“If that’s not the definition of maturity and loyalty, I’m not sure what is.” “I’m proud of the fact that I still keep in touch with 10 really good guys,” Dennehy said. In it, he wrote, ‘Remember no man is a failure who has friends.’” At the end, he pulls out a book, Tom Sawyer, which was Clarence’s book.

But that great movie - Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life - is profound. “This has happened several times over the last 20 years, through the ups and downs of life. The great religious orders began the same way. He pointed out that the mission of Jesus Christ to save the world began as a group of friends - the Twelve Apostles - sticking together. “Konesky had a great line: He said in this age of social media, where things can be so impersonal and your ‘friendship’ can be a click away without ever meeting someone, this game has allowed our ‘tag brothers’ to continue to build our friendship,” he said. “The game is a great opportunity for me to go over, tag him, then hang out with him and his wife and his kids.”įather Raftis brings the whole thing back to friendship and the need for men to have friends. “Mark and his wife have six kids,” said Father Raftis. The film is in the mold of edgy buddy films like The Hangover - but the true story is centered on family The “tag brothers” have done several interviews in the run-up to the film. They are friends to this day, and Father Raftis got me in touch by email with Mengert. “We became friends at the first day of classes,” said Father Raftis, a parish priest in Columbia Falls, Montana.

Francis of Assisi elementary school - in the first grade. That’s when Sean Raftis met Mark Mengert at St. Plus, they have a terrific amount of fun!” … These men, for a month out of every year, turn their energies to keeping in touch with one another - literally - and as a result, their high-school friendships are still going strong after some 30 years. The story captured the attention of scores of readers and then was followed by more and more media attention.Īuthor Dawn Eden Goldstein, a friend of Father Raftis, explained, “The tag brothers’ story touches people because it concerns men who found a creative way to maintain their high-school friendship.

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