Despite speculation that Pope Leo would attend the Eternal City Tip-Off in Rome—a college basketball doubleheader featuring his alma mater, Villanova, against their rival Notre Dame—the pontiff did not make an appearance at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome.
Pope Leo, formerly Robert Prevost, attended Villanova as an undergraduate. While “basketball is not his top sport,” says biographer Daniel Burke, co-author of American Pope: Leo XIV’s Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City, “he followed the team. He would text with friends about the basketball team in particular when they were successful.” In September, while on a plane to Paris, he commented on the Eternal City Tip-Off matchup. “They tell me that the people coming to the match, 90% are Villanova and 10% Notre Dame,” Pope Leo told reporters. “So the voice of the people of God will be very strong on the Villanova side.”
Yesterday, while speaking to an audience that included both Villanova and Notre Dame teams, he told them, “Growing up on the south side of Chicago, we oftentimes heard, ‘Go Irish.’ But as you all know, Prevost graduated from Villanova! So, the Pope doesn't take sides. Prevost has another opinion, but w...