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USATSI

Notre Dame will be making some athletics history this year on the sidelines. The school announced that sophomore student Lynette Wukie was one of three students selected to be the Fighting Irish's leprechaun mascot for the upcoming season. That makes Wukie the first female leprechaun in school history. The leprechaun became the official mascot of Notre Dame in 1965. 

"I talked about being a role model, because even through high school and into college, it's always been important to me to be someone people can look up to," Wukie said in a statement from the school. "I think I hadn't [yet] found that thing, like I wasn't fulfilling my true purpose here to be that face and that role model, so when this opportunity came about, I thought it was destiny. This is what I'm meant to be doing. ... My rector told me, 'Little girls are going to want to be you,' so to be that role model for young women is really special."

Additionally, junior Samuel Jackson (no relation to the actor) has been brought aboard to serve as the leprechaun along with sophomore Conal Fagan, who returns for his second season in the uniform. Fagan is the first native Irishman to serve as the mascot while Jackson and Wukie are the second and third African American students to play the part.