[Writing this today to bring us extra luck!]
Sharing Notre Dame-related experiences with the boys & my folks has made this fall truly one of a kind.
In the last few years I’ve been pleased to drop by an ND MBA class held in Silicon Valley, sharing some hard-won & hopefully entertaining insights I’ve picked up over the years. This year I was surprised & delighted to receive an invite to return to campus on a football weekend (which somehow I hadn’t done since graduating!) and once again address the class, and to speak with a large group of faculty & staff who are wrestling with AI and its implications for education.
The boys joined me for a redeye flight to Chicago (sorry for slumping over on your tray table, Hen!), where we met up with my folks, then drove down to South Bend.
Our whirlwind four days included:
- The boys touring campus
- Running into my old roommate Ed and his son, doing the same!
- Dropping by my old friend & boss Kevin’s house for pizza
- Hen getting to walk through the stadium tunnel
- Finn squeezing in an early-morning SAT (which he nailed)
- Touring the Studebaker museum
- Seeing the football team & band walk right past us (hi, Coach!)
- Beating the pants off of Boise State (whose fans are very nice!)
Quite predictably, Hen & I took such a debilitating number of photos (!) that it’s only now that I’m getting around to sharing them. Without further ado:
- Walking around campus on Thursday & then again Sunday
- Hen’s shots of Touchdown Jesus & more
- Game-day festivities, from the player walk to late dinner
We headed back west on Sunday, stopping off at cousin Liz’s house in Chicago for a great Lou-Malnati’s-infused gathering; see pics here.
The rest of our trip was thankfully uneventful, and a few weeks passed before the Irish flew west for their season finale at nearby Stanford Stadium. The lads and I got to enjoy the ND tailgater, where Hen got to meet the famous Leprechaun!
Afterwards, as we still had some time & it was pretty darn cold (at least by our Cali standards), we quietly snuck into a Stanford tailgater—where we met none other than the famous Andrew Luck (former star quarterback at Stanford & in the NFL); hence “Luck with the Irish.” He graciously came over and shook Finn’s hand, despite our copious ND paraphernalia!
Once the game finally started, we enjoyed watching the team again beat the brakes off their opponents. You can check out our views in this gallery.
All told, we feel very lucky indeed!
