SOUTH BEND — Charlie Weis strides into the local sandwich shop like he is just another guy with a long list of honey-do projects staring him down.
Which he did.
Shorts, shades and a slightly beleaguered look was Weis’ fashion statement earlier this week.
“Maura only gave me a two-hour window to be away,” the former Notre Dame head football coach says of his wife. “And I had to squeeze a haircut in there, too.”
Armando’s Barber Shop, not much more than a shanked punt away from Weis’ old office at the Guglielmino Athletics Complex, is the closest the deposed Irish coach has come to setting foot on campus roughly six and a half months after his five-year run was truncated.
“I could drive by the stadium if I wanted to,” he says, “but it isn’t like I need to go back there and reminisce. I have a clear vision of all the fond memories.
“Kids (former ND players) still text me and call me, and I text them back and call them back. But I think it’s important for me not to be a distraction. I try to keep my distance, because I think it would be unfair to the current regime to, all of a sudden, be around.”
By the middle of July, Maura, daughter Hannah and son Charlie Jr. won’t be around either. They’ll join Weis in Kansas City, Mo., where he is now the offensive coordinator for the NFL’s Chiefs and where he has been essentially a bachelor for the past five months.
What won’t be packing up with them is the Weis family’s Hannah & Friends Charity. In fact, it’s Hannah & Friends that brought Weis back to the South Bend area this weekend for a charity gala Friday night and his celebrity golf tournament Saturday at Blackthorn Golf Club.
The centerpiece of the charity, which raises awareness and provides programs for people with special needs, is Hannah & Friends Farm, named after Weis’ special needs teenage daughter. The 40-plus acre property on Hollyhock Road north of South Bend is a residential community for adults with special needs, and also the hub for activities for special needs children in the Michiana area.
“When I got let go, there were a lot of rumors around town that Hannah & Friends was going away, too,” Weis said. “Not only did we not go away, but we expanded the types of things we do.”
They just have to work harder to make it happen. Weis acknowledged the Notre Dame money has largely disappeared.
“Understandably,” he said.
The celebrity golf tournament will likely move to Pawleys Island, S.C., next year for economic reasons, though Weis said the folks at Blackthorn were extremely generous.
Among those who have come to town for the golf tournament to help raise money for Hannah & Friends are former Notre Dame standouts football Rocket Ismail, Brady Quinn, Tony Rice, Frank Stams, Allen Pinkett and Mike Golic Sr., the latter of whom donated a life-size copy of Notre Dame’s Grotto to the Hannah & Friends Farm complex.
Golden Tate, the 2009 All-America wide receiver who recently made national headlines for his doughnut-gate episode in Seattle, is also on hand.
“Of course, I gave him a hard time about it,” Weis said of Tate. “I told him, ‘If the maple bars are so good, why don’t you bring me a dozen?’ And Golden’s response was what you’d expect: He told me where I could put the maple bars. But really, he came a long way and I really do appreciate it.”
The Weises’ commitment to the Michiana area is the reason they corralled house-sitters instead of a Realtor. When Weis pushes coaching away for good, the family plans to move back to the area and live in their old house. Hannah herself will eventually move into Hannah & Friends Farm.
“When we built this thing, we built it to the standard as if we were building it for our own daughter,” Weis said. “Why wouldn’t we want our daughter to be a part of that project when the time is right?”
The time was right this week to pick Weis’ brain about his new endeavor in Kansas City and well as a number of other topics regarding college football and life after it.
The one subject he stayed away from, after a pregnant pause, was the NCAA’s recently announced rough treatment of rival USC.
This clearly is not a guy looking for a back door to a SportsCenter moment. Even with more-benign topics, he parsed his words a little more than usual.
On the recent conference shuffling by Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and Boise State ... and Notre Dame staying on the sidelines: “As a Notre Dame fan, I think whatever the powers-that-be feel is best for Notre Dame, that’s what they should do,” he said. “I don’t really have an opinion one way or another. It never really crossed my mind when I was coaching. Same thing with scheduling.
“The only thing I was happy about — and this might sound weird — was that the Big 12 held together. I’m living about 35 minutes away from Kansas. Kansas State sits an hour and a half away and Mizzou is about two hours away. I think a conference break-up would have really hurt those teams.”
On what he can take from his Notre Dame experience as he moves forward: “Stepping back into an offensive coordinator role in the NFL was the easy part. Coordinating the offense at Notre Dame wasn’t one of my problems.
“What I would take from there, if sometime down the road I’m in that position again, there are a lot of things you learn from being in a position of authority. But right now, that’s not my job. That’s (Chiefs head coach) Todd Haley’s job. I’m just worried about the offense.”
On living in Kansas City: “The people from Kansas City couldn’t have received us any better. If I’ve talked to 1,000 people, 999 of them have come up and said, “Welcome to Kansas City. We’re so glad you’re here.’ And that feels even better when you’re coming from a place where a number of people are saying, ‘We’re so glad you’re gone.’ ”
Back in the moment, Weis spins into stories about recent conversations with former ND quarterback and current NFL rookie Jimmy Clausen and about Charlie Jr.’s fledgling football career at St. Pius X High in K.C.
“He’s 5-10 and about 160 pounds, down from 200,” the elder Weis says. “You wouldn’t recognize him. I can hardly believe it’s him.”
After roughly 45 minutes of people brushing past Citizen Weis, a young boy spots him from a nearby table and nudges him back into the spotlight for a moment.
The boy explains his father, Lance, is in surgery and if Weis could just sign this scrap piece of paper for the dad. The mom looks on from a distance, trying to take a cell phone photo from an awkward angle.
“Come on over,” Weis says to the mom.
He has the boy sit down next to him, drapes his arm around him as if they’re long-lost pals, and cheeses for the camera.
“Best Father’s Day present ever,” the grateful mom says backing away.
Which gets Weis thinking about his own Father’s Day gifts for a moment, with Hannah & Friends Farm jumping off the blueprints and into reality topping the list.
“Although it didn’t work out the way we would have liked as far as being the head coach at Notre Dame, this neighborhood for people with different abilities will be our legacy when we’re gone,” Weis says. “We’ve come to believe this is the reason we came here.”
Staff writer Eric Hansen: ehansen@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6470
