Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/561665
BY LOU SOMOGYI S everal years ago during an inter- view with Blue & Gold Illustrated, 1971-73 Fighting Irish starting of- fensive guard Frank Pomarico was asked what it was like to play for head coach Ara Par- seghian and to serve as a captain on his 1973 national championship team. An emotional Po- marico waxed eloquent with an impromptu remark that surprised even him. "I said it was kind of like playing for royalty: He was King Arthur and we were his knights," Pomarico recalled. "I mentioned that to someone else one time and he said, 'Maybe you should write a book about that.' Then I thought, 'Maybe I will.'" This August, Pomarico's labor of love was completed with the release of the 256-page Ara's Knights, published by Triumph Books and co-authored by fel- low Notre Dame graduate Ray Serafin, a former journalist and current speech- writer. The 18 chapters in the book feature Pomarico's four seasons on campus — and also deal with the power of the four seasons (winter, spring, summer and autumn) at the uni- versity and how they are rooted in its spiri- tuality and the campus camaraderie. "This is not just a football book; this is about what life is like at Notre Dame, too — in the summer time, the spring, the fall when all the leaves are chang- ing," Pomarico said. "Each season has its own uniqueness, and it's so brutal in the win- ter time that you have a tendency to stay inside and get close to your hall mates, most of whom didn't play varsity sports. "But it allowed you to grow and de- velop as a person, and they became your extended family." It chronicles Pomarico's roots from a working-class, New York Italian-Cath- olic background, and how the opportu- nity to attend Notre Dame on a football scholarship was the highest from of calling he could receive. In his book Ara's Knights, Pomarico — who served as a captain on the 1973 national championship team — details what it was like to play for Ara Parseghian and what life was like at Notre Dame. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS Labor Of Love 1973 tri-captain Frank Pomarico puts on paper his Camelot at Notre Dame