For years, there was one single individual more responsible than anyone for how Notre Dame athletics were perceived nationwide. And that man never played nor coached a minute of varsity action for the Fighting Irish.

He is Roger Valdiserri, who achieved legendary status as the university’s sports information director for 28 years. It was a tenure that encompassed numerous championships, All-Americans, highlight-reel moments and national attention.

Roger is a direct descendent of Arch Ward, Frank Wallace, George Strickler—who as ND students were tabbed by Coach Knute Rockne to cover the team, send dispatches to out-of-town newspapers, and keep in touch with reporters wanting to know the “inside dope” as they called it in the 1920s. Rockne essentially helped create the position of SID, and nobody ever accomplished more with it than Roger Valdiserri.

He came to Notre Dame as a freshman in 1951, and knew he had found a home.

“My parents had driven me there and they were in the car about to go home and I stuck my head in the window and said ‘I don’t think I ever want to leave here.’ So 67 years later, I’m still here,” Valdiserri said in a recent interview.

Roger was really more than an SID. He was a trusted friend and wise advisor to countless players, coaches and administrators over the years, someone the university could turn to in any situation that involved coverage of the university and its sports teams.

“No one ever understood Notre Dame better or represented it better,” said Ara Parseghian, legendary football coach and Valdiserri’s close friend for more than 50 years. “Roger’s importance to the university is immeasurable.”

Roger reflected on his great pal Ara, whom he met every week for lunch along with friends Art Decio and the late Jim Gibbons. “I think he responded to me as I responded to him. I think that’s what real friends do. You feel what they feel, you go through what they go through. He was a good friend,” Valdiserri said.

Valdiserri has known countless major sports figures—from media covering the Irish, to famous athletes and coaches he encountered in work with NBC and the Olympics. And he helped start the careers of numerous young reporters and publicists. Valdiserri sent his former aides off with a simple admonition: Never lie.

“That was the one piece of advice I gave them,” he said. “If you don’t tell the truth, you lose your integrity, and if you don’t have integrity you have nothing.”

Integrity. It defines Roger Valdiserri.

Roger died on June 2, 2022.