[jwplayer mPfjqC00]
Say what you want, there is no sport around, not even America’s pastime of baseball, that carries tradition like college football.
No matter what stadium you’re in on a given fall Saturday, every campus has them and every student and fan thinks that their unique ones are the best.
At Notre Dame one of those more bizarre traditions happened between the third and fourth quarters every home game from 1961-2015. And no, it wasn’t the playing of the 1812 Overture.
Starting in 1960 Indiana State Police Sgt. Tim McCarthy would get on the public address at Notre Dame Stadium and share a quick PSA about driving home safely.
The problem that year was that nobody really paid attention to what he was saying so when he returned to the job in 1961, he came with a pun.
“The automobile replaced the horse but the drivers should stay on the wagon!”
McCarthy capped his first safe-driving message with that in 1961 and the rest is history as his puns became a Notre Dame tradition in a very short amount of time.
Over the years he’d offer countless new puns, each more groan-worthy but laugh-inducing than the previous.
“Some drivers are like steel. They are no good when they lose their temper!”
“Weaving in and out of traffic can make you a basket case!”
And “Remember – never get Dopey or Grumpy when the roads become Snow White!”
Those were just a few of his literal hundreds used over the years.
I remember being at my first Notre Dame game in 2000 when the Irish hosted Stanford. Once the 1812 Overture ended the stadium got eerily quiet and I couldn’t figure out why 80,000 people were so interested in hearing a safe driving PSA.
And then McCarthy dropped a pun, the crowd erupted and every game I attended from then on I didn’t made a peep during his announcement.
McCarthy stopped doing his announcements during the 2015 season at the age of 84. His final announcement was made between the third and fourth quarters of the UMASS game that year and for it he went back to the automobile replacing the wagon pun that was his first 54 years earlier.
McCarthy wasn’t necessarily a recognizable face for the vast majority of the crowd likely wouldn’t recognize him if he was standing next to them, but for roughly 45 seconds each home Saturday, McCarthy was a star for over a half-century.
McCarthy passed away on Thursday at the age of 89.
Saddened to hear of the passing of Sgt. Tim McCarthy, an honorary member of the Monogram Club. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. 🙏
— ND Monogram Club (@NDMonogram) October 2, 2020
Rest in peace, Tim.#MayIHaveYourAttentionPlease☘️ pic.twitter.com/bqHbmqWlQG
Thanks for the memories, laughs and finding a way to help keep drives home even a little more safe.
“The trip home will be heavenly…if you drive like an angel!”
For more about McCarthy I recommend reading this piece by John Heisler from 2015.