Blue and Gold Illustrated

UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE tion started through trial and error, and on some Saturdays it became the most anticipated part of the game. Serving as a safety education officer, McCarthy was asked to convey a traffic message in the fourth quarter to help stem a troubling tide of vehicle crashes around the stadium on game days. The original plan was to deliver a bor- ing and canned safety notice in the same mundane style as his two PA predeces- sors did. But after two failed attempts using the straight-forward approach, McCarthy decided to try something dif- ferent to start the 1961 season. And let's face it, with Notre Dame limping to a 4-6 home record through 1960 and 1961, Irish fans needed some- thing to spice things up. "Nobody was listening to this, and I understood that," McCarthy said. "They're there to have fun and have a good time. They don't want to listen to some policeman tell them to behave themselves. I needed something." McCarthy borrowed the pun idea from a Chicago helicopter cop named Len Baldy, who would end his daily report on WGN with a whimsical quip about traffic flow in the Windy City. The puns weren't an immediate hit for McCarthy. "The crowd would boo and groan," he said. But some reaction is better than none, and the ensuing silence as games and seasons passed spoke volumes. "Because then I knew they were lis- tening, even anticipating," said McCar- thy, who jotted down his own material during the offseason whenever it came to him. "Eventually people started lis- tening to the entire message just to see how corny the quip was going to be. That's how all this came about." A star was born. McCarthy's work became so popu- lar and enjoyed, he co-authored a book in 2009 along with stadium announcer Mike Collins, titled: May I Have Your At- tention Please … Wit and Wisdom from the Notre Dame Pressbox. Plans were for McCarthy to fully retire after the 2014 season. But Notre Dame officials persuaded him to come back one last time Saturday for an encore performance and a proper sendoff after more than five decades of service to the stadium and community. "I was very happy with the way it ended up," McCarthy said in retrospect. "And I thought I was accomplishing what I was supposed to be doing. Our accident rate is way down, it's almost perfect now. I don't know if I contrib- uted to that or not, but maybe in some small way I did." McCarthy is not interested in sharing his age. "I've been around the block a few times, let's just leave it at that," he joked. But the laughter and groans his time- less messages brought each game are much more important than any date on a birth certificate. "MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE! This is Tim McCarthy for the Indiana State Police." … 10-24, assignment completed. ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com

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