Navy class of '83 cyclists to stop at Notre Dame. Join them for pushups, veteran support.

Joseph Dits, South Bend Tribune
·2 min read
Members of the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1983 ride across the U.S. They'll stop in South Bend the night of Sept. 24, 2023, on their cross-country tour.
Members of the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1983 ride across the U.S. They'll stop in South Bend the night of Sept. 24, 2023, on their cross-country tour.

SOUTH BEND — The U.S. Naval Academy class of 1983 — well, 25 of them — will bike into town Sept. 24 and bunk it for a night at the University of Notre Dame. They feel it’s appropriately on a football game weekend (the Irish vs. Ohio State) because of Navy’s own football history with Notre Dame.

They’re on a 3,423-mile bike ride across the country to raise money and awareness for eight veteran organizations. So they welcome the public to come cheer them as they depart at 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 25 at Notre Dame's Morris Inn on campus and, if able, to join them in their daily 22 pushups, signifying the estimated 22 veterans who commit suicide each day.

Next stop: Angola, Ind.

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The riders have already raised more than $150,000, one of the organizers, Dave Saba, said, adding, “It is pretty cool for a bunch of old guys to ride over 3,400 miles across the entire country.”

They’d started in Washington state, and their destination is the Naval Academy in Annapolis for their 40-year reunion.

Members of the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1983 ride start each day's cycling with 22 pushups to raise awareness of veteran suicides, as seen here in Wyoming. Their cross-country ride will stop in South Bend the night of Sept. 24, 2023.
Members of the U.S. Naval Academy class of 1983 ride start each day's cycling with 22 pushups to raise awareness of veteran suicides, as seen here in Wyoming. Their cross-country ride will stop in South Bend the night of Sept. 24, 2023.

There’s more than just a football connection here.

Bill Mountford, a classmate but not a rider, is organizing their overnight stay here. He directs Notre Dame’s phone-related services. His wife, Missy Conboy, is Notre Dame’s senior deputy athletic director. They and their three daughters all have Notre Dame degrees.

Classmate Chris Kiergan of Chicago will watch the Ohio State game on Sept. 23 with his son, a Notre Dame student, then bike the remaining 11 days of the ride: 820 miles. He said he and his two daughters have been involved in the research at Notre Dame’s Boler Parseghian Center for Rare & Neglected Diseases, where they’ve been using the family’s mutations to study von Hippel-Lindau disease.

To learn more and support the ride’s causes, visit www.navy-cycling.com.

Find columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures or 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Navy 83 bike Ride Across America comes to Notre Dame for veterans