Our Zahm QB Paul Tufts was a really good.  71-72 was the year I played. Jack Leicht the coach.  

I played intermural football for Breen Phillips from 1969-1972 We had a mixture of high school players and guys who wanted to "play football at Notre Dame".

A few random thoughts:

We were issued old and sometimes antique equipment. My roommate, Dave Bertke was issued a leather helmet with a single bar facemask.

Dave was about 6'3" and 175 lbs. playing outside LB. Dave hadn't played in HS so he seemed to do a lot of yelling and waving his arms. At the time there was a professional LB with the Raiders named Ted Hendricks. Nickname-the Stork. Dave was given a nickname that has lasted 50 years.

We had a pretty good QB. Mike Manyak and wideouts Bob May and Lynn Hebel. 

Livio Parolin, since departed, was the middle linebacker. He claimed to be all state out of Chicago. I don't know if he was all state but he was pretty darn good in Interhall.

We played Stanford for the North Quad championship my senior year, but as I recall we were soundly beaten.

I did score a defensive touchdown one game playing defensive end. As I recall, the ball was lying in the endzone and my teammate and good friend, Livio, was about to fall on it. I quickly pushed him out of the way and fell on it myself.

Again, thank you the opportunity to think about things I haven't thought of in many years. I believe most of what I have written is be true.

                    The Breen Phillip’s 1972 Inter-Hall Football Team

The team was famously and proudly named THE NADS. This team was probably the BEST B-P team ever fielded in the 35-year history of the ALL-MEN’s DORM. Why do we note this? Because the 1972 team was the LAST team ever to wear the Breen Phillips jersey on the gridiron. The dorm became a women’s dorm in the Fall of 1973. We should note that the “BEST” classification might be disputed by some earlier teams. We did not survey them for their opinions.

We take pride in documenting the above, this November 22, 2022, almost 50 years to the day that the famous Breen Phillips Nads, took the field for the last game ever played by a B-P team. The game was a playoff game against Stanford that took place on November 19, 1972. B-P played Stanford earlier in the season beating them handily. But on that very last game, The Nads went down in flames never to rise again. The results might have been the result of too much fun the night before. Here is a partial roster of that team:

Dave Berke, ’73 from Kentucky, an engineer and played defensive end.

Bill Cleva, ’73 from Long Island New York, a chemical engineer. Played offensive and defensive end

Mike Farrelly, 74 from Long Island. Played defensive line

Tom Foristel, 76, New York City, offensive and defensive end

Mike Hansen, ‘73 from Milwaukee, an accountant and played offensive and defensive tackle

Lynn Hebel, 73, from Albert Lea, MN, an accountant and played defensive back

Bill Henshaw, ’74 from Country Club Hills, Illinois, an accountant and played offensive and defensive line.

Bruce Jiorle, ’75, from New Jersey and played quarterback.

Dave Klunk, ’73 an accountant from Littlestown, PA was a halfback and defensive back.

Ed Klunk, ’74, Dave’s brother and was a halfback and a defensive back.

Mike McConville, ’73, played offensive and defensive guard. Mac passed away about 7 years ago.

Joe Morahan, ’74 Chicago, Illinois and played safety.

Greg Pappariella, ’73 Hershey PA and played center and defensive lineman. 

Livio Parolin, Chicago, Illinois. Played center linebacker and fullback. Livio passed away about four years ago.

Forest Whiterabbit, ’73, Hudson, Wisconsin, played offensive and defensive line.

Jim Wethertbee, ’74, Long Island New York, an Aerospace engineer and famous astronaut who has log more time in space than any American. Jim played wide receiver.

Rich ???, 73 was Dave Berke’s roommate.

Outlined against a steel gray sky on November 19, 1972, the Marauders of Morrissey Hall, thirty three strong, eagerly took the hallowed field at Notre Dame Stadium in the first title game of the “Co-Ed Era” of Interhall Football. The championship had eluded the Marauders the previous two years, thanks to the team known as “Dillon Hall”. Much as the Red Sox later beat their Yankee daddies in 2004, Morrisey finally took down Dillon in the semis in ’72. Like the Red Sox, the Marauders felt that the championship was now essentially theirs. Stanford Hall, their opponent in the championship game, was presumed to be a mere speed bump in the journey to interhall destiny.

                I was a 5’7”, 165 pounder who hadn’t played high school football, and was now playing in my second year of interhall football. My first two years were spent in Walsh Hall, once the home of the Gipper and Joe Theisman, but now occupied by the first class of women in ND history. Walsh Hall was one of the two dorms selected to become women’s dorms, out of the twenty one then on campus. Given its long history of excess testosterone oozing out of its pores, carpets, sinks, and toilets, that decision was not greeted by its residents with anything approaching glee, particularly among those sophomores who were in line to upgrade their semi-squalid living quarters. Having been cautioned by the rector not to “overreact”, predictably, the mother of all parties was held. Were it not for the fact that two of my roommates were on the varsity football team, I might never have graduated….but it was a hell of a party.

               Thus, having been “evicted” by the new co-eds, and in need of new quarters, I was salvaged by several friends who had resided at Morrissey since freshman year. In part due to the proximity of Morrissey to the practice fields out by Holy Cross, I decided to play ball for the Morrissey Marauders. At my very first practice, I was blown away by the football bona fides of several of my mates: former ND varsity players, second team All-Staters from hotbeds like Ohio and Oklahoma, and a head coach who actually knew something about coaching.  As any ND student knows, one of the many unique joys of going to ND is the opportunity to play virtually any sport on an interhall level, often against accomplished fellow student-athletes. Playing any kind of football at ND was a dream come true for any Catholic kid in America, and I was no exception.

At my size and having some quickness and willingness to stick my head in there, I played some cornerback, although not with the skill of some of my teammates.  But I did have one skill that no one else had: I actually knew how to long snap. I’d learned it the summer of my freshman year when I was a camp counselor in Connecticut and one of my fellow counselors had been a Division III player at Springfield College. 

Our punter and I worked out a silent signal to keep me from getting obliterated by the opposing nose tackles, and in two seasons, we never had a botched punt. One of those nose tackles was “the” guy nicknamed “Rudy”, who happened to be a friend of another roommate and also happened to be about 50 pounds heavier than Sean Austin. 

Our regular season was a blast, all leading up to the rematch with Dillon. Dillon actually filmed some of our games, which was unusual in those Jurassic times.  Although the details of our semi-win over Dillon escape me due to the ravages of time and lack of any written chronicle, I still recall the sheer joy we had in taking down the perennial favorites. 

During the prelude to the championship game, Morrissey Hall was filled with banners and the constant refrain of the Morrissey fight song, which had been culturally appropriated from USC: “Fight on, for Morrissey, for black and gold, for victory!”

Taking to the field for the Stanford game, I was filled with one recurring thought, shared by virtually all of the players: I can’t believe that I’m playing football at Notre Dame Stadium. But it was soon time to focus and do our thing, and we did. 

The game was never in doubt, as our starters dominated on both sides of the ball from the opening coin toss. We finished on the right side of a 28-0 final score, thanks to QB Kirk Miller, RBs Paul Breen and Tim Leutkemyer, who led the way on offense, and our D linemen, Kevin O’Neill, Bill LaVigne, Dave Hammond and Mike White, who left Stanford’s QB unable to get off a pass. Coach Randy Salyer pressed all the right buttons, as always. 

Occasionally we had to punt. Though we were up by 21 points in the second half, the most memorable play for me was a punt which I had snapped for and then downed at around the 5 yard line. I sometimes run into the punter, Ed Posluszny, now a successful dentist, at games and reunions. Ed loves to regale his wife with stories of his punt, which over the years has gone from being downed at the 5 yard line, then the 4 yard line, and by the time I next see him it will have been downed at the one foot line.

Beyond the thrill of actually playing at the stadium, the fact that a thousand or so people showed up to see us, including my girlfriend, who came all the way from my home state of Connecticut, was an incredible rush. 

Once victory was secured, the party began and lasted for hours in the bowels of Morrissey Hall. A few weeks later, we were treated to an honorary awards dinner. We also received our prized championship jackets, which I treasured for the next 20 years until my 165 pound frame increased to 185 pounds.

Any athlete will tell you that lessons learned on the field carry over in real life. What I learned from my interhall experience, and from other experiences in sports, is that you should always push your envelope, and never let other people’s opinions stop you from pursuing whatever dream you might harbor. (Hence, the appeal of the movie “Rudy”). Having played at Notre Dame Stadium, I later got to play baseball at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown and at many major league spring training sites in Arizona and Florida. Professionally, I’ve “performed” in many otherwise intimidating courtrooms as a litigator. Yet, 50 years after the event and with a lifetime full of memories, I have to admit that few experiences have matched the one of November 19, 1972. Thank you, ND Interhall Football!!

Rich Arconti ‘74

Morrissey Hall

Championship Game Site Remembrances

On Saturday, November 18, 1972, the Irish defeated the University of Miami 20-17 to secure a bid to the Orange Bowl.  ND had only recently begun going to bowl games (starting in 1969), and in that era would only play in the Cotton, Sugar or Orange (Rose was out of the question with the Big 10/Pac 8 commitment).  So, this was a big deal.  The turf of Notre Dame Stadium was strewn with oranges from the student section, celebrating the win and the bowl bid, and it generally showed the scars of a season’s play.  The home schedule was complete, and only the annual rivalry game with Southern Cal (that year’s National Champion) in LA, and the Orange Bowl opponent Nebraska (led by Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Rodgers), still loomed.  (ND would lose 45-23 to USC, when Anthony Davis scored five touchdowns -- his five touchdowns were in this game, not in the 55-24 loss two years hence; and would lose 40-6 in the Orange Bowl.  However, the 1972 varsity formed the nucleus for the undefeated/untied 1973 National Champions, including a 23-14 home win over SC and a 24-23 Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama to capture the crown.)

The only game still scheduled for the Stadium in 1972 was the Interhall Football Championship between Morrissey and Stanford, to be played the following afternoon -- Sunday, November 19th.  The condition of the turf wasn’t a significant issue given the running clock that was employed for Interhall games, and besides, neither team cared.  We simply wanted to play in the stadium that Rockne had built.  Playing the Interhall Championship game in the Stadium was a tradition, and had been promised to us again for that season before the season’s play had even begun.

Promised, that is, until the phone rang in my Morrissey room at about 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night.  One of my roommates, Bill “Whitey” Hake was the Morrissey Athletic Commissioner, and I was the Assistant.  It was therefore natural that Tom Kelly, Assistant Athletic Director in charge of Interhall Athletics, would contact us (I happened to take the call, as Whitey was game-prepping at Corby’s) with the news that the Stadium would be used for varsity practices leading up to the SC and Nebraska games (both LA Coliseum and the Orange Bowl were grass fields, and the ND grass practice fields were supposedly not usable by that point in the year).  As a result, Tom informed me, the Interhall Championship game would be moved to the Astroturf of Cartier Field, so that the Stadium grass wouldn’t be further damaged and thereby interfere with the practices.

Tom attempted to turn this into a real treat for the Interhall players, given the history of Cartier, but I wasn’t buying it.  Instead, I immediately objected, arguing that not only did this violate the promise made to both Morrissey and Stanford (and to all of the Interhall teams), but it was also no picnic to play on the “fuzzy concrete” that the Cartier Field Astroturf was in those days.  Tom wouldn’t budge, but I wasn’t finished.

Unbelievably (particularly in retrospect), the student directory in 1972 contained not only every student’s campus address and phone number, but also included the same information for administrators, professors and other University hierarchy -- including Father Hesburgh, Ara Parseghian, Moose Krause and more!  My first call of protest and appeal was to Father Hesburgh in Corby Hall, but he was out.  I then tried Ara at his home, but he was also away.  My third call was to Moose, and he likewise was not at home.  I next decided to try Father Jim Burtchaell, who was then the University Provost.  I had taken a class from Father Burtchaell the prior semester, and therefore knew him.  Further, he lived in Dillon Hall (where he was Assistant Rector, and whom we had defeated the week before by a 26-18 score to reach the Championship game).  I suspected that all of this would give him some appreciation and empathy for Interhall football, and I was right.  Father Burtchaell entirely understood the predicament and even sided with us.  Moreover, he said that he had just returned from a party celebrating the Orange Bowl bid, that Moose Krause had been at the same party, and that Moose had also just left.  He suggested that I again try Moose at home, and I did.

Moose answered the phone when I called, and I recounted the situation for him, including the rationale that Tom Kelly had given.  Moose’s only question was, “Do you really expect to have enough spectators that you’ll need the Stadium?”  I laughed and told him that we’d be lucky to have a couple hundred for both teams, but that that wasn’t the point.  I explained that the point was that a bunch of guys on both teams had been promised the Championship game in Notre Dame Stadium -- a dream come true for many of us -- and that having this promise broken was simply not fair.  I also reminded him that the running clock would mean that we wouldn’t be on the field all that long in any event.  I implored him to intervene, and he couldn’t have been more gracious.

Moose said that he would contact Tom Kelly that evening, and would arrange for Tom to meet me in the Stadium at 11:00 a.m. the next morning (game time was 1:00 p.m.).  Moose said that if after a fresh look, I (and I alone -- not Tom Kelly) thought that the condition of the field would allow Interhall play, then the Championship game would go ahead in the Stadium.  Needless to say, I “knew” that the field would be just fine before I hung up the phone!

I did, in fact, meet with Tom Kelly on Sunday morning.  To say that Tom was not happy with me, in light of the several levels over his head that I had gone, would be a gross understatement.  Nonetheless, as we stood above the tunnel to survey the field (it was still full of oranges from the day before, but actually wasn’t all that bad), I gave the thumbs up for the game -- over Tom’s continuing objections and efforts to convince me otherwise.

The game was played in the Stadium, and Morrissey prevailed 28-0.  This particular Morrissey team finished the season undefeated, and it included at least four players who had made All-State teams in high school (at least two of whom had been “invited” walk-ons to the varsity).  In fact, this was the second year in a four-year string, during which Morrissey lost a total of only three games.  This high degree of success was thanks, in some part, to the handiwork of Father Tom Chambers, Rector of Morrissey, who was also the University Director of Housing and in charge of residence hall assignments.

The following year -- and, as I understand it, for a number of years thereafter -- the promise of the Stadium was no longer made, and the Championship game was instead played on Cartier Field (I believe that the Championship games are again now played in the Stadium, perhaps because of the outstanding grade of artificial turf installed some years ago).  But in 1972, we had our way, both with the site and the outcome!  Go Marauders!!

I was in the class of 76 and played 4 years of Interhall football.  Playing highschool ball, this was a great way to continue my love of the game.   I was amazed back in 72 we had actual coaches and afternoon practices. Everyone took it very seriously. Our quad rivals were Dillon Hall which was next door to my dorm, Alumni Hall, affectionately called the Dawgs!  Most of the team was comprised of our Freshman floor known as “Shit Alley!”  Named for its luxurious accommodations. Lol.  My roommate Frank Driscoll, who played quarterback, played highschool football with me in Long Island.  My position was Middle guard. I always loved the sport but like so many athletes who came to play inter hall we were too small and underweight to even think about trying out for the Big team.  I have to say the interhall teams were made up of many fine teams who probably could have taken on some smaller colleges!   I do have the Observer article you talk about which depicts our underdog team playing Dillon Hall.  The game was a lot closer than the score!  If you need it let me know and if you need more material for your article let me know also.