Why I Love College Sports: Actor Ted McGinley

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While Insights usually focuses on Notre Dame celebrity fans, we're branching out here and experimenting with chatting with other big college sports celebrity fans about the teams they support, including Notre Dame. If there's someone from the world of celebrity that you'd like Insights to try and chat with, drop a line at mrothstein@jg.net. When we've got someone, it'll run Mondays here at Insights.

This week's guest is someone you likely know if you grew up in the '80s or enjoy college movies. Veteran actor Ted McGinley, whose two most famous roles are Stan Gable in 'Revenge of the Nerds' and Jefferson D'Arcy in 'Married ... with Children' took the time to discuss how he grew up in a Notre Dame household, loved UCLA and ended up flipping to USC. Also, McGinley was a college athlete at USC, playing water polo before discovering acting. Insights thanks McGinley for taking the time to chat and hopes you enjoy his varied opinions. McGinley's interview also marks the first reader-suggested interview Insights has done, so thanks to Insights friend Todd from Milwaukee for suggesting McGinley.

For more with McGinley, be sure to also check out Part II, where he explains how the NCAA essentially forced him to stop playing water polo in college, his take on the difference between college sports now and then and his favorite all-time roles.


Irish Insights: I know you went to USC. Is that how you became a USC fan or was it something that you paid attention to them and Notre Dame beforehand?

Ted McGinley: "Well, my grandfather is from Ireland so I was raised on him loving Notre Dame. My dad was born in Chicago and the Irish immigrants, Notre Dame is our team. But I grew up in Newport Beach, California and everyone was an SC fan. All my parents' friends were SC fans and I hated USC. I grew up a Bruin fan. I was a die-hard Bruin fan and I was recruited by USC to play water polo there and I decided that I would remain a Bruin fan in football and everything except for water polo and after my first game against UCLA at UCLA, it was like a war and from then on, I hated UCLA. So I became an SC fan, sort of begrudgingly at first, and now they're my guys."

II: Like you said, your family has the Notre Dame lineage, though. What was that like growing up? What was that like once you became a USC fan? Was it fighting every year?

TM: "It was fine. We didn't have a whole lot of time for sports. Everybody was just trying to survive so there wasn't a whole lot of time for sports. However, I will say, we used to watch the USC-Notre Dame game. It was like religion. That was sometimes with my granddad, sometimes not. We always talked about it. I think they were thrilled that I went to college and cared about anything, so, it wasn't that big a deal. But, it was fun. In our house, it was certainly fun. We didn't have that really die-hard sports fan. My dad was a boxer and didn't grow up playing any of that stuff."

II: What's it like for you now on a game day?

TM: "Unfortunately, or, I should say fortunately, I've got two young kids who play every sport known to mankind except for football, now. They play flag football, they don't play tackle football. Usually, I find myself situated, I'm a guy who would really, depending upon the game, would rather watch it on TV. I love getting the reporters' insight. I love the closeup shot. I'm addicted to college football. That's my number one thing. My favorite sport is college football and I live and breathe it. I don't dislike pro football, when I was a kid, I much preferred professional football, but now, I'm definitely a college football guy and I try to watch as many games as I can get away with but it's really hard for me with my kids' schedule and we've got baseball, football, basketball, soccer, you name it, all over the place, so if I miss a game, if it's a great game, I try to TiVo it. I do whatever I can to see a game.

"When I was doing 'Hope and Faith,' every so often, at the beginning of the show, I had to stay in New York and so, Kelly Ripa's agent would get us this private room at the ESPNZone, where we got this huge screen and I should say ABC, one of the guys who worked for ABC would get it, we were all college football fans. So we would go in there and watch the games. That was like being in heaven. The food and beer just kept coming and the greatest football games on every screen that you could see, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. That was, that's my perfect day, college football day."

"The other thing was, probably the greatest day of watching college football that I can honestly ever remember was with my wife a year ago in Vegas. We were in the sports room at the Wynn and it was spectacular. To sit with your wife, (Eds. note: Gigi Rice) my wife loves college football, that's pretty tough to beat. A guy whose wife loves college football, a couple cold beers on the table, appetizers, you cannot beat that. And then up all night gambling. That is heaven for me."

II: When you're watching a USC game, when you do get to watch them, are you pretty focused in on it? Is it on in the background and you're paying somewhat close attention?

TM: "I'm sitting down watching unless I have to get up and do something. But we have a pretty good rule in my house. See, my wife is, there's only one kind of Buckeye fan and that's a die-hard Buckeye fan. So she's a Buckeye and I'm a Trojan. The only problem is that I've noticed, for me, when SC plays the Buckeyes, if I win, I lose. If I lose, I lose. It's a no-win situation for me. But that's when it's really fun in our house. My wife is a much louder, boisterous fan than am I. I'm more intent and with my hands over my eyes watching. She's yelling and screaming. It's a lot of fun. My kids love watching college football with her."

II: Are your kids SC fans? Ohio State fans? Have they gone off the deep end and liked Idaho?

TM: "They probably will. They are SC fans as we speak but they have a deep-rooted respect for Ohio State. But between the two, they would probably root against Ohio State and I think that's only because they've been to the games and been to the student store. USC is a little closer. But they root for my wife's team whenever possible."


II: What's it like for you during a Notre Dame-USC game since your family grew up Notre Dame fans and you like USC?

TM: "I'm a huge IndyCar fan. I love the Indy 500, it's my most favorite sporting event of all other than Game 7 of a Stanley Cup final. I really like the Indy 500, so for me, I like to just square away the day and it never happens. I have to TiVo it and I have it like dessert. Whenever I can get to it, I get to it and I make sure I don't listen to anybody and don't do a thing with the USC-Notre Dame game. Now we have a lot of friends, by the way, up where we live, who went to Notre Dame so there's a fun rivalry that goes on. But if I'm at a soccer game, I won't even look people in the eye the whole day. I don't wear anything that says USC, I don't have anything to do with it so it doesn't come up. People keep coming up to me and say 'Hey, the Trojans …' or whatever it is. I immediately put headphones on, don't talk to anybody, don't hear anything, don't want any information. And I'm very good at reading people's expressions so I say 'I don't want to talk to you. Don't even look at me.' I can tell just by looking at them what the score is."

II: With the USC-Notre Dame games, is it like that every week or just ND-USC?

TM: "Just historically the USC-Notre Dame games have been phenomenal. It's one of those games where if we lose, I can always say 'At least we lost to Notre Dame.' That one doesn't hurt so bad. Notre Dame is the only team in college football that is luckier that USC. I think USC is an incredibly lucky team and you know what they say, that you make your own luck by all those hours in practice and I think that's true in USC's case. However, I do think that USC seems to be just so fortunate all the time and I think Notre Dame is very much the same way. They are a very fortunate team and constantly get the break and I don't know why. Whenever we play Notre Dame I'm constantly worried, like 'Oh my God. Here it comes. Here comes the Hail Mary or whatever it is. Notre Dame is going to do something great.' And in those off years when USC was having those really tough times and Notre Dame was doing really well, it was great for me because I felt, well, my other team is doing OK."

II: Is that tough a little bit, being on both sides of a rivalry?

TM: "I don't have any issues with it whatsoever. I have, and always have, and I was the same way in professional football, that I have players more so than teams that I respect and like. I like to pick out guys that I root for and it really doesn't matter what team they are on so much. Even a team that we're playing against that I have great respect for, I will enjoy watching that player play. But when it comes down to one thing, I want the Trojans to win. I want to see them in the national championship game without a doubt."

II: Is there one game, one memory of a game that stands out?

TM: "We've seen some great games. My wife and I took the kids to the national championship game, ABC was so nice to me and gave me some amazing tickets and we went to see the Ohio State-Miami game, that national championship game that was beyond words. That was, in my opinion, the greatest college football game ever played. In my lifetime, anyway, I know it was the greatest college football game I've ever seen and it was an amazing game. It was the one where Willis McGahee hurt his knee. That was just an amazing football game. As far as the SC-Notre Dame games, my kids and I went to a game a couple years ago and it was pouring rain in the Coliseum, absolutely pouring rain and we were almost down on the field. We had great seats, once again thanks to ABC, and it was a magical game because there was a fog over the field, it was pouring rain. We were suffering, it was pouring the whole day, we were unprepared and it was one of those games you suffered through and at the end you think 'That was a game.' It was very dramatic and such a great game. I would have to say it's that game. Any time you can have one of those moments with your kids there, there's nothing better. The one thing I will say is I've never been to Notre Dame. When I was in college, all the guys who would go to Notre Dame that weekend, I always had water polo games so I could never go. And after that, I just never was able to get together enough to go. So I'm looking forward to that game as well, going there and seeing it."

II: Is that planned already?

TM: "We're definitely going to do it unless I go down somewhere along the way. But we're definitely going to do it. We don't have a definitive plan and haven't picked the year. Our lives are so crazy with my kids in school and all that stuff that makes it very difficult to make plans when you go away and miss school and all that stuff. But we will. My dream, is before it's all over, go to all those amazing events with my kids. They've seen a lot of national championship games. They saw the USC-Texas game, which we had great seats for where Vince Young killed us and that was the second-greatest game in college football history. That was a great game as well."

II: Since you have a great following of college football, what's your take? Do you want to see a playoff? Do you like the system now?

TM: "I would love to see a playoff. I understand why they are not doing it but if you want to see the best play the best, how could you not want to see a playoff. I don't get it. I think, it's interesting, I still love all the bowl games. I watch them all religiously. I love them. That Boise State game, by the way, was probably the other greatest football game I've ever seen. It goes to show you that you never know. Sometimes these big programs are all just a bunch of hype and are not as fun as that game like that Boise State game, which I will probably never forget. But it would be great to have a playoff and have a real national championship and I know it would go on and on and it's really rough on student-athletes, but it would be really exciting.

"…I just want to see a great game. I like watching the bowl games. We'll get a bunch of my kids' friends in and we'll get dip and I'll make fried chicken and we'll sit down and go at it."

II: How many games a year do you get to go to?

TM: "You mean college football games? I would say we usually go to one or two a year. And I hate to admit it but it's easier to see it from home, running around like we do in our lives. However, you take me to a Ohio State-USC game or a USC-Notre Dame game, you can't pass those opportunities up. It's too good to be true."

II: The way you've watched college sports and being a former college athlete yourself, are you amazed with how it's all evolved? Or do you feel it has stayed the same from when you were in college?

TM: "No, no. When I was in college, it was a little more crooked. When you were on athletic scholarship, there were certain athletic benefits that you were going to receive and it was just, that's the way it had been for years and I think that, I think if you looked back at the John Wooden days and what the supporters of the program were doing for the athletes, nowadays there are so many rules and regulations that really, they are all over it. It's tough to get around but back then, those guys were something. It was just a miracle that they all drove nice cars. Every one of them. And that's kind of how it was and it was sort of accepted, just like it was accepted that President Kennedy might have somebody on the side, that's just the way things were. Now that we're in a PC-correct society and there's a constant flow of information on the Internet and constant news and updating, you know, it's a different world today. You ask any of those guys that were in there in the '70s and the '60s and they'll tell you that they were benefiting, there was a little something on the side that if you raked the leaves, you had a check. If you quote-unquote raked the leaves by the library that would be your job and there'd be a little check for ya.

"The funny thing is I had to get out of sports because I was earning money. I was on athletic scholarship at USC and I started doing commercials and modeling and stuff and there was no one who ever told me what the rules were, like 'Oh, I'm not allowed to do this.' So one day they called and said, the next thing I know, I'm being called in with the dean of the school, the athletic department and the athletic director saying 'I'm sorry, you're going to have to redshirt next year and pay back your athletic scholarship for your junior year and not play your senior year and come back and play your fifth year.' I was like 'What? I didn't know that.' I had no idea. It's a shame because today I'd have people fighting for me but I also would have known what the rules were. I'm still very bitter about it. To this day I haven't seen a college water polo game since. It was painful, really was a tough deal. So, I don't know. I guess you live and learn and college sports have definitely changed. The NCAA committee is all over you nowadays. But I'm living proof that they were still penalizing you back then but nobody was on the ball to tell you what was happening. Now, they sit you down with your parents, with everything and tell you 'These are the rules. Don't violate the rules or you're done.' I think it's a good thing. I think it makes it more fair for everybody. It makes the small programs able to compete. The only thing that's difficult nowadays is that you have universities like, for example Stanford and Notre Dame, whose academic standards are so high. Today, USC has incredibly high academic standards. It's impossible for those schools to compete against schools that have much lower academic standards and can get great athletes. That's a tough one, even though Stanford going to get a premier, smart athlete, it's a much more difficult way for them to compete."

II: Just following up on something you said with the modeling transitioning into acting, you've been in a ton of movies and TV shows, it's the one acting question I'll ask, do you have a favorite role, looking back where you're like 'Man, that was just awesome?'

TM: "I would definitely say it's a tie between Revenge of the Nerds, Stan Gable, which is one that just doesn't die. There's a new group of kids that see it all the time and are always like 'STTAAANNN.' It's a lot of fun. I enjoy that one. And Jefferson D'Arcy was the greatest job I've ever had. By far. It was so much fun. Nobody gets a job like that. I had to pinch myself and said 'I can not believe they are paying me right now.' It was too good."

II: What made it so much fun?

TM: "Just the cast and the crew. The thing people don't get is the crew becomes just as much part of the show as the cast of it. The guys that did the craft service and the props and we just had so much fun. It was one of those experiences that it was like a party every Friday night that we filmed was like a party and every weekday was like, I just went and laughed all day long. You just couldn't wait to get to work. You just don't get that in your life very often and when you're in those situations you have to really appreciate it. I had been on a couple other shows, so I knew that this one was magic."