Irish Creed throws it back to the days of yore every Thursday
by giving you a sample from Daniel Collins' behind-the-scenes book
This week's throwback comes from Chapter 5, in which Collins recalls his encounters with several less-than-hospitable hosts in West Lafayette, IN:
... “Purdon’t” became the word of the day, and I repeated it
frequently to pretty much every Purdue fan within earshot. I didn’t expect it to instigate such an
angry backlash, nor did I expect their fans to turn into such discourteous
hosts. To be honest, I wasn’t even
convinced that Purdue football fans actually existed until I saw 59,000 of them
wearing black t-shirts as part of their unsuccessful attempt to intimidate us
with a stadium-wide “black out.”
... I could have heard a pin drop when I led our team out onto the
field. Ross-Ade Stadium was no Big
House. Their fans must have felt
the need to compensate, because what they lacked in noise they sure made up for
with downright disrespectful behavior.
Our poor sweet cheerleaders stood in total disbelief as disgruntled fans
spit all over their backpacks, which they apparently placed much too close to
the front row. These were grown
men sitting with their children right beside them. The language spewing forth from their uncouth mouths was
impolite at best. I combated their
coarseness in true Notre Dame fashion.
I killed them with kindness.
Smiles, waves, and kisses blown in their general direction worked
wonders. Whenever they said
anything particularly nasty I ran up to give their kids high-fives. Handing each of their sons and
daughters little blue ribbons with “Go Irish! Beat Purdue!” printed in gold, I
did my best to convert them before it was too late. By the time both teams lined up for the opening kick most of
their kids had already begun chanting, “Let’s go Irish!” along with our
cheerleaders.
...
... The Purdue fans surrounding us didn’t look too
happy, but we all wore gigantic grins as we swayed to our Alma Mater. I was so happy to escape with a win
that I almost didn’t hear a voice call out, “Hey, Leprechaun! I’m an Irish girl! Can I get a picture?” I gave Erin Andrews my phone number so
she could send me the photo we took together, but for some reason she never got
back to me.
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