Not everyone in Happy Valley is rooting for Penn State in the CFP. Meet these Notre Dame fans
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College Football Playoff Semifinal
Penn State football is headed to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff and will face Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. Read all of our coverage leading up to the Jan. 9 game at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
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In the shadow of Happy Valley, where Penn State is celebrated and blue-and-white are the unofficial community colors, some Notre Dame holdouts remain.
Like Nittany Lions fans, local Irish supporters have long awaited a potential shot at the national title. They’ve grown restless from recalling their proud history without making new history. And they can’t wait for Thursday’s College Football Playoff semifinal, a battle of the blue bloods, between Penn State and Notre Dame.
What’s it like living in a football-crazed community and rooting for the wrong team? How does one get to become a Happy Valley Notre Dame fan anyhow? We asked Notre Dame fans in and around Centre County to share their stories.
Here’s what they had to say:
A win-win semifinal
No matter which team wins Thursday’s College Football Playoff semifinal game, John Affleck is heading to the championship.
Affleck, the 60-year-old journalism department head of Penn State’s Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, grew up as a passionate Notre Dame fan in an Irish Catholic family in Syracuse, New York, before his career brought him to Happy Valley in 2015. Although he’s now a Nittany Lions season ticket holder, his Fighting Irish fandom stretches back decades.
“I knew I was going to go [to Notre Dame] as soon as I saw the crest on the acceptance letter,” Affleck said. “I’m the first one in my family to go there, so we didn’t have a concrete connection or anything. I never even saw the place before my freshman orientation, but as an Irish Catholic family, we were devoted fans. It was never really questioned.”
Whether studying at Notre Dame or watching as a young fan at Syracuse, Affleck saw many Penn State victories over the years. He recalls viewing the Nittany Lions as “the big bad team of the day.”
“That’s not said in a hateful way, but in a way of thinking these guys were incredible,” he said. “If you beat these guys, you were great.”
A victory would give the Nittany Lions or Fighting Irish their first-ever appearance in a College Football Playoff title game. But even with history on the line for his favorite teams, Affleck says he feels at peace.
“Honestly, I’m just overjoyed. I’m not really conflicted. I’m really just glad they’re both having the best seasons they’ve had in 30 years,” said Affleck, who once served as the Associated Press college football editor. “I’ve been talking with friends and colleagues, and I keep apologizing for all the hand-wringing and conversations when I was complaining because my team wasn’t in the big game. Well, finally. People are pretty gracious as long as my teams don’t make this a habit.”
Affleck wouldn’t pick a winner for Thursday’s game but expects a tight contest. No matter which team wins, he’s planning a trip to Atlanta for the Jan. 20 championship game.
“This will likely be sort of a rock fight,” Affleck said. “They’re run-oriented on offense, they’re amazing defenses and, hopefully, all their best players can play. They’ll just go at it. I think, like a lot of people, it’s going to come down to a few chunk plays. Otherwise, it’s going to be a slug-em-up, northern school, ‘bring your big boy pants,’ snot-knocking football game, and it’s going to be fun to see.”
‘Something I waited for, for a long time’
When Bellefonte native Cory Cunningham was a kid, he spent a lot of time at his neighbor’s house. His neighbor would occasionally have a Notre Dame or Penn State game on TV, which sparked his lifetime connection to the Fighting Irish.
“I just vividly remember watching a Notre Dame game with him, and Notre Dame won that game, and that was it. That was my first memory of watching Notre Dame. And I never remember looking back, and that’s been 30 plus years ago,” Cunningham said.
He used to annoy his parents with his “over the top” fandom through grade school, but he thinks he has actually converted them to Notre Dame fans. His wife, who also grew up in the area, has become a fan and catches the same grief he does in Happy Valley.
“My two kids are both Notre Dame fans. My 9-year-old son is really into it. He doesn’t understand how big this Penn State-Notre Dame game is quite yet — he’s getting there, he’s figuring it out. It’s obviously a really big deal for me, something I waited for, for a long time,” he said.
Cunningham, born in the late ‘80s, hasn’t gotten to see Notre Dame play Penn State many times. When he was a student at Clarion University, his three roommates were all big Penn State fans. When Penn State and Notre Dame played each other in 2006, he said he drove home to watch the game because he couldn’t stand the idea of watching it with non-Notre Dame fans. But the next year, he went to the game at Beaver Stadium wearing all green.
He plans to watch Thursday’s game “quietly at home” with his wife and kids — without any potential Penn State fans around. He predicts Notre Dame will win, 24-17.
“One of the things that fuels this game for me is that I frequently have many people share their ‘hatred’ for Notre Dame with me and how they can’t stand them. That has caused me to essentially root for 2 teams every college football Saturday: Notre Dame and whoever plays Penn State,” he said in an email.
Taking ‘extreme measures’ for Notre Dame
It’s easy to see how Mifflin County Commissioner Kevin Kodish became a massive Notre Dame fan. He was born and raised Catholic, attended a Catholic elementary school and had a dad who liked to say, “Hail Mary, full of grace, Notre Dame is in first place!” In 2006, his late mother even named her two cats Brady and Quinn, after the Fighting Irish’s quarterback at the time, Brady Quinn.
Growing up in Lewistown in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Kodish said there weren’t a lot of college football games to watch on TV. But the local radio station carried Notre Dame games for a while. When that stopped, he said he had to take “extreme measures” to listen to the game.
“My room was on the second floor of my house, and I would open my window and stick the antenna from my radio outside so I could pick up the Notre Dame football games on a radio station from DuBois. It got a little chilly at times, but it was well worth it to listen to the Fighting Irish,” he said in an email.
He attended some Notre Dame games in State College, Pittsburgh and New York, but he said his fandom really took off after he attended a home game for Notre Dame. It was in 1984 and he saw Notre Dame beat Penn State, 44-7.
The teams have only met 19 times and the series is tied 9-9-1, so it’s an extra special matchup this time around, he said. It will be a “very physical, knock down, drag out fight” between Penn State and Notre Dame, Kodish said. He doesn’t expect either team to have more than 20 points, and gave a final score prediction of 20-17, Notre Dame.
He’s watching the game this week at home with his wife. Like many sports fans, he has a lucky shirt ready — the same shirt he’s worn during the past 12 games.
Kodish said it can be “somewhat challenging to be a ‘Let’s Go Irish’ fan while living in the land of ‘Love ya, Lions!’” He hears a lot of ribbing from Penn Staters when Notre Dame loses, but knows it’s mostly all in good nature.
Cheering for both teams
As a Notre Dame graduate, it’s probably expected that you’ll cheer for the Fighting Irish on Thursday. But what if you’re also a Penn State employee? That’s the situation Jamie McClintock Brenner is in.
Brenner graduated from Notre Dame with her master’s degree, but before that, her Catholic family always rooted for the Fighting Irish. But because they lived in Pennsylvania, they also cheered for Penn State.
Living in Happy Valley has always felt like she’s in “enemy territory” between attending Notre Dame and Michigan State, so Brenner said it’s normal for her to have her team be the enemy. But Thursday’s game is an exciting matchup and one long in the making. Plus, she’s a winner either way.
“I’m excited personally, because I’m a winner either way. I have two of my own personal teams playing, so that’s exciting. But the other thing that makes me really excited is these two teams have both been bubble teams in the playoff scenarios as it’s played out over the last few years. I think it’s especially exciting because they have proven that those teams on the edge should always have been included,” Brenner said.
The teams are peaking at the same time, she said, and have a lot of similar strengths, so she’s looking forward to the game.
Still, she’s finding it hard to root for one team over the other. So much so that she didn’t want to pick a winner or give a score prediction ahead of the game.
“I’ll probably just be cheering for everybody,” she said. “Because I would love for my alma mater to keep going, but also, I would love to be able to take part in the fun activities here on campus if Penn State keeps going.”
Her parents are expecting a Notre Dame win, she said.
“I’m proud of both schools and their teams for making it this far because they really show like these teams should have been included in the road to the championship the whole time. So, I think that’s really exciting. It’s going to be good football, and that’s going to make it the best fan experience,” Brenner said.
Tattoos for the win
When Blanchard resident Michelle Shady was younger she was a Penn State fan, following in the footsteps of her family and because she “didn’t know any better.” But after buying a pair of Notre Dame shorts and having a high school boyfriend whose family were huge Notre Dame fans, she corrected course.
She’s been a devoted Notre Dame fan ever since. So much so that she has two Notre Dame tattoos. She got one in 2012 when the team went undefeated and just got a second one of the Fighting Irish mascot. She’s planning a third if they win the Orange Bowl.
Shady went to every game Notre Dame played in Beaver Stadium in her lifetime and has gone to several games in Indiana. Beaver Stadium is known for its loud games and Shady attributes Penn State’s wins to that. It’s a crazy atmosphere to be in, she said, but she of course thinks it’s better at Notre Dame’s stadium.
“Even when I’m watching them on TV — and my daughters think I’m crazy — but when they’re coming out of that tunnel, ... it brings tears to my eyes. It’s so exciting, like, this is it. Thursday night I’ll be very emotional,” Shady said.
Their plans for the game are still in the works but her daughters want to have a watch party. Shady said the same thing many other local Notre Dame fans have said: “...if we do, I (have) to find some Notre Dame fans to come down here because I can’t watch it with all you Penn State fans.”
What are her predictions for the big game? She’s not sure Notre Dame will pull off the win but is still hopeful.
“When they have these big games that you really want them to win, and it means the world to you, they seem to, like, blow it. But, I don’t know, I’m very impressed with the way they’ve looked their past few games and their defense, and that Jeremiyah Love because if he can run 98 yards a couple times, we should be OK,” Shady said.
Wedding ... or Notre Dame game?
Lifelong Notre Dame fan Travis McCullough was willing to compromise on the date of his wedding — a dreaded fall Saturday during college football season — but he still wasn’t willing to miss the Fighting Irish.
Neither was his brother Anthony. Nor the entire side of his family from the Lewistown area.
So, at the reception in 2012, Anthony helped stream the Notre Dame-Stanford game from a laptop and project it onto a 32-inch TV. His entire family watched, cheered and celebrated after an overtime goal-line stand led to a 20-13 Irish victory — while his wife’s side of the family just looked on.
“Everyone associated with the McCullough family was around the TV, and everyone associated with my brother’s wife’s family probably thought we were crazy,” Anthony recalled with a laugh. “That still rings very familiar 10-plus years later. That was a memory I’ll never forget.”
Anthony, 40, and Travis, 38, will watch Thursday night’s Penn State-Notre Dame game together from Lewistown. And, despite being surrounded by Penn State fans and Happy Valley, they are unapologetically Irish fans. (Travis even jokes that his wife, a Penn State alum, now boasts a blue-and-gold heart whose left corner remains blue and white.)
Travis, who teaches at Mifflin County Academy of Science and Technology, worked at the Nittany Lion Inn when he was younger. And, even then, he wasn’t afraid of showing his Irish pride. He remembered working one Saturday night, after a Penn State game, when Jay Paterno walked in to pick up some lobster bisque for his mother. Travis was sporting a Notre Dame hat.
He remembered JayPa telling him he had the wrong hat on. Travis retorted that he didn’t. “And he was like, ‘Fair enough. Have a good day,’” Travis remembered.
That fandom is steeped in tradition and family. Travis and Anthony’s aunt used to be a baton twirler at Junior Miss Pageants in the 1960s and/or 1970s, decorated enough that she routinely stopped in South Bend, Ind. — home to Notre Dame — where nationals took place. Even as Pennsylvania residents, their grandfather and family fell in love with the team and community.
Travis’ first Notre Dame game came when he was 2 years old. Anthony was 4. They credit their grandfather for turning them into fans, and they still cherish photos where he’s holding them both in his arms on the Notre Dame campus.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 11:14 AM.
