Ryan Greenberg

The excitment and anticipation of the #1 USC vs. #9 Notre Dame football game extended to the southern hemisphere, so we decided to have a game “listen” party Saturday. Emily and Roy, graduates from Marquette and St. Edwards respectively, adopted Notre Dame as their football school. Our friend Stephen lent us his laptop and we listened to the internet radio broadcast of the game, supplemented by Notre Dame marching band music that I brought with me. We even bought two bottled of Simba, the official Bolivian soft drink of the Fighting Irish (the drink I’m holding is Simba pineapple, and it’s substantially more yellow than it appears in this picture).

Unfortunately, the outcome wasn’t quite what we wanted; USC beat Notre Dame 34-31. But those who follow college football know we were 7 seconds and one sneaky play away from beating the best-ranked team in the country. The future looks good for the Irish. ESPN’s Bruce Feldman wrote after the game, “Notre Dame, which came within seven seconds of knocking off ‘the greatest offensive team in college football history,’ is legit.” And, it was fun to feel part of the game when many of my friends traveled to be there. If you don’t know what a football weekend at Notre Dame is like, you should take a look.