5th Quarter Bus hosts Irish fans and football legends
If you're not at a tailgate or heading to the stadium for the game, what better place to cheer on the Irish… than a bus?
This isn't just any bus. It's a 1978 Concord school bus transformed into a Fighting Irish paradise.
"Well the 5th Quarter came about, I drove this bus at Concord in the 80s,” Brent Bardo said. "We decided rather than walking around Notre Dame football games cold and wet, we'd have our own little warm spot so we bought it from Concord and started the remodel in the late 90s."
"Our bid was actually $2,040."
A bid and a remodel later, the old school bus got a new lease on life.
Life-long Irish fan Brent Bardo proudly got started sanding the yellow paint off the bus and removing the seats 30 years ago and today the '5th Quarter' looks like this!
"We wanted the TV to hide the bus driver,” Bardo said. “We wanted a back door so there's a bathroom in the back they wouldn’t be going through our aisle, interrupting, you don’t interrupt the Notre Dame game you just don’t, that’s not allowed on the bus."
The memories made on the bus he says are priceless. bardo has welcomed family, friends, students, and former players like Jerome “The Bus” Bettis who left his mark on the 5th Quarter!
"It's just been wonderful. From West Lafayette to Ann Arbor to East Lansing and many Friday and Saturday nights here at Notre Dame, a lot of memories."
Even legendary Notre Dame Football Coach Ara Parsegian has been on the bus!
"He is just genuine. He was a kind, wonderful person and I just loved being around him. He's just the kind of person you gravitate to."
The bus has even traveled to away games making it to Soldier Field, Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State, and Michigan.
But the road trips are taking a back seat, for now, the 5th Quarter is a 1978 and only gets 5 miles a gallon.
"She's getting old and uh, we'll probably bring her back out this fall but 44 years old, you never know what can happen."
So if you see this old girl on campus, Brent says to make sure to say hi!
"You see so many different people you haven't seen in years, they just are walking by the street and we're right by the street and they come and visit you and it's just making new friends that you don't know and friends now that come every year."