Even if you haven’t covered Notre Dame football in years, it doesn’t mean you’ve been forgotten. That’s the case with Vaughn McClure, the former Irish reporter for the South Bend Tribune, who died this week at the age of 48. McClure, whose picture was in Notre Dame Stadium’s press box for Saturday’s game against Louisville, wrote about the Irish for both the newspaper and its Irish Sports Report magazine during a tenure that spanned from 1999 to 2004. Since 2013, he had been ESPN’s beat reporter for the Atlanta Falcons.
A tribute to Vaughn McClure, a seat in Notre Dame’s press box today. pic.twitter.com/7jzeFxPNYr
— Tim O'Malley (@timomalleyND) October 17, 2020
Eric Hansen, the Tribune’s assistant sports editor and columnist, also used to be the aforementioned magazine’s managing editor. In the paper’s story about McClure, Hansen said the following:
“To try to sum up Vaughn McClure’s impact in a couple of paragraphs is like trying to pour the Pacific Ocean into thimble.
When we hired him in 1999, his goal — his obsession, really — was being better at his craft than the day before. And I’ve never seen someone grow as fast and as dramatically in our business as Vaughn, which isn’t even the most impressive thing about him.
What was? It’s who he was at his core, a man who wanted to make a difference in the world. Through his writing. Through some very frank late-night talks about life in America. Through his hugs. Through his disarming smile.
He didn’t just crush his mission of getting better. He made all of us, who came in contact with him, better people along the way.”