Born blue and gold
by Rocket88 (2005-11-09 01:07:26)

In reply to: The broken link: What has ND's football tradition meant to you?  posted by Board Ops


I was born to be a ND fan. My grandfather was a cop on the south side of Chicago. His father came over on the boat from Ireland looking for a better life. My father was the first person in our family to ever go to college. Considering that his father and his uncles could spin tales of driving to South Bend to see Rockne teams, it wasn't so surprising when looking for a college to attend, he chose to shoot for Notre Dame. He put asbestos on pipes in the Gary steel mills to come up with the money to go, but he got into ND and graduated.

I consider my father an amazing person, but there have been times when we didn't see eye to eye. In fact, there were times when we couldn't talk about almost anything, but there was never a time when we couldn't talk about ND football. His passion for the Fighting Irish eventually passed to me and pulled me off the path I was on, which was going the wrong way. I got my life together and made it my goal to go to Notre Dame.

One of the greatest moments in my life was seeing my big strong father with tears in his eyes when I graduated from Our Lady.

Notre Dame, the school, our faith, and, yes, our football tradition are some of the things that make life meaningful and fun.

It's been a wonderful ride going through life as a ND football fan. My children may or may not go to ND, but there is no doubt that they love the place. How sad that they can't remember ND being a power. It's been that long.

I think it's important to say that at no other time in my life can I remember being so concerned about ND football. Something is very wrong with the program and I can't help but wonder if it will never be the same again.

I hope that isn't the case because if it is, it's like a death in the family.