Sept. 23, 2004
This weekend will provide a variety of opportunities for people to purchase tickets for the University of Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team’s Irish prize raffle, which is raising money to defray costs for its trip to Ireland this winter. Among the top prizes available are travel packages to a 2005 Irish football game and a 2005 spring-semester Notre Dame basketball game. Tickets are $5 apiece and are available from assistant coach Matt Tallman or at various locations throughout campus this weekend.
The raffle’s grand prize is two game tickets, two airline tickets, and two-night hotel accommodations (one room) for a 2005 Notre Dame football game of the winner’s choice. Second prize is a pair of game tickets, two airline tickets, and one-night hotel accommodation (one room) to a 2005 spring-semester basketball game of the winner’s choice.
The prize drawing will be held on Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m. (EST) at the Notre Dame Invitational swimming and diving meet.
Among the locations that will feature members of the Irish selling raffle tickets this weekend are (1) outside the Hammes Bookstore throughout most of the day Friday and all of Saturday (excluding during the football game), (2) outside gate 10 of the Joyce Center before the football pep rally on Friday night, (3) at the football luncheon in the Joyce Center on Friday afternoon, (4) outside gate 10 of the Joyce Center on Saturday following the football game, and (5) in the Rolfs Aquatic Center (on the east side of the Joyce Center) at various times throughout the weekend Questions should be directed to Tallman, who can be reached in his office at (574) 631-3276 or via email at tallman.2@nd.edu.
The third-place winner will take home an original oil painting of Notre Dame’s Main Building, affectionately dubbed the “Golden Dome,” rendered by South Bend artist Jacqueline Welsh, the wife of long-time Irish men’s swimming and diving head coach Tim Welsh. Officially licensed team-issued Notre Dame adidas gear is the raffle’s fourth prize, while fifth prize is a football autographed by Irish head coach Tyrone Willingham and a basketball autographed by Notre Dame men’s basketball mentor Mike Brey. The winner need not be present at the drawing to win.
Raffle tickets also can be obtained by sending (1) check or money order (payable to the University of Notre Dame); (2) a self-addressed, stamped envelope; and (3) contact information (name, address, phone number, email address) to Tallman at C125 Joyce Center, Notre Dame, IN 46556.
The Irish men’s swimming and diving trip to Ireland, which will include stops in Dublin and Limerick for both training and competition, is slated for Dec. 29, 2004-Jan. 9, 2005. In addition to various trips for meets at Western Ontario in Canada, the program has left the United States on a few other occasions for winter training and competition trips. After jaunts to Puerto Rico in the program’s early days, the 1996-97 squad went to Brazil before the Irish traveled to Acapulco, Mexico, in 2002-03.