North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell has completed 61.1% of his passes for 1,851 yards and 18 touchdowns. | Gerry Broome/AP

“On any given night (when) this team (North Carolina) puts it together, they’re as good as any team we’ve played this year. It’s a talented football team,” Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly said.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mack Brown is hoping his North Carolina team can avoid a Halloween Eve nightmare on his first coaching visit to No. 11 Notre Dame (6:30 p.m., NBC-5).

“This is a good football team,” the 70-year-old Brown said of good friend Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish (6-1). “They’re 27-1 at home and they’ve won 37 straight against unranked teams.”

To Kelly, the Tar Heels (4-3) are a sleeping giant. Ranked No. 10 in the preseason AP Top 25 and a favorite to reach the ACC title game, North Carolina already had three losses before edging Miami 45-42 two weeks ago.

“Look, it’s about winning football games,” said Kelly, whose team has won two straight since losing at home to No. 2 Cincinnati. “On any given night (when) this team (North Carolina) puts it together, they’re as good as any team we’ve played this year. It’s a talented football team.”

Start with 6-foot-1 1/4 , 225-pound junior quarterback Sam Howell, who has completed 61.1% of his passes for 1,851 yards and 18 touchdowns and has added 493 yards and five touchdowns rushing for the Tar Heels. Then there is a veteran offensive line, running back Ty Chandler (588 yards and seven TDs) and sophomore wide receiver Josh Downs (60 receptions, 837 yards and eight TDs).

That could be too many goblins to handle for the Irish defense, which is fifth nationally with 17 turnovers (11 interceptions, six fumble recoveries) but will be minus junior All-America free safety Kyle Hamilton because of a knee injury.

Last season, North Carolina and Notre Dame were tied 17-all at halftime before the Irish defense dominated the second half for a 31-17 victory.

“They were more physical than us,” Brown said.

The Irish struggled early this season running the football, but now a jelling offensive line has produced 350 rushing yards and five touchdowns in the two recent victories, including 219 yards and three scores by running back Kyren Williams. The Irish also have gone up-tempo on offense behind two quarterbacks, Jack Coan (63.2% completions, 1,397 yards and 11 TDs) and Tyler Buchner plus a talented group of receivers led by sophomore tight end Michael Mayer.

MACK THE MENTOR

Brown’s two North Carolina tenures (1988-97, 2019-21) were separated by 16 seasons (1998-2013) at Texas where his Longhorns won the 2005 national championship. He was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018.

While at Texas, Brown coached in the 2003 Hula Bowl and was assisted by Kelly, then the Grand Valley State head coach Kelly. Among current FBS coaches, the pair have a combined 63 years as head coaches, have coached in 777 games (Saturday will be Brown’s 400th) and stand 1-2 in victories (Kelly 279, Brown 263).

“He was just a great mentor to me as a young coach,” Kelly said.

SACK ATTACK

Notre Dame defensive end Isaiah Foskey, who has eight sacks this season, remembers how difficult it was to get to Howell last season.

“They had some big O-linemen and Howell was tough to bring down,” said Foskey, who managed one of Notre Dame’s six sacks in last year’s victory. “He’s running more this year, and it’s always a challenge going against a running quarterback.”

The Tar Heels have allowed 27 sacks in seven games (3.86 per game, 127th out of 130 teams nationally). The Irish have 19 sacks (2.71 per game, 31st).

CHASING HOWELL

If Howell throws for 300 yards, he will pass North Carolina career leader T.J. Yates (9,377 yards). He already is the leader in career passing touchdowns with 86.

Brown said Howell spent the bye week getting healthy again.

“I feel like I kind of have a fresh start after the bye week,” Howell said. “I feel really good about the improvements I made from a health standpoint.”

IMPROVING LINE

In the last two victories, the Irish have settled on tackle Joe Alt and guard Andrew Kristofic on the left side of center Jarrett Patterson, right guard Cain Madden and right tackle Josh Lugg.

“It took a bit longer than we may have expected,” the 6-foot-4 1/4 , 295-pound Kristofic said. “But we have a group of guys who are extremely dedicated to getting better every day.”

STUDENT COACH

Kelly indicated Thursday that Hamilton is making progress from his knee injury but still won’t play. Hamilton has spent the week working with backup rovers Isaiah Pryor and Xavier Watts, who are being asked to back up Hamilton’s replacement, DJ Brown.

“Not being able to play changes your perspective,” Kelly said. “He’s learning about himself. When you’re a captain and you’re not playing, you still have to leave something at the end of the day on the field. For him, it’s leave some knowledge. He’s done a really good job.”

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Mauricio Ramirez, 32, was ordered held on $500,000 bail for criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

A former Chicago Park District lifeguard supervisor was ordered held on $500,000 bail Thursday for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl who worked for him.

Mauricio Ramirez, 32, began talking to the girl in July while she worked as a lifeguard under his supervision, Cook County prosecutors said.

During their initial conversations, the girl told Ramirez she was a junior in high school, prosecutors said.

Later, Ramirez began picking the girl up from her high school and they would drive to various locations, including his house, where he sexually assaulted her on at least seven separate occasions, prosecutors said.

In September, the girl told a friend and her parents what had happened and she was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital, where a sexual assault kit was administered, prosecutors said.

Ramirez was first arrested on Oct. 12 in connection with the case.

At that time, he agreed to provide his DNA for testing and was released from custody, prosecutors said.

Ramirez was arrested again Wednesday on criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges after tests showed his DNA matched samples taken from the girl’s sexual assault kit, prosecutors said.

Ramirez’s phone records show that he was in regular contact with the girl between July and September, but the records did not show the contents of their conversations, prosecutors said.

Ramirez most recently been working for Amazon since he left the park district after 15 years of employment, his attorney Paul De Luca told Judge Marie McCarthy Thursday.

De Luca noted Ramirez had cooperated with the investigation and would agree to be placed on electronic monitoring if he was able to post bond.

McCarthy called Ramirez a danger to the community.

A spokeswoman for the park district declined to comment Thursday.

Ramirez was placed on unpaid emergency suspension by the park district on Sept. 13 “pending the outcome of an (inspector general) investigation,” according to personnel records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“You are further prohibited from having contact with other park district employees and visiting park district facilities,” he was told.

Ramirez resigned on Oct. 4, saying he was “pursuing other career opportunities.”

The resignation was a major development in the ongoing investigation of sexual harassment and abuse among park district lifeguards that raised questions about an alleged cover-up in then-Supt. Mike Kelly’s administration.

Kelly resigned days later when Mayor Lori Lightfoot called on the park district’s board of commissioners to fire him over his handling of the allegations.

The Sun-Times reported in August that an Oak Street Beach lifeguard sent 11 pages of explosive allegations in February 2020 to Kelly about lifeguards’ conduct during the summer of 2019.

Ramirez is expected back in court on Nov. 15.

Contributing: Lauren FitzPatrick and Fran Spielman

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The Art Institute does nod to current events, such as when their famous lions out front were attired in Chicago Sky jerseys to celebrate the team’s playoff run. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

On Thursday, the Art Institute announced that five experienced docents would be hired to join their “Educator Advisory Council” to help mentor new docents.

Some columnists hobbyhorse an issue, hitting it again and again and again. Me, I try to be a one-and-done kind of guy. Why? Because if I bump into Jesus Christ delivering the Sermon on the Mount in Grant Park, and decide to stretch that into a two-parter, with a third column for reader reaction, by that last day, I promise, you’ll be thinking, “What, again with Jesus?”

But the Art Institute firing its white docents en masse deserves a second visit. It both speaks of our uneasy racial moment, and has the makings of being one of those evergreen PR disasters still talked about 25 years later, the way when I pass bottles of Perrier in a supermarket I shiver and think, “benzene.”

The Perrier benzene contamination was in 1990. Maybe it’s me. But people generally have long memories for anything negative.

The good news is that disasters do eventually fade. This isn’t the first Art Institute’s public blunder, you know. Who remembers that the museum once carelessly stashed three Cezanne paintings in a janitor supply closet? From where they were stolen, the theft going undetected because Art Institute procedures were so lax. That wasn’t sunk into the distant heroic past. It was 1978.

And nobody at all remembers that students from the School of the Art Institute once gathered at the museum to hold a mock trial of an artist, whom they condemned for “artistic murder, pictorial arson, artistic rapine, total degeneracy of color,” among other crimes. They burned reproductions of his paintings and would have burned the artist too, in effigy, had the police not stepped in.

The artist was Henri Matisse.

All right, that was in 1913 and the School of the Art Institute was and is a separate place from the Art Institute. (The school is much older; the museum began as a gallery for student works). But nuance doesn’t enter into these scandals. I personally think the museum acted in a defendable manner when birthing this fiasco. Every step a rational one, in the desired direction, right off the cliff.

Almost every reader who reacted to last Friday’s column on the laid-off docents grumbled first over the unfairness of it. “Ageist, racist, sexist and classist” as one museum member pronounced, several times.

So was their being there in the first place. By offloading their public face to volunteers (an astounding cheapness, considering how flush the museum is) it guaranteed the job would be picked up by a specific sort of person. Not a lot of young Black males have the luxury of spending hours giving tours to school kids for free.

Readers weren’t grumbling then. It’s like that protest sign, “They only call it class warfare when we fight back.” It’s only racism when somebody tries to fix it.

Brian Rich/Sun-Times
Face masks were placed on the Art Institute lions in April 2020 near the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Though one of the masks was stolen, it was quickly replaced.

As for institutional knowledge lost. Yes, if your primary interest is making sure that those kids herded through the door have instant access to the deepest well of information about Caillebotte, then yes, the status quo was ideal. But here’s the thing: if you’re a middle schooler from Roseland, you’re probably not really looking for deep background on Rembrandt. You’re looking, at first, for somebody you can relate to. And the museum is looking to welcome such visitors in such a way that they might conceivably come back on their own. Spinning mightily, on Thursday the Art Institute announced that five experienced docents would be hired to join their “Educator Advisory Council” to help mentor new docents.

Is this really incomprehensible? I think people aren’t trying. They assume the map they’re reading is the only map in existence, and it isn’t. Change is hard, so rather than get a new map, as I try to do, they’re trying to redirect history’s river, and that’s a lot harder.

I know what’s coming. The new docents will be in place, and one will confuse Monet and Manet. The video will go viral and my mailbag will cry, in chorus: “See!” Which is just so sad.

Two Fridays in a row on the Art Institute. Heck, maybe I should devote every Friday to it. Wouldn’t that be fun? Heck, I should start giving tours of the place myself, sub rosa. I could pause in front of a Rodin bronze and carefully explain how the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke actually was Rodin’s secretary. Amazing! The kids would love that …

Maybe not.

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Illinois has recently become one of a growing number of US states to legalize and regulate sports betting. Since 2018, states have been free to set their own laws on sports betting after the previous federal law was found to be unconstitutional. Already, many states have passed bills to legalize betting in some form, whether online, in person, or both. In the summer of 2019, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a new bill into law that would allow for both online and retail sportsbooks to operate legally.

The new sports betting bill in Illinois means that a number of sports betting operators were able to establish themselves in the state, including the likes of FanDuel, DraftKings, BetRivers, and more. While online betting is permitted, bettors need to register in person at one of the retail sportsbooks before they can bet.

How to Start Betting on Sports in Illinois

We’ve created this short guide for you with all the details on choosing a sportsbook, setting up an account, and placing your first bets. Be sure to always bet responsibly and ensure that you’re following the gambling regulations of your state. Online gambling in Illinois is fairly simple, but you’ll need to know how to get started.

Choosing a sportsbook – Your first step in betting on sports in Illinois is choosing a sportsbook. There are already lots of options to choose from, with both retail and online sportsbooks available. However you choose to bet is up to you but if you bet online, make sure the site is licensed in IL. If you’re betting online, you’ll also need to register in person at the partnered retail location. The sportsbook should give you information on this. 
Creating your betting account – Registering to bet online means creating an account. You’ll need to provide proof of ID as well as enter all of your personal information. If you’re not willing to do this, betting at a retail sportsbook will be a better option.
Making a deposit – To bet online, you’ll also need some money on your account. Check which payment options you can use and make sure there are no hidden costs. You should also take a look at the welcome bonus, as this is often activated based on your first deposit.
Placing your bets – Finally, you’re ready to start placing bets! Choose a sport and a market to open your betting slip and choose your stake. 

What Sports Are Available to Bet on in Illinois?

Illinois sportsbooks can now legally offer odds on a range of sports, including all of the major US competitions. You can place bets on football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, and much more. Some of the biggest sportsbooks provide even more options, with sports from all over the world and events like eSports too. 

However, there is one sport that’s restricted to bet on in IL. The sports betting bill explicitly forbids sportsbooks from offering odds on any college games involving teams local to the state. This is done to help protect the integrity of amateur sports and prevent possible match-fixing. 

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Illinois wide receiver Carlos Sandy (11) and linebacker Khalan Tolson (45) celebrate after last week’s win over Penn State. | Barry Reeger/AP

Coach Bret Bielema understands that the Illini can’t rest on their accomplishments against Penn State.

CHAMPAIGN — A week after outlasting Penn State on the road in an NCAA-record nine overtimes, Illinois has an opportunity to show the program is finally rounding into shape under first-year coach Bret Bielema.

This week, it’s Rutgers (3-4, 0-4 Big Ten), which visits Bielema’s fired-up team on Saturday (11 a.m., BTN).

“Really excited about this week’s opportunity,” Bielema said. “I think the greatest thing that we can do is continue to take this program and advance it forward.”

Bielema understands that Illinois (3-5, 2-3) can’t rest on its accomplishments against Penn State, which was ranked No. 7 at the time.

“We put the game to bed very quickly (Sunday) night,” Bielema said. “And we moved into our Rutgers preparation, a team that is obviously 3-4 and won their first three games and faced a pretty daunting Big Ten schedule and played very, very well against them.”

Scarlet Knights coach Greg Schiano sees an opportunity to reset his team’s season against Illinois.

“We are now going into our eighth week and we still have the chance to write the story for the 2021 season,” he said. “But the arrow on this program is up. We’ll just keep moving. But we need our fans to stick with us. I guarantee you our players will continue to work hard, our coaches will. It’ll turn.”

BANGED UP ILLINI

The Illini will be without quarterback Art Sitkowski, who left the Penn State game with an arm injury. Medical tests confirmed it was broken and he is out for the rest of the season following surgery Wednesday.

Sitkowski transferred to Illinois this offseason from Rutgers. He was 74 of 148 passing for 698 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions in five games this year.

Brandon Peters, who lost the starting job earlier this season to Sitkowski, is the likely starter against Rutgers with Matt Robinson the backup.

Peters is 40 of 82 passing (48.8%) for 410 yards, one touchdown and one interception. In his career with Michigan (two seasons) and Illinois (three seasons), Peters has 3,403 yards, 26 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and an overall 52.8% completion percentage.

Running back Chase Brown, who left with an injury in the Penn State game, should be cleared for the Rutgers game along with offensive tackle Vederian Lowe.

BO BACK

Rutgers senior wide receiver Bo Melton returned to the lineup after being sidelined by a shoulder injury and matched his career high with eight catches for 101 yards and a touchdown against Northwestern two weeks ago.

Last year, he had a career-high 150 yards receiving with touchdowns of 29 and 66 yards in a loss to the Illini. Running back Isaih Pacheco had 133 yards rushing in the game. It was the third time Rutgers had a 100-yard rusher and receiver in the same Big Ten game (2014 and 2015, both against Indiana).

Throwing to Melton will be quarterback Noah Vedral, who leads the Rutgers offense with 1,274 passing yards and another 194 yards on the ground.

O3

The guy to watch on defense for the Scarlet Knights is Olakunle Fatukasi. He wears the No. 3, hence his nickname, “O3.”

Fatukasi is averaging 10.1 tackles per game and is ranked seventh nationally and second in the Big Ten. He had a game-high 13 tackles in the 21-7 loss at Northwestern. He needs 16 tackles to become the 12th player in school history with 300 career tackles.

ILLINI RUSHING

Illinois was able to put up 357 yards rushing on a tough Penn State defense. If Illinois can get Brown involved early and often — he rushed for 257 yards against Charlotte and 223 against the Nittany Lions — it will be a good step toward beating Rutgers.

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“I felt like we vibed from the start,” Jon Sciambi said of his relationship with analyst Jim Deshaies. | Marquee Sports Network

“Boog” felt connected to partner Jim Deshaies. Former Cubs TV voice Len Kasper predicted as much when the team hired Sciambi in January to replace him.

Jon Sciambi had experienced a rollicking Wrigley Field before, but never on the same side as the home team. That changed June 11, when the Cubs opened the ballpark to full capacity after restrictions related to the coronavirus were lifted.

“Opening Day 2.0” was short of a sellout, but it wasn’t short on atmosphere, particularly in the sixth inning. With the Cubs trailing the Cardinals 5-4, Anthony Rizzo stepped to the plate. After falling behind in the count 0-2, he fouled off nine of the next 11 pitches, the noise building with each crack of the bat.

On the 14th pitch of the at-bat, Rizzo smashed a 2-2 fastball to left field for a game-tying home run. The Cubs went on to win 8-5, rallying from a 5-1 deficit. After their postgame segment on Marquee Sports Network, analyst Jim Deshaies turned to Sciambi.

“He looked at me, got a big smile on his face, and he goes, ‘This is what you signed up for, isn’t it?’ ” Sciambi said. “That was a really cool day.”

“Boog” had plenty of other cool days this season, which ended for him last week after calling the National League Championship Series for ESPN Radio. But it was the people, not the games, that stood out to him during his first year with the Cubs.

“I knew from coming to Chicago how special the fan base was, but I don’t think you could understand how personal it is until you’re in it,” Sciambi said. “I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the fans and the people who work in the ballpark every day. I felt really welcomed and connected to it.”

Sciambi felt connected to Deshaies, too. Former Cubs TV voice Len Kasper predicted as much when the team hired Sciambi in January to replace him.

“He and JD are gonna be so great,” Kasper, now the White Sox’ radio voice, said before the season. “It’s gonna be instant.”

And it was.

“I felt like we vibed from the start,” Sciambi said. “It was the best part of [the job]. To walk into the booth every day and that dude’s sitting there, I was happy to see him every single day. There were times where we were just so interested in chatting, I got us a little too chatty. But it was just because he’s somebody I like talking to, not just on the air but off the air.”

On the broadcast, they supplied great baseball conversations and humorous exchanges. One of Sciambi’s favorites – which Marquee reaired as a promotional spot countless times – was when he was trying to figure out whom Ryan Tepera looked like.

“JD waits a beat and goes, ‘He kinda looks like my cousin Randy,’ ” Sciambi said. “He’s saying the thing that you’d say off the air. Broadcasts have always been so stiff, and you wouldn’t [say that], and he said it. And I was like, ‘Yes!’ And I lost my mind. That was the thought in his head. It was perfect.”

Another time, as they went on the air for a live open, Deshaies spilled his coffee. Their camera in the booth went on, and Deshaies was seen wiping the countertop. Sciambi welcomed viewers saying, ‘Hi, everybody, Jon Sciambi along with my waiter, Jim Deshaies.’ “

Sometimes a third person joined their party, mostly either Ryan Dempster or Rick Sutcliffe. But while the pace of baseball can accommodate a three-person booth, the Cubs’ broadcast was best when it was just “Boog” and JD. As entertaining as “Demp” and “Sut” can be, having two pitchers as analysts doesn’t give the broadcast enough depth.

For his part, Sciambi feels he can be better. He said calling KBO games last year and many road games this year off a monitor took a little off his fastball.

“They disconnect you from the flow of play-by-play; I’m just speaking for me,” Sciambi said. “So when I had in-person games, I still felt like I wasn’t as good as I’ve been. I think doing so many of these games off TV, it’s almost like you’re not really part of it. Whereas when you’re there, you’re part of it.”

Sciambi figures to be part of it full-time next season, considering Marquee sent its broadcasters on the road more than any other regional sports network this season. He definitely will be traveling for his offseason job, calling college basketball for ESPN.

His first game is No. 5 Texas at No. 1 Gonzaga on Nov. 13. That’s followed by back-to-back doubleheaders in the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament in Uncasville, Connecticut. In conference play, Sciambi usually calls Big 12 games, so expect to see him in Lawrence, Kansas, a lot.

There’s also a chance Sciambi will be seen on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” next season. He’s in the running to replace Matt Vasgersian, who left the booth. So are White Sox TV voice Jason Benetti and ESPN veteran Karl Ravech, among others. Sciambi has been ESPN Radio’s voice of “SNB” for seven years.

But in these parts, he’s the TV voice of the Cubs. And though he arrived without Cubs ties, he’s working to build them.

“I actively tried not to be a Cubs expert, a Chicago expert, because I’m not,” he said. “Hopefully, that’s something that will build over time. I will be trying to learn as much as I can.”

Remote patrol

Adam Amin, the Bears’ preseason TV voice, will call his first regular-season Bears game Sunday for Fox. Amin, who’s in his second season calling NFL games for the network, will be joined by analyst and former Bears tight end Greg Olsen and reporter Pam Oliver. Amin is filling in on Fox’s No. 2 crew for Kevin Burkhardt, who’s hosting the network’s World Series pre- and postgame shows. The noon kickoff for 49ers-Bears will come less than 24 hours after Amin calls the Jazz-Bulls game Saturday night at the United Center.
ESPN 1000 and parent Good Karma Brands announced Keith Williams will be the station’s market manager starting Monday. Former manager Mike Thomas left the position after two years to return to Boston radio.
The Score and parent Audacy announced the station will continue to be the Bulls’ flagship as part of a multiyear contract extension.
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Tight end Michael Mayer is Notre Dame’s leading receiver. | Paul Sancya/AP

Through seven games, Mayer’s 414 yards make him the Fighting Irish’s leading receiver by a wide margin.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Michael Mayer’s return from injury started the same way as his season: with the football in his hands on the first snap of the game.

On Saturday, that took the form of a quick 4-yard pickup to kickstart Notre Dame’s 31-16 win over USC. In the season opener at Florida State, the first play from scrimmage began similarly, with a short throw from quarterback Jack Coan that Mayer turned into a 25-yard gain.

In between was a month of Michael Mayer being Michael Mayer — No. 11 Notre Dame’s most consistent offensive weapon and one of the best tight ends in college football. A hip adductor strain hampered him against Cincinnati and sidelined him at Virginia Tech, but after the bye week, Mayer made a triumphant return under the lights of Notre Dame Stadium.

The 6-foot-4 sophomore has been targeted on Notre Dame’s first or second offensive play in four of the six games he’s played in. Of his 414 season receiving yards, 153 have come on the team’s first offensive drive of the game — 37% of the total. Of his three touchdowns, two are the result of opening drives — putting Notre Dame on the board in the third minute against both Florida State and Toledo.

Mayer said he likes being in the mix early, crediting the opening-drive targets with an initial adrenaline boost.

“I think it sets a tone for the entire game,” Mayer said. “I definitely like that. I like that style of play, and (it) kind of gets me ready for the game.”

Through seven games, Mayer’s 414 yards make him Notre Dame’s leading receiver by a wide margin. George Takacs is the only other tight end with a reception — one catch for 15 yards, which came when the Irish were without Mayer in Blacksburg.

Mayer’s season got off to a booming start, with 120 yards receiving in the opener against Florida State and a two-touchdown game against Toledo. That momentum was stalled with the hip injury, which Mayer said dated to fall camp but was “tweaked” during the Cincinnati game.

While dealing with the injury, Mayer said his strength when running routes and planting his foot was impaired. While initially optimistic that he could play at Virginia Tech on Oct. 9, Mayer said he and coach Brian Kelly discussed the dangers of coming back too soon, of possibly worsening the injury. He sat out.

“It’s risk/reward type thing,” Mayer said, “and I think I made the right decision.”

Notre Dame’s bye week gifted an extra few days of recovery time. On Tuesday, after appearing to be at full strength against USC, Mayer labeled himself as “probably very close to 100%.” The Irish can breathe a sigh of relief with Mayer in the lineup with five regular season games remaining, starting Saturday night at home against North Carolina (6:30 p.m., NBC-5).

A five-star recruit out of Covington (Ky.) Catholic High School near Cincinnati, Mayer has always operated under high expectations at Notre Dame. He won’t be draft-eligible until 2023, but he is already projected to be a first-round pick. Between now and then, he will likely continue to ascend through the Notre Dame record books, etching his name in with the likes of John Carlson, Ken MacAfee and Tyler Eifert.

Mayer is also likely to keep drawing attention as one of the best in college football; he was already named to the John Mackey Award Watch List, given annually to the best tight end in the country.

Mayer said he’s gotten better at blocking out the outside noise and matured into a veteran player who leads by example.

“I’m not the vocal leader,” Mayer said. “But one thing, I do see myself as a leader, where the actions that I do, people will follow me.”

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In this June 19, 2015 file photo, police tape surrounds the parking lot behind the AME Emanuel Church as FBI forensic experts work the crime scene, in Charleston, S.C. Families of nine victims killed in a racist attack at a Black South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre. | AP

The $88 million deal, which includes $63 million for the families of the slain and $25 million for survivors of the shooting, was set to be announced Thursday in Washington, Bakari Sellers, a attorney who helped broker the agreement, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Families of nine victims killed in a racist attack at a Black South Carolina church have reached a settlement with the Justice Department over a faulty background check that allowed Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used in the 2015 massacre.

The $88 million deal, which includes $63 million for the families of the slain and $25 million for survivors of the shooting, was set to be announced Thursday in Washington, Bakari Sellers, a attorney who helped broker the agreement, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Sellers said the “88” figure was purposeful. It’s a number typically associated with white supremacy and the number of bullets Roof said he had taken with him to the attack.

“We’ve given a big ‘F you’ to white supremacy and racism,” Sellers told AP. “We’re doing that by building generational wealth in these Black communities, from one of the most horrific race crimes in the country.”

According to the Justice Department, settlements for the families of those killed range from $6 million to $7.5 million per claimant. Survivors’ settlements are $5 million per claimant.

Months before the June 17, 2015 church shooting, Roof was arrested on Feb. 28 by Columbia, South Carolina police on the drug possession charge. But a series of clerical errors and missteps allowed Roof to buy the handgun he later used in the massacre.

The errors included wrongly listing the sheriff’s office as the arresting agency in the drug case, according to court documents. An examiner with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System found some information on the arrest but needed more to deny the sale, so she sent a fax to a sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office responded it didn’t have the report, directing her to the Columbia police.

Under the system’s operating procedures, the examiner was directed to a federal listing of law enforcement agencies, but Columbia police did not appear on the list. After trying the separate West Columbia Police Department and being told it was the wrong agency, the examiner did nothing more.

After a three-day waiting period, Roof went back to a West Columbia store to pick up the handgun.

The lawsuit for a time was thrown out, with a judge writing that an examiner followed procedures but also blasting the federal government for what he called its “abysmally poor policy choices” in how it runs the national database for firearm background checks. The suit was subsequently reinstated by a federal appeals court.

“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”

In 2017, Roof became the first person in the U.S. sentenced to death for a federal hate crime. Authorities have said Roof opened fire during the Bible study at the church, raining down dozens of bullets on those assembled. He was 21 at the time.

The slain included the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of the AME Emanuel Church, a state senator, as well as other pillars of the community. They all shared deep devotion to the church, known as Mother Emanuel, and passed that faith along to their families, many of whom offered Roof forgiveness when he appeared in court just days after the attack.

The FBI has acknowledged that Roof’s drug possession arrest should have prevented him from buying a gun.

Speaking with AP in Washington ahead of the news conference, Pinckney’s eldest daughter recalled the night of the shooting and said she was committed to maintaining her father’s legacy, who died when she was 11.

“I’ve done whatever I can to keep his memory alive and to carry on his legacy throughout my life,” Eliana Pinckney, 17, told AP.

“Just to make sure that the memories that I have with him can be shared with other people, so that other people are inspired by the life that he lived, and the life that he would keep living if he was still here.”

The deal, which was reached earlier this month, is still pending a judge’s approval, Sellers said.

“All nine of these families have been so strong, and they deserve this closure,” Sellers said. “Of course we wanted more, but this is just, and this is justice, and finally, these families can say that they got it.”

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

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As chief planner for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Daniel Burnham turned a lakefront swamp eight miles south of downtown into a beautiful, but temporary, city. It officially closed on Oct. 30, 1893, although the Midway remained open for one more day. | Sun-Times file

The closing of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition on Oct. 30 would have been a sad enough scene in its own right, but the assassination of Mayor Carter Harrison III made the event especially tragic.

As published in the Chicago Daily News, sister publication of the Chicago Sun-Times:

By all accounts, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was a smashing success for the city of Chicago. According to the Chicago Architecture Center, the fair lasted just six months but brought 27 million people to Jackson Park on the South Side. The Beaux-Arts style of buildings designed by architect Daniel Burnham influenced construction for decades following the fair, and those that attended became the first to sample Juicy Fruit, brownies and the sausages that would later become the Chicago-style hot dog.

Though a joyous celebration had been planned for the fair’s official closing day on Oct. 30, all of that excitement disappeared when news broke of Mayor Carter Harrison’s assassination two days earlier.

On Oct. 28, 1893, the Chicago Daily News published an extra edition detailing Harrison’s fatal shooting. “The murderer is under arrest,” the report announced. “He gives his name as Eugene Patrick Prendergast.”

Prendergast arrived at the mayor’s mansion that evening and told the maid who answered the door that he had urgent business with Harrison. The maid ushered him inside the hall where he waited. Roused from a nap, Harrison greeted his guest in the hall, but almost immediately, shots rang out.

“Almost immediately she heard a shot which was quickly followed by two others,” the paper said. “Then there was the sound of a heavy fall.”

The mayor’s son, William Preston Harrison, heard the shots from another room and rushed to the scene. His arrival spooked Prendergast, who ran out the door. Soon after, Mayor Harrison succumbed to his injuries.

The shooting shocked the city and dampened the fair’s closing festivities.

“Dull and cheerless dawned the last day of the great Fair,” the Daily News observed on Oct. 30. “The faint rays of the morning sun, straggling through banks of murky clouds shone upon a deserted city. There was an air of desolation over all. From every flagstaff drooped a banner at half-mast.”

In honor of the tragedy, planners canceled the Columbus Day festivities, the paper said. The few stragglers that visited the fair looked “weary and uninterested.” Many of the exhibitors had already begun to pack up their booths and prepare to leave. The Midway would be permitted to remain open for just one more day.

On that last day, talk had already turned to what to do with the buildings once the fair ended officially. According to the paper, the gates would remain open and regular price admission would be charged “as long as there is anything within the grounds to attract visitors.” Many officials agreed though that some of the buildings should be preserved.

“It will surely be a wrong to the American public if these magnificent buildings are at once turned over to destroyers,” the fair’s vice president said. “We have here a lesson in architecture which should be preserved. It may be impossible to continue the Fair another year, but certainly we may retain the buildings.”

The only remaining ceremony would be held later that night.

That evening at a sunset, a national salute would be fired on the grounds, and the flags would be lowered, the paper reported.

“With this simple ceremony the exercises will end and the great World’s Fair will be officially a thing of the past.”

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