Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JUNE/JULY 2018 61 Lisch led Leo's Last to the Book- store title in 1978 (beating out Mon- tana and Batton's team in the pro- cess) and earned MVP accolades in 1980. All four of his children starred in basketball — including his son Kevin, who plays professionally in Australia (where he made the 2016 Summer Olympics team as a citizen) and his daughter Theresa, who was Ms. Basketball in Illinois. STEVE BEUERLEIN (1983-86) No Notre Dame quarterback had a longer stint in the NFL than Beuer- lein's 17 seasons, but the California native also seriously contemplated playing basketball at Stanford. That was his main sport in high school be- cause he didn't even start in football at Servite High until his senior year. His team was the Bookstore Bas- ketball runner-up in his freshman year (1984). A bad shoulder sidelined him for the 1985 tournament, but his 1986 squad (Lee's BBQ Roadhouse) won the title. TONY RICE (1986-89) A South Carolina all-state player in basketball with an exceptional verti- cal jump, Rice averaged 20.9 points per game as a senior at Woodruff High, and among his suitors was Louisville, which had just won its second national title under head coach Denny Crum. After weighing his "options," he decided to run the Power-I triple- option for newly hired Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz. The Irish would win a school-record 23 con- secutive games and the 1988 national title with Rice at the throttle. His Bookstore team lost in the final to a team led by former Princeton guard Joe Scott. KEVIN MCDOUGAL (1990-93) A standout in football, basketball and golf, the Blanche Ely High prod- uct in Pompano Beach, Fla., received the nickname "Mr. NBA" from his eighth-grade basketball coach and looked at playing both football and basketball in college, including at Syracuse and Michigan (where his host was Desmond Howard). After his freshman season in foot- ball at Notre Dame, he joined Phelps' basketball team, but bone spurs in his ankle prevented him from play- ing. Because of all the jumping, the hardwood was actually tougher on his ankle than playing football, so he decided to give up hoops. As a senior in 1993, he became the all-time career pass efficiency king at Notre Dame while leading the Irish to an 11-1 record and debatable No. 2 finish despite defeating No. 1 Florida State 31-24. BRADY QUINN (2003-06) Notre Dame's lone first-round pick at quarterback since 1994, Quinn joined high school and college team- mate Chinedum Ndukwe plus wide receiver Jeff Samardzija and offensive lineman Dan Stevenson in Bookstore play over the years. In his junior year in 2006 his team U Got A Bad Draw won the Bookstore Basketball title, although Quinn did not play in the finale. Quinn is the most recent Irish QB to lead Notre Dame to back-to-back major bowl games, the Fiesta in 2005 and the Sugar in 2006. EVERETT GOLSON (2011-14) & TOMMY REES (2010-13) The point guard prodigy Golson led Myrtle Beach (S.C) High to the 2008 South Carolina Class AAA state championship and in his junior year he was named all-state after averag- ing 19.6 points, 5.0 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game in 2009-10. Basketball was Golson's first love, and he originally committed to the University of North Carolina to play both sports before switching to Notre Dame, nearly joining Mike Brey's program too. The ESPN scout- ing report on Golson said he was "a high-major athlete and passer at the lead guard spot … he's very difficult to pressure and contain because of his explosiveness … [he] has always been able to attack in transition by getting to the basket and finishing … he has improved tremendously on his jumper [and] is now a consistent three-point shooter off the catch." Meanwhile, Rees helped lead a school-record 25-win basketball sea- son at Lake Forest (Ill.) High as a junior. Both sacrificed their senior seasons of basketball so they could enroll early at Notre Dame in January. In 2012, both played instrumental roles at quarterback to lead the Irish to a 12-0 and No. 1 regular-season finish before losing to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game. ✦ Kevin McDougal originally planned on also playing basketball in college, but bone spurs in his ankle prompted him to concentrate solely on football. In 1993, he helped lead the Irish to an 11-1 record and became the school's pass efficiency leader. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS Halting A Trend In addition to some of the top quarterbacks in school history on highly successful teams, at least two others were champions in Bookstore Basketball. Prior to moving to wide receiver later in his career, Carlyle Holiday was on the Adworks Allstars team that won the Bookstore title in 2002 — with teammate Justin Tuck named MVP. Later that year, Holiday would help the Irish to a 10-1 start before a 10-3 finish, with him getting injured early in the Gator Bowl loss to North Carolina State. As a freshman in 2009, quarterback Dayne Crist teamed with running back Jonas Gray and tight end Joseph Fauria to win the Bookstore Basketball title, with Fauria (who would transfer to UCLA) named MVP. Under new head coach Brian Kelly in 2010, Bookstore Basketball was not allowed for football players while learning the new system, although Kelly said he would revisit that policy in the future. — Lou Somogyi