Out of Chicago and on to the “American Heartland” or the Indiana bit of the Heartland to be more precise. South Bend, the home of the world’s pre-eminent and largest Catholic university Notre Dame, the “Fighting Irish”, but also the jumping off point for the political career of the US Transportation Secretary, presidential candidate and former city mayor, Pete Buttigeig.

This is my second time in South Bend and the city appears less rundown and depressing than I remembered from my earlier visit. Or perhaps I was just in the better part of town.

This time I was here for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame vs the Golden Bears of UC Berkley. Chris Wilson’s Rakes Report sums up the game nicely:

When you’re 0-2 and just trying to scratch out a victory to get off the mat and have something to feel good about, I don’t think there really can be an Ugly Win. The first quarter of Saturday’s game against the Golden Bears really tested that hypothesis, however, with seven punts and a missed field goal comprising the eight drive results. But as the game wore on Notre Dame repeatedly rallied from deficits, the defensive line played like we hoped they would all season and the offense did enough to pull out Marcus Freeman’s first win as head coach – but not until after a final minute that provided further evidence we are being put through some sort of fifth dimension psychological test, or at least subject to the whims of professional wrestling bookers. This team could have let go of the rope, they didn’t, and we were all reminded after a far-too-long hiatus that winning ugly and stupid is always better than any kind of loss.

Final score: Irish 24 - Bears 17