Reggie Brooks - If These Walls Could Talk: Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Stories from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box

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Contents

Foreword by Jerome Bettis

It was not really all that long ago that I hardly knew anything about the University of Notre Dame.

As a kid growing up in an inner-city Detroit neighborhood, I actually liked Oklahoma because Brian Bosworth was there at the time and I was a linebacker.

Plus Michigan was not far away, and Bo Schembechler wanted me to come and be a Michigan man. They really wanted me to be a linebacker too.

At the same time my high school coach, Bob Dozier at Mackenzie High School, convinced me that my long-term football career would be better served if I focused on playing as a running back. Some of that was my sizehe didnt see me playing at a high level as a 511 linebacker, and he was probably right.

I liked the fact that Notre Dame wanted me to run the football, and I knew Lou Holtz liked to use the fullback position in the running game.

Then, during my senior year in high school, Schembechler retired and I came to realize Michigan was going hard after a running back from Ohio named Ricky Powers.

When I went to sleep the night before I was going to announce my decision, I really did not know if I would choose Michigan or Notre Dame.

But when I woke up I put on the Notre Dame hat, and I will tell you that there was no one happier than my mother, Gladys, because she loved everything about Notre Dame.

It turned out to be a great experience, both on and off the field.

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I wasnt very worldly when I first arrived in South BendI had barely been out of our neighborhood in Detroit. I learned a lot from a cultural standpoint during my three years at Notre Dame because it was a completely different environment than I had been used to.

And the football part was awesome because when I enrolled at Notre Dame, they were coming off a national championship in 1988 and a 121 season in 1989.

We were the No. 1 team in the country when I began my freshman season, and we had a chance to win the national championship every year I was there. In those three years we went into 17 different games ranked fifth or higher in the polls, so there was no shortage of attention on our program.

The players who came in with me comprised maybe the best recruiting class to come to Notre Dame, and they already had plenty of good players. Including me, we had five people from that class who ended up as first-round picks in the NFL Draft: Bryant Young, Aaron Taylor, Tom Carter, and Jeff Burris.

It wasnt as if I was the only talented running back while I was there, because we also had Rodney Culver, Ricky Watters, Tony Brooks, and Tonys younger brother Reggie. I actually didnt play much as a freshman in 1990, but Culverwho also was from Detroitmoved from fullback to tailback in 1991, which gave me more of an opportunity.

Reggie had an unbelievable year in 1992, and the two of us made it tough on defenses because we both had good speed and decent size. It was not going to be easy for anyone to tackle either one of us.

Im still proud that Notre Dame ranked third in the country in rushing in 1992 when we were therethats the highest national ranking for Notre Dame in that category since 1946, when they finished first.

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I still remember the time Coach Holtz, Joe Moore, and Vinny Cerrato came to my house to recruit me in Detroit. I liked playing for Coach Holtzhe was an intense guy on the practice field and at games, but we were always prepared. And he always had a good way of making sure none of us got too big-headed about ourselves. He knew exactly what to say at exactly the right time.

I remember stopping in to see him after Id been playing in the NFL for a few years. He gave me some great advice that really helped at that time in my career.

My time at Notre Dame was enjoyable and beneficial, both on and off the field. I made a lot of great friends, played in some big-time football games, and walked away a better person.

I loved the fact that Reggie came back to Notre Dame a couple of years before I retired from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Its great to come back to campus knowing youve got someone you know to connect withafter a while Id been gone long enough that there were not many people left on campus or in the football department whom I knew from my years there.

Plus Reggie has become sort of the inside Notre Dame football guy for as long as hes been around and covering the Irish. Through his Monogram Club role, there are not many people who have been part of the Notre Dame football program whom Reggie doesnt know.

That makes him perfect to create this record of all his connections with Notre Dame football. Hes not only a good friend, but he also knows all the ins and outs of what football has been about for multiple decades.

I told Reggie Id buy his book just to see what he had to say about our three years together on the field. We had a lot of fun, and I wouldnt trade the experience for anything.

Jerome Bettis, who rushed for 1,912 yards for Notre Dame from 1990 to 1992.

Introduction by by John Heisler

Every former University of Notre Dame football player brings his own perspective to the time he spent in South Bendwhether a highly recruited high school All-American, a walk-on, or anyone in between. Former Irish running back Reggie Brooks is no different.

Yet Reggie brings to these pages a unique look at Irish football fortunes over the last three decades and even earlier:

As a player in the late 1980s and early 1990s he played on some of Coach Lou Holtzs greatest teams. The Irish finished a combined 4181 during Reggies four seasons in a Notre Dame uniform, finishing those campaigns in two Orange Bowls, a Sugar Bowl, and then in the Cotton Bowl for his final game. Notre Dames four bowl opponents in Reggies four years combined for a 4321 record during those regular seasons. The Irish finished second, fourth, and sixth in the final Associated Press polls after three of those years.

Reggies Irish teammates include College Football Hall of Fame players Chris Zorich, Aaron Taylor, and Raghib Ismail, plus a long list of all-stars including Jerome Bettis, Todd Lyght, Rick Mirer, and more All-Americans than you can remember.

He was the star of the show in two of the most memorable plays in Irish football lore. One of those was a run against Michigan in which he was literally knocked out when he was hit a few yards short of the goal line and the other was his reception on the two-point attempt against Penn State in the famed Snow Bowl game at Notre Dame Stadium. A few weeks after that contest, the final regular season game of his career in 1992 at USC proved to be one of the more spectacular ground-gaining efforts in Notre Dame history.

After a handful of years playing professional football Reggie returned to Notre Dame, first to work in the universitys Office of Information Technology and then quickly taking on some football media duties within Irish athletics.

A few years later Reggie took on a new role with the Notre Dame Monogram Club that gave him an even greater window into what Notre Dame football is all about. In his role coordinating football alumni relations, Reggie came to know virtually every living former Irish player in some form. He hung out with the Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winners and hundreds of other former Irish players, coaches, and staff.