JOHN SWEENEY currently is moving with his family to Houston, Texas, where he will serve as an associate professor of surgery at the prestigious Baylor College of Medicine (a private institution that moved to Houston in 1949 and is separate from Baylor University). Sweeney was a versatile performer during his Notre Dame career-head coach Gerry Faust dubbed him an “irreplaceable” player-starting at running back and also playing some tight end while ranking as one of the squad’s top special-teams players.

A Chicago-area native, Sweeney set a Deerfield High School record as a junior in 1977, when he rushed for 1,035 yards in seven games. He went on to start 10 games and played the most minutes on offense by any Notre Dame freshman in 1979, when his solid blocking helped pave the way for Vagas Ferguson’s record-setting season rushing total of 1,437 yards. He started all 12 games as a sophomore on Dan Devine’s 1980 team while platooning in the backfield, ranking as the team’s third-leading rusher with 202 yards on 50 carries. As a junior during Faust’s first season (1981), Sweeney started eight games, played the most minutes of any Irish runningback and scored on a pass play versus Penn State.

Known throughout his career for a constant smile (labeled the “gridiron grin”) and a love for the basics of the game-such as practice, blocking, contact, catching and hard-nosed play-Sweeney served as the Irish special teams captain in 1982 (when he also helped fill in at tight end). His many key special-teams roles included serving as the center of the wedge on returns while being the last blocker on punts and the corner blocker on PATs and field goals.

After graduating from Notre Dame in 1983 with a degree in pre-professional studies, Sweeney attended Rush Medical School in Chicago, graduating in 1988. He then worked in Tampa at the University of South Florida until 1995, spending five years in surgery training and two years on a research fellowship. Sweeney spent the past six years as an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Michigan, in addition to serving as the chief of surgery at the Ann Arbor V.A. Medical Center (`97-’99) and the director of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) from 1999-2001. He now is set to join the Baylor College of Medicine that is known for its prestigious MIS Center and its founder Michael DeBakey, who helped revolutionize heart surgery.

Sweeney and his wife, the former Patty Cooney (whose father Jim was a varsity swimmer at Notre Dame in the 1960s), were married in 1989 and are the parents of three sons and three daughters, ranging in age from 1-10.

Sweeney-whose father Jim was a walkon member of the Notre Dame football teams in the late 1940s-attended his first Notre Dame football game as a seven-year old, watching the 1968 Irish defeat Oklahoma 45-21. Sweeney’s childhood heroes ironically included Jim Seymour-who has joined Sweeney on the Monogram Club’s five-member board of directors through 2004 (Seymour moved to Deerfield in the 1970s while playing with the Chicago Bears and lived near the Sweeney household … and Seymour later watched Sweeney play during his prep career).