Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME club, Leprechaun Legion. The Legion, previously a basketball-only group, expanded this year to try to generate buzz around all of Notre Dame's home sporting events. Cunningham helped the group Matt Cunningham is president of the student spirit make an impact on the atmo- sphere during Notre Dame foot- ball games by convincing the ath- letic department to add music to the stadium and organizing give- aways such as rally towels and leis. did you first get involved with Lep- rechaun Legion and trying to make it about more than basketball? Cunningham: "Last fall, a couple Blue & Gold Illustrated: When LEPRECHAUN LEGION PRESIDENT MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM Five Questions With … pretty cool to see ideas that you come up with trans- late to game day." Blue & Gold Illustrated: Are there any big plans lined up for Senior Day against Wake Forest? Cunningham: "We have a bunch of leis left over from when we gave them out [Sept. 22 against Michigan]. I think our big project is going to be handing those back out again on Senior Day. That will be our final football giveaway or event." weeks before the USC game after that Michigan game [in Ann Ar- bor], we were just asking people. I worked in the athletic department as a student worker; I just asked around about what can we do for USC that would really boost the energy? Can we play music and that kind of thing? "They were very open and receptive to it as long as Cunningham is president of the student spirit club, which expanded this year to try to gen- erate buzz around all of Notre Dame's home sporting events. PHOTO COURTESY MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM it came from students." Blue & Gold Illustrated: How do you go about leis donated. … It looked great on NBC when they talked about the Notre Dame community." always talks about his family at Notre Dame, and we wanted to find a way to embody that. One of our football leaders said what if we give out leis to everybody. "We took that idea, ran with it and we ended up getting 5,000 ings we'll have a quick recap of the football atmo- sphere and what we thought of it: the playlist, when songs are played and anything that we could add or change. … The one cool one that they started doing this year is right before kickoff when they play "Here Come The Irish" right into "Shippin' Up to Boston." "That came from one of our football leaders. It's implementing those things? Cunningham: "At each of our Legion board meet- proaching fast. Do you work closely with that team and head coach Mike Brey? Cunningham: "We always look to him and look to the team to see what they want. He's been great as far as talking with us and offering ideas and giving us his support. "He's got great energy and that's something that Blue & Gold Illustrated: Basketball season is ap- game with the leis got a lot of at- tention across the country. What role did the Legion play in that? Cunningham: "[Manti Te'o] Blue & Gold Illustrated: That we try to bring to every game as well." — Dan Murphy