Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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All Grown Up Troy Niklas' charity event is another sign that the Irish tight end is coming into his own on and off the field at Notre Dame T By Dan Murphy he first time Troy Niklas made a public speaking appearance as a Notre Dame football player it ended with him shirtless, emphatically professing his love of pain. On Oct. 21, the 6-6½, 270-pound tight end found himself in front of a room of 200 people with the microphone back in his hands, and this time he showed he liked to alleviate pain as well. Niklas, a junior and an emerging offensive playmaker for the Irish, organized a team dinner at South Bend's Center for the Homeless during the university's weeklong semester break. The team raised $4,600 for the shelter, and provided toiletries, blankets and some welcome company for its guests during an event that took six weeks to plan. Roughly 70 Notre Dame players and members of the coaching staff spent their night off eating and swapping stories with a room full of the building's residents. "I couldn't be more blessed and couldn't be more happy that all of them showed up," Niklas said. "That really is what made the event happen with raising the money and coming here, and I couldn't be more happy about that." The night of charity was one of many signs in the month of October that the next player in Notre Dame's star-studded line of succession at tight end is growing into his large frame both on and off the field. A week earlier, while preparing to play against his hometown Trojans — a game in which he led the Irish receivers with four catches for 58 yards and a touchdown — Niklas spent his free time strolling through Stanford Hall passing out Halloween candy and asking his dorm mates to donate money to the homeless. He asked his teammates to take up a similar collection across campus. He thought if they all pitched in the team could raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,000, but the final tally more than doubled his goal. The philanthropic side of Notre Dame's quirky Atlas look-alike in