Satterfield, a Walk-On for Irish, Dies at 22

The high school coaches of Bob Satterfield, the University of Notre Dame football player who died suddenly Thursday morning, remembered the Encino resident as a hard-working, popular overachiever and mourned his death.

Notre Dame physician James M. Moriarity, who attended the autopsy, said a preliminary autopsy indicated that Satterfield, 22, suffered a seizure followed by cardiac arrest, according to John Heisler, Notre Dame sports information director.

Test results showed no alcohol or drugs in Satterfield’s blood at the time of his death, Heisler said.

Satterfield was with defensive end Darrell Gordon and tailback Mark Green when he collapsed at O’Tays Nite Club in Niles, about 5 miles north of the South Bend, Ind., campus.

“He was feeling fine,” Gordon said. “He had been dancing some earlier, but we were just sitting there at the table, just talking and joking, and all of a sudden he collapsed to the ground. It looked like he was having a seizure.

“When he collapsed, I looked around. I thought maybe someone had hit him. There wasn’t much we could do.”

Satterfield was a walk-on running back at Notre Dame and earned a scholarship this year for the Irish, who won the national title with a 12-0 record. At Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks, Satterfield won varsity letters in football and track and was voted student body president as a senior.

As a 5-foot, 10-inch, 160-pound high school senior in 1984, he won All-Del Rey League recognition as a running back and defensive back.

“He was a friendly, popular guy, a guy you like having on your team and in your program,” said Kevin Rooney, the football coach at Notre Dame High. “He’s the kind of kid you point to as a good example of what your program should represent. I’m very saddened because I liked him an awful lot.”

Jon Mack, who teaches at Alemany, coached Satterfield in track at Notre Dame High and was an assistant coach with the Knights’ football program. Mack fought back tears while talking about the stricken player.

“He had a dream that Notre Dame was where he wanted to go to college and he was willing to work three years there to get what he wanted,” he said. “He was so proud to be a member of the Notre Dame football team, he sent me a photo of himself in a Notre Dame uniform.”

Satterfield, a senior who saw limited playing time in the 1988 season for the Irish, had returned Wednesday to South Bend from Washington, D.C., where the national champion Notre Dame team had met President Reagan at the White House.

“The only significant findings of the autopsy examination were an inequality of the size of the coronary arteries and the presence of increased fluids surrounding the brain tissue,” Heisler said.

The results did not indicate what caused the initial seizure, nor are there any conclusions based on the differing size of the arteries or the fluid on the brain. Further tissue analysis is being conducted, but results may not be available for several days, Heisler said.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.