Regis Philbin dishes on his Irish roots, Bing Crosby and Notre Dame

“My father Francis Philbin was born on the Upper East Side in the Yorkville area. His father had come from Ireland,” says Philbin.

“To make a long story short, there were many members of the Italian family, so my poor father was outnumbered. He was a good guy about it.

“My mother’s sisters would descend on our little house in the Bronx, and every Sunday there would be a big chicken dinner and lots of spaghetti and meatballs. In those days it was rather common for the Irish to marry someone outside of their own background.”

But the Irish side of young Regis, who was named after father’s alma mater Regis High School in the city, wasn’t totally overwhelmed by the Italian.

“Oh, no,” he says.  “I marched in every one of the St. Patrick’s Day parades when I went to Cardinal Hayes High School. It’s a really great parade!

“Then I went to Notre Dame, home of the Fighting Irish, and that gave me a little more stature as an Irishman.”

How did a kid from a close-knit family who had never left New York before wind up all the way in South Bend, Indiana to attend one of the most revered Irish institutions in the world?

As Philbin tells it, his father was in the Marine Corps and served during World War II in the Pacific. One of his fellow Marines was a guy called Moose Krause, an all-American football player who played for the famous coach Knute Rockne at Notre Dame.

“At night, Moose would stand in front of the bonfires that these officers had where they would have dinner, and he would regale them with stories of Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish and the Four Horseman,” says Philbin.

“My father was enchanted. Krause was a great motivational speaker. So when it came time for me to go to college there was no question. My father called Moose, and Moose called Father Thornton, who was in charge of registration, and before I knew it I was going to Notre Dame.”

Once a Notre Damer, always a Notre Damer, and that certainly holds true for Philbin, who graduated in 1953 with a degree in sociology.

“It becomes part of your life forever,” Philbin says. “There’s no getting around it. So I’ve loved being part of it all these years. And, of course, I’ve died with the football team.”

Ah, yes, the football team, the pride and joy of Notre Dame.  It would just help if they could win a few more games, the beleaguered fan Philbin says.

“The new coach Brian Kelly certainly has the right name, doesn’t he? But I’ve given up . . . they keep saying that this is the guy who’s gonna save it. But they’ve got to show it to me now.”

Philbin has traveled to Ireland, and brought his morning show over there in the 1980s to film at the Philbin family homestead in Co. Mayo.

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Nster.com