My freshman year was 1981 - after beating LSU, the following Monday morning, Emil gets up in front of the freshmen chemistry class in Cushing and says "at one time on Saturday, the entire backfield (QB and both running backs) were part of your freshman class. I think you have four great years to look forward to!"
Not sure who they were (the QB was Ken Karcher) - but Emil should have stuck with chemistry.
And then there is the Laura Lee/Larry Williams story. Laura is at the Grotto late one night in the fall and meets Faust and starts telling him how homesick she is for California. Faust says "Hey - let me set you up with a California freshman football player." And the rest, they say, was history.
Aaron Roberts was a classmate of mine in high school. The story we heard was the Bo had already brought in too many running backs, and ND admissions would be tough to clear, so he opted for Muddy Waters who promised to start him as a true freshman. It didn't work out...
and played in the NFL. I remember Joe on the Redskins...RJD
Especially since he usually had some woman hanging on him while milking one quarter for 30 minutes of dot-eating.
way too soon.
He was a great player at ND.
I was a study partner with one of his line mates, a terrific guy (and damn good player himself) named Kevin Griffith. He told me a few stories about how good Gann was in practice, so I spent some time watching him in Gann’s first start. He was dominating his opponent in his first start. He went on to have a great career.
Kevin also told me how great Anthony Munoz was at USC. Kevin said Munoz treated him like a rag doll. Turns out Kevin wasn’t exaggerating. Munoz might be the greatest NFL offensive lineman of all time.
Golic Sr has expressed admiration for Munoz. Said Munoz would beat him on a play, never say a thing, come right back and beat him on the next play.
His dad played for the Bears and coached South Bend Washington to a state title back in 1969. He later coached for schools like Purdue, Arizona, and USC (staying with Larry Smith) and is in the Indiana Athletics HOF.
Back to "Rock". He coached at many schools after graduating, coaching for head coaches like Ron Cooper and Skip Holtz. I believe there is a bench named after him near the JACC and the stadium. At a far-too-young age, he died in 2010 after a lengthy illness