CyberZahm

Schedule for Class of 74 (if still posted)

The class of 74's 50th reunion is in the books and the boys of that class are all now Golden Domers. I was honored to be incldued in the festivities (being a year wiser than the 74s) although I'm worried my biographers will be confused by some of my keepsakes:

Tuesday - I drive as far as Columbiana, Ohio, stopping at some Goodwills along the way looking for bargain records. Despite popular belief, I did not pick up the shorts I wore for Thursday golf at one of those stores. Meet up with Mags at the BEST BAR EVER ... Birdfish Brewing! Low priced microbrews, an embeded record store (Right Brain Records), an awesome food truck, and dozens of pin ball machines. Here's Mags trying to relive his glory days at Corbys - needless to say, he did not even sniff the top 10 scoring list.

Wednesday - Finish the drive to South Bend, stopping at record stores and Goodwills along the way, as is my habit. Check into the Varsity Club in Mishawaka, a treasure trove of Notre Dame memorabilia. Dinner with Mags at Rocco's, of course!

Thursday - Gary has organized a pre-reunion golf warmup at Morris Country Club, in the middle of South Bend. It is so cool to be in SB, turn down a small side street, drive through a modest gate, and be in the middle of a beautiful country club, leaving SB miles behind, at least it feels that way. Mags, Jack, Gary, and I, trade off being teammates, six holes at a time. Stakes are high, $5 a match. Gary and Jack nip Mags and Fox the first six. Jack and Fox are blistered the second six BUT, after having been shamed into a press on hole 12, with Jack politely calling me a "chickenshit", we rally and dominate the hole, leaving things even for the middle six. Mags and Jack easily handle Gary and Fox the last six with the final result being Fox down $10 and Jack up $10.

Thursday evening Mags, Ike, Dave D and myself, plus Shawn Kelly and Bill "Monk" Doran, convene at Carmela's Italian Restaurant in South Bend. Great conversation, food and drink and the time slides by quickly and easily.

The evening party is at Embassy Suites, just south of campus, which is apparently an unofficial class of 74 reunion site. Music, refreshments, spirits, some people dancing, lots of wandering around and talking with old friends and new.

Friday - Class of '74 Golf Outing!! Organized by Mr. Gary Sobolewski! Shotgun start at 8:30 am. Don't be late!

First of all, the weather was fantastic, as it was throughout the reunion. Mid 70's, light breeze, blue sky.

Mags and I are paired in the scamble with Dan Lee and Tom Nash. After we end up using my first two shots on our first hole I announce that my back hurts from carrying this team! And the rest of the way 90% of the shots used by our team are either Dan's or Tom's! Very nice guys and very patient with us hackers.

I believe we end up something like 8 over par, and that is partly thanks to the generous "bogey is the highest score allowed" rule. We are all using the white tees and on many holes of this tough course, after four septuagenarians give it our best shot, we are still 100 yards short of hitting the green in regulation. Mags and I each lose a dozen balls in the tall grass that is everywhere. Warren won.

Our other group consisting of Hans, Sobo, Jack, and Gary Janko fair somewhat better, coming in at -1, but still a long way off from the winning score of -8 - that team had a 20 something year old ringer! Recount! Box lunches after golf were very tasty and Gary acted as master of ceremonies. He received a well earned round of applause at the very end from everyone in attendance.

I leave golf and head to registration at the Eck center, where I explain I am an honorary class of 74 member. Next, after being in South Bend for two days, it is nice to finally walk around campus. I first check in at the Engineering building and find the chair of ND Computer Science/Engineering is in her office on a late Friday afternoon. We have a very interesting 30 minute chat, sharing experiences and ideas. Glad I stopped in.

Headed to Zahm.

Found this sign on the doors: "Zahm Hall is a private residence occupied by the women of Breen-Phillips. No touring of the building allowed." Sheesh.

Continued to the Admin Building, Grotto, Lakes, Church, etc. What a great inner campus. I do miss it. Ran into Mags also wandering. He shared this photo of himself with "rocks near the old Geology Building (Washington Hall it was called)".

Class of 74 reception and dinner was held that evening at Dahnke Ballroom just above the student center attached to the West Side of the Football stadium. Very impressive with great views.

We had a table, arranged by Sobo, on a balcony overlooking the main floor - giving us those great views above and a very much more accessable bar.

Excellent food and drink and company. We forgot to take a photo of our table! The after dinner speaker was coach Marcus Freeman and he was great. Chris "Hawk" Stevens acted as MC and started off the QnA format with a series of pre-scripted questions. Then they turned to the audience for questions, sometimes a dangerous thing, but coach Freeman handled every question with candor, humor, and honesty. I loved it. He definitely got us all pumped up for the football season. Very impressive. The up close photo below is courtesy of Dave, who scored a seat close to the podium.

36 million!!!! You'd think we coulda had shrimp cocktail with dinner maybe! Apparently that is the cumulative amount since the last reunion and includes cash received, pledges, beneficiary designations in various documents such as life insurance policies, wills, trusts, and IRAs and maybe some other forms of gifts.

After dinner it is back to the Embassy Suites for the after party, more or less a repeat of Thursday night. But including ice cream sundaes!

Saturday - Well, I decided Friday night that I would start home today. Its a long drive. The main activities are to be for actual class of '74 grads and photos are shown below. At the early afternoon induction ceremony everyone apparently received a hat and entry into the Golden Domers club. Looks like weather continued to cooperate and a nice time was had by all.

Congrats All!