Quinn Biggio Carves Her Own Legacy At Notre Dame

The name “Biggio” is a familiar one in the baseball world, particularly at Notre Dame. Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who spent his entire 20-year MLB career with the Houston Astros, did not attend the school, but his two sons, Conor and Cavan, both did, and Cavan is now playing for the Toronto Blue Jays.

But now, it’s the Biggios’ daughter Quinn’s turn to shine in South Bend. A junior on the Notre Dame softball team, Quinn is enjoying the best year of her career in 2021, with a .556 slugging percentage and excellent defense at third base. SA caught up with Biggio to discuss her family’s legacy and her own identity at Notre Dame.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Softball America: What was your upbringing like? Were you at the ballpark pretty much every day, hanging out with your dad and his teammates?

Quinn Biggio: I was definitely at the ballpark all the time. My brothers were able to go in the locker room, so they got more hanging out with teammates. I was more in the kids’ room, which was my favorite place to be. I was hanging out with all the other players’ kids, and we played games. My mom would come pick me up and I’d come sit in the stands for the games.

SA: Was there pressure for you to go to Notre Dame after your brothers had become big athletic stars there?

QB: Actually, no. In our family, my parents were like, you can go where you want to go. I was the one who was really adamant that I wanted to go to Notre Dame. I was in sixth grade when my brother Conor came here, and I remember we would come visit him and I was like, ‘This is college. This is what it’s like. This is what it’s supposed to be.’

SA: Was playing softball an inevitability in your family?

QB: I guess in a way it was. It was the first sport I started playing. My very first team, my mom put me in little pigtails every day and I’d just go to practice. I started earlier with the older kids, I was one of the younger ones. It was inevitable that I would try it, but I don’t think it was inevitable that I would love it as much as I do.

SA: Do you find your family legacy hard to escape at a place like Notre Dame where it’s already been built?

QB: No, I always say that Houston was probably the place that I felt a little more like I had to live up to the last name. Coming to Notre Dame, when I met my class, a couple of them were like, ‘We don’t even know who your dad is, we’re sorry.’ And I’m like, ‘Please don’t apologize, that’s actually relieving for me.’ I’m my own person here, and coming to Notre Dame I actually got to escape that more than step into that.

SA: How have you worked since coming to Notre Dame to create a legacy separate from your father and brothers?

QB: Just doing my own thing and not comparing myself to them. I know it’s two different sports entirely, but baseball and softball are alike in a lot of ways. The way that I’ve done that is I don’t really look at what they did in college. My dad is my dad, that’s a whole different story, but both my brothers, just looking at what they did and not trying to compare myself to them. Because I’m my own person, I’m playing my own sport, and realizing that it’s me, it’s not them.

SA: Do you have any goals for continued athletic exploits after college, or do you think you’ll go into something else?

QB: Right now I’m a marketing major. I’m hoping to go into the sports industry in some way, whether that’s marketing for a team, whether that’s marketing for a brand or a specific athlete. I would love to work for a team and be part of that camaraderie. Just staying in it even if I’m not the one competing.

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