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A story about Becoming a Fan:

One night, at the age of six or seven, I found myself staying up to see the 11:30 movie. My father, an avid follower of Notre Dame football, insisted I stay up. My pop, my brother and I had positioned us in front of the TV when it came on, KNUTE ROCKNE ALL-AMERICAN.

     I was mesmerized. In approximately two hours, a love and admiration for this small school in Indiana was embedded within me. From that moment on, I was a Notre Dame fan. The large majority of my wardrobe suddenly had Notre Dame or Fighting Irish printed on it. All I wanted to do was go to Notre Dame and play football.

     It took many years for me not to take a Notre Dame loss personally. As I grew up, I realized it was only a game, but the affection I have for this school has grown and grown. The feelings remain even though all I knew of this school was from the movie, the games I had listened to on the radio or seen on TV, and the stories my pop would tell me.

     I had shared many great times with my dad listening to the games on the radio while we worked in the yard or washed cars. There was always more excitement with the radio as your imagination let you re-enact the plays. I remember Joe Theismann passing to Tom Gatewood who would make the catch and leap into the end zone. I pretended to make the catch while diving over a pile of leaves.

     I, like many others, never played football for Notre Dame, or attended a class there, but it always seemed to be home to me.

     I thought I had lived my dream when Notre Dame came to the meadowlands to play Navy in the seventies. I finally saw the real thing; the gold helmets, and the marching band playing the Fight Song. It was all I hoped it would be.

     In 1990, I had the privilege of taking my father to South Bend to see a game. My father is a true Subway Alumnus. He grew up in a small town in New Jersey listening to the games on the radio. He went off to war and came home to work in a factory. He never had the chance to go to college, and he never , ever thought he’d get to  see the University of Notre Dame. I thank GOD for that special weekend, and the pleasure in my fathers eyes as he stood in the center of it all. NOW, I had lived my dream. I finally repaid him for this gift that he had given me.

Some stories about Best Plays:

I've been attending ND Football games @ So. Bend Ind. since 1976, I'm only 41 years old, I've seen over 100 FIGHTIN IRISH Football games in person all over the World (Hawaii, Ireland) but the single most play that stands out in my mind happened on Sept. 20,1980 in beautiful Notre Dame Stadium. The opponent for the IRISH that afternoon was the Wolverines of the Univ. of Michigan (who happens to have the 2nd greatest Fight Song) It was the Irish 2nd game of the season, they had defeated Purdue on the 6th of Sept. 31-10. The 1980 season was Dan Devine last one at the helm for ND, in which he would finish the season @ 9-2-1.

     It was a beautiful fall day in South Bend for the tangle between the IRISH and the Wolverines, you couldn't ask for better weather. The game itself was back and forth, the Irish would take the lead, and then UM would come back, We pick the game up late in the 4th Quarter, UM has just taken the lead 27-26, with under a minute to play the IRISH have to start at their own 23 yard line, a couple of Blair Kiel passes to Tony Hunter puts the Irish in FG territory, with 3 seconds left on the clock out comes the IRISH FG team led by this skinny kid from Cincinnati Moeller high, his name is Harry Oliver, but goes by HARRY O. Harry will try his longest FG ever.

     Their is a Breeze in the air, but its going against the IRISH, The Crowd is going Wild, the ball is snapped from John Scully to the holder Scott Groom, its a good hold. Harry O kicks it, and something happens, the wind stops, the ball is long enough it has a chance, Ladies and Gentlemen....

It's GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Harry Oliver has just kicked a 51 yard FG to defeat the Wolverines of Univ. of Michigan.

     From this day on, through National Champions and tough IRISH seasons, it's my greatest single moment being a University of NOTRE DAME FIGHTIN IRISH Football Fan. GOD BLESS ND

                               WE R ND!!!!!!

                                                WE R ND!!!!!!!!!!!!

     It was 1946, the second world war was over and many former GI’s were taking advantage of the GI Bill, which paid for your tuition and books if you went to college.  Notre Dame was the school of choice for many returning servicemen. The big game of the year would be mighty Army versus the Irish of Notre Dame at Yankee stadium in the Bronx in New York City.

     I was a sophomore in High School in forty six and was looking forward to the game. My Dad would send out to South Bend for an application for tickets and as soon as he got it, he had a money order made out to it was on it’s way back to Northern Indiana.  He usually got four tickets, one for himself, my Mom, Johnny Ruyak and me.  If I can recall, I believe the tickets were $4.40 each back then. Tickets for last year’s Stanford game were $33.00 each.

     Our route of travel was from Allentown, Pa to somewhere down around Jersey City, New Jersey where we parked and then took the ferry on the Hudson over to lower Manhattan. From there we took the “subway” up to the Bronx and Yankee stadium.  Back then a lot of the people picked up the Irish. The subways were usually packed. If you never had this experience, you really missed a thrill of a lifetime.  There was never anything like it, until I finally made the trip out to the Dome.

     I digress.  We entered the stadium and it filled fast. Everybody wanted to see Johnny Lujack, Doc Blanchard and Glen Davis.  Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside as Blanchard and Davis were known then. I remember when we were kids, everyone wanted to be Johnny Lujack the famous Notre Dame quarterback, who later won the Heisman Trophy.  Remember, this is 1946 and the Irish are undefeated and so is the team from West Point.  The coach for the Army was Red Blaik, who reminded me of General Douglas MacArthur.  The game was fought like a war.

    The most exciting play in Irish history was when Doc Blanchard broke loose and was on his way to a touchdown. The safety in those days was usually the quarterback. Blanchard had a head of steam up and was on his way.  Lujack hit Blanchard around the ankles and we heard the crunch way up in peanut heaven.  They took Blanchard off the field in a stretcher.  His leg was broken. The game went on to a Zero to Zero tie.  You had to be there.

     On November 2, 1935 Notre Dame played Ohio State in what many college football afficiandos, especially old timers (like the late, great Chuck Sweeney '38, All American) feel was the greatest ever played.

It certainly didn't look good for Notre Dame in the first half, as the powerful, highly favored Buckeys steamrolled the Irish on their way to a 13-0 lead. Most fans, sportswriters and many players thought the Scarlett Scourge of OSU was on their way to another lopsided rout.

One man disagreed. Elmer Layden, The Thin Man, was Notre Dame's coach. At halftime Layden calmed his boys down and made some key changes in the line-up and defensive strategy.  He decided to start the second team line (who were rested, fresh and ready to go.)

The Notre Dame coaches decided that by trying to figure out OSU's razzle dazzle offense they were actually doing too much thinking and not enough hitting. So, Joe Boland, the line coach, told the new line to charge in and knock down anyone in the backfield. The defensive ends were to trap the State halfbacks. The strategy worked brilliantly and shut down the OSU offense. Still late in the third quarter Notre Dame had not scored and the score still stood at 13-0, a huge margin in those days.

     The fourth quarter in Columbus was one of the greatest and most thrilling in Notre Dame football history. Andy Pilney, a highly touted but unfulfilled second string half back came off the bench and like a man possessed led the Irish comeback.  Grantland Rice, who had seen a game or two in his forty years of covering gridiron battles said Andy's performance was the greatest single performance he had ever seen on a football field.

     Notre Dame scored early in the fourth, but with only 90 seconds to go, was still behind 13-6.   Mike Layden, the coach's brother, scored on a pass over the middle, and with the missed extra point, trailed 13-12. OSU took the kickoff and had only to run a few line plunges to end the game.

Then lightning struck.

     Dick Beltz, a usually sure handed halfback, was hit by two Irish defenders - and fumbled! Notre Dame's ball on the State 49 yard-line with about 40 seconds to go. On the next play Pilney ran around, over and through the entire Buckeye team before being gang tackled, and injured on the 19. Bill Shakespeare came in and threw a lame duck pass right into the arms of the Buckeye defender, Dick Beltz, the same player who had fumbled. It just wasn't Dick's day and he dropped the ball. The next play, probably their last because time was running out, is my favorite play.  It's a fairly complicated play to execute, but basically the simple ends cris-cross play that we all know from our sandlot days. In fact it's called old 56 and  it has been in the Notre Dame playbook since Rockne was a player.

     The score stood 13-12 against Elmer Layden's boys after Andy Pilney had advanced the ball to the State 19-yard line and then was borne from the field on a stretcher after his injury. Shakespeare came into the game in Pilney's place. 

     With the ball on the 19-yard line, Shakespeare took a pass from Pojman, second string center, faded back and to the right, and hurled a perfect forward pass to Millner in the endzone.  Peters, the Irish right end, went down as a decoy and cut out to the right. Reutz, left guard, pilled out of line to protect Shakespeare and Zenner, right guard, pulled out for the same purpose. McKenna, the quarterback, took care of Hamrick, State left tackle, and Danbom, fullback, took out Busich, Ohio State left end.

     Nick Wasylik, an Ohio State quarterback, said almost sixty years later: They were a little lucky, but when you look up and the scoreboard, it has a voice and verdict all it's own --and it said: 'Notre Dame 18, Ohio State 13. It was the touchdown play that was the greatest, in a afternoon of great plays.

“I'm sure glad I caught that ball. I'd hate to be remembered as the guy that dropped it. That's for sure.” -Wayne Millner

“I've thought a lot about the pass. But I wake up nights dreaming about the one before it-the one the Ohio State guy had in his hands and dropped. If he'd held it, Wayne and I both would have been bums.”-Bill Shakespeare

A story about a Game Weekend:

     In 1989, at the age of 31, the golden dome became visible from Rt 80. Within minutes, we were turning onto campus, past the dorms, the Hesburgh Library, and then there was the Stadium. We parked the car and walked around. I WAS IN AWE!!

     It was time for the pep rally that was held before each home game in the Athletic and Convocation Center (ACC). As the band entered the ACC, the noise level increases and the heart starts to race. The players, the cheerleaders, the band, the leprechaun, the coaches, the students, the fans, and for the first time ME. Talk about being pumped. The cheers, the speeches, and then the Fight Song & the Alma Mater. That was it, PUT ME IN COACH.

     After the pep rally, we went for a ride into Mishawaka, which is the town next to South Bend. My friend took me to a place called Pat & Rose’s Colonial Pub. We weren’t there five minutes when someone started to hit their fork on their glass and the whole room followed suit. I was looking around to see who was going to kiss whom when the lights went dim and the marquee of blue and gold bulbs around a stained glass design of the Golden Dome began to flash. The Fight Song came blaring over the loudspeakers as everyone sang along. In five or ten minutes, the whole process starts again. The next day was Saturday, and my big day, so it was back to the hotel for a little shuteye.

     The next morning, we got up, had breakfast and went over to campus. Our first stop was the second floor of the ACC where a mini Notre Dame Hall of Fame exists. It is called the Sports Heritage Hall. Heisman trophies, game balls, photographs of every All-American, National Championship and Bowl trophies, old uniforms, plus a gallery of photographs of some of Notre Dame’s greatest moments. It is a must see.

     The hordes of fans are on campus by now. The fraternities are selling shirts, cooking burgers & steak sandwiches. There was even a group that would take your picture with a cardboard mock up of Coach Holtz.

     We made our way to the bookstore where the going is slow because of the sheer volume of people inside. The selection is incredible, a Notre Dame fans dream.

     After emerging from the bookstore, my friend took a right turn and we walked approximately 100 yards to the Rockne Gymnasium. Inside there is a Rockne memorial and a bust of the Rock, where his nose is shining from being rubbed by everyone who passes by.

     It is almost game time. The band is starting to assemble on the steps of the main building overshadowed by the Golden Dome. The music begins, and they lead the multitudes across campus to the stadium for the clash that is about to take place.

     The stands are starting to fill up, as the players are warming up on the field. The band arrives and makes its way through the famous tunnel. The sounds from their instruments echo through out the stadium. The Midshipmen fill their corner of the stands, while the Notre Dame student body fills the opposite corner, where they will remain standing throughout the game. The band rushes the field, the cheers go up, the Stars and Stripes are raised, and the anthem is played. IT’S GAME TIME!!!

     I won’t go into the play by play, because you propably saw it on TV, but I can’t begin to tell you how elated I was to be a small part of it. I had finally lived my dream or at least I had thought.

     When the game was over, the teams shook hands at the center of the field and all the Notre Dame players turned toward the student body section, while raising their helmets to their greatest fans. WHAT A SPECIAL MOMENT!!!

     The band takes the field to play the Fight Song (Notre Dame Victory March), Hike Notre Dame, and finally the Alma Mater (Notre Dame Our Mother), as we sang along, I realize my trip is coming to an end.

     Finally, Sunday morning we visited the grotto to OUR Lady of Lordes and attended mass in the Sacred Heart Basilica. What a great way to end my special weekend and one of the best time of my life.

Some story about A Subway Alumni Father’s Dream:

     All ND subway alums know the motion picture Rudy is centered around a kid who defied all possible odds to have a relative few seconds on the field as a Fighting Irish football player. No doubt there have been hundreds of players over the history of Notre Dame football who have contributed in some way to the success of their respective teams as walk-ons; you know the kid who comes to a program with no scholarship in hand, maybe the past glories of being the local high school star and named All-County team (rather than the High School All-American team), But has the love for playing football regardless of the personal sacrifice. You don’t see their names in the newspapers every week in the recap or official statistics of the game. Many even have to share their numbers on their jersey with others on the team.

     This story is about a former walk-on to the Notre Dame football program. His name is Tim Klusas. Tim was the grandson and son of the typical Notre Dame subway alum. His grandfather often reminisced of Fighting Irish football games in the 1930’s. Tim’s dad talked of making many trips during his childhood with his dad to South Bend via the South Shore train from Northwest Indiana to see the Irish play in the late 50’s. Their parochial school fight song was the Notre Dame victory march. And as any other Fighting Irish fan, when college football season rolled around there was only one game on the radio or television in the house¾Notre Dame.

     Tim played soccer and baseball in grade and middle school and never really played football until he got to high school. He eventually became a star of his high school football team at Center Grove High School in Greenwood, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. At 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds, Tim was considered too short and too small for Division I football though he was actually contacted by several Division II and III schools. Tim visited a number of these Division II and Division III schools. He listened to the coaches talk of playing time and the fact he would never get a chance to play and contribute to a Division I program because of his size. He then visited Notre Dame only as a prospective student and not as a football player. He saw the campus, the golden dome, the grotto, the stadium, and remembered all he had heard about the school and its traditions from his relatives. Tim made a decision¾he was going to Notre Dame and he was going to try out for the football team.

     Tim worked out the entire 1991 summer after high school graduation so he would be in the best of shape when he entered ND in the fall. He kicked footballs every night as he had a plan to make the ND football team as a kicker. Tim rationalized he might have the best chance of making the team as a kicker as size was not a factor in that position. He worked on the weights which he always loved and still does to this day.

     Tim left for Notre Dame in the fall and looked for the football team as soon as he arrived on campus. He asked for a tryout and after a short workout he was asked to come back in the Spring for another tryout as the team was “pretty well set” for the upcoming fall season. Tim was given a workout schedule and it was suggested to him to play in the intramural football program that fall on campus.

     Tim did all and Spring 1992 arrived. Tim was going to tryout as a kicker again. The night before the tryout he heard (through a manager and friend of his) of a rumor that none of the kickers were going to make the cut as there were already enough kickers on the squad for the upcoming season. Tim decided no problem¾he’ll tryout for running back (despite his size). There were some 30 or so players hoping to be walk-ons. Some started to disappear from practices on their own or otherwise.

     The big test for Tim was to be the Blue-Gold spring game. His family, close relatives and friends, were all in the stands at Notre Dame stadium. Tim entered the game in the second half on offense and even carried the ball for the Blue squad. The following week the running back coach notified that he had made the team. This was later confirmed by a letter personally signed by Coach Holtz welcoming him to the team.

     Tim’s main role on the 1992-1994 teams was as a running back on the prep squad. The prep squad would run the offensive and defensive plays of the opposing team in practice so the starters would be prepared for the upcoming game on Saturday. Obviously as we all know from the Rudy movie, the walk-on was fodder for the scholarship player. To some extent it was true as the typical walk-on was not as big or as quick as the starter. However, each walk-on in due time earned a high level of respect from all the members of the team for their contribution to the team.

     The next three seasons were exciting times for Tim and his family. He was seen by friends and relatives on national television each week even if it was on the sidelines waiting for that one special moment of action during the game. His picture appeared with other Notre Dame football players in newspapers throughout the country. He was recognized in his hometown as a Notre Dame football player and was called upon to make several speeches “as a Notre Dame football player’ to the local CYO’s during the school year.

     For his parents, the highlight of a trip to a Notre Dame game was to  see Tim in the pre-game warm-ups getting hand-offs from Rick Mirer or Ron Powlus during the pre-game drills. After the game Tim would leave the stadium through the same locker room door as the scholarship players and spent time signing footballs and programs, etc. to ND fans of all ages and walks of life.

     Tim was one of those fortunate walk-ons who got some actual game time and also carried the ball for the Fighting Irish in several games during his collegiate career so his name appears in the official statistics of Notre Dame football. When Notre Dame dominated the game, Tim and several other walk-ons would get into the final minutes of the game. It was  a credit to Coach Holtz that he found a way to get the walk-ons into the game. It was especially gratifying to see Coach Holtz give Tim and the other walk-ons the opportunity to get involved in “live” action either blocking, catching a pass, or running the ball.

     There was no doubt in this ND parent/subway alum that Coach Holtz had a special place in his heart for the walk-ons¾maybe because it exemplified the old Notre Dame spirit of dedication and persistence despite the odds. For Tim and the other walk-ons it was and will be a part of his life he will always remember and cherish.

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