Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/542018
FAN FORUM THE NOTRE DAME TIE THAT BINDS My father passed away this spring and he was a Notre Dame fan. His story is a unique one in that he was not American, he was not Irish, but he was English and proud of it. He was born and raised in a small industrial town in northwest England called St Helens. Yes, he was raised Catholic and he had an Irish grandfa- ther from Co Mayo. So how did this Englishman become a lifelong fan of Notre Dame? The story goes he went to watch a movie during World War II thinking it was going to be a war movie, and it turned out to be a film about the Notre Dame football team and the "Fight- ing Irish," and a seed was sown. Dad regaled stories of listening to Notre Dame games on the Armed Forces Ra- dio Network, especially the Michigan State game in 1966. My sister and I have happy memo- ries of seeing dad with his ear pressed against the radio listening to games in the autumn. After the 1988 champion- ship season, he wrote to Coach Holtz congratulating him on the season, and Dad kept the reply that was sent back. I vividly remember both Dad and I on all fours trying to listen to the 1993 game with Florida State. He was still smarting to his final days that Notre Dame was never awarded that title! In 1996, Dad and I visited Dublin to watch the Fighting Irish beat Navy. In 2001, I gave him the present of a lifetime. Through American friends, I was able to get two tickets to watch Notre Dame in South Bend (vs. USC). On a barmy summer's evening in an English garden, I told my then 70-year- old father he was going to watch Notre Dame in South Bend. He cried that night, and so in October 2001 my par- ents and my wife and I crossed the pond. On the Friday afternoon after the tour of campus, we were walking back towards the Golden Dome when the band started their practice. I still have the video footage of my dad welling up on hearing The Victory March. En- tering the stadium for the first time, just as we went walking up the stairs, Dad reached out his arm and held my hand as if to say, "I love you." As NBC stopped coverage of live games in Europe, on Saturday eve- nings I drove to my parents' house, and Dad and I would watch the game as best we could on the Internet. My father was taken ill on Easter Sunday 2015 and was admitted to a hospital. A week later, he was trans- ferred to the Critical Care Unit. When told he could still hear us and it would be recommended to bring in CDs for him to listen, I brought in the CD we brought from the Notre Dame gift shop — The Band of the Fighting Irish. He lasted until April 22, and as he drew his final breaths with his family BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Letters Blue & Gold Illustrated P. O. Box 1007 Notre Dame, IN 46556 or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com