In his press conference following Notre Dame’s 67-64 overtime win over Butler in the Round of 32 on Saturday, Fighting Irish head coach Mike Brey revealed that his mother died of a heart attack the morning of the game.
Betty Brey was 84. The Notre Dame coach said he felt that “she was definitely with us down the stretch” and called the game against the Bulldogs “a tribute to her.”
A distinguished swimmer, Betty Brey was a member of the 1956 U.S. Olympic team. More from Notre Dame’s official website:
[Brey’s] father Paul was a high school athletics director in Maryland, while his mother, the former Betty Mullen, was the women’s swim coach at George Washington, and perhaps the family’s most accomplished athlete. She attended Purdue University and swam for the AAU team in West Lafayette while attending school. For a time, she held the world record in the butterfly events and competed with the U.S. team at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. She is a member of the Indiana Swimming Hall of Fame located in Indianapolis.
His mother also was a Purdue majorette and was present in Notre Dame Stadium on Oct. 7, 1950, when the 19th-ranked Boilermakers upset the top-ranked Irish 27-14 in football.
Brey said he’ll travel to Florida on Sunday to celebrate his mother’s life with his family and watch the Kansas-Wichita State game together.
The Irish will play the winner of that game in the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Cleveland.
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