A freshman year that included ROTC, winning the Bengal Boughts Heavyweight Championship, and trying out and making the Notre Dame Football team as a LB. Maybe another 4* in the making. He is the nephew of one of my fellow managers back in the day who might just post here once in a while. The ND Football walkons are and always have been a very special bunch.
year with a 75 percent scholarship, so I had that going for me, which was nice. Every once in a while I got to pretend to be a walkon, playing QB, WR or CB (or just extra weight on the two man sled) during position drills while the walkons were otherwise engaged with their own position coaches
I want to be you.
It must have been awesome to do what you did at ND
I met him at a book signing at The Bookstore. I mentioned I was a senior manager under Lou. Johnny was like, "Wow! That must have been something working for him!" and was gnuinely enthusiastic about it and ask some questions. I thought to myself "Wow! that must have been something to PLAY for FRANK LEAHY, and win the Heisman, etc....." What a great guy, and you are cut from the same cloth. I hope Heaven involves ongoing ND Football practices in the sky. I'd love to work for your Dad (and his coach too). :)
I remember attending the 1988 ND-Michigan night game at ND.
The only TD ND scored, as I recall, was a Ricky Watters punt return. There was a bomb from Tony Rice to a new speedster called Rocket Ismael. It could have been a TD, but it was a bit too long.
Reggie Ho hit 4 field goals. 4x3 =12 + 7 from the punt return and extra point by Ho gave ND 19 points.
Michigan’s John Gillette lined up for a last second field goal to add to their 17 points.
I watched it sail toward the south end zone and wasn’t sure if it was on line, but I watched Cris Zorich turn around when Gillette hit it and within a heartbeat Zorich raised his harms in victory before anyone else and it went maybe a foot or two wide right.
It was an auspicious first game for Reggie Ho, mister automatic.
That young man had ice in his veins.
Thomas Jefferson Medical Center in Philadelphia. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. I seem to recall he was featured in Notre Dame Magazine some years back. He would have taken Chemistry 115,116 with Emil T Hofman joining countless others who went on to be doctors. I believe Emil T even had two Nobel Prize winners that he taught. In fact, one of them got a B in his course. When the individual came back to be the featured speaker at the annual Emil T Hofman lecture he was awarded an A by the great man himself citing lifetime achievement as the justification. Emit T sent many prospective pre-professional students to the business school. Organic Chemistry usually was the impetus for the rest to give up the dream of a medical career.
“I will accept the Nobel Prize as extra credit.”
A perfect example of why as a old fan I love the Irish. One of many lads that demonstrate their love of the Irish! Gonna be a great Doctor.
highest winning percentage, most national championships, etc. But rather to root for the good guys to win, what though the odds...
On Kater St. they go to local pubs in Greys Ferry frequently I am told.
I did not realize that Jerry's grandfather was a basketball champion back in the day....
Four year monogram winner (89-92) and the guy who provides the medical care for members of your football team.
. . . and a great guy!
During Covid, there was a Zoom meeting with more former ND players under Lou who are now doctors than you could shake as stick at.
Seconded on being a great guy.
Repaired my meniscus. There was a little complication as part was folded but he caught that unexpected issue during surgery. Good friend Charmelle Green picked me up at SB airport and took me to see Brian who reviewed my sonogram and explained the procedure that he would perform the next morning. Charmelle took me home, fed me and put me up for the night. When I was being wheeled into the operating room, Brian was leaning on a railing with his surgery prep all white outfit except for the colorful Notre Dame dew rag on his head. Got a good laugh there. After surgery, Brian said I could start (for the football team) in six weeks! Then Charmelle took me to the airport to fly home.
Man, what a life.
I spotted one typo you might want to correct.
You mentioned that you won a bet on the ND-USC game in 1966 that ND won by over 50. As I'm sure you know, that was the famous 1966 game in the Coliseum.
I watched it from the basement of Breen-Phillips, my Freshman dorm.
Helluva ride.
Rock on, MBO!
University of Nevada room & board refund on the ‘65 Cal game that ND won by about 50 points. Was a grad student at USC and RA in Trojan Hall in ‘66. Did bet each of my 44 undergraduate students that I was advising $2 each on that game. Little know fact that virtually all the USC students attending that game started cheering for ND to blow their team out as their disgust grew and grew as the score mounted.
And “Don’t worry men, there are hundreds of millions of Chinese who are unaware this game was played.”
know I got a telegram from China".
Thank you for the reply and clarification.
They would identify the players’ majors. Notre Dame had their share of players in the pre-professional programs. Most were business majors. USC was introduced and they had a large number of senior football players whose major was listed as Undecided.
a) hold yourself out as some fantastic academic undergrad institution (based on rankings of your graduate programs)
b) have your football team almost entirely enrolled in the College of Kinesiology (with one poor sap saying he was majoring in accounting in that College)
c) "b)" has changed now with major donations to that College... now the football players are steered towards "general studies"
d) have Jim Harbaugh (then at Stanford) complain that he was steered away from hard majors while at Michigan, then backtrack like a wimp when he was hired at Michigan.
Parks and Recreation.
the country perhaps the world. But agree with your overall premise re special classes for players. Indeed, once read a paper written by OJ for an English class but wasn’t sure what I was reading was English (at least as I know it).
the most interesting.
Just one question: did you ever have an inkling that OJ was the kind of guy who would still be looking for the real killer after all these years?
And one comment: it's kind of cool that you got to know Meat Loaf and that you were on a first name basis with him.
Compared to MBO, Rullo, Faison, the numerous Lou players who are now doctors, Eilers, etc, this reminds me of my dad's old Christmas letter one year: "B19 is a sophomore at ND, B17 is applying to colleges... Dog6 continues to exist", but with me now in the role of Dog6 vs. the more accomplished fellow alums. I'd argue there's a book or 10 worth from Olson, Beijing, and MBO among others, and just glad to be here for the ride!
Borrowed $125,000 on a home equity loan to gain 20% of Revere Copper’s equity and a year later used that equity to borrow $56 million to acquire 100% of stock. Then gave 25% of common stock to employees making them employee-owners. My book is at 110,000 words and I need to finish it but stopped when my first wife passed away
Second, OJ seemed to me to be just like any of the other football players I knew at ND or USC. He was close with his offensive linemen. Indeed, it was Mike Taylor that first checked out my apartment and told OJ I was moving out and OJ should check it out.There was no inclination when he was young to assume anything would happen like that tragedy or subsequent events. Although when I watched his parole hearing on national tv, his speech and mannerisms were the same as when he was at USC.
Third, Leslie Loaf called me once to ask me to get Meat out of the house for at least six hours as she was planning a surprise birthday party for him. So I set up golf for us at Longshore CC in Westport, CT. As we finished, pretended to call my home and then told Meat that another course that Meat wanted to play but we never got on before had called to say we were set to tee off there in 30 minutes. Did that because if I told Meat that I had a tee time there earlier that he might suggest we only play that course and he wouldn’t be out of his house long enough for Leslie to set things up. After we finished 36 holes, Meat headed home and I waited a few minutes then followed him home. My wife was already there for quite the surprise party. That summer I may have spent more time with Meat than anyone except Leslie and his two daughters. Meat was a great guy.
a lot of interesting stories to tell in addition to your Meat stories, and just with your Notre Dame and USC connections (including an OJ connection), you'd have a nice bunch of potential customers right out of the chute.
And you started out your collegiate life as a would-be engineer. And now you're the most interesting would-be engineer in the world!
Talk about an oxymoron.
world to Johnathon Goldsmith years ago. My first thought was that I’d like to get to know him better. Johnathon lives near Manchester, NH and I was on the Board of Directors of a public utility in NH. Following that BOD Meeting, I planned to go to Hyannis Port and play golf with Paul Revere who had a great personality and very funny to be with anywhere. So I asked Johnathon if he golfed. No Brian, sorry I don’t. Then I thought I might ride my Harley to that meeting and stop in Manchester so we could ride together. Hey Johnathon, do you ride a motorcycle? No, sorry Brian, I don’t. Well then I thought maybe we could snowboard or ski together sometime as I had a friend who owned as beautiful home with 12 acres on the ridge opposite Sugarbush who always welcomed me to stay in a spare bedroom and that wasn’t too far from Manchester. So asked Johnathon, do you snowboard or ski? No Brian, sorry I don’t. I haven’t seen Johnathon since but he seemed to be a nice person as we met at a charitable event in which he participated.
title. I guess there are different kinds of interesting.
While I feel happy and damn proud this young man is a Domer, I am saddened by the fact that compared to him, I merely existed at ND for 4 yrs. And also merely existed during my summers off from school while he did nice humanitarian deeds.
What impresses me most about students like young Mr. Rullo is their time management and their inner drive.
I was too easily swayed to take the option that provided more fun. On a Thursday night, I would be thinking about heading to the Library on campus. Then my dormmates would state they were headed to the other Library on Notre Dame Avenue and I'd quickly alter my plans.
Kudos to this young man for not taking the easy road.
spent at the Library.
What an impressive young man, and a great story.
Moff, you know my buddy that we've talked about that was both a walk-on (end of Holtz/Davie) and ROTC. That's an amazing amount of organization.
Jerry Jr. is not unique among our Walkon players. Hope you and yours are well and we can get together one of these days
I'd think this was another Sidd Finch story.
I'm ashamed to say that I actually believed this story until I told my wife (then girlfriend), "Can you believe it--this dude weaves his own clothes on a loom!" I was at a low point with Notre Dame football in the spring of 2005, so I was susceptible to anything optimistic.
How does he possibly fit all that in?
Glad to see the ND ROTC program getting some good vibes.
Go Irish!
Go Army!
Godspeed!
Incredibly nice fellow. Last I saw he was chief physician at Xavier for athletics. Times may have changed but if Cadet Rullo needed advice or inspiration, he couldn't find a better Notre Dame man than Dr. Burger.
In Microbiology and went on to medical school. Chemical Engineering probably was the toughest major at ND. His two sons went on to play football in college. One at Ohio State and one at ND. Notre Dame had multiple players that went on to medical and dental school in those days. John Leon, Dave Vinson, Joe Restic, and Ken MacAfee to name a few in addition to Bob Burger.
story. Very proud to learn about another Notre Dame student-athlete. Bengal Bouts. Wow.
I did when I was at ND! Does he have time for a social life? With young men like him in the military I will have fewer worries about potential leadership in the military.
Applications for some specialty internships and awards for young physicians in training. Many were similar to his in terms of extensive experiences in training, education, and service. They seriously reinforced my imposter syndrome.
Much is made of the younger generation’s shortcomings. But there are many who are achieving and contributing at a level I never knew was even possible.
remarkable young man.