my life in a way that honors Lou as it should, but I will do my best to make him proud. Rest in peace, my friend. ANDREW MENTOCK BGI Contributing Writer/Journalist When it came to technology, Lou was con- stantly out of sorts. But in his own light-hearted way, he often poked fun at himself for such a shortcoming. Thus he was a bit distraught prior to the Notre Dame-Duke game in 2019 because it was broad- cast exclusively on the ACC Network, a channel not offered by his cable provider. Never one to travel for road games, Lou needed to figure out a way to stream the game in order to cover it. I explained to him that he could simply sign up for a YouTube TV free trial subscription the week of the game, but my proposed resolution didn't alleviate his anxiety much. If anything, he was more distressed. So instead of further complicating the process, I used my personal Gmail address to sign up for the free trial myself — credit card number and all — and walked Lou through logging into YouTube TV by using my email and password. Even as a generally cautious person, I didn't think twice about sharing my private account. As I write this, it feels a bit absurd to say, as I had only been working at Blue & Gold Illustrated for three months, but the idea that Lou would do anything malicious never entered my mind, and I can guarantee it never crossed his. As you'll read a dozen times over, Lou was a kind and caring person — so much so that it made him immediately trustworthy. That's just one of the many reasons he's dearly missed. PATRICK ENGEL BGI Staff Writer The venerable Lou Somogyi resonated with many of you readers and Notre Dame fans be- cause of his talent, fairness and boundless wis- dom on the subject he covered. He stood out as a co-worker and friend because of his character. Pick a positive trait, and he had it. Patience. Grace. The purest of kind hearts. The ability to see the absolute best in everyone he met, even if it took some digging. He was preconditioned to lift people up. What I'll especially remember from the 14 months I spent around him is his belief in me. I've never met anyone in our industry — or maybe outside it — who has believed in my skills and staying power more than Lou did. He would go out of his way to prop me up, tell me he liked a story I wrote or tell me I can have a lengthy career in sports media. Frankly, there are plenty of moments where I wonder if those are true. It's no stretch to say he believed in me more than I believe in myself. That's who he was. He inspired you to keep going when self-doubt or the grind of our job hits. His presence made you want to do better in life. You could see it in his work, too. He could find a captivating angle and write 1,000 words on the 85th man on the roster because he believed that player still was worthy of mention and didn't want to write him off. It wouldn't be a labor for him either. It'd be a task he would've already dove into by the time you asked. Lou set a standard for having passion for a job, taking pride in the product and riding the bumps in an often-turbulent industry without ever breaking his opti- mistic disposition. There were countless all-nighters, wire-to-wire work days and 50-something page magazines for which he supplied at least half the content. He complained about it zero times. And if you invested the effort to read him or had the pleasure of spending any amount of time around him, he bright- ened your life. Inevitably, he became the sun, and you became a flower bending in his direction. The days are dimmer without him. Lou — seen here during an episode of The Irish Huddle podcast — always led by ex- ample and provided encouragement for his co-workers. PHOTO VIA YOUTUBE www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JUNE/JULY 2021 21