Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/350567
BY DAN MURPHY I rish linebacker Eddie O'Connell stood in the hallway of Notre Dame's Joyce Center as the smell of a well-catered meal wafted past him and his hungry band of fellow walk-ons. The non-scholarship members of Notre Dame's 2002 football team were gathering before a pep rally. In- side the nearby Monogram Room, their more glorified teammates were preparing for the weekend with a complimentary meal. NCAA rules at the time considered team meals an extra benefit (that rule was fi- nally overturned this spring). Walk- ons were persona non grata at such events, another slight that O'Connell and company grinned and bore to- gether. "Me and my buddy Dave Kowal- ski were standing out there waiting and talking about what normal people would do in these kind of situations," O'Connell said. "I said they'd prob- ably form a union." Thus was born the WOPU Nation. A dozen years later, the Walk-On Play- ers' Union is still going strong in South Bend with its own Twitter account, alumni network and T-shirts. O'Connell had no idea at the time that he was setting himself up to be Notre Dame's own Samuel Gompers (the first and longest-serving president of the American Federation of Labor), but the idea stuck. He had stumbled on a fun way for the most unsung of Notre Dame's heroes to turn their comisery into camaraderie. "That brotherhood was something that always existed," said O'Connell, who is now a Marine with three tours of duty under his belt. "They can call it whatever they want to call it, but the feeling was always there. It's cool that they still refer to it as the union." The life of a walk-on is not easy. They are cast as tackling dummies and sometimes stored like them in the dark recesses of locker rooms. As a group, they are often forgotten and almost al- ways underappreciated. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly says he's try- ing to change that in South Bend. Kelly placed a new emphasis this offseason on searching for the best possible talent for his last 20 roster spots — those that don't come with free room and board. In five seasons at Notre Dame, the coach has had a hard time building the depth he wants with 85 scholarships. His available bodies usually dwindle into the low 70s by November due to injuries and general Labor Of Love Notre Dame and Brian Kelly tap into Irish lore to bolster walk-on program