Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 MARCH 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA S am Hartman doesn't wear No. 10 by accident. It's not just another number to the new Notre Dame quarterback, even if the juxtaposi- tion of his hard edges and impassioned yet surprisingly stoic demeanor indicates he's someone who didn't spend a ton of time putting thought into the integer by which observers identify him on a football field. Hartman is the type of competitor who wouldn't normally care what numeral is on his jersey. He just wants to be between the white lines. Period. Look no further than his return as Wake Forest's starting quarterback in Week 2 of 2022 after the removal of a blood clot held him out of the season opener. Even Paget-Schroetter syndrome, or effort thrombosis, couldn't hold him down. Neither could the subse- quent removal of one of his ribs to cease the restriction of blood flow. All of that, and he's been through worse. Much worse. Just two days before Hartman led undefeated Davidson (N.C.) Day into the 2015 state championship game, his adopted older brother, Demitri Allison, died by suicide in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 21, five years Hartman's elder. The Hartmans took Allison in when he was 15. He made the Hartman house a second home long before then, often spending time with Hartman and his older brother, Joe. They fished. They played catch. They did what young boys do. "It changed his life," former David- son Day head coach Chad Grier told Blue & Gold Illustrated of the impact of Allison's adoption had on Hartman. "It's hard to even say adopted because if you ask anybody in that family, that was Sam's second brother. He was their third child. He was part of the family." Hartman had worn No. 2 his entire football-playing life. But when he ran out of the tunnel for the state title game, he donned No. 10 — the same number Allison wore as a third-year wide re- ceiver at Elon University in North Caro- lina. Hartman completed 12 of 18 pass attempts for 157 yards with 2 touch- downs in a 31-13 victory. Hartman hasn't worn a number other than 10 since. "He played the best game of his life to that point," Grier said. "We won the state championship against a really great team, and he was a major reason why. He was really motivated. Demitri fueled him to work even harder." Fuel for hard work has never been a scarcity for Hartman. 'IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE' It doesn't get much more difficult than suiting up and playing with a heavy heart in the immediate aftermath of im- mense tragedy. But before Hartman lost a rib and had major surgery to rid his body of the blood clot in 2022, a serious health complication jeopardized his ju- nior year of high school in 2016. Hartman did all the right things after winning the state title as a sophomore. He spent the winter and summer in the weight room. He started eating like a professional athlete, counting calories and all. He received a scholarship of- Hartman, who spent the past five years at Wake Forest, is the ACC's all-time leader in touchdown passes with 110 and ranks No. 2 in league history in passing yards with 12,967. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS BUILT DIFFERENT A tragic death and prosperity in the face of adversity behind him, Sam Hartman is poised to excel at Notre Dame