‘Grandma’ Langholf has sweet relationship with Notre Dame’s girls basketball team

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — Notre Dame’s most loyal fan drives 150 miles one-way to see the girls basketball team play.

She’s been doing it for years. She’s coach Layne Langholf’s mother Jean and is known as the team’s grandmother.

“I’ve been a grandma for probably 28 years of kids on different teams I think that’s an awful lot of grandkids,” said Jean Langholf. “I’ll take them.”

Jean Langholf lives in Winnebago and makes the three-hour round-trip drive to see her son’s team play. And she doesn’t come empty handed.

For 20 years she’s been baking cookies for the her son’s players. Four dozen chocolate chip cookies, every game.

“I just decided I’d make cookies for the kids. They started eating them so I continues to make them,” said Jean Langholf. “I take them to every ballgame I go to.”

She started this labor of love in 2004, when her some became the varsity girls basketball coach in Canton and has continues the tradition the past seven years he’s been coach at Notre Dame.

The storage and transportation of the cookies is key. They have been brought to basketball games through all those miles in a container that’s been around since the early 1960’s.

“In order to get that many cookies in there, it’s the biggest container I have, said Jean Langholf. “It’s a Tupperware bucket I got in 1961.”

There’s more to the story.

“She doesn’t throw anything out. That tub was a wedding gift when she and my dad married in 1961,” Layne Langholf said. “It’s literally stood the test of time. Every year we tell our freshman, if you lose it, it’s over. We may have to kick you out of the program.”

Layne just celebrated winning his first regional as a head coach and PND’s first regional trophy in ten years. The Irish beat Sherrard on Friday to capture the class 2A Chillicothe regional championship.

Now Notre Dame travels to the Canton sectional to play on Tuesday. Jean Langholf will be bringing cookies to the gym where she first started this game day routine 20 years ago.

The players understand the significance of the cookies. And, more importantly, the bucket that brings them to games.

“My first game as a freshman, she brought that tub,” said junior Kaitlin Cassidy. “The freshmen were told you cannot lose that tub. You have to know where it’s at. It’s sacred to us. She brings us the cookies in it. It’s a monument of our team.”

Jean Langholf hopes to she can bring that tub of cookies all the way to state this year. Notre Dame has never made it to the girls basketball state finals.

She’ll be willing to driving to CEFCU Arena in Normal to bring her favorite team some cookies. No matter how heavy that bucket gets.

“I’ve never weighed it, I don’t want to,” said Jean Langholf. “It’s full of love.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CIProud.com.