So happy today to have lunch with my old friend from Notre Dame and Innsbruck and Salzburg, Austria, Tim Forward. Back in Salzburg, in the previous millennium (1967) we called Tim "Rudi" after a character in a book about the famous Swiss character Wilhelm Tell (I think that was the origin of Tim's nickname). Almost all the Notre Damers who studied in Salzburg and Innsbruck had nicknames. Sometimes they were logical and more often they were inexplicable. Why was I called "Wilder Mann"? Why was Chris Cotter called "Wheat"? And Tom Heinen "Spider"? Why was Mike Gerrity "Misha"?
Thirty-six 19-year-old boys in the Innsbruck Program--all of them bright, ambitious; many fun; a few stone crazy. Forty-five years later some of the guys have had incredible success. Two have died--Steve Shields in combat in Vietnam around 1973 and John Higgins from cancer. One of my favorites is Tim Forward, "Rudi"--so happy he stopped by today on his way to Chicago and Green Bay.
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| Tim Forward and Bob Coughlin at the Red Hawk, Concord, Ohio |
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