The Linebacker Lounge: the Backer, across from Notre Dame

1962 — still pouring

The ground, stated exactly: The Linebacker Lounge stands at 1631 South Bend Avenue, on the corner of Edison Road and State Road 23, at the city's northeast edge. The campus it faces across the avenue is the unincorporated Notre Dame CDP — the ground Famous Locations prints as outside the city limits — while the bar's own ground is the city's side of that line: when the city's South Bend Avenue road project threatened the building in the 1990s, it was the city that compromised and let the Backer stay, as the Observer's account below records. Its slogan is its geography: "The Backer: Across from Notre Dame."

A linebacker's loan: The bar's own published history tells the founding straight. In 1962 Myron "Mo" Pottios, a Notre Dame linebacker of 22, borrowed $5,000 from Art "The Chief" Rooney against his future NFL salary and opened the Linebacker Lounge in a structure at 1631 South Bend Avenue previously occupied by Eve's Drive-In. One other account — a 2014 Notre Dame fan site's bar guide — names a co-founder, local businessman Stan Pisek, beside Pottios; the bar's own history does not, and the difference is printed rather than resolved. The Backer grew from a modest local room into the destination it remains: the pilgrimage stop, in the house's words, that Notre Dame fans worldwide build into every visit.

The Delinski decades and the documented close calls: Al Delinski worked at the bar from 1978 and took co-ownership in 1984; the bar's own history names Elwanda Delinski as the owner who assumed it in 1984, and the family held it until 2022. The Observer marked the bar's 35th year in September 1997 by calling it, in its headline's phrase, among South Bend's most popular late-night clubs — and by documenting the closest documented call of its run: the widening of South Bend Avenue and the Edison Road project put the building in the road's path, and the city compromised, "allowing the Linebacker to remain in its current location," on the same corner it has occupied since 1962, its restaurant side then trading as the Linebacker Inn. A local-history podcast's episode on the bar adds that it came near to losing the bar more than once in the 1970s; that claim is printed as the podcast's, the 1990s road fight being the near-loss the press record documents. The room's other institution was its deejay: DJ Drew, who began in 1988 as the bar's sole deejay and was still being advertised in a 2018 newspaper feature after thirty years; the current owner's later reply to a review records that Drew retired after thirty-five years.

The present: In 2022 Elwanda Delinski passed the bar, in its own history's words, "to a pair of former Notre Dame football teammates," with the stated goal of preserving its "uniquely simple character." The bar's own site calls its run, at that writing, sixty-one years; current directories list it operating at the same address with its late hours intact, and it stands in November 2026 as the city's longest-running campus bar and, on the record of this section, its most famous room.

Sources:

1. The Linebacker Lounge, house history (thelinebackerlounge.net) — the 1962 founding by Mo Pottios on a $5,000 loan from Art Rooney; Eve's Drive-In as the prior occupant of 1631 South Bend Avenue; Elwanda Delinski's assumption of ownership in 1984; the 2022 passing to two former Notre Dame football teammates; the "sixty-one year history" house count.
2. The Observer (Notre Dame), 12 September 1997 — the bar at 35 years; Al Delinski at the bar since 1978 and co-owner from 1984; Greg Delinski; the South Bend Avenue/Edison Road project and the city's compromise letting the Linebacker remain in its 1962 location; the Linebacker Inn as its restaurant side; the "most popular late-night" billing.
3. Her Loyal Sons, "Top 10 Things To Do Blue-Gold Weekend," 10 April 2014 — the founding variant naming Stan Pisek as co-founder with Pottios (printed as a variant, above); South Bend Life Magazine and the bar's review replies — DJ Drew from 1988, thirty years marked in 2018, retired after thirty-five years per the owner's reply; Round the Bend Now and Then podcast, Linebacker episode notes — the corner of Edison Road and State Road 23 and the 1970s near-losses, printed as the podcast's claim; current bar directories (November 2026) — the lounge operating at 1631 South Bend Avenue.