From Alabama to Notre Dame – Both Teams in Tim Giattina’s Blood

From Alabama to Notre Dame

And of that blowout a year later in South Bend in 1987, the last  #NDvsBAMA game witnessed by Tim Giattina: “I was crying. I guess in my heart I was for Alabama.

“I was crying in the stadium after the game,” he says, “but my dad bought me a Tim Brown jersey as we were leaving the stadium and apparently I changed my tune. My dad claims I stopped being down instantly, and takes credit for that being the moment I became a Notre Dame fan. Such was the tug-of-war that my sister and I endured throughout our childhood.”

While he remembers the #NDvsBAMA matchups of his childhood, without hesitation he recollects the two greatest games he was lucky enough to see.

“Notre Dame-Miami ’88 in South Bend. Catholics vs. Convicts,” he says. “Pat Terrell batted down Miami’s two-point conversion. My dad and I were in that endzone, and I still have grass from the stadium in my bedroom in Alabama. And the first SEC Championship – ’92 Alabama vs. Florida. Langham’s pick-6 of Shane Matthews. As you can probably guess, my mom and I were at that game. Those are still probably the two best football games I’ve ever seen.”

When you ask Tim who he’s rooting for Monday night, he starts by making sure you know he can’t lose. He loves both of these teams and it’s apparent they’re in his blood. But, without being pressed in the least, he adds, “Notre Dame. It’s where I went to school. They’re the underdog.”

Tim attended he University of Notre Dame from 1999-2003 and was on the school’s tennis team. According to his player biography, he was a “versatile athlete with great quickness and deceptively powerful forehand … needs to finish points at net more decisively … attended Notre Dame tennis camp for four summers during high school where he caught the eye of the Irish coaches.”

About his tennis career, he laughs, ”After I broke my arm my freshman year I never really focused like I should. That’s probably a nice way of putting it. But I was surrounded by great tennis players, great people, and great coaches.”

Beyond being a sports fan, Giattina is quick to fancy himself as an athlete, not just a tennis player. And after his time on the tennis team, he played interhall football on campus.

“I’m not sure if this is still true, but at one time I think Notre Dame was the only full-contact, full-pads interhall football league in the country.  My last game I had a decent game, but we didn’t win and make the playoffs, so it didn’t matter but it was still a great experience.  I’m sure my Notre Dame friends were just as sick of hearing about it as my Arkansas friends are of hearing about my hole-in-one, but it’s all fun,” he chuckles.

The summer between his sophomore and junior years at Notre Dame, Tim had an internship at CJRW, where he worked for Skip Rutherford, a former executive at the firm who is now dean of the Clinton School of Public Service.

“I kept in touch with Dean Rutherford and was living in DC deciding on law school,” Tim explains. “I learned about the Clinton School masters program and moved back to Little Rock to pursue a joint masters/law degree. Little Rock is similar to Birmingham – albeit smaller – and I really love it here. It feels like home now.”

Recently married, Tim says his wife Annie, who is from Mountain Home, didn’t grow up a huge football fan.

“Thankfully we’ve converted her and she gets more into it than I do sometimes,” he says. “During really big games I really don’t like too many people around, although we broke that this SEC Championship Game and during last year’s national title game, so maybe I should be more welcoming to crowds at our house.

“This year it was just the two of us for the LSU game. I was pretty dejected, but when LSU missed the field goal I thought Bama had a little life left.  As soon as McCarron threw the screen to Yeldon, I stood up and yelled, ‘He’s gonna score!’ The rest is history, but Annie was literally jumping on one of our chairs after the touchdown. I knew at that moment she was a completely converted football fan. Our dogs freaked out and hid in our bedroom.”

Oh, and Annie is also on record as saying she’s cheering for Notre Dame.

While his Little Rock house may be indivisible, what about the home back in Alabama? Are Gene and Jane on speaking terms this time around?

“To this day if I’m going to see a Notre Dame or Alabama game, my mom will ask, ‘Well, are you going to watch Alabama?’ and my dad will ask, ‘Well, are you going to watch Notre Dame?’ Tim says. “My answer is always the same, ‘What do you think? Of course I’m going to watch.’  They still never fail to ask.

“But for the record, my mother said she’s cheering for Notre Dame because it’s where I went to school.

“She will have some crimson on though,” he adds. “We were at the Alabama-Penn St. game a few years ago and she was all decked out in crimson. Well, we were in a bar before the game, and we turned the Notre Dame-Michigan game on one of the TVs and some guy said, ‘Good God. I don’t know who to cheer for in this. I want them both to lose.’

“She snapped at him and said, ‘Well, we’re cheering for Notre Dame, it’s where I sent my son.'”

Jim Harris asks Tim for his thoughts on Monday night’s game, the newest chapter in this classic football tale of historic teams; then the two exchange details regarding the match ups and the “what to look fors” in a zone of savant totally absent of oneupmanship.

The last oyster is eaten, and two hardcore sports guys are talking about The Game to be, and this pastime really is like watching time travel.