Dan Carter didn’t pack his bags because he didn’t plan on spending the night in New Orleans. He boarded his flight from Los Angeles dressed for kickoff in a full leprechaun costume, plaid top hat, green bow tie and yellow vest. After the Sugar Bowl, Carter would head straight to the airport to fly home. He had already made the trip to South Bend for the first round against Indiana two weeks earlier.
That pixie jacket ripped while Carter was doing push-ups after Jeremiah Love’s 98-yard touchdown run. His wife, Tiffany Caterina, corrected him because if Notre Dame beat SEC champion Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, Carter knew Penn State in Miami would be next. And then head to Atlanta.
“I had the first boarding group and no one wanted to sit with me,” Carter said. “You’re first class if you dress like a weirdo.”
It was only after landing in New Orleans that Carter learned of the Bourbon Street attack that delayed the Sugar Bowl by a day. He bought a toothbrush and new underwear. He changed the reservation for the return flight. The leprechaun costume stuck because that’s how the fandom works. You don’t bother with what works, not when you go on the wildest rides during this most magical of seasons.
Count Carter among the hundreds of Notre Dame fans with perfect playoff participation, watching Marcus Freeman’s program check every box of the College Football Playoff with soul en route to Monday night’s national title game against Ohio State . The 2006 graduate is so dedicated that he built his honeymoon in Paris around a stop in Dublin to watch Notre Dame blow out Navy in its opener last season. He will now see the Irish play their first national championship in 36 years. He doesn’t like to think about the cost of it all, even though he bought the tickets at face value.
And besides, how much is a souvenir worth?
“I didn’t argue about anything,” Carter said. “It’s blurry.”
Dan Carter didn’t hesitate to travel to Notre Dame’s four CFP games. (Courtesy of Dan Carter)
Michele Cahill and her husband, Matt, took the highway home to Chicago after the Indiana game wondering what they had just watched. And the 2007 graduates knew they wanted more. They texted friends, booked flights and arranged childcare for their 9- and 7-year-old sons. They convinced friends to go with them, an alumni reunion in New Orleans and Miami before the road ended in Atlanta.
They continued this panic attack together, watching the kind of season that couldn’t exist before the 12-team CFP asked fans to travel the country to watch.
“Matt has been so calm and I’m like, ‘Where’s the vomit bag?'” said Michele, who refuses to wear Irish clothing to games because the last time she did, Our Dame lost to Northern Illinois. “You keep going because you keep believing that you will overcome this obstacle and that anything is possible.”
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During the Orange Bowl, when Riley Leonard left the game to be examined for a head injury, Michele responded to her mother in Chicago, where she was watching their boys. She told 9-year-old Michael to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a lucky snack for Notre Dame’s backup quarterback. Steve Angeli drove in a field goal to help save the season. Michael ate the sandwich. Notre Dame rallied to beat Penn State on a game-winning field goal from Mitch Jeter.
Before Jeter’s 41-yard field goal hit the right upright, Quinn Denvir and Jimmy Suszka removed the green rabbit’s foot they inherited a week earlier in the Sugar Bowl. The 2020 graduates participated in the game against Indiana, then traveled to New Orleans with laminated teams to help follow Notre Dame’s 23-10 victory over Georgia, the program’s first major bowl of their life.
A row ahead of them in the Superdome, Notre Dame fan Shelly Seaver kept rubbing that rabbit’s foot for good luck, a counter to her husband’s entrenched allegiance to Georgia. Seaver appreciated these laminated lists as a true sign of fandom. As the game tilted toward Notre Dame, she told Denvir and Suszka that she wouldn’t make it to Miami. But the stuffed trinket should travel. Would they mind taking it?
“Some would call it crazy,” Denvir said.
Suszka wanted to break the rabbit’s foot when Notre Dame fell behind early. And when Nicholas Singleton gave Penn State a lead in the fourth quarter. Denvir insisted it should be used for field goals only. Jeter was 5 of 5 on field goals against Georgia and Penn State, all from 40 yards or more.
“I’m not saying it’s all down to the rabbit’s foot,” Denvir said. “But I’m not not I’m going to rub it in when Jeter comes out on Monday.
Denvir grew up around Notre Dame football near Chicago and began attending games in a stroller when his father Robert (’67) brought the family to campus. Robert won’t be in Atlanta Monday night, refusing to alter the karma established by his son’s role alongside his friend Suszka. Notre Dame won a national title in the fall of Robert’s senior year. He also attended the clinching bowls that gave the Irish the upper hand in 1973, 1977 and 1988.
“He has seen so many championships in his life. I desperately need it,” said Denvir, who has attended every Notre Dame game, home and away, for the past two years. “I think about singing the alma mater after the game and being around people you might not know, but you feel like you’re a team on a really big level. You don’t have to go to Notre Dame to share this.
Quinn Denvir, right, has attended every Irish game for two years. (Courtesy of Quinn Denvir)
Terry MacCauley did not, although he studied to be a priest at Saint Meinrad College in Indiana. His grandfather worked in development at Notre Dame, long enough ago to have helped raise the funds to build Hesburgh Library. He has been a season ticket holder for the past seven seasons. He played in all three playoff games and will be in Atlanta for the national championship game with his son Riley.
Father and son went to Miami 12 years ago for the BCS title game against Alabama when Notre Dame was blown away 42-14, although they never made it to the stadium, instead watching from a tailgate in the parking lot. Riley was a middle school student then. He is now an accountant and takes PTO to travel with his father from St. Louis.
MacCauley scored tickets to all four rounds through the allocation of season tickets, a total of 22 tickets costing $8,500. If he had to sell any, he made sure they went to Notre Dame fans for face value. MacCauley said the hardest pill to swallow during the trip was the flights and hotels. But it still went down.
“I think this team taught us all something,” MacCauley said. “This team just doesn’t give up. We all turn to sport to help us overcome certain difficulties in life. That’s why we’re watching.
MacCauley remembers playing youth league football in 1988, a third grader thinking the Notre Dame football he watched that season would be the Notre Dame football he could have watched the rest of his life. It didn’t work out that way, which is why he wouldn’t miss an opportunity to watch a national championship unfold Monday night from his lower level seats in the end zone.
He doesn’t want to think about what it would be like to see Freeman win a national championship trophy. But he can’t not think about it either.
“I don’t want to rip off Lou Holtz, but if you have to explain Notre Dame football, you won’t understand,” MacCauley said. “Some people choose different things for Christmas. I choose Notre Dame football. It’s my own gift to myself. And once you have someone with you at a playoff game, people understand. That’s why you’re going there.
GO DEEPER
The family perspective that inspired Riley Leonard’s playoff run at Notre Dame
(Top photo: CFP / Getty Images)
