The End Of A Reign: An Interview With Leprechaun Matt Phipps

As we blogged yesterday, we wanted to chat with Leprechaun Matt Phipps, who was the lone Notre Dame representative in "One Shining Moment." Well, it took a day, but Phipps reached out to us at Insights and here's what transpired on the final day of his Leprechaun tenure, as tryouts for the 2008 version are today.

Insights: Did you even see yourself on One Shining Moment?
Matt Phipps: "Yeah, I was hanging out with some friends watching the game and whatever. I didn't even think that I would be on it and all of a sudden I saw myself. It was pretty cool."

II: Were your friends like 'Holy crap?'
MP: "Yeah, they were like 'Dude, it's you.' Then I got a whole bunch of texts and calls and everything.'

II: Was that a fitting way to go out?
MP: "Yeah, the tryouts are today to pick next year's. It was good, you know. It was nice to have that one last thing and it was cool to have a video now, have a copy of it. It's pretty cool that I'll be able to pop that in."

II: Show your grandkids one day?
MP: "Exactly. Like see what I used to be able to do."

II: Were you DVRing it? Did you have any clue that it would get on there?
MP: "Not at all. I didn't even think of getting on there at all. It never crossed my mind. It was definitely cool to see it."

II: So what's next for you now?
MP: "I'm going to graduate school down in Alabama at University of Alabama-Birmingham."

II: What's it like being the Leprechaun?
MP: "It was the greatest job ever. You just get to have so much fun and have so many great experiences and stuff. You can't compare it."

II: What's the craziest or best experience you've had in your year reign?
MP: "I think it was the first home game, I'm taking pictures with just thousands of people and stuff and Joe Theismann and his wife asked me to take a picture with them so obviously I have to do it. The next home game, he came up to me out on the field and he's like 'Here, I have this picture for ya.' It was a picture that we took and he had signed it and everything. I thought that was really cool. And getting to meet people like Rocket Ismail and Mike Golic and Regis, that was the coolest part to me, all the people that you'd never expect to meet."

II: When you become the Leprechaun, especially when you look like you do, do you become a celebrity on campus almost?
MP: "Yeah, you know. There were times I'd be walking around campus late at night after a game and kids that would walk past me would be like 'Hey man, good job tonight.' But it's my face and it appears the whole time so people just recognize you. I remember like a year ago, I was in Meijer one night buying some groceries and a guy working there was like 'Hey, aren't you the Leprechaun? I saw you on the news.' You go anywhere and people will know you, even other cities where there are Notre Dame fans."

II: Was Meijer your first brush of 'Maybe this is a little bigger than I thought?'
MP: "Yeah, you know. You don't really think about, I definitely think about the stardom aspect. You think you're going to be kind of popular but I don't know. Also the fact that even the kids at the school was what I thought was the weirdest. The freshman, sophomore class, they'd be kind of awed by me. You'd hear these whispers as you walked past. I'm just a student here. For three years, I was just one of you, ya know."

II: Why did you try out in the first place? Was it a dare?
MP: "It was something I always wanted to do but I never thought I'd actually do it. Then I decided I'd better try it before I graduated otherwise I'd always wonder what if. It worked out in my favor."

Thanks to Matt Phipps for the time.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Mick]

Mike

A question not a comment.

What playing time factors decide when a player has used a year of eligibility?

More specifically can you tell me if Eric Olsen and Matt Romine used up a year in the first year each was on the team?

[Ted]

Great story about Matt Phipps.

[Leahy]

Very cool story. This is the kind of stuff that you can't find anywhere- well done!