Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
In the News
Long-time Notre Dame writer Lou Somogyi passed away from an apparent heart attack this past Saturday following a round of tennis. He was just 58 years old. I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic in saying that I, as well as many of our writers here at 18 Stripes, drew inspiration from Lou and the way he covered Notre Dame athletics. I never met him personally but you could still feel his kindness in the way he approached Irish sports. We’ve seen an outpouring of support about what an extremely nice person Lou was and on a human level he was someone to strive towards in life.
I can remember getting the larger Blue Gold Illustrated magazine papers in the mail in the early 2000’s and feeling like this was top notch sports journalism on something I loved. What a treat! That seems like 40 years ago now which make it all the more sad that Somogyi hadn’t even reached 60 years old yet. He had so much more to give and knowledge to impart to us all.
Lou was a big part of the reason why I started writing about Notre Dame–I wanted to be like him. In fact, you could definitely trace the roots of this website back to Lou in a way. We wanted to be factual, historical, and provide writing that was entertaining for Notre Dame fans but with content that never crosses the line into being nasty to players or coaches. Firm but fair and honest.
I think this will be Lou’s legacy that will live on for many years, perhaps decades. He got started well before the internet, dealt with a massive industry change, and held on to become such a standard bearer for Notre Dame coverage while paving a path for so many others to follow in his footsteps. He will be missed greatly.
Lou Somogyi will have a Mass of Christian Burial at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus today, April 23rd. Blue Gold Illustrated has also set up a memorial scholarship in his name, as well.
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Notre Dame has signed up for a 2-game series with Indiana for 2030 and 2031.
Former USC offensive lineman Chris Brown tragically passed away at 24 years old.
The Football Oversight Committee is set to recommend changes to fall camp which would reduce padded practices from 21 to 8, ban collision exercises, and limit teams to just 2 scrimmages in August pre-season.
The FCS playoffs are set to begin this weekend, check out the schedule and matchups.
Neal Brown got an extension after one year at West Virginia.
The overtime rules will be changed this year, now you have to go for a 2-point conversion after the 2nd overtime period.
Throwback Article
It’s almost time for another scholarship update. HERE is a look at the situation back in January.
The Portal
Former Michigan quarterback Joe Milton has decided to transfer to Tennessee.
Arkansas receiver Mike Woods is coming off 5 touchdowns last year and is leaving Fayetteville.
Penn State corner Joseph Johnson is leaving Happy Valley after one season with the Nittany Lions. Former teammate and defensive end Shane Simmons will transfer as well, after saying he was headed pro.
Syracuse linebacker Tyrell Richards has 6 career sacks and is leaving the Orange.
Southern Miss defensive end Jacques Turner didn’t play in 2020 but had 13 tackles for loss 2 years ago and is now transferring.
Western Kentucky freshman All-American defensive tackle Ricky Barber is transferring to UCF.
Clark Lea lost safety Donovan Kaufman to the Portal, he was the 2nd highest recruit for Vanderbilt in the 2020 class.
Helmet Talk
I’m weird about the Florida helmet. Sometimes I feel like they could do better. Their white helmet with the large blue “F” is a pretty tasty look, especially with their home uniforms.
Then, other times I feel like this is an iconic look. I typically don’t like script, though. I feel like I’m perpetually being the Larry David unsure gif with this helmet.
Recruiting
Wide receiver Tyler Morris (0.964) suffered a knee injury and then made a surprising commitment to Michigan.
Kentucky dipped into Indiana (right across the border) to pick up the verbal from offensive lineman Kiyaunta Goodwin (0.977). The Wildcats also added linebacker Keaten Wade (0.925) from Tennessee.
Janiran Bonner (0.912) is a receiver from Georgia who is staying in-state with the Yellow Jackets.
LSU landed the nation’s top tight end Jake Johnson (0.965) out of Georgia.
House of the Week
Any time I hear Aspen I immediately think of the movie Dumb and Dumber. Anyone else? I kind of like the rule of not being able to build up and creating these elaborate subfloors below your home.
I love the nonchalant, “I have 6 fridges in this home” talk. You fancy! There’s something really creepy about the well shafts in the basement even if it’s a smart idea for safety. Armstrong continues to talk about his fridges and really opens himself up to a lot of doping jokes, I’m afraid.
Tunes
For many of you, Chicago the band has turned into a meme or joke based off their incessant appearances during Notre Dame halftime shows. Don’t let that blind you to the fact that this band absolutely ripped it up in their prime. Here’s a track off their 2nd album from January 1970:
As musicians, Chicago were so damn good. I’ve always had a soft spot for drummer Danny Seraphine who I think is criminally underrated, even within his own band. There are so many tracks where he’s truly carrying the song and “Make Me Smile” is a good example of him shining.
On This Day in Sports
Major League Baseball’s 1919 season began on this day and would end with the infamous Black Sox Scandal that rocked the entire country.
Book Nook
I’m about half-way through “Arctic Dreams” from Notre Dame alumnus Barry Lopez who recently passed away. It’s a little more academic than I was hoping, which is fine, but at times it can be a bit of a slog to read so many various names for animals and plants across various languages (including Latin) and put the pieces together visually. I’m through the chapters on the muskox, polar bear, and just finished up the narwhal. Man, did people love them some narwhal ivory back in the day!
Hot Take
In the summer of 1994, I moved from a small town an hour outside of Buffalo to the north Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda. It’s also weird the things you remember, but I always recall how the police force in town had these white squad cars decked out in royal blue and bright green colors, mimicking the official colors of the town.
Now, their squad cars look like THIS.
Say what you want about the militarization of local police forces, I would just like to see more vibrant police cars again, or at least some variety. My local village now has primarily black cars, my county’s sheriff office just switched to all-black cars, and don’t think I haven’t noticed New York State troopers vehicles used to be a somewhat medium-to-dark blue, but still blue looking, and now the blue they use is so dark it might as well be black.
Trivia
Who scored the last touchdown for Notre Dame last year and on what kind of play?
Note: With the NFL Draft and Blue Gold Game coming up over the next week there will be no Weekly Rambler next Friday. We will return to our regularly schedule programming on May 7th.
The original version of Chicago was fantastic. Hendrix called Terry Kath the best guitarist he’d seen. How many bands have three different great singers?
Yeah, it could’ve been interesting to see Kath as a solo artist. He could’ve been massive.
Also, don’t play with guns.
Beatles, Traveling Wilburys, *NSYNC, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, The Mamas & The Papas, Kiss, The Band, Grateful Dead, Bee Gees, The Beach Boys, The Who….
Sex Pistols.
Did anyone laugh?
At what?
My Sex Pistols joke!
I did laugh while typing my answer to your question about it.
Is the joke that they’re all bad singers? I know nothing of the Sex Pistols other than a guy’s name is Sid.
Yup!
The dissecting is really sucking the humor out of the joke then, huh?
It was more the lack of response after 24 hours 🙁
To answer your initial
I didn’t
I know.
Ya, I came up with a couple of these after I posted the question but, I would question a couple of the bands you mentioned.
Not a big Lennon fan, eh?
That might not be the guy or band I was questioning.
Yeah, this reads like a list of bands that had three different singers.
Eric,
Many, many thanks for your lovely tribute to Lou. I was pleased that he was an inspiration to you and your writing, though not surprised. That makes this wonderful site one of his legacies, and I know he would be proud, because I spoke to him in recent years about 18 Stripes, the one truly civilized ND site. I met him in 1993 when I was starting my quest to help the Stadium crowd be all it could be, and when the boys and I would come back from France to SB once or twice a year, we would take him out to lunch — always at Hanayori’s, he liked that. His amazing grasp of all things ND football made every second with him a delight. He was especially strong on understanding our ND history, and linking historical patterns to outcomes that were probably “due.”
My cousin Mary is one of the sacristans at Sacred Heart and gave me the link to the funeral mass live stream. I was pleased to see so many there, and I filmed a bit of the singing of “Notre Dame Our Mother” to post here, but it’s too big a file.
Anyway — thanks again Eric, for helping us appreciate a true Notre Dame man. May he rest in peace, but not too much, we need his support when we make our next run for a Natty.
That’s really nice to hear that he mentioned us! RIP, Lou.
B&G was a great mag. I used to love reading it. Eventually it wouldn’t arrive before the following game so I gave up my subscription, with sadness.
Lou was a fantastic writer and hugely knowledgeable.
Best B&G memory: the number of conversations it would generate when people saw you reading it on the beach in Sea Isle City, NJ in late August.
I had a subscription to B&G back in the Faust and Holtz years. It was the best and maybe only way to get ND news in the northeast back then, short of scouring multiple sport pages and magazines. I watched a B&G video with Lou on Saturday and saw the news of his passing on Sunday. It was a shocker. He will be greatly missed. RIP Lou.
I had turned the game off by that point so I actually don’t really know.
Ian book
What kind of play? A meaningless one
Wasn’t meaningless if you had Notre Dame +19.5 like I did….
To show how little I focus on UF football, in my mind their helmets have featured the gator logo not the script “Gators”.
Trivia, I finally know one! Ian book read option keeper on the left side from a few yards out. Very fitting final score, an ian book on the ground play.
Gotttttt ittttt.
Chicago was superb in the early years (pre Peter Cetera, natch). One of my best friends in high school was a serious music nerd. We listened to a lot of Zeppelin and other classic rock, but he was rather democratic in his tastes and turned me on to a few other bands like Chicago that were viewed at the time (hell, still are) as somewhat uncool.
Larry David made a movie for HBO a few years ago called “Clear History” that incorporated the band into the storyline and used a number of their songs in the soundtrack. Worth watching if you haven’t seen it.
Is it pretty good?