It was a father-son weekend that spanned a generation of sports.
Like many of the top junior players in the region, Buckingham Browne and Nichols midfielder Thomas Porell’s phone was quite busy when Sept. 1 arrived. That led to a visit to Notre Dame in mid-September.
For the Porell family, South Bend, Ind., wasn’t just another spot on the map. Porell’s father, Tom (Winchester, Mass.), was a scholarship football player at Boston College in the 1980s, a two-year starter on the defensive line who’d go on to play briefly in the NFL.
Though BC and Notre Dame have crossed paths famously over the years in football, the only intersection during Tom Porell’s time was the Liberty Bowl in 1983, a 19-18 loss that saw a Doug Flutie-led drive stopped with a minute to go.
