It’s Time to Cheer, Cheer for Mike Garrett, Really

This is a nice story about Lyle, the tuba player; a Notre Dame stronghold located in Sherman Oaks, an absurd NCAA rule and a kind deed by USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett.

I’m sure the Vatican will proclaim that last part about Garrett performing a kind deed, and having it mentioned in this space, a certified miracle.

I also know that’s what it’s probably going to take for the Irish to beat the Trojans on Saturday in the Coliseum, but then that’s a different, and very ugly, story for the morning newspaper later this week.

Today there is very good reason to give thanks, because Saturday, due to the thoughtfulness and extra effort expended by Garrett, fans will be able to hear “The Irish Clog” played after each Notre Dame touchdown in the Coliseum. (I’ll betcha Garrett hums that tune to himself all the time.)

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FOR THE last 20-some years, the Notre Dame High band from Sherman Oaks has been playing in the Coliseum on behalf of the University of Notre Dame in one of those big football-game traditions that has just been taken for granted -- unless you’re one of the band members like Lyle, the tuba player, who calls it “just the best thing that can happen” to a tuba player.

But this year the NCAA fiddled with some kind of off-the-wall rule, and suddenly it became a recruiting violation -- and I’m not making this stuff up -- for the visiting team to invite a high school band from the home team’s area to entertain fans.

As soon as the University of Notre Dame heard about this, it informed the high school to stop the music. For the last 10 Notre Dame-USC games in the Coliseum, the university reimbursed the high school for buses and food, while getting the kids folding chairs to sit on in the end zone, but no more.

“When I delivered the news to the kids,” said John Combes, the band’s director for the last 35 years, “there was just absolute silence in the room, and for that to happen with this group, that’s amazing.”

Someone familiar with the situation, T. McKimmey, e-mailed me and so jokingly on Page 2 -- and I don’t like to make a habit of telling jokes in such a serious sports section because the last time I did that after getting an e-mail, Dodger Boy got canned -- I suggested, “I’m sure there’s a lot of competition for Notre Dame High’s tuba player, but I’d hate to see this whole thing end on a sour note, preventing him and his friends” from going to the game.

Well, who knew Garrett had a sense of humor? “I understand the tuba player is one of the best nose tackles in the country,” Garrett joked, and without hesitation after hearing of the band’s plight, he checked to see if there was a way for USC to invite the high school band to the Notre Dame game.

“We’re in the education business, and it’s just what you do for young people when you can,” he said. “We know they’re playing for Notre Dame, but it’s been a tradition for this band to be a part of this game, and to not fulfill that tradition wouldn’t be fair to all of us. We’d like to give these kids a good experience.”

If that’s the case, I said, then it’d be helpful if it was arranged so Notre Dame wins Saturday -- no reason to send the high school kids home unhappy.

OK, so Garrett doesn’t always have a sense of humor.

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THE THANKS go to Garrett, however, for making sure almost 150 band members from Notre Dame High will be in the Coliseum on Saturday playing the four Irish fight songs they’ve been practicing and practicing and practicing.

“They’re supposed to play ‘Fight On,’ I believe,” Garrett said with a laugh, which seriously would qualify as cruel and inhumane punishment -- especially if you’re wearing a navy blue Notre Dame sweatshirt. “I would imagine they’ll also be wearing cardinal and gold....”

I ran that by the band after an afternoon practice, and the kids laughed, so I guess I’m not the only one who thinks Garrett has the makings of a real comedian. In fact, I took a poll, and only one student raised his hand and professed to being a Trojan fan. Andres Diaz explained that his brother and sister have USC roots, or else he’d also be cheering for the right school like everyone else in the room.

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THE BAND will pay its own expenses now that the University of Notre Dame can’t be linked to the kids, but according to another funky NCAA rule, it cannot play music for football fans in Exposition Park before the game, as it has done in the past.

“I wasn’t aware of that,” Garrett said. “Listen, I think they should go play if they want to play for the people. It’s the right thing to do, and if someone considers it a violation, then I guess both ND and us would have to self-report it as a violation.”

Now that’s really going the extra mile for the kids, and I can only hope the NCAA hears about it, rules immediately and keeps Carson Palmer from playing against the Irish on Saturday. Then the Notre Dame band will have really done its job.

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“I WANT that tuba player,” Garrett said, and I think he was still kidding.

For whatever reason, I always seem to be delivering bad news to Garrett, and so I told him junior Lyle Leitelt, the tuba player, is a fan of the Fighting Irish, who lists UCLA, Cal and Notre Dame as his colleges of choice at this time.

And what a great kid. He’s playing the tuba because the band needed a volunteer to fill a tuba void, and so he picked up the 35-pound instrument, and anyone who knows anything about a band knows all the band members tune their own instruments to the sound of the tuba. He has got to be on his game.

“It’s really a neat thing to be a part of this band,” he said, and Friday night -- if the exact count is correct -- the band will be making its 385th consecutive appearance at a Notre Dame High football game, dating to 1968.

“We’re all excited about the ND-USC game, and it’s really nice of USC to let us play in the Coliseum,” he said. “It’s so much fun to be a part of something so big.”

Many of the parents, unable to land tickets, will stay home to catch a glimpse of their kids on TV -- even if it’s from the overhead blimp.

“It’s our tradition, and we’ll be ready,” Combes said. “It’s just a tremendous thing for these high school kids to get the chance to play at a Division I football game and at a game as big as this.”

And they certainly owe a big debt of thanks to Garrett. I just hope they get the chance to serenade him with a really happy heartfelt rendition of the Notre Dame victory march when the game is over.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from David:

“My grandfather continues to live on a farm in southeastern Nebraska, and I find some offense in your occasional harping on residents of that state.”

Hey, tell him “gobble, gobble, gobble” for me; I know he’ll understand.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com