By Ben Hicks
Special Contributor
This feature will appear in the Notre Dame Football game program for the game against USC on Saturday, Oct. 18.
On Dec. 22, 2024, Loyola (MD) traveled to Notre Dame to battle Niele Ivey’s Fighting Irish in the final non-conference game of the season. The Greyhounds would be without one of their most impactful players, three-point specialist and South Bend native Kelly Ratigan.
Sidelined with a season-ending knee injury, Ratigan can vividly recall the dimming of the lights, the flickering of the glowsticks, and the blaring of “Here Come the Irish” inside Purcell Pavilion that chilly December afternoon. The emotion of it hit her immediately; she knew this was home.
Ratigan grew up idolizing the Notre Dame women’s basketball team.
“I went to my first game when I was in second grade and I fell in love with it immediately,” she said.
Whether it was fellow South Bender Skylar Diggins, Jewell Loyd, or Kayla McBride, who was once her computer password, Ratigan was awestruck.
Kelly followed the team everywhere. The student-athletes were celebrities to her and even from a young age, she couldn’t be denied from pursuing her dreams.
“I went to camp and I was so locked in,” Ratigan said. “The girl next to me got on Jewell Loyd’s team, but she didn’t see that, so I flipped the pieces of paper around. I was eight years old and got on Jewell Loyd’s team and it was the best week of my entire life.”
Ratigan was raised in a Notre Dame family. Her brother Conor, was a wide receiver on the football team from 2019-2022, and her father, Brian, a linebacker from 1989-1992. They donned the Blue and Gold and served as Kelly’s biggest role models. They would show her around campus, take her to football games, and explain what it meant to be a student-athlete at the University of Notre Dame. Following in their footsteps is a dream come true.
“A lot of people will say that it means everything. For me, I can’t actually put it into words. I come in everyday, and to see Ratigan, No. 1, on a jersey is just a very surreal feeling.”
Her father also serves as one of the football program’s physicians, helping to develop Kelly’s passion and care for all, regardless of their struggles. She remembers the attention her father would show to her friends.
“He’s a gentle giant,” she said. “I loved growing up when my friends would come over to the house to see Dr. Ratigan after they would bump their knee on the playground and he would say, ‘Oh, it’s a bruise.’”
As Kelly’s basketball career blossomed and her love for Notre Dame burgeoned, she was always accompanied by her best friend, KJ. Despite KJ being diagnosed with cerebral palsy, the pair was inseparable, attending every Irish home game together and constantly discussing basketball throughout Ratigan’s sensational career at nearby St. Joseph High School.
“He was just KJ, and we did everything together,” Ratigan said. “There was no difference in our capabilities until we got older.”
She noted that KJ provided a consistent voice of encouragement for her and also hit her with much-needed criticism.
At Loyola, Ratigan became an instant contributor, starting 46 of 50 games and connecting on 89 triples over her first two seasons. There, she collaborated with fellow student-athletes to bring Dream On 3, a non-profit organization focusing on experiential athletic access, to campus. The program’s mission is “to create experiences of joy, hope, and encouragement for children and young adults with life-altering conditions through the world of sports,” per the organization’s website.
Kelly assisted in planning a gameday experience for Javier, a 14-year-old boy from Baltimore diagnosed with autism. Javier had the opportunity to go through morning shootaround and pregame introductions with the team, as well as sit behind the Greyhound bench.
“If we can help more people get to where they want to be, even if they’re not given the same opportunities because of their disabilities, why not give them that chance?” Ratigan said.
Ratigan, an applied and computational mathematics and statistics major, has demonstrated interest in utilizing the medical field to help improve access to sport for children of different physical capabilities. She spends her summers in labs, becoming familiar with prosthetics and understanding how they can be utilized to grow the impact of athletics for individuals with physical disabilities.
“You have all these brilliant minds working together to do these amazing things,” Ratigan said. “With the transition into sports, it’s just like all the pieces are slowly coming together. I could see the rest of my life playing out through sports, through youth, through technology.”
Soon, Ratigan would face her own athletic challenges. After just three games a year ago, she suffered a knee injury that would keep her out of competition for the remainder of the season. She contemplated transferring, holding out hope in the back of her mind for one destination and one coach to come calling.
Eventually, Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey did call and Ratigan was coming home. Kelly said it was the culmination of every possible dream coming true.
She’ll now join a transfer class of six, hoping to elevate the Fighting Irish past the Sweet Sixteen, where they have been eliminated each of the last four seasons and into new heights.
“I think we’re going to shock a lot of people because of how dedicated we are,” Ratigan said of the group’s commitment and enthusiasm. “You could physically see it in people’s eyes. I’ve never been a part of this kind of energy.
“If we carry that through 40 minutes a game, 40 games of the year, I can see that [success] now. Everybody came to Notre Dame for a reason, and that reason is to win.”
Both on the court and off, Ratigan returns to South Bend ready to make an impact in the community. Her infectious smile, passionate heart and sweet shooting stroke will captivate Irish fans of all interests, ages and capabilities.
“I want to leave it better than I found it,” Kelly said when asked how she wants to be remembered at Notre Dame. “I came into a very special program and if I can leave a legacy, whatever that looks like, that would be great. Whether it’s ‘she was a really good person,’ ‘she was a really hard worker,’ or ‘she hit a few threes along the way,’ that would be amazing.
“We are all given a situation, so how can we make the most of these situations and perform the best we physically can?”
She now knows her situation: recovered from injury, back in South Bend, competing for the school and the team that she grew up revering. At her core, Kelly’s purpose remains assisting others in overcoming obstacles to reach their own dreams and goals. As she learned from her father, and aligned with Notre Dame’s mission of uplifting every person, Kelly Ratigan wants to support those chasing joy through athletics.
“He genuinely wants to help them. I’m hoping I can do the same thing.”
Ben Hicks is a sophomore student worker for Fighting Irish Media. He hails from Cincinnati, Ohio.