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In Memoriam: Lou Somogyi

There are at least a million and one stories and anecdotes about Lou Somogyi that would serve as a perfect launch point to describe the joy that this man, this journalist, this husband and this neighbor brought inside his orbit.

And surprisingly, only a small percentage of these stories have anything to do with Notre Dame football or Blue & Gold Illustrated, the two passions most associated with Somogyi.

Our esteemed Senior Editor, Louis “Lou” Somogyi Jr., died tragically and unexpectedly of a heart attack on April 17 at age 58, shortly after playing tennis.

In the wake of Somogyi’s passing, the tributes and letters poured in, most of which celebrated his mastery of Fighting Irish lore and his gift for sharing through words what he saw and heard every day for 37 years on the Notre Dame beat.

Yet, it’s the inspiring stories beyond football and journalism which Somogyi rarely shared that best illustrate the massive loss felt by his faithful friends and followers.

Blue & Gold Illustrated’s Lou Somogyi
Lou’s service to Blue & Gold Illustrated spanned 37 years over five different decades, and his work and kindness earned him many fans and friends along the way.
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Paying Life Forward

Mike Morris appeared as any other nervous freshman readying for his first day of high school, but feeling nothing at all like the other nervous freshmen around him.

Morris grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich. So when his father took a job at Notre Dame before the 1976-77 school year, the Morris family moved to South Bend, and young Mike was enrolled as a relocated freshman at St. Joseph High School.

Distraught at the prospect of meeting unfamiliar people in strange surroundings, Morris sat on a street curb outside the school doors, wondering how to run away as his mother drove away after dropping him off for day one.

“I was almost in tears sitting there thinking, ‘This has got to be the worst day of my life,’” Morris recalled. “And who sits down next to me, Louie. He walked me through the damn door, showed me around. I’ll never forget his kindness.”

From that moment, these two strangers forged a friendship that stretched almost 45 years and continues strong even after Lou’s passing. The two graduated together from both St. Joseph High School and the University of Notre Dame.

“Without Louie’s help that day, seeing me sitting outside of St. Joe, and then providing me his support and confidence, who knows where I would be right now?” Morris said. “But that was just Louie, even way back then.”

When asked to share some personal stories about his longtime friendship with Somogyi, Morris struggled to begin.

“I have read a lot of the tributes and reflections on Louie since he passed, and they really only describe half of his life. That’s what people need to know,” Morris said. “Louie was two different people. He was a very private person and he had the public persona that was BGI.”

Terrified of swimming, Morris said that Somogyi intervened and calmly taught him to float at a swimming pool on the Notre Dame campus.

And terrified of college calculus, Morris said Somogyi patiently tutored him up. “I would have never passed that class without Louie’s help,” he said.

Basketball, tennis, painting houses together, just goofing around on campus or making a familiar stop by Yogi’s Yogurt near campus for a summer treat, Morris and Somogyi were inseparable.

“All of us would always order a large yogurt and Lou would always order a small,” Morris said with a laugh. “Because, you guessed it, Lou always said that a large was too much of a good thing.”

Few of the stories Morris shared about his friend had anything to do with Notre Dame football, save for one.

Irish football Saturdays were sacred to Somogyi, and the two friends would frequently watch games together, with one understood caveat.

“Lou demanded ‘house quiet’ so he could accurately write down the quarter stats off of the television broadcast,” Morris said. “He had to make sure that the stats they were listing on the television computed with the figures he had already compiled in his head.”

Morris said that Somogyi’s gag order during Irish quarter breaks might be the only time he recalls Louie “demanding” anything.

About the only other moments Morris remembers Somogyi becoming moderately upset were when Notre Dame recently revoked alumni swimming privileges on campus and several years ago when Morris tried to serve his friend some homemade “Americanized” Hungarian Goulash.

“This is not goulash,” Somogyi complained, presumably with his bold Hungarian accent. “It’s good, but it’s not ****ing goulash! If you want real goulash, I know a lady who can get you some real goulash.”

And while Morris is able to share several personal stories about Somogyi’s kindness, he admits there are infinite examples that nobody will ever hear because Louie rarely shared.

“The private persona was very private,” Morris explained. “I wouldn’t find out about some of the great things that Louie did for years after they happened because he was so damn modest.

“Louie would always talk about people who did nice things, which was great, but they were the first ones to hold a press conference after they did it. Louie detested that type of attention, and that’s what made him the man he was.”

Blue & Gold Illustrated’s Lou Somogyi
Lou and his parents.

Hungarian Pride

Many untold stories of kindness and love come from Somogyi’s devotion to his Hungarian heritage and a bond with Our Lady of Hungary Church in South Bend.

Somogyi was a parishioner at St. Joseph Catholic Church, but he also moonlighted as an important member of the Our Lady of Hungary congregation.

Since the mid-1980s, Somogyi donated his time playing the organ for early morning masses that were spoken exclusively in Hungarian, a language Somogyi spoke fluently because of his upbringing.

Both of Somogyi’s late parents — Louis Somogyi Sr. and Irene Horvath — were Hungarian immigrants who came to America in 1957 after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a movement to fight against restrictive Soviet-imposed policies that ultimately left the country leaderless and poverty-stricken. Louis Somogyi Jr., their only child, was born on Aug. 8, 1962.

True to his roots, Somogyi Jr. routinely and generously volunteered his time helping countless church parishioners and other members of the local Hungarian community — many of whom were elderly and without family — with basic services such as grocery runs, doctor visits, help around the house or just a listening ear.

“It was kind of an old-school, old-world collection of people,” explained Morris, who would periodically accompany Somogyi on these Samaritan missions. “These people didn’t speak English, they only spoke Hungarian and Louie was ofttimes their link to the outside world.”

Morris shared several stories of how Somogyi would routinely stop and visit needy parishioners on a whim for a simple welfare check.

“They had nobody else, Louie was all they had,” Morris said. “He wasn’t going to disappoint them.”

Somogyi became such a conduit and ambassador for the local Hungarian community, he bordered on celebrity.

“Louie would walk into a Hungarian bakery next to the church and the greeting when he walked in the door was like Norm from ‘Cheers,’ and he’d just brush it off,” Morris said. “He was so skinny. We would walk out of there with five pies and three dozen cookies, all on the house.”

Blue & Gold Illustrated’s Lou Somogyi
Lou with his friend Mike Morris in 2007.

Morris also shared a story of how his friend was asked one morning to play the organ at a Hungarian funeral mass with the priest, an alter boy, the deceased and Somogyi as the only four attendees.

Morris asked, “What did you do?”

Somogyi responded, “I played the best I have ever played in my life.”

These touching anecdotes are too many to share on just a few magazine pages.

For 25 years without fail, Somogyi wrote a Happy Mother’s Day letter to Morris’ mother and who knows how many other moms out there.

“Who does that?” Morris rhetorically asked.

A Christmas delivery of Hungarian Kifli cookies baked by Somogyi’s mother became a seasonal stop at the Morris household.

“I walked Louie out to his car one time, looked in his backseat, and he had 15 other rows of cookies he still needed to deliver,” Morris shared. “That’s who he was.”

Somogyi confessed one time that he put about 20,000 miles a year on his vehicle.

“And he never left St. Joseph County!” Morris exclaimed.

Chasing A Dream

Ernie Galos is Somogyi’s first cousin. The two grew up closely together.

Like Somogyi’s parents, Galos’ folks also immigrated to South Bend after the Hungarian Revolution so their families remained close and connected.

“We spent a lot of time together,” said Galos, who at 56, is two years younger than his cousin. “I always followed his lead on what to do, which usually had something to do with Notre Dame.”

Somogyi grew up in a modest house on Stanfield Street — just a few blocks southwest of campus — so the beautiful Golden Dome was always near, and in many ways, always calling.

Galos explained that as far back as he can remember, Somogyi was a rabid Notre Dame football fan and a student of the program’s rich history.

“It was always his passion,” Galos said.

Somogyi’s father was a cook in the South Dining Hall at Notre Dame while his mother worked a soda fountain in the Oak Room, a separate restaurant and refreshment area also in the South Dining Hall.

Notre Dame employees received some financial benefit and acceptance consideration for their children to enroll there. And mother and father worked tirelessly to help their son realize his scholastic dream.

Galos explained that even when Somogyi was in elementary school, he frequently talked of someday attending Notre Dame so he could become close to Irish athletics, mainly football.

“It was almost a given that he was going to take the college and career path that he did,” Galos recalled. “He always knew he was going to go to Notre Dame, his parents wanted him to go there, that was the place for him. I don’t think he really considered anywhere else.”

Like many other Notre Dame students, Somogyi began his college journey across the street at Holy Cross College.

After one year there, Somogyi became accepted to Notre Dame in 1981, then moved his books and brilliance back across the street, having no idea of the journey and experiences to come.

Blue & Gold Illustrated
The Blue & Gold Illustrated staff in the early 1990s.

Living His Dream

Folks that read this magazine are certainly familiar with fine journalist Tim Prister.

A 1982 Notre Dame graduate, Prister spent 22 years as a writer and editor (1982-2004) for Blue & Gold Illustrated and was instrumental in the success and longevity of the magazine.

Upon college graduation, Prister decided to hitch his career wagon to a relatively new sports publication niche that focused on a single professional team or a specific college program.

Somogyi graduated in 1984 and immediately became one of Prister’s first job candidates to fill an open writing position.

A staff member with The Observer — Notre Dame’s daily student newspaper — Somogyi covered Irish varsity athletics while in college and also produced a column there called “Club Corner,” a piece that focused mainly on intramural sports on campus.

Prister admits now that he knew nothing about Somogyi then — other than his job candidate was from South Bend, they both had Hungarian roots and they shared a passion for Notre Dame athletics. An interview invite was extended, and Somogyi got the gig.

“To be honest, I probably would’ve hired anyone that interviewed for the job at the time,” Prister recalled. “We needed someone.”

Thirty-seven years later, “Well, I guess that turned out to be a helluva hire,” Prister said with a sorrowful sigh.

Like Paul McCartney and John Lennon of “The Beatles,” Prister and Somogyi emerged a formidable one-two Fighting Irish coverage duo, in part, because their similarities and differences blended so well.

“I was a journalist first and a historian second, while Lou was a historian first and a journalist second,” Prister explained. “We both realized quickly that this was our calling. This is exactly what we wanted to be doing.”

Times change, careers evolve and once the Internet invaded Notre Dame football coverage, Prister left Blue & Gold Illustrated in 2004 to launch his own business and Notre Dame athletics website.

After many transformations, Somogyi’s career also took a turn in 2009 when Coman Publishing purchased Blue & Gold Illustrated and BlueandGold.com to help the magazine improve its presentation and the website bolster its content and immediacy.

As an old-school journalist, Somogyi’s transition from print to electronic media wasn’t easy, but — of course — he adapted and became not only a reliable leader and content provider for both the magazine and the website, but also a dear and missed friend to publisher Stu Coman.

Tough and on point, Coman built his successful career on a leadership belief that everyone is replaceable.

“I changed that statement after working with Lou for several years,” Coman shared. “Now I say, ‘almost everyone is replaceable.’ Lou was the rare talent that cannot be replaced.”

Along Comes Amalia

By all accounts, Somogyi was a creature of habit, almost to a fault.

Long work hours and a strict fitness regimen were part of a demanding daily routine, while social pursuits beyond church and college football gatherings remained of little interest to him.

That outlook changed about eight years ago when Somogyi was walking his beloved small fluffy white dog, Belle, and made a chance meeting with the future love of his life, Amalia Vegh.

Through a shared Hungarian heritage that occasionally brought these two together for cultural gatherings, Somogyi and Vegh had known each other casually for about 30 years.

But timing and circumstances kept them from ever becoming more than acquaintances, until this serendipitous meeting during a mundane dog walk.

The two chatted, Amalia handed Somogyi her business card, the two had dinner at a cozy local restaurant named Yesterday’s, they dated from that moment forward and were married in a small, private ceremony only eight months ago.

“If there is one thing I can take away from all of this and feel good about,” Morris reflected, “it’s that Louie found somebody before this happened who truly loved him, and he deeply loved back.”

BGI director of advertising sales Michelle DeLee-Hamilton started working with Somogyi at the magazine in 1991 and has held a variety of important professional and personal roles with the company since.

Working together for almost 30 years, Michelle and Lou became close friends, and that bond eventually pulled Michelle and Amalia close as well.

About three years ago, during a 10-year anniversary celebration of Coman Publishing’s acquisition of Blue & Gold Illustrated and BlueandGold.com, Michelle glanced across the table and caught a tender moment that she hasn’t forgotten.

“I saw Lou lovingly place his hand on her arm, and she on his,” Michelle recalled. “Then she rested her head on his shoulder. It was the purest, most beautiful representation of true love I have ever seen.”

Blue & Gold Illustrated’s Lou Somogyi
Lou and Amalia at their wedding with Michelle DeLee-Hamilton and Stu Coman in 2020.

Like all of us, Michelle still mourns the loss of a longtime colleague and dear friend.

“His daily greeting and tapping on his computer keys in the office next to mine will be sorely missed,” she said. “But his passion for life, contagious laugh and selflessness will be missed even more.”

Michelle’s serves as another personal tribute to a great person and an irreplaceable mentor.

“Lou was always a man of character,” Michelle explained. “In all the years working with him, I never heard him say an unkind word about anybody, except about himself when he would find a misspelling in one of his stories!”

Taking this biographical journey through the life of a friend, a colleague, a mentor, a Samaritan, an inspiration and so much more has been equal parts inspiring and heartbreaking. It has also, at times, been frustrating, because no words can fully describe Lou’s amazing life and giving soul.

And, at least one of Louie’s lifelong friends agrees.

“If I was ever asked to describe Louie to a stranger,” Morris said, “let’s see, I’d tell them, ‘I have this friend, his name is Louie … ahhh, never mind, you wouldn’t get it.’”

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON THE LOU SOMOGYI BOARD!

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