Irish Illustrated Interviews: Mike Amodei - Notre Dame Usher, Lou Holtz Editor

What this episode covers

Today, we're sharing my conversation with Mike Amodei, a lifelong Fighting Irish fan who has been the field-level usher supervisor at Notre Dame Stadium for 22 years and an usher for 30 years overall. That's given him a unique perspective on game-day operations inside the stadium, where he's interacted with famous Irish fans and legends on the sidelines. That includes Jon Bon Jovi, Joe Montana, and Joe Theismann. We dive into the responsibilities of an usher and how he got his start wearing the distinctive uniform. Mike is also the executive editor and curriculum development manager at Ave Maria Press, where he's worked for almost 33 years. There, he's acquired and worked on multiple books from former Notre Dame coaches with a statue on campus: Lou Holtz and Muffet McGraw. We discuss what it's like to get to know both championship-winning head coaches outside the sports arena. Full disclosure: my wife is on the board at Ave Maria Press. Additionally, Mike was my seventh-grade baseball coach and my freshman-year basketball coach. Meaning he's easily yelled at me more and made me run more sprints than everyone else to appear on this podcast combined.

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