He’s been Irish-ized, and it keeps him smiling

It’s been a heavy few weeks here.

It began with a young man in a coma with his dedicated mother believing better days were ahead. Frank McCourt remained in hiding; the NFL acted all arrogant once again; Arte Moreno made like McCourt; USC football proved to be nothing special; and then there was the UCLA fiasco in Tucson.

Whatever anyone might think about Rick Neuheisel, there is no joy in pressing one’s humiliation.

But part of this job is asking a nice guy like Neuheisel minutes after a personal disaster what it feels like to be such a loser.

It’s really no fun, and aren’t sports supposed to be fun?

That’s why I pounced on an email from Jane Luppi. She wanted to know if I would talk to her “wonderful brother, Jimmy Kelly.”

Any sister who calls her brother wonderful speaks to some fun-loving family times, possibly something even uplifting.

“Jimmy is a great brother; husband; dad; uncle; friend; neighbor; and I could go on,” Jane wrote.

But you guessed it, no one is perfect.

“He is the greatest Notre Dame fan that has ever lived,” she continued, actually understating his devotion to the Dome.

He’s so gung-ho Notre Dame, he donated blood before Saturday’s game against USC because “good things happen to good people,” hoping his reward would be an Irish win.

“I even had her put a green band around my arm when drawing the blood,” he said.

He’s more Rudy than Rudy. Two weeks ago, he gave himself a 50th birthday present — a trip to Notre Dame.

A nephew arranged a tour of the stadium, including a visit to the team’s locker room. While there, he put on a pair of cleats and the gold helmet he brought with him from his home in Tustin.

Then he ran out of the Notre Dame tunnel, arms raised, and onto the stadium turf — as happy as a 50-year-old man can be.

“The first time he visited Notre Dame he called me,” his wife, Kathy, said. “And he was crying.”

Jimmy Kelly never went to college. He was a grocery store bagger, met another grocery store clerk — Kathy — and married her 27 years ago.

They have three children, and a dog named Patrick.

“Every day here is St. Patrick’s Day,” he said.

He worked six days a week for 25 years at a Stater Bros. Then he went back to school to learn the heating and air-conditioning business, and now he works at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange overseeing the hospital’s high-pressure boilers.

“I love my job, but sometimes you go through the monotony of life, and if you have no passion you’re pretty much a boring person,” he said. “I found something, and I’m having a good time with it.”

It’s nice to hear on occasion someone is having a good time with sports, even if they do think having their picture taken with a leprechaun is a life necessity.

Jimmy’s Irish grandfather, who survived the sinking of the USS Yorktown in World War II, was the first to take an interest in a team that people called the Fighting Irish.

His father followed. A stroke took away his speech the last year of his life, but it didn’t prevent him from giving a thumbs-up to the announcement that a Kelly would now be coaching the Irish.

Jimmy, one of 12 children, has been told he bears a strong resemblance to Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly. Jimmy has a twin brother, all right, but it’s John.

He also has 23 nieces and nephews, every one of them undergoing his Notre Dame brainwashing. It worked on Larry, a graduate of Notre Dame’s law school who is an attorney in Orange County.

Jimmy tried not to cry as he showed off Larry’s graduation announcement, which he had framed. But failed.

“That’s just so cool,” he said.

His wife has limited him to one Notre Dame wall in their home, which has him pictured with a variety of former ND coaches. Charlie Weis is the exception.

“He was 0-6 against USC,” Jimmy explained.

Somehow it came up that ND cheated when it grew the grass long to slow down Reggie Bush.

“Isn’t it ironic that USC had to forfeit that game because it cheated,” he said. “Hey, I don’t like Santa Claus because his initials are ‘S.C.’

“I won’t buy a red car. I won’t mix ketchup and mustard. I bought the movie ‘Troy’ to see all the Trojans get knocked off. When I die I want to be buried in a USC sweat shirt; if someone has to die, let it be someone from USC.”

When the ND game is played here, he wears a green wig and hires a bagpiper to lead a parade of Irish fans.

“Trojan fans are so nice about it,” he said, “They like to hold up one finger to let us know Notre Dame really is No. 1.”

As you might expect, everyone in his family has a closet full of Notre Dame clothes. “Lingerie,” as he likes to call the Irish T-shirts he has given his wife.

But when it comes to watching Notre Dame on TV, if Jimmy is in one place, his wife is definitely in another.

“We’ve gotten into fights about it; he’s out of control,” she said. “I told him once if he didn’t calm down, I was driving home without him.”

And she did. Jimmy ran more than three miles to get home, get his car and make it in time for his graveyard shift at the hospital.

“When Notre Dame loses, I have to go for a walk or run to let the frustration out,” he said. “I’ve run a lot the last 15 years, so much so that I was able to run my first half-marathon last year.

“But I guess if I was a UCLA fan, I’d be running in a full marathon by now.”

And there you have it — there really is a bright side to everything in sports.

t.j.simers@latimes.com