Blue and Gold Illustrated

January 2013

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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Te���o appeared via satellite on screen from New York City at Notre Dame���s ���The Echoes��� awards show Dec. 7, while taking part in the Heisman Trophy festivities. Photo by Joe Raymond two-day trip in New York getting to know the Manziel family. They grew close enough to convince the Manziels to show up to the Best Buy Theater Saturday night adorned in a lei and kukui nuts. The Te���os packed a dozen lei on their trip from Hawaii to share a little bit of their home with the Manziels and the rest of the world watching on television. ���We wanted to share with them our respect,��� Brian said. ���It was important to [Manti]. He wanted to make sure there was no doubt that his state knew that he was thinking of them.��� Te���o worked to promote his Hawaiian culture through the entire football season. After beating Wake Forest 38-0 in his final home game, the team captain emerged for a postgame interview with his neck buried in a jungle of plumeria flowers, ti leaves and beef jerky necklaces. He and other Hawaiian imports such as Notre Dame���s Kona Schwenke and Robby Toma and Oregon���s Marcus Mariota see themselves as role models for future local players that are tentative about leaving home. ���My main thing is to show the kids back home that we can step out of that bubble,��� he said. ���Hawaii is such a comfortable place to be, you don���t want to leave. For us kids who grew up there, it���s definitely tough to leave.��� Dozens of those kids and their families gathered together in Te���o���s hometown of Laie to watch their local hero be honored in New York City. They made up a very small part of what, according to ESPN, was the second-largest audience ever to tune in for the Heisman presentation. It was a crowd no doubt

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