Tramel: Why Epstein family loyalty is split for the Fiesta Bowl between Oklahoma State and Notre Dame
Berry TramelOklahoman
Essy Epstein’s home in Long Beach, Indiana, about 30 miles across Lake Michigan from downtown Chicago, is a virtual Notre Dame football museum.
The bleacher seats from Notre Dame Stadium that she and her late husband, Frank, sat in for more than 30 years. Pictures. Letters. Memorabilia.
And memories. The memories most of all.
Essy Epstein was born and raised in South Bend, so she was a Notre Dame football fan long before she met and married Frank, who played for the Fighting Irish under legendary coach Frank Leahy and who holds two distinctions in Notre Dame lore.
Frank Epstein was one of the few Jewish players for the citadel of American Catholicism. And he played with three Heisman Trophy winners: Leon Hart (1949), Johnny Lattner (1953), Paul Hornung (1956).
But when Notre Dame plays OSU in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day, Essy Epstein’s loyalties will be torn.
She’s a Cowboy fan, too. Her grandson, Evan Epstein, was an OSU center from 2009-12 who was on the 2011 Cowboy squad that won the Big 12, won the Fiesta Bowl and finished No. 3 in the nation.
Essy has been to many a game in Stillwater. Even been to Eskimo Joe’s.
“I love when they come out” of the tunnel, she said, “and the cheerleaders and the whole shebang.”
Essy is 87 and still going strong. Still watches the Fighting Irish and follows OSU and even planned to be at the Fiesta Bowl, though Covid’s omicron variant has her rethinking.
Evan Epstein is from McKinney, Texas. His father, Buckeye, sent Essy a custom-made jersey, half Notre Dame, half OSU.
Who is she rooting for?
"My heart belongs to Notre Dame, it truly does,” Essy said. “I’ve known Notre Dame since I was a little girl. And I truly love that.
“Evan isn’t playing on Oklahoma State anymore, but I owe some alliance to them, too. So I’ll do a little of both.”
Essy grew up in South Bend during the golden age of golden-dome football. Leahy coached from 1941-43 and 1946-53; his Notre Dame teams were 87-11-9.
Frank Epstein grew up in Chicago and came to Notre Dame in 1949. After two seasons, he joined the military during the Korean War, then returned to South Bend after his service.
Upon his return in 1954, some girls spotted Frank at the downtown Philadelphia Café. They told their friend, Essy, that they had just seen “that Jewish player” back in town.
Essy always had spunk. She called Notre Dame’s switchboard, asked for Frank Epstein’s room, got his dorm hall phone and soon enough she picked him up for a date in her Lincoln convertible. Two years later, they were married.
They went to Notre Dame dances, populated with the girls from neighboring St. Mary’s. Essy tells the story that Frank once dated a St. Mary’s girl. A nun came along.
“That was the end of that,” Essy said.
Jim Epstein, their son, said his dad cried two times in his life: “When Coach Leahy died. Second time when they let girls in Notre Dame.”
One of the Epsteins’ sons, Buckeye, raised his family in Greater Dallas, and Evan Epstein grew up a huge Notre Dame fan.
“Only place I wanted to play,” Evan said. “Notre Dame posters on my wall. We went up there as often as we could. Massive Notre Dame fan.”
Evan turned into one of the nation’s better high school centers at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas. He was recruited by Notre Dame but in the end didn’t receive a scholarship offer.
“Charlie Weis actually came to recruit me,” Epstein said of the then-Notre Dame head coach. “I kind of held a grudge. Got to pay him back when he went to Kansas.”
Epstein signed with Air Force but spent only a year at the Academy. He transferred to OSU in 2009, without a scholarship, because Cowboy line coach Joe Wickline had recruited him out of high school.
Epstein played behind star center Grant Garner but became the OSU starter in 2012. Epstein even made a deep connection with benefactor Boone Pickens and, after Epstein’s playing days, became a regular lunch partner with the late Pickens down in Dallas.
And Epstein’s family became Cowboy-crazy. Include Essy.
“She’s a big OK State fan, for sure,” Evan Epstein said. “She loved going to the games when I was playing.”
These days, he runs a couple of Dallas-area companies owned by his dad and uncle, and he keeps up with the Cowboys. He was at Bedlam with former teammate Levy Adcock and former Sooner Bronson Irwin.
Now comes an even bigger game to the Epsteins. OSU-Notre Dame.
For the occasion, Buckeye Epstein got his mom that half Irish/half Cowboy jersey, with a white “6” on the Irish blue and an orange “0” on the Cowboy white.
“Give credit,” Evan Epstein said of his dad. “On short notice, with a supply chain crisis, he pulls an OSU-Notre Dame jersey out of his ass.”
And that No. 60? That was Frank Epstein’s jersey number at Notre Dame.
When Epstein got to OSU, he was given No. 58. Brady Bond wore No. 60. But Bond was a senior in 2009, and the next year, Epstein quickly claimed No. 60.
“Changed as fast as I could,” said the Cowboy with Notre Dame roots, whose grandmother is split in the Fiesta Bowl, despite the deepest of Fighting Irish ties.
