Jim O'Donnell, a passionate fan of both Notre Dame and Indiana University, will be remembered at the first playoff game played on a college campus. His family will attend the game, carrying on his legacy of dual loyalty and love for Indiana football.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jim O'Donnell's legacy will be felt inside Notre Dame Stadium on Friday night. His son, Jim, will attend the first playoff game in major college football to ever be played at a campus site, dressed in the cream-and-crimson color garb of his dad's alma mater, Indiana. The younger O'Donnell's son, Dylan, will don the Fighting Irish “Rudy” jacket his grandfather wrapped his frail body in as he battled dementia.
The man whose split loyalties were legendary to friends and family certainly will be there in spirit as his two beloved college teams — seventh-seeded Notre Dame and the 10th-seeded Indiana — kick off the College Football Playoff against each other in South Bend. He was one of the many fervent football fans in Indiana and would have loved this clash. It's a gift from heaven for the O'Donnells. “What would he think of this matchup? To tell you the truth, he'd root for Notre Dame in a heartbeat,” said Carri O'Donnell, who read Blue and Gold Illustrated to her father-in-law two days before he died in September at age 89. “But anybody at IU who asked him, he would lie to them and say he rooted for IU — and then he would wink at you.” In many ways, O'Donnell typified what this rare in-state, non-rivalry is all about — pride, passion and pleasantries. He grew up in the state's northwest corner, Irish Catholic, the son of a man who schooled him well in the Notre Dame lore that makes the program a global love for so many. Still, O'Donnell was so determined to become a Hoosier that he hitchhiked his way 200 miles to the Bloomington campus. After graduating, O'Donnell returned to East Chicago, or what many call “The Region,” where his dual rooting interests showed up like so many other people in Indiana. He was a Notre Dame season-ticket holder from the 1950s through the 2000s. He met every Irish coach from Dan Devine to Charlie Weis. And O'Donnell never allowed his Hoosier ties to clash with his Irish roots. Instead, those rooting interests merge
COLLEGE FOOTBALL NOTRE DAME INDIANA UNIVERSITY LOYALTY PLAYOFF
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