A Lot of Game's Tradition Is Listening to the Blarney

A Lot of Game’s Tradition Is Listening to the Blarney

By JIM MURRAY

Nov. 29, 1992 12 AM PT

“How are things in Glocca Mora? Ah, funny you should ask. Sure the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the girls are dancing. Irish eyes are smiling. But the haythens give us a scare, now, didn’t they?”

--Logan the Thrush

“Let’s go have a pint, ‘tis a night to celebrate.”

--Tumulty, the Perpetual Thirst

“Usen’t we to beat these people easier than this?”

--Carmody the Complainer as USC got to the six-yard line to try to tie the game

“Rockne never let them get close.”

--Morrissey the Statistician

“Rockne was a great man.”

--Callahan the Expert on Everything

“Rockne should have been President.”

--Kelly the Registered Voter

“Wasn’t Gipp President?”

--Corrigan the Criminal Lawyer

“No, that was the fellow who played him in the fillums.”

--Davies the Dealer

“The fillums! Ach, that was Ronald Reagan himself!”

--Muldoon the Movie Buff

“Twas Reagan who became President. Gipp died.”

--Monahan the Mortician

“Gipp never fumbled.”

--Horgan the Unpublished Author as Notre Dame dropped the ball at the end of the second quarter

“Gipp could hold onto a hot iron. They don’t make them like Gipp any more. He would have made a great President.”

--Costello the Criminal Judge

“Was Gipp Irish?”

--Clancy the Genealogist

“On his deathbed, he became one.”

--Clapthorn the Theologian

“That’s soon enough!”

--Harrigan the Wallpaper Hanger

“Now, this Reggie Brooks. Is he as good as Gipp at all?”

--Flanagan the Florist as the Notre Dame halfback rushed for 227 yards

“The ball was heavier in Gipp’s day and the grass longer.”

--Carmody the Complainer

“Reggie. Now that’s a funny name for an Irishman, ye don’t suppose it’s Reginald?”

--Finnegan the Worrier

“Bite yer tongue! Couldn’t be! It’s probably short for Regis.”

--McManus the Public Scold

“Ah, Philbin! And him a graduate of auld Nowter Deem himself. When he talks, the birds listen!”

--Madigan the Unpublished Poet

“Ah, there! Let’s have a chorus of ‘Shake Down the Thunder.’ ‘Tis a grand tune, now, after all.”

--Donovan the Public Defendant

“It should be our national anthem.”

--Finn the Piano Player

“Can we have another pint here, Innkeeper? Let’s have a song!”

--Tumulty the Town Drunk

“Galway Bay would be nice. Or something by John McCormack. Anybody here know the second verse to Danny Boy?”

--MacMamara, the son of the Band Leader

“It only has the one. Ye sing it over and over till they turn the lights out.”

--Clanaham the Cynic

“D’ye think the haythens will be after stopping to play us? This is 10 in a row they’ve lost.”

--Finnegan the Worrier

“Did ye see 90,000 people there? They all paid.”

--Bailey the Bean Counter

“But, shouldn’t we take it easy--I mean, they’re not Irish and all?”

--Fagan the Trend Spotter

“Ye’ll have to take it up with the coach, Mr. O’Holtz. He’ll not take kindly to it.”

--O’Bannion the Diplomat

“Which one is he?”

--Fagan the Trend Spotter

“He’s the one who looks as if he’s in the midst of a nervous breakdown. He’s so thin that if he turns sideways, he disappears. He always has this look as if somebody just stole his wallet. His idea of a nightmare is an 8-3 season. 9-2 doesn’t make him too happy either. He’s never smiled in his life. He was born worried.”

--O’Bannion the Diplomat

“Well, we’ll just have to go on beating these people year after year.”

--Finnegan the Worrier

“It’s not easy being Irish. “

--Clancy lowering the boom