A Beautiful Day For Football

Growing up Irish Catholic about a half hour away from Notre Dame it only made sense that I would have rooted for Notre Dame growing up. I was lucky enough to get to follow the ’88 title team while in middle school. I had the heartbreak of the ’93 season while a senior in high school. While in high school the movie Rudy came out, and I had crazy thoughts of trying to continue my football career at Notre Dame. My body is probably glad that I didn’t. I would have been beat up more than I already am. It will be fun to see the Irish on the field again tomorrow. I have been lucky enough to get to photograph them at home in 2015. A couple of years ago I was denied for the Purdue game up there from the Purdue end, but this year I get to photograph this matchup again.

Looking Back

In 2013 I was at Wabash making football photos during the day. I came back home not intending on getting into the football game. I was tired, but our family had a tailgate next to the stadium. While out there I started to have an idea for a photo seeing the blimp fly overhead. I went to the ticket office and bought a specific seat. They kept trying to give me a better seat, but I had an idea for this location. My idea panned out, and I made a pretty cool photo. A lot went my way to make this photo work. It is the reason why I first got onto the field, and it paved the way for all that came after. It is pretty cool that it was Purdue and Notre Dame playing that day. This game will be played on the same date (September 14th) as that day. Maybe the sky will give me something cool tomorrow night.

Thirty Years Later

My first ever Purdue football game was thirty years ago against Notre Dame at Notre Dame Stadium. My dad got free tickets to the game so I came up from Indiana to see the game. I was not much of a Purdue fan at the time, and I rooted for Notre Dame all the way. That stayed the same for years even when I was a student at Purdue. Now in what I do I can’t root for anyone. I will be excited to see the Irish up close again though. It is pretty cool to get the chance to photograph these teams almost thirty years ago to the date from the first time that I saw the two teams play each other.