Father/Son Core CFB Memories

[NorthDakota]

In the PSU postgame thread, @MacIrish75 stated he got in a little trouble for coming home and waking up his son with the news Notre Dame won. @GATTACA! correctly congratulated him that he created a core memory for him and his son.

I thought we should have a thread that we could all share similar stories that make college football a huge bond with fathers and sons, and other family members of course. But you know what I mean. I'll start.

My parents got married, had kids young, and my mom stayed home and my dad was in the air force. So taking the family to Notre Dame games was not in the cards. I think he went to one or two when we lived in Colorado Springs and they played Air Force, anyway I digress.

Late fall 2000, i was 8 years old. NDSU made the D2 playoffs at large. Those games were not televised so we needed radio to listen. NDSU made the quarterfinals and we're set to play the only team to beat them that year, Nebraska- Omaha. My dad (33ish) woke me up early Friday morning and said to pack my suitcase, I couldn't go to school because we were going on a trip.

He drove me and my oldest sister to Fargo and said we were getting on a bus with other bison fans to go to Omaha. I felt like the dorky kid on Polar Express going to some magical land called Nebraska.

The next day at the game, he told me this wasn't a normal game. The people around us are likely players parents. So I am not allowed to call them mean names because that might make them sad. The parents had nothing to worry about, Bison dominated. 2 Bison QB's tore their ACLs in like 5 minutes. And the athletic director got busted for "cruising" after the game or before or idk (i didn't know what that meant obviously). On the way home my dad played cards with me and read me Harry Potter.

Sorta corny and simple all things considered, its D2 football. But nevertheless, core memory. I try to thank him for it once in awhile since we butt heads so much.

 

[Sureal]

Man...I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. But the boss let me out with the boys to watch the game because she knows what's up tonight. I came back home after the win and drunk af to the misses soothing my 2 yr old daughter to sleep (she woke up screaming like a banshee). I tag team tap her out to take over the rocking and my drunk ass start crying thinking how great this moment is with the win and me just holding her. Idk lmao

Can't explain it but it was great

Not a core moment for my daughter but definitely for me.
Great night tonight.

Go Irish

 

[CANONIZEFATHERSORIN]

I’ll share a story. My dad left when I was two years old. My grandfather and my uncle wanted nothing to do with me. Growing up i liked playing sports and being a bro, but I never met an adult man who gave a shit about me. Then I got into notre dame. For the first time in my life there were respected, successful, god fearing men who cared about me and wanted to develop me into a man. I am who I am today because of my professors, my st Liam’s therapist, and bengal bouts. God fucking damn it i love notre dame

GO IRISH

GO IRISH

GO IRISH

 

[DCDomer]

Man...I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. But the boss let me out with the boys to watch the game because she knows what's up tonight. I came back home after the win and drunk af to the misses soothing my 2 yr old daughter to sleep (she woke up screaming like a banshee). I tag team tap her out to take over the rocking and my drunk ass start crying thinking how great this moment is with the win and me just holding her. Idk lmao

Can't explain it but it was great

Not a core moment for my daughter but definitely for me.
Great night tonight.

Go Irish

My bro science says these core moments 100% have osmosis effect

 

[RipWheeler]

It’s been a build up all season, but this game converted my 12 year old son from a duck fan over to the good guys. My wife watched the game with him tonight and she said he told her “Now I know why dad likes ND”. He also said ND is cooler than Oregon….never thought I’d hear that.

 

[NorthDakota]

I’ll share a story. My dad left when I was two years old. My grandfather and my uncle wanted nothing to do with me. Growing up i liked playing sports and being a bro, but I never met an adult man who gave a shit about me. Then I got into notre dame. For the first time in my life there were respected, successful, god fearing men who cared about me and wanted to develop me into a man. I am who I am today because of my professors, my st Liam’s therapist, and bengal bouts. God fucking damn it i love notre dame

GO IRISH

GO IRISH

GO IRISH

You are everything Notre Dame was founded for.

 

[NorthDakota]

It’s been a build up all season, but this game converted my 12 year old son from a duck fan over to the good guys. My wife watched the game with him tonight and she said he told her “Now I know why dad likes ND”. He also said ND is cooler than Oregon….never thought I’d hear that.

Core memory. He's one of us now.

 

[IrishBoognish]

It’s been a build up all season, but this game converted my 12 year old son from a duck fan over to the good guys. My wife watched the game with him tonight and she said he told her “Now I know why dad likes ND”. He also said ND is cooler than Oregon….never thought I’d hear that.

I live in Eugene...

There's a lot of people here who are saying... "Man, I don't know why I hated ND"

It sounds goofy but it's true

 

[MacIrish75]

Thanks for this thread @NorthDakota. I’ve mentioned this a few times…but my dad died in May at 72. Fairly unexpectedly. We started going together with my son—who is now four—to the Blue/Gold game two years ago. We went in the snow in ‘23 and went last year even though it was freezing. Dad asked both times—“Are you sure Konnor (my son) is okay to go?” I said both times let’s just go and see how it goes. If it’s too wet or cold we can just leave.

I’m glad we went. Memories, man. My boy is ready for the next spring game and is intent on buying a hot dog and blue Powerade for his Pepaw and putting it on his seat.

Some of my best memories of my dad revolve around ND football. We’ve attended countless games over the years, but my favorite times are just driving up on a whim, walking around campus, and trying to scalp a couple seats back in the day.

Last night was special, man. I know my Dad saw it, too.

 

[TNUtoNotreDame]

After my wife died last January my son dived into ND Fandom deeper than me( scary). Tonight we were screaming, hugging and just experiencing life in it's beauty. I know my wife is esatic watching from above. I will never forget this and I don't think he will either. Great core memory.

 

[EvilleIrish]

ND football was what my dad and I did together. Neither of us went to the school but just loved what it stood for. Being from SW Indiana we would take at least one trip a year to a game together. He passed in Feb of 2012. I would give anything for him to have watched with me last night. What a game. What a team.

 

[mrmcgrail]

ND has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. At 6 years old sitting in my uncle's basement for the 92 teams cotton bowl game against a&m and my uncle tells my dad hey I got hammered last night and I put us both down for a grand each on Notre Dame. I have never seen men so tense pregame but this run has brought my son's and daughter into the fandom and it makes my heart so incredibly full

 

[MacIrish75]

One of my first college football memories with my dad was actually going to an IU game. I was maybe like 7 years old. My great uncle lived in Bloomington and was a long-time season ticket holder. They played Wisconsin and I just remember thinking how cool it was to be in such a big stadium watching the guys I normally see on tv.

Then I went to my first ND game a couple years later and remember thinking “holy crap there are so many more people here than at the IU game.” It was just a whole different vibe and what really cemented things for me as an ND fan.

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

My dad was "old school" and let my mom do the vast majority of the "teaching the kids" in the house. She would work on teaching us how to read etc

Once I got old enough to read well - then he started to sit down with me for quiet reading time in his study. We'd sit down together and we'd read Blue and Gold Illustrated. Lou Somogyi and Tim Prister articles with man dad is when I really started to feel like a man with my dad.

 

[IrishLion]

One Saturday, I was at my stepdad's mom's house, she was watching me while my mom and stepdad were out for a weekend somewhere. I was channel-surfing in the afternoon, looking for something to watch on TV, when I caught a football game with these shiny gold helmets gleaming against greener-than-green grass, with a bright blue sky above the stadium.

It was an AWE INSPIRING visual. It just hooked me immediately. I was like, "Oh, THAT's Notre Dame. I get it already." Just something about it hit me, like the history and mystique hit me square in the chest, and all of these gaps of bits and pieces that I had heard from my stepdad and his friends suddenly filled in and coalesced into a solid thing.

It doesn't hurt that the first ND play I remember watching was Maurice Stovall elevating for an over-the-shoulder catch for a score... which was a famous SI cover shortly thereafter.

Anywho, I was basically a self-made ND fan, and it happened because I was looking to see if Transformers: Beast Wars was on TV on a random Saturday afternoon.

But now... I share all of this with my kids, because I didn't have that bonding experience over football with my dad and stepdad really, and I would have loved it. My stepdad was an ND fan, but didn't push it on me. My dad was a firefighter, so if he wasn't working, we were out doing something fun instead of sitting at home watching TV, since his time with me was limited.

Now during games, my 2yo will march around yelling "go boys!" or "Go eyeish!" when I yell "C'mon boys, get a stop!" on third down. My 6yo used one of her Christmas presents to make me a lucky green potion in a tiny vial, and she made it before UGA... you best believe I'm putting that shit on a necklace and wearing it for every game. And my oldest, my 8yo, I got to take him to his first real game this year for UVA. He's in the Fortnite/YouTube/Roblox generation, so I expected some boredom, or for him to ask for my phone at some point during the game. But instead, he watched the entire game, eyes glued to the field in front of us (minus one trip to the merch stand for a commemorative football).

It was just me and him, and it was the most fun game trip I've ever taken (and I got to meet several dudes from this very website at the Louisville game in 2019, and that was a fucking blast). Just me and my guy in the car for 4 hours there, 4 hours back, talking football and school and friends and all the little stuff that would never register to me, but means the world to him right now.

He didn't make it through the 4th quarter last night, and our youngest actually just go out of the hospital with pneumonia and was asleep, so I didn't have the heart to make a bunch of noise during the game last night or to wake anyone up, because it's been a LONG fucking week.

But they all made it to the end of the UGA game last week. When Hinish got that game-ending sack, I wrapped up all three of my kids in a giant bear hug, pulled them all onto the couch, and squeezed the shit out of them all while while yelling and screaming and celebrating "LUCKY POTION! LUCKY POTION!" I haven't heard laughter like that from all of them, collectively, ever. We've had some fun times, and my kids play and laugh and giggle together on their own enough that I feel pretty luck a lot of the time. And I'd like to think I've been a more affectionate father than my dad and stepdad ever were... but that felt different. I think my joy rubbed off on them.

 

[MacIrish75]

One Saturday, I was at my stepdad's mom's house, she was watching me while my mom and stepdad were out for a weekend somewhere. I was channel-surfing in the afternoon, looking for something to watch on TV, when I caught a football game with these shiny gold helmets gleaming against greener-than-green grass, with a bright blue sky above the stadium.

It was an AWE INSPIRING visual. It just hooked me immediately. I was like, "Oh, THAT's Notre Dame. I get it already." Just something about it hit me, like the history and mystique hit me square in the chest, and all of these gaps of bits and pieces that I had heard from my stepdad and his friends suddenly filled in and coalesced into a solid thing.

It doesn't hurt that the first ND play I remember watching was Maurice Stovall elevating for an over-the-shoulder catch for a score... which was a famous SI cover shortly thereafter.

Anywho, I was basically a self-made ND fan, and it happened because I was looking to see if Transformers: Beast Wars was on TV on a random Saturday afternoon.

But now... I share all of this with my kids, because I didn't have that bonding experience over football with my dad and stepdad really, and I would have loved it. My stepdad was an ND fan, but didn't push it on me. My dad was a firefighter, so if he wasn't working, we were out doing something fun instead of sitting at home watching TV, since his time with me was limited.

Now during games, my 2yo will march around yelling "go boys!" or "Go eyeish!" when I yell "C'mon boys, get a stop!" on third down. My 6yo used one of her Christmas presents to make me a lucky green potion in a tiny vial, and she made it before UGA... you best believe I'm putting that shit on a necklace and wearing it for every game. And my oldest, my 8yo, I got to take him to his first real game this year for UVA. He's in the Fortnite/YouTube/Roblox generation, so I expected some boredom, or for him to ask for my phone at some point during the game. But instead, he watched the entire game, eyes glued to the field in front of us (minus one trip to the merch stand for a commemorative football).

It was just me and him, and it was the most fun game trip I've ever taken (and I got to meet several dudes from this very website at the Louisville game in 2019, and that was a fucking blast). Just me and my guy in the car for 4 hours there, 4 hours back, talking football and school and friends and all the little stuff that would never register to me, but means the world to him right now.

He didn't make it through the 4th quarter last night, and our youngest actually just go out of the hospital with pneumonia and was asleep, so I didn't have the heart to make a bunch of noise during the game last night or to wake anyone up, because it's been a LONG fucking week.

But they all made it to the end of the UGA game last week. When Hinish got that game-ending sack, I wrapped up all three of my kids in a giant bear hug, pulled them all onto the couch, and squeezed the shit out of them all while while yelling and screaming and celebrating "LUCKY POTION! LUCKY POTION!" I haven't heard laughter like that from all of them, collectively, ever. We've had some fun times, and my kids play and laugh and giggle together on their own enough that I feel pretty luck a lot of the time. And I'd like to think I've been a more affectionate father than my dad and stepdad ever were... but that felt different. I think my joy rubbed off on them.

This is what it’s all about, man.

 

[NorthDakota]

My dad was "old school" and let my mom do the vast majority of the "teaching the kids" in the house. She would work on teaching us how to read etc

Once I got old enough to read well - then he started to sit down with me for quiet reading time in his study. We'd sit down together and we'd read Blue and Gold Illustrated. Lou Somogyi and Tim Prister articles with man dad is when I really started to feel like a man with my dad.

You say old school, I say a distinguished man of culture.

 

[Kingbish01]

Because you made this thread, I'll share my story...

My father graduated from ND in 1972, I was born in 1980. I got into ND right around the 1988 season and my favorite player to this day is still the rocket. My whole family was diehard ND, we went to multiple games a year. Growing up in Pittsburgh it was easy just to shoot west on I80. Those are some of my fondest memories growing up was watching ND football with my Dad. I even surprised him in 1993 (FSU game) with pizza and wings that I bought myself with my paper route money. We were full steam ahead flipping people left and right to the ND bandwagon...Best friends, cousins, girlfriends and their families. When my son was born in 1999 to my high school girlfriend, he was brought home from the hospital in ND gear...and I knew that day I'd make sure another die hard fan was born, and my God was I right!

My father got sick in March of 2015, and we knew it wasn't good. Us three went to the season opener that year against Texas and had an amazing time, he linked up with 4/5 buddies from his Stanford Hall days. That day only he and I knew he was dying and he wanted to keep it that way. We ate good food, had a ton of fun and watched Zaire have a brilliant day on the way to a 38-3 victory and it was the last time we walked off that campus together. We went to the ND/Pitt game later that year and it was our last game together. 2016 was a bad year for ND football and his health, it was the first all 3 of us didn't go to a game. I moved to Atlanta back in 2004 and all my UGA buddies were gonna make the trip to South Bend with me for the game and we had been planning it all summer. When the game finally rolled around in Sept of 2017 I got a call from my Mom that it was bad and I had to get home. That was the last game my father and I watched together, a 1 point loss to UGA...I remember during that game just praying for a win, I didn't care about ND UGA or football that night....I just wanted my Dad and I to have one more good night together doing what we loved. He died shortly after, but gave me his class ring on his deathbed.

I'm not a super emotional guy, but yesterday I was in the shower before the PSU game and for some reason I started crying, I just knew this year was special and I can't believe he had to miss it. The good news is my son and now daughters have picked up where we left off, we go to multiple games a year and everyone still knows us as big ND fans and Saturdays in the fall are the best times ever. We went to the Sugar Bowl and had a blast, it was the first time I took that ring to a game and I feel like it worked! We went to the OSU game last year and I mentioned I should have brought it and when they lost at the last second I knew that ring had to come to every big game going forward. I'm taking the whole family to the Natty, I don't care how much it costs....I'm going to buy that memory for everyone!

GO IRISH!

 

[ozzman]

I know this is in another thread, but it belongs here, too.

 

[calvegas04]

Not me last night screaming in silence, punching pillows, running in circles while my 10 month is upstairs sleeping. Can't wait to bring her to a game!