On Monday (Jan. 26), two distinguished business leaders and former Notre Dame football student-athletes — Tracy Graham ’95 and Byron Spruell ’87, MBA ’89 — joined University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. for a keynote conversation titled “Champions of Hope,” as part of the University’s 11th annual Walk the Walk Week celebration and the 2025-26 Notre Dame Forum on “Cultivating Hope.”
The conversation began with Father Dowd introducing Graham, founder and managing principal of Graham Allen Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in technology and tech-enabled businesses across the U.S, and Spruell, president of league operations for the National Basketball Association, as “two champions of hope who embody the spirit of Notre Dame.”
Graham and Spruell, both members of the University’s Board of Trustees, discussed with Father Dowd the serendipitous events that led them to Notre Dame, their career paths and mentors, their definitions of hope — and what they most value from their time as students at the University.
For Spruell, who was a member of the football team from 1984-87 and served as co-captain in 1987, the lessons he learned from Coach Holtz and the relationships he built with his teammates stood out.
“There’s a throughline of experience that I come back to: ‘Trust, love, commitment.’ Trust the people you work with. Make sure they love what they do. Make sure they’re committed to excellence,” Spruell said. “It’s not just in the coaching relationships, but the brotherhood that is part of Notre Dame football, that Coach Lou Holtz embodied, that certainly Marcus (Freeman) is embodying now. Those are the types of things that are ingrained in me now. To be part of this special place, to live it each and every day and now to be able to give back through being on the Board (of Trustees) and other things is just an honor.”
Graham, a member of the Fighting Irish football team from 1992-95, said that among a host of other things he learned at Notre Dame, he was most inspired by the University’s mission to be a force for good in the world.
“What Notre Dame did for me was it really got me focused on building something more important than myself,” he said. “It fundamentally changed me from a kid who walked through life trying to figure out how I could do something for me to this mission-driven focus about how I could do something for others.
“The biggest gift that Notre Dame has given me is this drive to help others and to be a part of others’ lives and this understanding that that is the way that you get the best and most fulfillment.”
Following the conversation, Graham and Spruell also answered questions from the audience, reflecting on how they make tough decisions, how they balance purpose and profit in the business world and how to foster connection in a divided society.
