Not exactly a famous person, but my father, the reason I consider myself a Notre Dame fan, died recently. It's something I've been needing to get off my chest for, what seems like, the longest time.
I'm probably a youngin' here, born in '91. But I've seen Notre Dame football home, away, and at bowl games. I've been to home and away basketball games. Throughout my entire life, my dad and I always shared a Notre Dame bond. In the late 40s, he and his two brothers were the first generation of his Irish family to be born in America. I'll never forget the stories of Notre Dame he told me. He spoke of greatness. Not just championships, but of an underdog upsetting greats like Oklahoma (which, he listened to on a radio with my grandmother) or UCLA in basketball. I never missed a Notre Dame football game with him. When we lived on the East Coast, if we couldn't order the game on ESPN+, we'd listen to it online, which only happened a handful of times. I remember him telling me of Faust getting destroyed by Johnson, only for Parseghian to comment that "Notre Dame will rise again." I remember, the only time abandoning the Irish, going to my room during the 2006 ND @ MSU game, only to run out, screaming in glee, when Lambert returned an INT for a TD. During my college years, away from home, we stayed in touch during the games. And if I couldn't watch the game live, we agreed to ignore football for the day and have the experience simultaneously. To put this in perspective, we had numerous Saturday's where we spent the entire day watching the sport. So, our interest went beyond ND football. We both liked college football, period.
Recently, my mother and father moved near my maternal grandparents, and I eventually followed suit. My maternal grandfather died late last year. Although I saw him frequently, and I hate to say this, his death didn't tear me apart. I loved him, yes. No doubt about it, but he was my grandfather. He didn't exactly define anything I do in life. Having said that, he's a graduate of the University of Michigan, and was a huge Wolverine. My father and I never watched football with him, even though we both knew he watched Michigan every Saturday. In fact, my father and I both hold the controversial opinion that Notre Dame should schedule Michigan State over Michigan on a yearly basis, but I digress. Having said that, with the Michigan v Notre Dame game looming overhead, my view has shifted drastically. My mother has, foolishly, agreed to watch the game with me. She knows that I haven't been able to do anything Notre Dame related since the death of my father. Any time I watch or read anything related to Notre Dame football, I can't help myself and I begin to cry. I can only imagine how difficult the position I've put her in. Unlike my father, a Catholic who, at the end of the day, would eventually wish for the Catholic team to win, my mother is a Protestant who doesn't agree with the Catholic Church in any regard. I'm not religious, so that doesn't bother me, but, for some reason, even she agrees to be Irish for just one day in September.
Sorry to spam the thread with, admittedly, irrelevant deaths, but this is the only place I thought of to post this. Years, maybe even a decade, ago, I was a member of a site called NotreDameFans.com (was that it? I just remember that markmaysucks.com would redirect to the homepage) and posted on the forums there. I never migrated anywhere. Go Irish!
