Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IRISH ECHOES JIM LEFEBVRE 58 NOV. 8, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED I t's the pivotal scene in the movie "Rudy." Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger has spent years chasing his dream of playing foot- ball for Notre Dame. He has worked his way into the university, then on to the football team as a walk-on. Yet, he had never dressed for a game. And his final opportunity was approach- ing. One by one, the Fighting Irish players march solemnly into Coach Dan Devine's office, each laying down his jersey and asking that Rudy dress in his place. It's great Hollywood … and, of course, it never happened in real life. But it turns out there was a player who offered to sit in the stands so Rudy could dress for the final home game of 1975 against Georgia Tech on Nov. 8, 50 years ago. Pat Sarb came out of South Bend's Hickey family, steeped in Notre Dame legend and lore. His great-great-grand- father Louis Etier Hickey was recruited from Montreal by Father Sorin himself to come and work as a skilled carpen- ter on the Main Building and the Ba- silica. His grandparents, Tom and Kate Hickey, lived next door to the Rocknes on St. Vincent Street and were his close friends. Tom was a sponsor when Coach Rockne converted to Catholicism in No- vember 1925. Tom Hickey ran the Hickey Construc- tion Company, which built 43 build- ings and projects at Notre Dame and 11 at St. Mary's. Pat Sarb's mother was one of Tom and Kate Hickey's children. She married Jerry Sarb '48, who lived in Breen-Phillips when that residence hall also housed the office of head coach Frank Leahy. One of her brothers was Louis Hickey, who was a reserve end for the Fight- ing Irish in the mid-1930s under Elmer Layden. Another brother, Jerry Hickey, and his wife, Rosemarie, purchased the Rockne house on Wayne Street after Bonnie Rockne's death, and raised six children there, owning the home for nearly 60 years. Pat Sarb was a Michigan all-state quarterback, and all-city defensive back at Sacred Heart High School in Dearborn. He was recruited to Notre Dame by head coach Ara Parseghian, who typically signed five or more quar- terbacks a year, figuring that they were likely the best athlete on their team, and could help the Irish at one of many positions. That was the case with Pat, who was converted to a defensive back and earned his monogram during Notre Dame's 1973 national championship season as a sophomore. In 1974, Sarb dressed for six home games and the 1975 Orange Bowl win over Alabama, 13-11, in Coach Parseghi- an's final game. When Devine took over as head coach in 1975, he decided to play numerous underclassmen above veteran upper- classmen, whom he would only coach for a short period of time. Among the seniors relegated to the practice squad was Pat Sarb. Here's how Sarb described what hap- pened leading up to the Georgia Tech game, from the pages of "We Are ND, The Story of Notre Dame as Told by Her Alumni." "In my senior year, I, like Rudy, was checking the game squad list weekly. The Thursday before our 'senior game' against Georgia Tech, my name finally appeared on the dress squad; Rudy's did not. "Captains Ed Bauer and Jim Stock met me in the locker room prior to Fri- day's practice and asked if I would give up my spot for Rudy. I immediately said 'yes' because I truly felt that it would be an injustice if Rudy and some of the other guys who had worked so hard were never able to experience the thrill of running through the tunnel on game day. So, I sat in the senior section of the stands and watched the drama unfold at the end of the game. "It was a fourth-quarter tradition for the senior section to chant the names of the seniors who had never played. We chanted Rudy's name in unison, and he finally got in and sacked the quarter- back on the final play." Notre Dame won the game, 24-3, in a season that ended 8-3-0. "I can honestly say that I shared in Rudy's joy as he was carried off the field," Sarb said. In a 2013 interview, Rudy acknowl- edged the role of Sarb and fellow senior Ivan Brown as teammates "who really helped in persuading" the coaches to let Rudy dress for the game. 'Rudy' At 50: One Player Did Give Up His Spot To The Walk-On Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger (No. 45, right) recorded a sack against Georgia Tech in his one play on Nov. 8, 1975. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS