NEW ORLEANS — Cathy McCosham has traveled as far as Dublin, Ireland on two separate occasions to watch Notre Dame football in person.
She and her late husband Jeff would make annual treks to South Bend for a home game or two, but she knows this year’s Sugar Bowl against Georgia — rescheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern on Thursday — will feel far less festive in the wake of the overnight tragedy on Bourbon Street.
“It’s going to be very melancholy, I think,” said McCosham, who lives north of Cincinnati. “Our hearts definitely go out to those (affected). Just so tragic. It’s hard to experience the same kind of joy, but very hopeful for a good experience. I think it will be toned down, tamped down.”
McCosham awoke around 7 a.m. to a message from her 30-year-old son, Mason.
“I noticed I had a text from him: ‘Mom, call me right away when you get up,’ “ she said. “I learned (about the tragedy) through him and then promptly turned on the news. Then I went downstairs to the lobby, and people were just waking up to it and starting to let it register.”
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Gene Watson, a longtime major league baseball scouting official and Notre Dame football fan, said he “100%” still felt comfortable from a safety perspective in attending the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Caesars Superdome.
Having just attended Mass at the team hotel with Notre Dame supporters, Watson agreed the intensity in the stands might be subdued once the game finally kicks off.
“It’s going to be a somber mood with everything that’s happened,” said Watson, who made the trip over from Texas with his wife Melanie. “I think this unity that the Notre Dame family showed this morning at the Mass is incredible. The victims and their families, we just pray for them.”
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Mike Lynch, who attended Mass wearing a No. 5 Notre Dame jersey in honor of former linebacker Manti Te’o, planned to attend the game as well.
“I think we’re good,” Lynch, from Allentown, Pa., said before the game was rescheduled. “I feel safe, absolutely. The victims will be honored like they should be, and then we’ll go on.”
Lynch, 57, heard about the fatal attack when he awoke Wednesday morning. A 1989 Notre Dame graduate who played on the school’s golf team, Lynch considered himself fortunate to have avoided harm.
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“We were there,” he said. “We literally walked through there at probably 1 o’clock (in the morning).”
Watson and his friends left the French Quarter at roughly 2:15 a.m. Central, about an hour before the violent incident. A member of the party was sent back to retrieve Watson’s cell phone, which he’d left behind, and it took until about 2:45 a.m. to reach their hotel.
“I’ve been coming down here for 30 years,” said Watson, director of player personnel for the Chicago White Sox. “It was well-lit, and the security, the police presence, was unbelievable. Everybody was having a great time. The Georgia and Notre Dame fans were having as much fun together as they’ve ever had.”
No one could have anticipated what happened at 3:15 a.m. on Bourbon Street.
“It was just a tragic event,” Watson said. “It’s very, very sad.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football fans in New Orleans expect ‘melancholy’ Sugar Bowl
