Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541184
16 NOV. 15, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA T he elementary school bus is often a scary place for kindergarteners taking it for the first time. That is, unless your name is Donovan Hinish. Kurt Hinish, Donovan's older brother and a former Notre Dame defensive tackle like Donovan is now, was in fifth grade and had been fending for himself on the bus for years when his younger brother was finally of age to join him. Someone said something foul to Kurt, who brushed it off having learned to pick and choose his bus battles, but Donovan, fresh as a puppy — and comparatively young as one, too — wasn't having any of it. "My mom jokes around and calls Dono- van her pit bull," Kurt told Blue & Gold Illustrated. "Donovan just jumped on this kid and tore this kid up. And he's always been that way. He's a very loving kid, very nice kid, but as soon as you get on the wrong side of Donovan, he's a pit bull." A Pittsburgh pit bull. NOT GETTING BEAT That's where Donovan's roots stretch from, all the way to South Bend, where he's in his fourth year at Notre Dame. He arrived for the 2022 season, just after Kurt departed after his fifth season in 2021. For a full decade, the Hinish name has been synonymous with Fighting Irish football. Back home in Pittsburgh, it's synony- mous with fighting. Period. The fighting is not always of the scuf- fles on the bus variety but of the general order. In life. Everything worth having is worth fighting for. Life itself is worth fighting for. Nobody knows that as well as Kurt and Donovan's father, Kurt Sr. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer not long after Donovan stepped on the bus for the first time. Doctors told him he'd be on borrowed time after five years. It's been 14. Kurt Sr. is still kicking. That level of willpower is not lost on his youngest son. Donovan derives strength from watching and knowing what his dad has been through fighting a deadly disease for roughly two-thirds of Donovan's life. "If I were to sit here and tell you guys about all my memories, we'd be here for an hour and a half or two hours," Dono- van told reporters in South Bend. The most poignant of those are all the times Kurt Sr. woke Donovan up for weightlifting sessions at 5:30 a.m. He didn't just drop him off at the gym, ei- ther; he went in and worked out with him. Then he took him home and made protein shakes and breakfast — all while Donovan caught another sleep cycle. After taking Donovan to school following his extra snooze, Kurt Sr. went to chemotherapy PITTSBURGH PIT BULL Donovan Hinish's success at Notre Dame is shaped by family roots, which run deep in The Steel City Hinish was named one of six Notre Dame team captains for the 2025 season via a team voting process during preseason camp. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER