Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI ami Beach runner-up because "she was prettier than the winner." In the second game of his sophomore year, at Purdue, when Best was part of the pre-game football introductions on ABC, he greeted the national television audience by putting his thumb in his mouth and wiggling his fingers. "It was just my way of making things more loose, to show that a football game was not like death row," Best explained. On the first play of that game, Best raced 64 yards to set up one score and later tallied the go-ahead TD in the hard- fought 20-7 win, earning the MVP hon- ors from ABC. "I'm convinced that Art Best is George Gipp reincarnated," said Rev. Jerome Wilson, a 1932 Notre Dame graduate who was the school's vice president of business affairs from 1952- 76. The record-setting 1973 backfield that year (350.2 yards rushing per game) with quarterback Tom Clements, full- back Wayne "The Train" Bullock, and halfbacks Eric Penick and Best became immortalized as my generation's "Four Horsemen" en route to the national title. They were flawless to me. Best's 903 yards rushing after his sophomore year were the most ever by a Notre Dame back at that stage of his career, eclipsing the 785 yards total of … you guessed it, The Gipper. Alas, mischief and suspensions trailed Best, the ultimate blithe spirit: sneaking through a fire escape to scale the Golden Dome ("I wore handball gloves to hold on to the cable,"), off-campus brawls … even jumping from a fourth-story dorm window at the all-female St. Mary's Col- lege to escape security in the morning hours — yet still report in time for a mid-term exam. It was like "The Mick" belting a key homer while hung over. As an 11-year-old, I didn't understand what the campus newspaper The Ob- server meant in its Christmas edition when it said Best's gift should be "a parachute." A "wild hare" is the way head coach Ara Parseghian described him. Dismissed from school prior to his senior year in 1975, Best was a 1,000- yard rusher at Kent State in 1976 before playing several years in the NFL, includ- ing as a backup to Walter Payton. He married, became a family man, was a construction project manager — and in 1993 received a standing ovation from his former Irish teammates for taking the initiative to organize so well the 20th year reunion of the national champs, after being previously embittered. It was his wife, Pauline, who inspired him to reconnect. Parseghian turned to Best during his speech and said jokingly, "I had you in my office about 5,000 times, and it took this long for my counseling to finally sink in." "The greatest gift anyone can have is forgiveness, even forgiving yourself," Best said. The best, and Best, of times from childhood remain eternal. Rest ye well … and run free again. ✦ Senior Editor Lou Somogyi has been at Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 1985. He can be reached at lsomogyi@blueandgold.com