1234.

Get my shoes in.

Out the door.

Five.

I'm lost.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna shine.

After I do what I'm gonna do.

I do it again.

Yeah.

Look at the sky with the beautiful color.

But never just for me.

You gotta share it with another.

I got to show, to give.

Let I want singing show.

Take a look and say a beautiful morning that turns into a beautiful evening.

And together make beautiful art.

And if you wanna see that, come along with me.

That's right.

Welcome to Experience Michiana.

We're so glad you're joining us this week.

We have a really cool lineup as we move into the 2026 year.

Check it out.

We're going to be talking to the space up in Three Oaks, Michigan, the commune market.

Well, they're just one of the places where Acorn anywheres Winter series is going to be showcasing some fabulous artists here in Michiana.

We also had the opportunity to check out this really cool thing.

It's called Ultimate Werewolf Michiana.

And I got to tell you, this is one of the coolest things I've heard about it there.

Kind of like a scavenger hunt.

You're going to get all the details on that.

But first up, we're heading over to the History Museum to talk to an author about a fabulous book he wrote about a Notre Dame legend.

So we've been here before at the History Museum to tell you about the Rockne Life and Legacy exhibit that's on here, which is absolutely wonderful to see all the different things.

But today we're going to talk about a different coach, part of the Notre Dame legacy.

And I'm here with author Mark Hubbard.

Mark, tell me a little bit about the book that you've written and the coach that you've written about.

Well, thank you for inviting me.

I appreciate it very much.

The start of this project actually happened when I wrote a book about the 1966 national championship team, and I got to meet er and got to know them quite well.

And, and we stayed friends and I would visit him a lot.

And after he passed, and I got to know Katie Parseghian, his wife, after he passed, Katie called me a couple of years later and said, she'd like me to get started on the biography, and, and I said I'd be honored to do so.

And so that's how it all started.

And it took about four years to write the book, but she was my copilot through most of the project, and it was.

And she made everything that she had available to me all of her errors, records, personal papers, memorabilia.

And so I was able to put it all together, assemble it into this, biography of her past, you know, which is now the authorized biography.

I don't think they'll ever be another one quite like it.

And, it's been a great thing for me because I've gotten to meet a lot of interesting people.

I've gotten to do some very interesting things, like this interview, and, it's it's been well received generally.

So I'm very pleased with the result.

Nice.

That's that's wonderful.

And what did his wife think of it?

Well, she got to watch the process all the way through.

And she was a really she didn't actually make any, I would say, critical comments, but she was able to fill in a lot of the blanks.

And of course, there were wonderful documents that she had that I was able to, use.

And I had, or her on a tape for over 30 hours.

So we got to sit down.

And as a result of that, we became actually very good friends.

In fact, she and my wife, Bridget, and, Mickey Bullock, who is Brian Bullock's, wife and, Katie, we all go out for dinner about once every couple of months, and we just celebrated my birthday in December.

So I've made really good friends out of the process as well.

Takes a lot of patience.

You know, I think a lot of people have an idea to write a book, you know, and you kind of want to get through it as quick as you can.

But for years, I mean, that's a that's a long time.

It's not a long time, but it takes a lot of patience to really do that well, doing a good job.

And of course, as a publisher, I had University of Notre Dame Press, and they're very demanding in terms of making sure all of the, data is correct and all the approvals are there for the photos and the quotes and so forth.

And it did.

It was a time consuming process.

When I started the book, I didn't have a publisher and it took almost three years to get a publisher.

But finally, we were able to get the University of Notre Dame Press, and that was great.

And then they wanted to have a foreword written.

And I was really, really fortunate to get Rocky Bleier, who was one of, errors players.

And of course, his story with the Pittsburgh Steelers is legendary.

Because he was injured in Vietnam.

And so he wrote the most marvelous, forward in the book.

And I'm going to start my speech on Sunday, reading that foreword, because it's such a really a good piece of writing.

As it turns out, the book, has now won a couple national awards, so they're really pleased with the results.

It's wonderful.

And as I look at it, the quality of it just looking at, yeah, no, this is a great thing.

And the the covers got Ara from the 1970 Cotton Bowl, being carried off the field after he beat Texas.

And this cover, was, art was found from, UPI and it was in black and white and they colorized it.

And so they had to pay extra for the, photograph for the cover.

But it's a great cover.

I love it.

And we're here at the History Museum in South Bend, because on January 11th, you're actually going to have an event here.

And.

Yes, they've invited me, and I'm very pleased, to speak about the book, but I'm also going to include some aspects of the similarities between, Newt Rockne and ERA.

And there's a lot of similarities.

And I think the, the one that is the most appropriate, I think, is that both of them, lived in South Bend and stayed in South Bend.

Of course, Rockne died tragically.

But, you know, Ara lived here for 60 years.

And so he was a person that I'm sure a lot of the people that come to the presentation are going to have some experience with how many people knew him and got to see him out in public, played golf with him?

Yeah.

He was a wonderful guy, and I, I was very, very lucky.

I mean, I don't consider myself a great writer, but I had a great subject and I had great material to work with, and I focused on personality and character.

So we'll talk about football.

But this is not a book about blocks and tackles.

This is a book about personality and character.

Well, the good thing is, it's up to the reader to decide whether you're a good writer or not.

Not you.

So yeah, that's the that's the most exciting thing.

Hopefully they'll decide that it's a good job, I think so Katie thinks it's a good job.

And that's really the person that I wanted to please the most.

Absolutely.

Well, I hope the event on January 11th, goes great for you.

And thank you so much for your time.

And I know we're here at the History Museum.

We're going to learn a little bit more before the end of this about what else is going on here at the History Museum.

But thank you so much for taking the time.

It's my pleasure, and thanks for having me.

So we really appreciate the time that I had with Mark there to learn about his book.

But there's lots going on here at the History Museum in South Bend.

And I'm here with Christy Erickson, who's the deputy executive director.

So what else is going on?

I mean, we talked about Rockne back in September.

I was here, and but there's a lot going on in here.

Sure.

So in our Rockne universe, we have a number of other lectures going on this year.

Once Mark is done, we have in March, we have Tricia Slama coming to talk about Nate Rockne as well, along with, later in the spring, Larry Dwyer from the Notre Dame band and, a lecture later about women's football in the area.

Also to kind of continue that inspiration from early football years and how that's affected the community.

Visitors to the museum right now can also see an exhibit on shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, including the Edmund Fitzgerald, that covers a wide time span and kind of why those shipwrecks occurred and how many you can or can't expect to find anymore.

As well as we are the national repository for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

So as made famous by the movie A League of Their Own, you can learn all about them.

And I did see the t shirt.

There's no crying in baseball.

They are outside and and right here is the place to to learn about that league.

So the shipwrecks thing is really fascinating to me as well because, you know, when I first moved to this area, I grew up in Ireland, where it's an island that I grew up like right beside the water.

And I really missed water when I moved here.

I know it's a water funny.

Sorry.

It's how you pronounce it, but, when I first went up to visit Lake Michigan, it sounds so silly, but I never imagined that lake could be something.

I know it's not what you were expecting.

Well, you know, I think of a lake as, like, something like that doesn't really move much.

And then you see these waves, and it just reminded me of the Irish Sea.

You know, of course, shipwrecks happen up there.

And.

And so.

Yeah.

So how did that exhibit come about, or was that just, so in 2025 was the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

So in, commemoration, remembrance of that event, our archivist, Travis Childs, put together, a bunch of different shipwrecks around the Great Lakes, as well as even in Indiana, a lot of people didn't know that there's shipwrecks to explore right here in our own state.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Out in Elkhart.

I'm not, you know, I got the little piece of Lake Michigan.

Yeah, yeah.

So that is true.

Well, thank you so much.

I know there's lots of reasons to come here, so I hope people do.

And, thank you for spending time with us and telling us about everything that's going on.

Course.

Thank you.

Today we're visiting my friends over in Three Oaks, Michigan.

And Ashley, thank you so much for joining me.

Always good to see you.

Likewise, the Acorn is doing some amazing stuff this year and switching it up to the winter season, right, 100%.

So, this is typically, you know, after a really, really robust holiday season and year end, we have typically a quieter period January, February.

And so we're utilizing that time within the space to make some exciting, infrastructure and safety upgrades.

Okay.

Got to the actual facility that no investment in that building and just making sure that it serves this community for generations to come.

I love that, we have an acorn anywhere, a series that we typically do in the summer.

Okay.

And how long have you been doing that series?

So it's sort of born out of Covid, honestly.

So around 2020 I think we 2021.

That's right.

Yeah.

Was a need to find outdoor safe ways to still continue to connect with artists and community.

And so that was born really out of necessity.

But it's something that is so lovely and something we've continued to do, go beyond our four walls of the theater and out into the community that we serve the space, right?

That's correct.

And so, and some important institutional partners.

And so, doing it in the winter is, is the first time for us doing that.

It's just fun.

So much fun.

I have to ask now, is it outdoor concert?

They're all indoor, right?

Yeah.

It's not yeah.

For a myriad of reasons.

Good good, good.

Oh, they're all indoor.

But, you know, some really exciting partnerships.

Certainly.

Commun and Marquette here in Three Oaks, right across the street from the Acorn has a fabulous event space that will be featuring artists and will be at the Vickers theater again, also an important partner here in Three Oaks.

And we'll talk about all the artists in a moment.

And then, actually up in Benton Harbor will be at Ghost Light.

They're just kind of expanding across there.

That's right, that's right.

Heather.

Country Michiana.

Okay.

Now we have some exciting artists they're going to be playing to.

The first one that's coming up is okay.

You have to explain to me there there is new grass.

That's correct.

What is.

Yes.

So, January 24th, 8 p.m.

at Community Market in the event space.

Okay.

Which is what we're in right now.

That's that's correct.

This is the event space.

Oh, it's a fabulous space.

It's going to be such an incredible set up.

So, we'll talk about the debutantes.

It's actually a seven piece string band.

Cellos, fiddles, guitar, everything string instrument you can think of traditionally in bluegrass, but then also in what's lovingly referred to as new grass.

So they have, many different influences bluegrass, indie, folk, rock.

It is a blast.

They have an incredible sound, you know, check any of these artists out online and they put out a couple albums over the years.

That's correct.

Definitely.

Especially in their current format.

They put out an album in about 2023.

That's pretty incredible.

Again, check out online.

But it's going to be a fabulous event.

There is a stage that will be set up kind of in the middle of.

So it'll be like that, right?

So it's a performance in the round.

Folks will be on two levels being able to observe, the performance and just it'll be an incredibly immersive, intimate experience not to be missed.

January 24th at 8 p.m.. Coming to market.

January 31st, we are moving into the moving to the Vicker’s Theater and with a totally different event.

So we have three incredible singer songwriters, all finalists and winners of the Acorn Singer Songwriter competition.

Just like my actually seen these people before.

Then Jeff and I definitely you'll recognize Kylie Phillips, was our winner most recently will be featured as well.

Sadie Gustafson Zook, who was the winner the year before.

And then Emily Barnes is also a crowd favorite who was a finalist in prior years.

The three of them will be doing singer songwriters in the round.

And so very interesting right at the Vickers Theater, a place that is ripe with storytelling.

Storytelling is so essential to their mission and atmosphere.

And so, these three artists will be performing, original pieces that they've written and then talking about the stories behind them.

Oh, I love that.

So kind of, a conversational comes to it as well.

Very much so.

I love when you have the opportunity to kind of talk to the artists, whether that be, you know, theater or performing arts.

That's really cool.

That connection is so essential.

It it really enhances your appreciation of the art and also your experience with it.

So these artists, are they going to be collaborating together or kind of doing their own pieces with a little bit of both.

So, you know, they have had some meetings ahead of time.

They're going to be featuring their own stories, their own songs.

But typically collaboration is born out of these kinds of.

So I'll be so curious to find out January 31st, 8 p.m.

at the Vickers Theater.

And I do want to point out, do people need tickets for this because it is indoors, correct.

They you do need tickets for this show?

Yeah.

You can purchase tickets at Acorn live.org to any of these three shows.

We'll talk about the third in a moment.

And you also still have the opportunity to make a reserved seat donation.

Just a little extra donation that helps to support these kinds of community programs here at the Acorn Theater.

Many people don't know a nonprofit performing arts center.

50% of costs are covered by ticket sales.

And the rest we rely on donations.

That's amazing.

I love that and helps with the infrastructure that you guys.

That's right, that's right.

It's very important that you as well.

Yes, indeed.

The final and this Acorn anywhere winter assist is a three part series.

The three part series Saturdays.

All Saturdays.

Okay.

This will be the final Saturday, February 7th, 8 p.m., at Ghost Light Theater in Benton Harbor.

It will be featuring Andy Sit Out, another alum of our singer songwriter program.

But, this will be also featuring, his program that is, arrangements he's done for a string quartet.

Interesting.

And so he, we'll be working closely, with not only, you know, us and Ghost Light Theater, but also partnering with Citadel Dance and Music Center.

Oh, so what does that look like then?

So, he is performing with a faculty quartet, a string quartet, and, and performing together.

And then, there's actually also a student quartet that will be performing, on the opening number with them, the closing, it'll be, a real youth and education component to this piece, which is an important part of the Acorn's mission as well.

Is it more of a classical component?

Cause I know you mentioned orchestras.

Sure, sure, sure.

You know, I love that you ask that question.

It will have, those kinds of fusion overtones.

So it's still rock, folk, pop music.

You know, we still have, kind of that familiar music you listen to in your car with a twist.

And I think Christie is so fabulous and he's amazing.

Oh, Andy said is brilliant, brilliant songwriter.

I think he's been on the show before.

Yeah, I think so.

And I mean, you guys have been trying to get him here for this kind of performance for a little bit.

And this, this is, and so much of what we do relies on collaboration.

And, this piece in particular really needed the right string quartet and the right institutional partnership.

And so between Ghost Light, Citadel Dance and Music Center and Andy, of course, this is all came together just for this event on February 7th.

Doors are going to be dancers on the stage for that.

There was I'm not.

Okay.

Okay.

So dance.

And I'm like, that's right.

Oh, gosh.

It's, can we get up and dance right now?

Yes.

In the audience.

You are welcome to always welcome to experience the music.

However, I, we love experiencing things here in Michiana.

Right.

And this is a great way to do it.

So you guys can get your tickets online.

Will you have, seats available day.

Oh, potentially.

Or yeah, you can certainly purchase tickets walking like standing room only.

These are intimate venues.

I would encourage you to get your tickets ahead of time.

They're all much, smaller capacity, much more intimate, you know, in the accord which we pride ourselves in, how intimate the a part is.

So definitely get your tickets ahead of time, Acorn Lord.

But if there are still tickets available, you can certainly purchase as walk up and then we reopen our space.

February 13th I love it.

So, business as usual with some little upgrades you'll be able to notice when you see us February 13th.

That's awesome.

And I know you guys have a full lineup coming in as we head into 2026.

That's right.

We have just maybe a minute left.

You want to touch on anything coming up after this?

Sure.

We have Cowboy Junkies have been announced, which is always a favorite that sells out.

We just announced David Cook.

I don't know if you remember his season of American Idol, but you won.

Are you kidding?

I'm not.

So he'll be here?

I don't know, engineering venue is incredible music, actually.

You can follow his career sense.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Very cool.

You guys have exciting stuff coming.

You do?

And I mean all of this, really, it's a gift within the community, you know, being able to collaborate and bringing out into the community, I think is just a really cool idea.

And I'm glad that you guys have an opportunity to do that, especially in the winter season.

Thank you so, so much.

Truly, it's such an important part of who we are and what we do, and a thriving and vibrant arts scene in any community means a vibrant and thriving community.

Awesome.

All right.

Well, we'll see you guys.

And the performances.

Yes, indeed.

So right now on Experience Michiana, we always say there's lots to experience, lots happening.

This is something that I hadn't heard about before, but I'm joined right now, as you can see by Sam and by Josh, to talk about Ultimate Werewolf and Blood on the Clock Tower.

They're the co-founders.

So, Sam, tell me a little bit about this.

It sounds a little bit more like Halloween.

But what exactly is it and why is it called Ultimate Werewolf?

Yeah.

It is it is a great game to play at Halloween.

But also at all times of the year.

So there's social there's social deception games, the basis of them was, a social experiment to figure out if a, an informed minority, can beat an uninformed majority.

And pretty often the answer was that the majority almost always loses.

But these games are balanced in a way, so that there's, in theory, an equal chance of, of everybody winning.

And you have a, you have an evil team who know each other.

And with both of these games, an ultimate werewolf, they are werewolves.

In blood on the clock tower, there's, demons and the demons minions.

But they work together to eliminate the townsfolk who, during the day, are trying to talk and figure out and who they think, are.

The wolves or the demons and and vote them, out of the town.

When you said that the majority always loses, it made me think of politics.

It is.

It does it does have, political, undertones.

But we, we are certainly not, affiliated with any political organization.

And our goal is to, to help people have fun and grow as, as so that they can be productive members of society.

No.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I'm sure it is fun.

And, Josh, you're out and about.

Looks like you're working here today.

That's why we're we're doing it like this just to catch up with you guys.

But, what is it about this that is kind of enticing to you or exciting to you?

Like how what's the point of it?

For me, it's just a great way to get out and meet new friends.

It's, a way to, get out and have my basically, like, learning to debate for those who might not be as extroverted as, some others, it's a great way to kind of get your, thoughts across against conflicting views and stuff like that.

And just a great game to experience that before you get into, like, all takes, like you had suggested earlier, whatever.

So it's just a fun game to, to do that.

And is it nice to, I mean, often all the outlets, salmon which for us to go out and meet people is always based around alcohol.

And I don't know if that's part of this, but it's it's kind of hard to find things that are kind of fun, that are outside of a bar setting and things like that.

So is that kind of why you guys went down this road as well?

Yeah.

We, we wanted to we fell in love with these games at a convention in Atlanta.

And that's sort of what led us down, down this route.

But it has, the reason we started was because we wanted to play these games more and here in Michiana, but for us, it's really become so much more.

We do have a place where, where our community we've got we have families and lots of different people.

So if you're not, if you don't drink and don't feel comfortable at bars, we hold events at a coffee shop here in South Bend, where you, where you're not allowed to drink alcohol there.

And so, and there's a family friendly environment that we, that we try and facilitate for our players in our community.

And you mentioned that that's at well and the well in South Bend.

And then you do also have it at Niles Brewing Company and things like that.

And, you have events scheduled at the Niles District Library as well, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

So we do, the well, we're there twice a month.

We're at Niles Brewing Company.

Once a month we are at, the Niles Public Library about every other month and once every couple to 2 to 4 months.

We are at, the Saint Joseph County Public Library as well.

And so does this kind of, bring in a similar crowd to, like, say, like a traditional trivia night or like, who are the kind of people that go along to this?

Is it the same kind of feeling like, are there scoreboards out there?

Like, do people are there like returning champions or is it just one off all the time?

We've got a, a very large community.

It's not there's we've got people as young as eight.

I think there's people in their 60s who attend our events.

And you it when you're looking at it, if you've never done it, if you're looking at it from the outside, it sometimes seems a little weird because half the time we spend with our eyes closed, sitting in a circle, but you get, lots of lots of conversation and lots of jokes and, Yeah.

And and Josh, you know, Sam mentioned that it's it's fun and, and, it's a good time for everybody.

What's it like for people that do actually come along and experience that, like for the first time, is it kind of awkward coming in to this, to this setting for the first time, or is a pretty easy to get to get the hand?

Yeah, the handle of it.

I think for the most part, most of our new players say they have a great time.

Some people might find it overwhelming at first, but we generally are able to accommodate them and make them feel welcome.

We always teach new players the game.

We never feel like it's, hassle for us to go over the rules.

I actually am one of the fans of doing the rules over and over again because it's fun for me.

But, you know, we we welcome everyone.

We always talk about, bringing all new players, no matter your experience level, if you're brand new, if you've never heard of the game before, we we bring everyone in.

We have a lot of friendly faces who will also welcome them in, just as from player's perspective.

So it's always a great time.

And usually they leave, with smiling faces.

And am I wrong in thinking that it's kind of a similar to a murder mystery kind of vibe?

Or is it totally different to that?

It is.

I mean, that's that's 100%, 100%.

You've got, you've got, you've got the wolves or the demon who are going around murdering townsfolk, and you are you're trying to figure them out.

So, there's a there's a roleplay aspect that, that, you can get into, with, with the different characters and roles that are, that are in the game.

Nice.

And, you guys set this up as a nonprofit group, right?

What was the reason behind setting this up as a nonprofit instead of just being like an entertainment company going around doing this for us?

Michiana is is, is a huge part of of who both me and Josh are as, people, we've both been born and raised here.

We went to school here, and, we are, we're building, we're building our, our adult lives here.

And so to, we really when we started this and, and it became more than, just a a, you know, a Friday night hangout sesh to play our favorite, our favorite games.

It became important for us that we, that we keep this focused on, the Michiana community that's been so impactful for our lives and our development.

And so we wanted to do it as a way to give back to our community.

Nice.

Awesome.

So for anybody watching this, you mentioned all the different locations that it's on.

And, and I know you have an event schedule for January.

Is there somewhere that people can just go online and see where the next one is, like, is that all online or where can people go just to see it and go, okay, let me go along to that one and give it a try.

Yeah.

If you Google Ultimate Werewolf Michiana, we are the first result.

I believe it's our Facebook page.

And our, our events are on there, as well as a link to our, our link tree, which has a Google calendar that you can, sync up to yours.

And it has all of our, there's links to videos on there to learn how to play the games.

If you want to do that before you come.

And, to all our social media and stuff like that, and the games do take a little bit of time, right?

Like sometimes you could be there for a couple of hours, if not more.

Right?

So there is a little bit of an investment in time to coming to any of these events.

Yes.

There is.

Yeah.

We have there is a version of Ultimate Werewolf called One Night that can take about ten minutes.

But, a regular game of Ultimate werewolf or blood on the clocktower can take anywhere from 30 minutes to hour and a half.

I think the longest I've ever seen is two hours.

Okay, awesome.

And, Right.

Well, sounds like.

Yeah, you got lots going on.

I'm looking at the schedule here for January, so plenty of opportunities from, you know, the well in South Bend to Niles Brewing Company, to the district libraries and things like that.

So, so as you mentioned, search for Ultimate Werewolf Michiana and you'll find you on Facebook.

We'll put a link in this story, of course, as well.

But, but thank you so much to you guys for talking to me about it.

And, yeah, hopefully lots of people will head along and try this out and, Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll see you next week right here at the commune market in Three Oaks, Michigan.

We’ll tell ya all the details about the space here.

See you th Want more from Courtney, Dave and Kelly?

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