For the love of the Irish: The Gadawski family's ties to Notre Dame

Apr. 1—Whenever she visits South Bend, Indiana, to see the Notre Dame Fighting Irish play a college football game, Mary Beth Gadawski Nugent always makes a point of visiting a special place on campus.

In that place there is a statue featuring the likeness of Edward Walter Krause, better known as "Moose," a three-time All-American basketball player who lettered in four sports while attending the University of Notre Dame and later served as the university's athletic director.

The statue depicts "Moose" sitting on a bench with one leg crossed over the other as he holds a cigar in his left hand.

Keen observers who visit the statue, located in front of the Joyce Center overlooking Notre Dame stadium, may notice the initials "EG" at the bottom of "Moose's" cigar.

"EG" are the initials of Eddie Gadawski, Mary Beth's father who is widely regarded locally as one of the biggest fans of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to ever come from the City of Niagara Falls.

"Every time we go to Notre Dame, I always go sit with (Moose) and talk to my dad," said Gadawski Nugent, whose father died in 2017 at the age of 97. "More than once, I've gone and there would be people sitting there and they would be going 'yeah, Eddie Gadawski, his initials are on there' and I'm like 'that's my dad.' I'm listening to them and I'm thinking 'that's my dad.'"

Moose's bench is a favorite spot for many who knew Eddie, the man who, with his wife, Irene, ran Gadawski's bar and restaurant — the Polish place with the Notre Dame feel — for decades.

Gadawski Nugent's brother, Fred, who tends bar at the restaurant, loves the bench, too. He said it's surprising to him sometimes how many people know about the statue's ties to his father and the Gadawski name.

"The last time I was there a gentleman was there and he said 'oh, look, Gadawski is sitting with Gadawski,'" Fred said. "They were from Lockport and they know."

Anyone who has ever visited Gadawski's restaurant can tell from all of the Notre Dame photos and memorabilia covering the walls that the family's faith in all things Fighting Irish runs deep.

One year, as an anniversary present to Eddie and his wife, Irene, the Gadawski children had Notre Dame Fighting Irish wallpaper applied to the walls in the dining room.

Many of the other Notre Dame items — dozens of pictures and posters and pennants and knick-knacks — were either bought or acquired by Eddie himself.

It all started with Eddie listening to Notre Dame football games on the radio with his father.

In the 1960s, a friend, Detroit bar owner Jerry Polanski, took Eddie to his first Notre Dame football game in South Bend.

Fred Gadawski said after that experience his dad couldn't wait to go to the next game.

Eddie's first visit to Notre Dame stadium started a decades-long run of weekend trips back and forth from the Falls to South Bend for Eddie, Gadawski family members and friends.

In those days, Eddie had the same Friday night routine: Close the restaurant and get in the van to start making the drive so he could be there in time for kickoff on Saturdays.

"We would leave at midnight," Fred Gadawski recalled. "We had a blue van. Someone would sleep. Someone would drive. He almost always drove all the way. It would be eight hours, 500 miles up. We'd stay overnight. We had friends there. He knew a professor there. We'd stay at his house all the time."

The more games the Gadawskis attended, the bigger the Gadawski legend grew on campus.

Eddie's initials are on the end of "Moose" Krause's cigar because Eddie, known for his outgoing demeanor, struck up a casual conversation with a guy inside the bookstore at Notre Dame.

That guy turned out to be Jerry McKenna, the accomplished American sculptor who was responsible for creating the "Moose" Krause statue and who later went on to sculpt The French Connection statue of Buffalo Sabres greats Rick Martin, Gilbert Perrault, and René Robert at First Niagara Center in Buffalo.

"He was in the bookstore just shopping and my father was in the bookstore," Gadawski Nugent recalled. "Of course, he was just chatting away and he heard his voice and said 'that sounds like a friendly guy, I've got to find out who he is.'"

It wasn't the first or last time Eddie's personality brought him in touch with people of prominence.

For several years, Eddie offered lifts back and forth to Notre Dame for a young man from south Buffalo who was studying at the university in the 1970s.

That young man, Tom Black, went on to graduate from Notre Dame and establish a highly successful mortgage servicing firm. Today, Black is counted among Notre Dame's wealthiest alumni.

"Now this guy's a multi-millionaire," Fred said. "He never forgot my dad. He took care of him all the time."

On the Notre Dame campus, Eddie Gadawski's memory lingers.

Fred is now a season ticket holder and still attends every Notre Dame home game. These days, he said, he takes the train to and from South Bend.

The family has made many close friends in Indiana over the years and there are a lot of Notre Dame fans and knew and loved Eddie. Fred said it's not uncommon for them to stop at Gadawski's whenever they visit the Falls.

"He's well known there," Fred said. "When I walk into the bar, it's called the Morris Inn on campus, (people say) guess what 'Eddie's son's here'."

Other family members, including Mary Beth, remain active in keeping the family's Notre Dame rooting tradition alive.

That includes visiting South Bend for Saturday football games and, of course, for some quiet time with "Moose" and dad.

"It's in the whole family," Gadawski Nugent said. "Everybody loves to go."