Blue and Gold Illustrated

January 2014 Issue

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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where have you gone? other historic commercial real estate sites in the Midwest. "It's been an easy transition out of football," he said. "Being able to have a purpose when I wake up every single morning I think is important." That much property led to a hefty insurance bill for Faine. If he was going to be paying commissions to brokers, he decided he'd rather pay them to himself. So Iron Lion Insurance was born, and once again Faine dove head first into learning everything he could about the budding new business. He has also recently started an investment firm by the same name along with George and one of his Notre Dame roommates, Rob Joyce. Joyce met Faine on the third floor of Siegfried Hall at Notre Dame and said he's always been a good motivator and manger. He convinced Joyce to try out for the Irish football team as a walk-on. Joyce said he had never considered it when applying to Notre Dame, but Faine's nonchalant confidence made him give it a shot. He made the team, but eventually decided to pursue boxing instead. "He pushes people to do their best, and that's what it comes down to," Joyce said. "I think the same thing follows through in his business. I think he realized he could find talented people and bring out the best in them. He doesn't crunch numbers in his head. He's not a structured finance guy, but he gets concepts really quickly and then he encourages people to get them to go beyond what they think they can do." Faine lived in Hawaii and Califor- nia early in his life before moving to the East Coast and playing football at Seminole High School in Sanford, Fla. He started at center as a freshman at Seminole before moving to tackle for three years. He made the USA Today All-America team as a senior for physically dominating the central Florida competition. He had scholarship offers to play tackle at Nebraska and guard at Florida. He chose Notre Dame instead because his recruiters, Urban Meyer and Charlie Strong, wanted him to play center. "Those guys were strong on the fact that they wanted me to come in and play center and play early in my career, which I did," Faine said. "I thought that was my best opportunity to take football as far as I possibly could." Faine started his sophomore season for the Irish and anchored the offensive line for the next three years. He played No. 1 Nebraska in the second game of his career and came within an overtime field goal of upsetting the Cornhuskers team that had recruited him to play tackle. That year finished on a higher note in a 38-21 win over USC that sealed Notre Dame's first trip to a BCS bowl game. The offense ran for 246 yards against a haphazard Trojans defense in what Faine called "a lineman's dream." As a senior, Faine was a consistent force in the middle of a team that looked destined to return to the BCS. They started the season 8-0 under firstyear head coach Tyrone Willingham before falling in three of their final five games.

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