Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/98978
M By Dan Murphy anti Te���o stepped into the auditorium of New York City���s Best Buy Theater draped in a regal ti leaf and, for just a moment, he was a kid again. Like so many others on their first trip to Broadway, the Notre Dame linebacker found himself a little bit starstruck. After a week of countless interviews, photo opportunities and autographs, Te���o was staring into a wall of in-theflesh childhood heroes. From Archie Griffin to Tim Tebow, the legends of their sport were gathered to welcome another into the pantheon of college football. An hour later, they picked Johnny Manziel, a record-smashing rookie quarterback from Texas A&M, to join them on stage. Te���o dropped his eyes when his name wasn���t called and flashed a nodding smile as Manziel delivered the speech. Any disappointment he felt was soon replaced by a familiar burning sensation, the same one that drove him from Oahu���s idyllic North Shore through South Bend and on to this room in New York. ���I can���t really describe it. It was just that burn that was like, ���Hey, you gotta get better,������ Te���o said. ���Obviously, what I did wasn���t good enough. I felt that I could do better. So that���s exactly what���s going to happen.��� Luckily for the Irish, Te���o���s headspinning trophy collection tour allowed very little time for reflection. Had he been given the time to properly review the last four years at Notre Dame, he might have seen more clearly the im- pression he will leave. He was very much already a part of the club. In a game when talent is so often drowned in a sea of expectations, the man touted as Notre Dame���s most promising defensive recruit ever lived up to the hype. He ended his senior year by winning an unprecedented seven national awards in seven days and paved the way for his team to compete for an eighth trophy Jan. 7. At a school that treasures tradition, Te���o cracked the stubborn binding of history and wrote his own chapter ��� one that will be remembered among the very best of them. ���Pre-eminent sports brands are rare. Even rarer is an athlete that perfectly captures the essence of a sports program,��� Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said. ���I can think of very few. Maybe a Peyton Manning in Indianapolis. Maybe a Derek Jeter in New York. Maybe Bill Bradley at Princeton. But in the history of sports, it���s rare. ���We���ve been incredibly privileged at the University of Notre Dame during the past four years to have a studentathlete who so perfectly captures the values of the institution.��� Swarbrick heaped praise on Te���o during the presentations of the Awards and Recognition Association���s Sportsmanship Award on campus in late November. The lesser-known trophy was an unexpected eighth addition to his postseason haul. It was also an appetizer for the coming week���s course that would send Te���o and his parents nearly 9,000 miles crisscrossing the country to hear more speeches and collect more accolades.