Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1530431
6 JANUARY 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FAN FORUM BE HEARD! Send your letters to: sdowney@comanpub.com or mail to: Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 SUPER FAN I'm writing this letter to you on behalf of my grandad, Harry Fussenegger. He has been a Notre Dame football fan since he was just 12 years old. Now that he has turned 90, he has been a dedicated fan for 78 years. My gran- dad really is the Notre Dame football team's No. 1 fan. He owns very few shirts that don't have some sort of rep- resentation of Notre Dame's logo or say, "Fighting Irish." Before Notre Dame's foot- ball games were broadcast on TV (since it was only 1946 at the time), my grandad, alongside his dad, listened to the games on the radio. He recalls listening to the 1946 Notre Dame and Army, an undefeated team at the time, game where the final score ended in a 0-0 tie. My grandad says that this game was played before overtime became a possible aspect of a college football game, meaning that 0-0 was the final score. He even remem- bers watching the first televised Notre Dame football game against Iowa in 1949. My grandad's favorite part of watching the Notre Dame football games on TV has always been hearing the announcers say, "Here come the Irish" and when they win, of course! Standing out to him, Notre Dame had always been my grandad's dream school, but unfortunately, he wasn't Catholic and back then you still had to be Catholic to go to the school. Lucky for him, he has been able to visit the " beautiful" campus three times, all three of which he got to attend a Notre Dame football game. When asked about how he felt about this, my grandad said, "I couldn't believe I was there." Two of my grandad's favorite players were Johnny Lujack, because accord- ing to my grandad, "He could do it all," and Joe Montana. He says that he can remember all the great players, having only missed a couple games in 78 years of being a super fan. My grandad's fa- vorite player this year, a current sopho- more and running back for the Fighting Irish, is Jeremiyah Love. Given my grandad's super fandom of Notre Dame, please consider put- ting him in Blue & Gold Illustrated. He loves everything Notre Dame, includ- ing every edition he receives of your magazine. Marissa Rambler Lancaster, Pa. Happy Birthday, Harry! Fans like you are why we do what we do. We hope you have a great 90th birthday! HERE'S THE KICKER I have been a Notre Dame fan since the early 1960s. I really enjoy the pub- lication of Blue & Gold Illustrated. Ev- eryone responsible for the magazine does a fantastic job of giv- ing ND fans insight into the Fighting Irish. I am wondering if Notre Dame has been looking for a kicker for the 2025 class. I follow BGI, and I have not seen any listings for a kicker. I think they have filled that position through the portal in the past. I am wondering if Notre Dame is considering recruit- ing senior Dominic De Frei- tas from NorthWood High School in Nappanee, Ind. I have coached football at NorthWood for 46 years (38 years as a freshman coach and last eight years as head eighth grade coach). De Fre- itas is the real deal. He has the state record of 62 yards. Anyone who looks at stats can see that he has a great talent. H e a l s o k i c k s o f f f o r NorthWood. Many of his kicks were 5 to 10 yards deep into the end zone. Having played soccer all his life, it was not until his eighth- grade year that he started to realize he had a talent kicking a football. Having coached Ryan Burkhart, a Notre Dame kicker for several years, I realize that Dominic has a great talent. I know he has been on visits to Michi- gan, Ohio State and others. I think it would be a shame to have the Irish miss out on this kid. Can you give your readers any idea if the Irish will be recruiting a kicker for the 2025 season? Jim Hess Nappanee, Ind. Mr. Hess, the Irish secured a commit- ment from a kicker, Milwaukee Mar- quette University's Erik Schmidt, Dec. 2 on the eve of the early signing period for the 2025 class. The Fighting Irish man- aged to flip him from his previous pledge to Wisconsin. Schmidt is considered to be one of the Harry Fussenegger has been a dedicated Fighting Irish fan for 78 years. PHOTO COURTESY THE FUSSENEGGER FAMILY