Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IRISH ECHOES JIM LEFEBVRE 42 SUMMER 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED W hen Eric Penick was growing up in the Clo- verside neighborhood of Cleveland in the 1960s, he experienced little in the way of racial intolerance. Anything seemed possible to a youngster who looked up to Cleveland Browns star running back Jim Brown, and Ernie Davis, the first Black player to win the Heisman Trophy, for Syracuse in 1961. Penick, who died on April 16 at age 71, became a standout running back for Notre Dame and scored two of the biggest touchdowns for the 1973 Fight- ing Irish national champions. "It was a middle-class, Black neighborhood," Penick wrote in his 2023 autobiography A Notre Dame Man: The Life, Lore and Runs of Eric Penick. "The residents were people like teachers, small business owners or government workers like my mom. "Cloverside was 99 percent Black. It seemed normal at the time. That was just how it was, and I never really wor- ried about it. I never really got a sense about the Civil Rights movement until I got to college and learned about it." One thing was important to Penick's mother and stepfather — education. That was a priority. "My family expected all of the kids to speak right and act right." Sports became a familiar outlet for Penick, who joined his buddies for neighborhood football games, and devel- oped an early interest in track and field. "I played hockey, too. My parents bought me skates and a hockey stick and a puck," Penick wrote. "I was not very good, though. I also played some base- ball, and I had a basketball hoop in my backyard. Sometimes I would even throw horseshoes. You name a sport, and we were doing it around my neighborhood." Penick's world expanded greatly when he was admitted to Gilmour Academy, a prestigious Catholic school in Gates Mills, Ohio. It took a couple of long bus rides to reach from Cloverside. Once there, the academic rigor and extra-cur- ricular opportunities made it "a beautiful place to grow up and go to high school." Athletics were not part of the family's plan in sending Eric to Gilmour. It was to be academics only. But in a freshman gym class, Penick ran "a barefoot, 11-something 100-yard dash." The gym teacher, Mr. Weber, was also the track and football coach. "He begged my mother to let me run track and play football." Eventually, Mrs. Penick agreed, and Eric's legendary ca- reer in organized sports began. In track, Penick won an unprece- dented five Ohio state championships as a sprinter in the 100-, 220- and 440- yard events. On the football field, he became a phenomenal running back, surpassing 2,000 yards as a senior and garnering attention from the best col- lege football programs in the nation. There was a natural connection be- tween Gilmour Academy and Notre Dame — both run by the Holy Cross or- der. The recruiting by Irish assistant Mike Stock was straightforward. "Notre Dame is recruiting you," Eric's mother said. "You aren't going anywhere else." At Notre Dame, Penick endured fairly typical feelings of homesickness, com- pounded by being one of just a handful of Black players on the football team. But a campus se- curity guard named Ernie Rice befriended the Black players and "really took us under his wing. He recognized that we were all feeling lonely and out of place in our own ways." By his sophomore year, things seemed a lot more comfortable, and Penick solidified his place on the varsity. He led the 1972 Irish with 727 rushing yards on 124 carries with 5 touchdowns. As a junior in 1973, he contrib- uted 586 rushing yards to an Irish backfield that included fullback Wayne Bullock (752 yards), Art Best (700) and quar- terback Tom Clements (360). Notre Dame was ranked No. 8 when it hosted No. 6 Southern Cal on Oct. 27, a crisp South Bend afternoon. The Irish held a 13-7 lead early in the third quarter with the ball on its 15-yard line. Penick describes what happened this way: "Tom Clements took the snap, faked as if we were going to do a fullback dive, turned, and put the ball into my chest. I already had a full head of steam moving toward the outside of the line. Our of- fensive tackles, Steve Sylvester and Steve Neece, completely sealed off their men. "Just before I reached the line of scrimmage, I picked up an out-of-this- world block from Art Best. Art hit the defensive end so hard that the lineman fell into USC's defensive tackle, knock- ing both men out of the play. With that block, I was able to easily find the edge and turn up field. Tight end Dave Casper had released from the line of scrimmage and leveled the USC middle linebacker. "Guards Gerry DiNardo and Frank Pomarico got into the second level of the USC defense and each knocked down a defender." At the USC 33-yard line, Trojans de- fensive back Danny Reece caught up to Penick, but Eric shook him with a stutter step. In the ABC broadcast booth, Paul Eric Penick Lived A Life Of Superb Highs, Painful Lows And Redemption Penick's biggest Irish moments were an 85-yard touchdown scamper in a 23-14 victory over USC and a critical 12-yard scoring run in a 24-23 victory over No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl en route to Notre Dame capturing the 1973 national championship. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS