<\/p>\n
Shane Gillis never attended the University of Notre Dame.<\/p>\n
He was initially recruited to play football at Army but transferred a month into his first year at West Point. Gillis then moved on to Elon, where he spent one season on the football team before being leaving and, eventually, getting a degree at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
But none of those facts have stopped him from becoming one of the program’s most loyal supporters \u2014 and, more recently, its most famous celebrity fan.<\/p>\n
That’s because his family roots in Fighting Irish football run deep.<\/p>\n
Frank Gillis, Shane’s grandfather, played on Notre Dame’s offensive line in the late 1930s; Ryan Gillis, Shane’s cousin, was there during the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
Shane specifically recalled watching Ryan’s Fighting Irish squad when it took on Oregon State in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl, a postseason matchup that resulted in a 41-9 win for the Beavers after they scored 29 unanswered points in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
“I was so excited. And then they got killed,\u201d he told The Athletic’s Pete Sampson<\/a>. “I remember going to bed because they were getting blown out. And I told my dad, \u2018Wake me up if they come back.\u2019 And I just stayed awake. He never came in to wake me up.”<\/p>\n More than two decades after watching that gut-wrenching defeat, Gillis’ passion for Notre Dame football has remained, even as he transitioned from a Honda salesman (and, later, an English teacher in Spain)<\/a>\u00a0to one of the premier faces in comedy.<\/p>\n His knowledge of Notre Dame has shocked some close to the program. Former quarterback Ian Book said Gillis is “always talking football”; former guard Chris Watt claims Gillis can name every quarterback he played with while he was in South Bend.<\/p>\n “He knows the players, is one of those diehards who lives and dies with Notre Dame football,” Brady Quinn, another former quarterback who is now a college football analyst, said. “If you asked him, I\u2019d bet he\u2019d say he\u2019d give his left testicle for Notre Dame to win a national championship.”<\/p>\n Gillis’ admiration of the program isn’t just limited to private conversations with past players. When ESPN’s College GameDay headed to South Bend for Notre Dame’s first-round College Football Playoff matchup against Indiana last winter, Gillis was there, too, donning a blue-and-gold jacket as the episode’s guest picker<\/a>.<\/p>\n