(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Friday morning before July 4th, I got together with Dr. Ira Rish, one of Notre Dame's great football fans, for a one-on-one interview. I had been trying to meet with him for about a year, and finally got the chance. We met at a coffee shop along the beach in Boca Raton, Florida at about 9:00 AM. The following is the transcript of the interview:
JK: Dr. Rish, what would you prefer I call you?
DR: My good friends call me Doc. Please call me Doc.
JK: Doc, I'd like to start by asking you how you got to be such an Irish football fan.
DR: It started back in New York. I was about nine years old, and me and a friend snuck into Yankee Stadium to see the 1933 Notre Dame-Army game. I wasn't really a big Irish fan at that time—I had been a Columbia Lions fan—but by the end of the day I became hooked.
It was one of the most famous games in our history. Army was undefeated that year. I believe they were 9-0. We didn't have a very good team, we were 2-5-1, and a huge underdog.
We won the game 13-12, and ruined Army's season. Since that day it has been one big love affair.
JK: How do you stay up to date with Notre Dame Football?
DR: There's about 150 of us and we get together for all the games at Murphy's Clam Bar on Glades Road. We've been meeting there for about 20 or so years.
When I retired and moved to Florida, I had to find some Notre Dame fans, and it took me about two weeks until I heard about Murphy's. And, I'm not the oldest one there. There's about three fellows well into their '90s.
JK: I know your time is valuable, someone told me you have a 12:10 tee time, so I want to get right down to it, if that's okay with you.
DR: Fire away!
JK: Doc, I don't know about back in your day, but there seems to be a lot of hate directed toward the Notre Dame Football program, and I wanted to know what you thought about it.
DR: Well, Notre Dame is the most hated football team in the country, and it always was. I don't know if we're on the same level as the Yankees, but we're pretty close.
JK: Why is Notre Dame so hated?
DR: It's pretty obvious—you win as much and for as long as we have and you become everyone's target.
But, contrary to what your question leads me to think, being hated is a good thing. It's the highest of compliments a team can receive, and it comes with the territory. Get used to it, embrace it.
For the last 10 or 15 years, Notre Dame has been playing sub-par football, but it's not going to erase or tarnish decades of success—not yet.
We're still going to be hated by everyone who's not a fan.
Let me add: there are some other reasons why they hate us, or shall I say reasons they think they hate us.
They don't like the fact that we have our own television network. They don't like it because we have always been able to recruit nationally. They don't like to see us get, and I have to admit they have a point about this one, favoritism in getting to big bowl games.
They probably have a valid point about the bowls, but it's not Notre Dame's fault!
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