Senior Night

This great picture is from our Senior Night during Senior Week, I think before the Boat Dance. Shortly after Brian left us too soon, I was digging in an old box looking for something else and came across this and some other pictures. A few things stuck out to me about this picture. First, we're all actually dressed up and no one looks like a complete idiot. Second, notice where Brian is, right in the middle of it all, as always. Third, notice Craig holding up his TGIFriday's shot being a tough guy, which I can remember Brian laughing so hard about when Craig pulled it out.
Good times.

"Great seats"

Three years ago to this very date Illinois played Xavier at the U.S. Bank Arena. We were fortunate to watch the game with our friends Eric Dettinger, his now wife Heidi and his brother Mike. (Pictured from left to right: Mike Dettinger, Brian McCormick, Susan McCormick, Matt McCormick, and Eric Dettinger.) We had good seats – about 12 rows from the floor near one of the baselines – and were looking forward to watching the game.

Mike Dunn, Xavier’s director of sports marketing, came up to us with about five minutes before the game started. Mike said: “Matt, do you guys want to sit on press row?” I said “hell yeah!” Brian, as usual, was running late and not yet there. I, as usual, was getting slightly anxious waiting on him and wanted to get to the sweet seats ASAP. Mike said we should be seated at least one minute to tip. Brian waltzed in at 1:03 to go. I told him about the seats. He smiled – like he expected this to happen – and only said “cool.”

All five of us walked down to the seats behind press row. We were almost late getting to our seats because Brian had to stop and say hello to the 43 people he knew. It reminded me of “Goodfella’s” where Ray Liotta (as Henry Hill) walked into the night club and had to say “hi” or “salut” to everyone and they responded in kind. It was surreal, for it seemed like the game was waiting on Brian. Right when we got to our seats the National Anthem started. We were next to XU's beat reporter, Dustin Dow from The Enquirer, various radio guys, and the WLW play by play team was literally feet away.

The last thing Mike Dunn said was “be cool about the beer, the food, and cheering. Don’t yell at the refs. Don’t stand up and try to be ‘low profile’.” Sorry, Mike we did not listen to any of your advice! At the first time out, Brian suddenly had one of the beer guys come down near the floor. He bought ten beers. As he was passing out the beers, he got a couple of food guys to come down to the floor. Brian bought multiple orders of nachos, pretzels, and pop corn. In Brian’s logic, these seats deserved a little splurging and he had “all the basic food groups covered.” Soon, we were yelling at the terrible refs, making fun of Illinois’ players, and cheering for Xavier. We had multiple beers and had a blast. Oh yeah, Xavier won 65-59.

Brian always got the greatest seats, got into exclusive places that nobody even dreamed of trying to get into, and loved being on the “VIP” list. Often, we would just get out of his way and watch in wonder at how he pulled it off.

Knowing Brian, my guess is he worked over a “scalper” pretty hard to get some “great seats down low” in Heaven.

Miss you Brian!

The Legend of Beerwolf

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the legend of Beerwolf, but for those of you who are I figured you might like to know that Beerwolf is alive and well, hidden in a secluded location in the mountains of East Tennessee. I first learned of Beerwolf from Brian many years ago. I'm not 100% positive about the true story behind the Beerwolf legend, but from what I do know it goes something like this....

Beerwolf was a prominent figure at a bar near Miami University. From what I recall, this was a bar that was frequented by the university's rugby team; the rivals of the nearby Xavier University. As many of you know, both Matt and Brian were members of the Xavier Rugby team and at some point during one of their tenures there they were a part of a grand scheme to snatch Beerwolf from this Miami bar and to take him back to Xavier. I am not aware of the circumstances that led to Beerwolf's capture, but I do know that he was eventually removed from his stand by sawing through his legs just above the ankles and then taken from the bar. From what I was told, Beerwolf was then transferred amongst various Xavier rugby players over the years and that the whereabouts of Beerwolf became something of a holy grail for those who knew of his lore.

Several years ago Brian asked me and my brother Justin to take Beerwolf with us down to TN. Brian had finally succeeded in kidnapping Beerwolf from an unsuspecting friend and he wanted us to take him away before someone came and snatched him away from him. Justin and I agreed and for several years now Beerwolf has lived with us in TN; first in Justin's apartment, then at my house where he now serves as the resident scarecrow for my garden.

Brian's life was filled with crazy stories like the story of Beerwolf. Many of his stories I heard second-hand, and many others I was able to experience with him. He lived such an incredible life and I'm so proud to call him my cousin...and my friend. Every time I walk past the garden or drive down my driveway and see Beerwolf out there looking over the place I can't help but stop and laugh as I think about what a great life Brian lived and how lucky I was to be a part of it. Thank you Brian...

Matt, or anyone else intimately familiar with the Beerwolf Affair, feel free to correct my story or add any comments.

Merry "Vader" Christmas!

All of the McCormick’s wish you and your family a Merry Christmas!

The Christmas season will be a tough time for us and we will especially miss Brian. This is when our fondest memories of Brian make us smile and help us get through the rough patches. I was thinking of Brian during a recent "rough patch" and remembered what he loved about Christmas. Here are his "top ten favorites":

• Relaxing and spending time with his family
• Gorging on foie gras (duck dip), Chick-Fil-A, and good wine
• Going to Christmas Eve Mass
• Watching "A Christmas Story" over and over
• Paying Joanna Taylor $50 to drink nasty soft drinks like "corn, oyster, and butter" flavored pop and making her puke (I had nothing to do with it) on Christmas Eve
• Clicking the Christmas tree lights on and off every time A.J. Gunnoe took a photo (everyone thought A.J.'s camera was causing the lights to flicker)
• Spending outlandishly on gifts for his family - especially Patrick & Caroline
• Sleeping on the family room's couch
• Leaving his Christmas gifts with my parents for the next two to three weeks
• Repeatedly telling everyone that "he loved them"

Please take a look at our 2005 Christmas photo on the left (click to enlarge). This was right after Caroline was born (her hair is now blond) and coincidently was the last time Brian was in our family photo. Look right above Brian's humongous Irish melon and unruly mop of hair. Look real close...on the mantle...guess what you see? That's right; a Darth Vader doll! Without our knowledge, Brian placed it on our mantle. He thought it was the coolest thing - knowing we send it out to our family, friends, and some business associates. He told me about the Vader doll right after the photographer left. Man, was I mad! I yelled at him 16 ways to Sunday and threatened him with a "severe limp." Brian just kept laughing. The more I yelled at him, the more he laughed. He never apologized. Brian kept saying, "Matt, believe me. One day you will think this is funny."

Brian, I do now...I do now.

Love you and miss you!

Christmas Caroling, Brian Style

Thought this story would be good seeing we are close to Christmas. My guess is that this happend around 1996.

We were all enjoying a nice quite evening studying and cleaning, as was customary on a Friday night at 3639 Brooks Ave, when Brian had the great idea to go to all our friends houses and Christmas Carol. We all thought it was a great idea. So we loaded up in Adams brothers jeep, because for some reason that was the best option on a night when it was snowing and couldn't have been more than 20 degrees. I believe there were about 8-10 of us. The first stop was Gogul's house, probably should have been the last. We sang several old favorites and just as we were about to go into the finale we were welcomed to the Gogul household by flying bottles.

The second stop on the tour was Micah's house. Thats were everything came together thanks to Brian. He felt that we were lacking something to end our performances. He came up with a brilliant way to end each perfromance, the old Christmas favorite "Me So Horny". Once we perfected our show we took it to each of the dorms, with mixed reviews. Brockman, Husman, and Kuhlman all went well, but it took an ugly turn at the New Dorm (probably not called new dorm anymore). We were booed by several people, until of course we hit the finale. Brian sure did know how to please a crowd.

On a side note to this story, a year of so later Brian was "studying" with a nice coed he had met and while they were studying they got to talking and it turned out she had a video of our Christmas Caroling experience. She filmed us outside of Brockman.


This is one of my favorite Holiday memories. Merry Christmas Brian, Tell Jesus I said Happy Birthday.

Brian, Rock Climber

Here's Brian climbing a rock mountain in Iceland right outside the Blue Lagoon. The rock mountain was actually kind of steep and Brian played the "oooh, I might slip" card more than once. He'd attribute the climbing to his cat-like reflexes and ninja-like athletic response. D'uh.

Click on the picture for the whole view.

Costa Rica Trip

These fellas are having too much fun! Brian McCormick, Matt McCormick, and friends, (including Gerneral George Patton, Jr., seated at left) during a fishing trip to Costa Rica in 1996.

The Rise and Fall of kabuki

I have been searching for the pic of Brian to go along with this story but have yet to locate it and wanted to share the story anyways. This is yet another story involving Brian, St. Patricks Day, and Chicago.

I think it was 1999 or 2000, I flew into Chicago from SC and met Brian, Adam, Ted, Craig and the monster. I should have known when I showed up at the hotel and everyone was wearing a wig, compliments of Brian of course, that it was going to be one of those weekends. We of course stayed out way to late the night before we had to be at a bar at 5:00 in the morning to meet DJ Dan Brice and his parents who were marching in the parade. We did the customary shots of Jameson, drank a few pints of Guiness and ate some cornbeef and cabbage.

Little did we know what was in store for us when we left. Brian had a complete costume change with him some how, I still think he might have been Batman with all his magic store gadgets. Brian had transformed himself into "Kabuki". He was wearing his silk nija pajamas, a traditional chinese hat, with braided pony tail hanging out the back, and in true Brian fashion glasses that made him look chinese.

Brian than proceeded to karate fight almost every homeless person we passed. I think Brian was in full character for hours that day, but that all came to a crashing hult. After walking the streets for a bit we all decided to to go another bar in the wee hours of noon. There was of course some great irish music being played at the bar and good old Kabuki just couldn't resist becoming the lord of the dance. Brian soon had quite a large crowd circled around him as he did his best irish dancing, mind you all while dressed like Kabuki. After Brian was dancing for about 5 or 10 mins. we noticed a large Italian man, who was very intoxicated, getting more and more upset as he at him (still don't know why it was very entertaining). Well the inevitable happened and the large Italian man leveled Kabuki before anyone knew what was going on. The amazing thing was that Brian leaped right up and all the Kabuki costume had flown off. That was the last we ever heard of kabuki. I would like to let you know what happened after that but it gets pretty foggy after that point.

Sorry it took me so long to post. Not a day goes by that I don't think of Brian and all the great times we had and all the great things he did. Miss you brother.

Thanks XURFC and Dana's

On November 8th, the annual meeting of the Xavier Rugby Old Boys occurred. Usually the graduates ("the Old Boys") play the current team. Several injuries occur (usually Frank Dupps) and everyone remembers their glory days.

This year was a little different. The current team played and won the division three championship that day. Thus, no Old Boys game was played. However, the McCormick family prepared and auctioned off commemorative XURFC jersey's from circa 1991-1992. These were navy blue and white harlequin jerseys and were mine - and especially Brian's - favorites. We also had a green four leaf clover with "BDM" embroidered on the right sleeve.

Thanks to the generosity of several Old Boys, approximately $3,000 was raised for "The Brian McCormick Memorial Fund" at Xavier University. The McCormick family is extremely grateful and impressed!

As a funny aside, there was an after party at Dana's. "Pablo's cheesy tater tots" are now on the menu! Thanks to BJ and all the guys at Xavier's favorite bar.

God Bless to all.

Today is my birthday and it's so strange not to have heard from Brian four times already.

Here is a picture of Ted, Adam, myself and Brian celebrating my 24rd birthday in Mt. Adams.

Looking good, looking real good.

I found this dressy picture of Brian and I taken by my Mom in '99. We had just finished a delicious dinner at The Waterfront, and trust me when I tell you, we ate like kings. We enjoyed the Collinsworth steaks, some raw bar, and many cocktails. I don't think my Dad was ready for the costly check because he made a face that said "I hope you enjoyed it because you aren't going to eat like this again for a very long time."

Tiny Bubbles

I just posted this story on musketeerhoops but thought I would put it here since its been a while since I've posted. I went and saw Brian a few Friday's ago on a really nice day and found it very theraputic to talk to him and just spend time there. Anyway...

On the day that Xavier unveiled the fountain near the Physics building, Brian and I put 32oz of Tutti Frutti Bubble Bath in it within minutes of it opening. It was shut down within hours due to bubbles overflowing and had to be cleaned out.

Two funny things about this event. First, they were supposed to turn on the fountain at 8:00 or 8:30 but had heard that someone was going to sabatoge it by putting bubbles in it and delayed the start until 10:00. This was perfect because my first class wasn't until 10:30. Second, the Newswire was there to take pictures and was snapping photos of students hanging out by the fountain. The picture that was in the paper is of Brian and I sitting on the fountain edge and I believe that I have my hand behind my back, actively squeezing more out of the bottle. They couldn't have played more into our hands and then documented it for us if they tried.

Adam,

Brian took this picture for you on our trip. I don't kow if he ever sent it to you or not, but it cracks me up! We all had some amazing times together.

Not A Day Goes By...

Not a day goes by that I don't think of my best friend, Brian. I miss him like crazy and everything reminds me of him. At the gym? Most every song on my iPod Brian and I have rocked out to. At the movies? Quoting genius lines from Animal House and Caddyshack do nothing for my girlfriend. Vacation? Nothing touches our trip to Iceland.

I know Brian's favorite picture was of the other Iceland pose I shot, but this one is pretty bad ass.

Still Miss You

Matt and McCormick family, rest assured there are many of us who have moved on but still take Brian with us. I know Brian looks down on me and my family and protects our daughter. I know that as much as I miss him, he most likely misses all of us worse than words can explain.

Take care brother, we love you.

Six months

Today is six months since we found Brian. It seems like it was only yesterday. Naturally, almost everyone has moved on and is thinking about the market, the election, and the rest of their busy lives.

Brian, we think about you everyday. The pain of your sudden death is still with us - only dulled slightly. It seems like you are still in Hong Kong and will be back soon. We think about your hilarious observations, funny comment, and superb stories and smile. Frankly, reliving great memories of you are the only things that gets me through the day for I miss you terribly.

I love the fishing photo of you. It is how I picture you now. At peace, thinking about us and wearing Xavier apparel. Also, even though you are in Heaven, I can't help but notice you do not have a fish on!

Lovee!

Undiplomatic Brian

When Brian was a junior at Xavier, he secured an internship with a toy company in Hong Kong. As his father, I was in the toy business and was often in Hong Kong as well. Brian took to Hong Kong like a duck in water and was enjoying himself (I know that is hard for anyone to believe).

I arranged for his brother Matt to pay a surprise visit to Brian there. Brian was stunned by the surprise, but quickly recovered and undertook to show his big brother "the town."

Lots of stories there, but one of the best took place on a hot summer day in Hong Kong when it was really pouring down rain. Matt and Brian were walking down Mody Road towards the hotel in the rain. Each had an umbrella and they were going against the traffic of about 10,000 Chinese, each with his own umbrella, that were heading the other way. They were dodging back and forth as these little guys were pushing forward and they were trying to evade the horde of oncoming umbrellas that were literally in their faces.

Brian was 6' tall and his brother is 6' 4". Everyone knows that Matt was more polite than Brian, and Brian showed that by illustrating to Matt just how to handle this "umbrella problem." Brian had had enough of dodging them, and proceeded to show Matt that pounding his own umbrella on an oncoming one of some smaller Chinese fellow, drenching the other guy in the process, invariably caused the other guy to swerve out of his way. Soon, both Matt and Brian were making much better progress down Mody road, bopping umbrellas about every five feet of the way and creating a wide path for them to continue towards the hotel. None of the bopped Chinese said a word to them, they just saw these two tall Irishmen heading the opposite way like halfbacks going through the opposing line.

It was very effective, but not diplomatic, but you know how Brian was. You will have to ask Matt about some of the other stories like the beer cans.

Boy, we miss you!

The General

The Iceland Roll

Brian decided he wanted to roll down this monstrous grassy knoll by an Icelandic monument. 'Nuff said.

Click on each picture to view his ninja-like reflexes.

-Miss you Bro,

Craig

Brian at Dana's links

Thanks Ted for the great video. Man, did Brian dislike Thad Matta! Brian told me he made B.J. turn Matta's bobble head around. He was also on 700 WLW all the time and I think in the Cincinnati Enquirer. I am certain Fr. Graham never thought Brian would become "the official spokesperson for Xavier University" regarding Matta's departure!

Brian also told me he called Matta's office at OSU - from Hong Kong - when he found out Matta sent his wife to Fr. Hoff's funeral. Man, was he mad! Brian left a long, pointed voice mail, that according to him was "from the heart." He pointed out to Thad that Skip Prosser and Pete Gillen were there and Matta sent his wife to "to do a man's job." He left his name, phone number and told Thad to "call him any time to discuss."

Brian loved thinking about Matta's reaction. He could hear Thad asking "who the hell is Brian McCormick?" and wondering why there were all these odd digits on caller ID.

Again, only Brian.

Brian at Dana's

A few years ago I get a call from Brian and he asked me if I wanted to go to Dana's. Mind you it's mid-afternoon on a weekday (I think). He said he and Adam were going to wallow in their sorrows over Thad Matta going to Ohio State. I declined. Hours later I get a call from Adam and he said all the local news crews had been there and Brian gave interviews to all of them. I fired up the TiVo and recorded the 11 o'clock news. What blows me away is Brian never even liked his picture taken but after few pints of courage he's off and running. I present to you the worlds biggest X fan hiding his anger as best he can.
Miss you bro.



PS: Notice the two of them playing Golden Tee and pretending the camera isn't on them. Funny.

Cancun PART 1

Adam, Brian, and I went to Cancun sometime in 2000. We spent the week hanging out and relaxing in the sun. Vacationing with Brian was crazy fun and more spontaneous than combustion. You never knew where the day (or night) would take you.

This picture makes me laugh because later that night Adam left to rendezvous with a girl he met at Senior Frogs so Brian and I, in our standard haze, hopped on a bus in the exact opposite direction of our hotel. The bus had been driving along for almost an hour and the passengers kept getting more and more, um, Mexican, before we figured it out. Classic.

Miss you Brian.

The Wrestling Mask

In response to Matt's story about Brian and his toys, I must include my own taking place at my bachelor party.

Seven of us headed off to Key West for three days of craziness with Brian at the helm. The first day we set off on a fishing charter aboard the Mr. Z (the second largest charter fishing vessel in Key West) leaving at 7:00am. As we pulled away from Key West, Brian reached in the cooler tossing beers to everyone. When we were safely out to sea Brian presented the mask. The wrestling mask he loved to shock people with and our fishing captains that weren't amused but we didn't care. It was vintage Brian and we loved it. From the wigs and Michael Jackson jacket in Chicago to that chinese disguise to the wrestling mask, Brian always kept us entertained.

"Armand Assante"

If you were around Brian long enough, you would soon hear him give a toast. Sometimes it was thoughtful, witty, and profound.

My favorite toast from Brian was derived from our great family friend Jean-Pierre Sachet. "JP" as he is affectionately known would say "a votre sante" ("a-vote-tra-san-tay") which is French for "to your health."

Though Brian visited France and had several years of French in High School, he would readily admit he was mostly proficient at ordering off the menu at French restaurants and eating French food instead of conversing in the French language.

Brian choose to "translate" JP's toast into a more "Americanized" version:

"Armand Assante"

Armand Assante is an actor who is not French at all.

Next time you are about to give a toast around family and friends, remember Brian and say "Armand Assante."

Damon's Bachelor Party in Detroit/Windsor 2000

Damon was the first to go... Yep, he was the first to take the plunge and get married. So we put our collective heads together and planned the best bachelor party we could getting as far away from Cincinnati as possible. The idea being if we were all arrested for idiocy the photos wouldn't be in the Cincinnati Enquirer where family, friends, and Damon's soon to be wife, could see them. We decided on Detroit and then onto Windsor, Canada. Yes, we party internationally.

So here is a funny picture of the group posing with the Detroit Tigers' mascot. I think the mascot is wearing John Personette's shirt, or maybe he just lost it. Really could be either. Look at the smile on Brian's face!

Brian's Testicular Cancer Scare

I don’t know if this was Brian’s favorite story to tell to everyone, or if it was just his favorite story to tell to me because he knew I enjoyed it so much and laughed so hard every time, but regardless, it’s a good story that hit the funny bone of everyone who heard it.

A year or two after we graduated from X, Brian was well on his way to traveling the world for work and maintaining an, at times, crazy schedule. And as we know, Brian was also leading an active social life as well with dates, getting together with friends, etc. I don’t remember if Brian had come in late the night before from a trip or was out late that night with friends but he got home really late and had to be in Chicago the next day for meetings and had a flight out of Dayton in the morning.

True to Brian’s form, he cut it close on time and was rushing to get ready in the morning grabbing random clothes in the mostly dark room, including socks that were strewn on the floor.

He made it to the Dayton airport in time and was in the restroom before his flight when he thinks that he feels a lump in his testicle. I always asked Brian was he was doing giving himself “an examination” at the urinal at the airport bathroom and he never was able to give a good answer. Brian always thought something was wrong with him, always thought he was sick, or had cancer, or some rare disease and this was no different. He was sure that he had testicular cancer and grabbed his bags and left the airport, missing his flight, to head to the doctor to get checked out right away, leaving all common sense aside.

He gets to the doctor and the doctor doesn’t think that there is anything there but tells Brian that an X-ray will be done to but his mind at ease. Brian gets sent to the X-ray room where he is instructed to change his clothes and put on one of those crappy gowns they give you that tie in the back. At this point, Brian realizes that getting ready in the dark was a bad idea when he sees that the socks he grabbed from the floor are one purple sock and one orange sock. That’s not a typo. Not black, not brown, but purple and orange.

Brian decides to leave the socks on and shuffles out to the X-ray room where an older Asian woman greets him with a smirk after seeing his socks. Brian had a good laugh and got up on the table. She tells him that he has to lay on the table and she’s going to have to pull his gown up to do the X-rays. Brian is not comfortable. At various points of the X-rays, this lady has to tape his “member” to his stomach to get it out of the way and tape his “coin purse” to X-ray cartridge. Brian is really not comfortable. After this embarrassing episode is over and the lady undoes the tape and pulls down the gown Brian looks at this older Asian woman and asks, “Do I need to buy you dinner after that?”. There was nothing wrong with Brian as usual.

Classic Brian. I don’t believe she accepted his dinner offer but at least he was a gentleman and offered, right?

I miss you Brian and think of you often. Keep looking down on all of us.

Pete Rose & The Kentucky Speedway

When I was a marketing coordinator with Firstar Bank / US Bank circa 1999, one of my sponsorships was of the new Kentucky Speedway. My job was to act as sponsor liaison and talk shop with all our vendors in our US Bank VIP Box... literal translation: invite Brian to the Speedway VIP Box to drink and each as much as we could. The Box has our own open bar, personal bartender, top-notch catered food, and the best centered view of the track. I received two to four ALL ACCESS passes for every race which allowed us to travel anywhere we wanted. When we heard Pete Rose was in the house we slipped through security and onto the track to get his autograph. Not that we really wanted it, but the fact that 30k people didn't have access made it all worthwhile.

Brian was always my wing-man and I miss him like crazy.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

XU Summer Bridge '93

XU Summer Bridge '93.

Where to start on these two pictures?

Although I first met Brian at Kyle and Matt's graduation party, I didn't come to know him until we met again in the summer of '93 for the now defunct Xavier University Summer Bridge Program. "Bridge" was an opportunity for incoming freshmen students on the bubble to live on campus for two months and attend a summer school prep to get our heads in the game once school started. What a ragtag group of kids we all were.

Anyway, while we had the best intentions of studying and preparing for our freshmen year, it was more of a fun summer party away from home that lasted two months with the occasional class or test in the mornings. Yes, I'm sorry to break the news to you Mom and Dad; we broke more rules in Bridge than lived by them. It was the best time of my life and if you'd have ever asked Brian, it was his too. We went into the school year knowing two very important things: all the upper classmates who were living on campus and all the bartenders in a 10 mile vicinity. We were going to house parties with Juniors and Seniors and walking into Dana's and The Woods waving to BJ and Marvin respectively.

It felt like we were the big men on campus because while all the new kids were unloading their stuff, getting settled into their dorm rooms, and meeting everyone for the first time. We already had the campus wired! Instant popularity.

Brian would always drop Bridge references on me and we'd laugh until it hurt. His mind was like a steel trap and he could rattle off all 30 Bridgers' names with ease. Damn, I miss him so much.

Pic 1: (from left) Sean, Heavy Metal Mike, Greg, Matt Tobin, Craig, and Brian. Notice Brian's favorite Jimmy Buffet shirt.




Pic 2: (from left) Danny Weed, Vince, Chris Webb, Brian, Greg. How about the evil on Brian's face?





Craig

Brian and his love of gadgets

Brian always had the the coolest toys/gadgets. He loved to "toy" with people - especially if they had a few beers - or if they were really hot. Brian has the laser pointer and used it at movies before every eight year old kid got one and ruined the joke. He told me how he antagonized Whitey so bad at Dana's with the laser pointer that Whitey almost wanted to fight him! Brian also had the shocking slot machine. He would often tell people after they got shocked to "try it again, it only shocks you one out of five times."

His best was the "zapper" TV remote that could override a TV's volume, power, and channel controls. Brian almost forced several UK fans into the hospital by switching the channel (during the game's final seconds of course) at the Cincinnati airport. He told me that he got an entire super bowl party as well. It was at Matt Castrucci's house who just had a sweet entertainment room completely set up. Its first "appearance" was the Eagle's/Patriot's super bowl game. If you remember, the Eagles were driving at the last minute. Brian tried to turn the channel, but accidentally turned EVERY TV off (we are talking about five sets) at the same time. Naturally, Matt & everyone else freaked considering money was probably on the line, and tried to turn the TV's back on. They got the TV's turned on right when the game was over and the announcer's said "quite a thrilling finish!" I asked Brian if he told them what happened. He said "hell no! They would have killed me. Castrucci was calling up Alamo and bitching up a storm telling to get there right away and fix everything. I got out of there as quick as I could." To my knowledge, Matt Castrucci has never been told what actually happened that night. Matt, you have our apologies, but you already know Brian is really not that sorry!

Brian was one of the funniest people I have ever met. Missing him more everyday.

Brian Continues To Make Me Laugh & Shake My Head

Okay, it's Susan "Nicole Brown Simpson" McCormick here. That's often what Brian would call me, not because there is any resemblance, but simply because it had a good ring to it and my middle name happens to be Nicole.

So anyway, I'm in my kitchen yesterday plugging in Brian's iPod just to see what junk he had downloaded on it (because there are over 2000 songs). I'm flipping through it and there was some Guns 'n Roses, some Linkin Park, the University of Illinois drum line ??????, and then it comes to the next song titled, Punjabi MC....yes, Brian has Indian Punjab rap on his iPod. Okay, so I'm standing there shaking my head, smiling and laughing as I so often do when I'm thinking about Brian...and then, this damn song actually has a good beat. So, I find myself and my daughter doing our white-girl dancing in the kitchen. Can you picture it? A while later, Diane McCormick comes through the door and I make her listen to it too and she starts the booty shaking. I think Brian was onto something here....

Sorry, no photos of the booty shaking goin' on! Just remember that Brian continues to open our eyes to all kinds of new and different things.

Seersucker Spring Fling

Spring Fling 2002 Brian and I came up with the great idea of dressing me like Danny Noonan from the yacht club scene in Caddyshack. The previous night it sounded like a good idea, we might have been wrong. The looks I got were priceless but Brian wouldn't let me take off the hat and kept saying, "leave it on, you look great." Good friend.

He loved that seersucker suit and as always, stuck out from the crowd impressing the ladies. He is showing off his, "come here and give me a kiss on the cheek" look.

Brian the ladykiller. I wonder if he ever told his mom about the hickey he got before family dinner in Dayton. Shopping for concealer with another guy was extremely uncomfortable.

Dana's, Always a good time

This was a great night, my wife Erin (XU grad '99) and I ('97) were in town for a wedding, and Brian was great enough to let us crash at his place. We had a wild night with many drinks and shot and drinks and shots. And as always some great stories. I unfortunately wrecked havoc on Brian's guest bathroom and I have always felt realllly bad about that. But he never said anything, he was just so happy to see us and wanted us back soon.

Miss U Man

B

Only Brian!: 4th of July with Brian

Only Brian!: 4th of July with Brian

Brian also loved fireworks and blowing stuff up! One of my Dad's lines was fireworks. Brian and I used to love shooting Roman candles or lighting huge Saturn missile launchers and terrorizing the neighborhood - or at least Mrs. Davis. Matt McCormick

4th of July with Brian

Many of Brian's friends might know that Brian was a sucker for anything patriotic. He loved America and the phrase that goes "My country, right or wrong; my country" was right up his alley. He loved parades and anything photographic that showed our military returning home, sometimes after giving their lives for us all, would invariably reduce him to tears.
Loyalty was his strong suit. Loyalty to his family, his country, Xavier, and especially to his friends was never a question for him. He always had your back!
Blessings on all of us, our Nation, and to Brian on this July 4th. "Up the Rebels" was a cry of the Irish in 1916 and it certainly applied to our newly created Nation over 200 years ago. I can almost hear him saying it now.

Brian's dad

Visiting UT

Here's a photo of Brian on a visit to Drew's house in Knoxville. Although there's a few good stories of Brian in TN, none comes to mind with this picture. I just find the expressions priceless.

Gasping For Air

Our senior year, Brian was living on Brooks and I was living on Cleaney. Brian and his housemates threw a nice 6 kegger to start the year, the day before classes started. A group of sophomores, who thought that they were hot shit, and who we knew fairly well as freshmen had moved into 991 Dana, and just before the party, we got into their house and stole their banners and signs from the inside of their house. When they showed up, we had put the banners hanging out of upstairs windows at Brian's place in the back of the house, and they were complaining that someone had broken into their house and taken their signs. After we laughed at them, we invited them into the backyard to get a beer from the keg, and when they saw their signs, they vowed to get revenge.

Fast forward to a few weeks later. Before they could even get their revenge, we decided to do another, bigger, pre-emptive strike, you know, to let them know to not even try it.

This time, they were having a fairly large party, and knowing this, we decided to have a late night keg at my place on Cleaney. We got to their party and the guys in the house are watching us like hawks to make sure we don't mess with their stuff, but of course, we out thought them. Right when the party was at its peak and there were a few hundred kids there, we had Personette come in the front door yelling that the cops just gave a warning that they had 5 minutes to break up the party. A lot of the kids left, but the guys at the house, all of who were underage because they were sophomores, and some of their friends, all piled up stairs, and Personette said that he would handle the cops and let them know when it was safe to come back down. With the whole downstairs to ourselves, we took everything, and I mean literally everything. All of the furniture was taken out into the front yard and stacked in a pile as high as we could stack it. Everything from the walls came with us. Signs, banners, a functioning traffic light, a deer head, neon bar lights, I mean everything (and I'm not exaggerating).

We take off, and the only part I regret is not being there when Personette gave them the all clear to come down and see that everything was gone. We go back to my place and set up all of their wall hangings in our house, exactly like it had been set up in theirs as best we could. We then called to tell them we had heard about what had happened and let them know about our late night party and to bring their friends.

What a priceless moment it was to see their faces when they walked into our house and realized what had happened. They never sought revenge. The thing I remember about it most fondly was Brian's laugh, him gasping for air to laugh more. He laughed the whole way from their place to mine, the whole time we hung things up, and for about 30 minutes after they saw what happened. What a great, contagious laugh.

Where do I begin? How about St. Patty's Day, Chicago?

If you didn't already know, Brian loved to make bets. It was never for money, because I never had any, it was more of the "I bet you won't" kind of thing.

Scene 1

Cue Chicago, "The City by the Lake", St. Patty's Day 2001.

As we've been partaking in the revelry of the holiday weekend we pass a second hand store somewhere on Wacker Street. In the store window on a severly mangled mannequin was an exact replica of the Michael Jackson "Thriller" jacket. Common folk would walk right by perhaps muttering how funny it would be to own that jacket and even sport it for a few belly laughs. Not Brian. He marches right into the store with Adam, Johnny, and I in tow and begs me to buy and wear the 80's memorabilia all night. I laugh it off, but agree, on one condition. He has to buy the disgusting black curly "Jermaine" wig on the opposite wall. God knows who's head that thing lived on.

Scene 2

Fast enough to make your head spin Brian has his wallet out and the wig on his head. The bet is on the table; whomever takes off their second hand grip first has to buy the other drinks all night. Remember, I'm low on cash...

PIC 1: 4 Friends Leaving The Second-Hand Store (from left, Craig, Johnny, Brian, and Adam.)



PIC 2: "Pretty Girls = Bets Off". I win... or do I?



PIC 3: Brian declares "it's time to leave, we need Street Meat" aka Hot Dogs from the street vendors.



I don't know when I'll make it back to Chicago, but I do know that it'll never be the same.

New Orleans Weekend

Once I saw that Matt had made this site I knew I had to dig up some photos.

Brian, Drew, his friend Frank and I spent a VERY long weekend at the French Quarter in New Orleans a few years back. Luckily, some photos were suitable.

After roaming the streets one night we ended up outside a club that was blaring music that could be heard from the street and were challenged to a "dance-off" by a local couple. Now this challenge might not have exactly been express, but it was certainly implied. While our moves were far from technically sound, I believe our enthusiasm won the day.

I'll let you decide who the victors were.

How to post

You may repond to a current post by clicking on "links to this post" and adding as you see fit.

Or, email me at mmccormick@bahl-gaynor.com and I will add you as an author. That way you can post a new topic.

Brian, we love you and miss you terribly!

God, did you make us laugh! Take care of all of us. Love, Matt

"The Stolen Child" By William Butler Yeats

Fr. Graham quoted this part of Yeat's poem during his sermon in Brian's funeral:

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild,
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Beautiful, brilliant, and incredibly appropriate. Thank you Fr. Graham.

Posts about Brian on XavierHoops.com

I found these to be funny, interesting, and amazingly therapeutic. The Xavier nation is truly great and compassionate. Their warm thoughts and prayers have been tremendous to all of the McCormicks. Click on "Posts about Brian on XavierHoops.com" in white above to view the comments. Many thanks!