Column Where coaches are canonized -- and earn millions
By TIM UNSWORTH
Recently, I went to the University
of Notre Dame to witness their final home game of the season. Notre Dame is the
Hogwarts of Catholic football. The sport is their version of Quidditch, the
major sport at Hogwarts. It is attended by some 86,000 faithful muggles
(non-wizards).
The head coach at Notre Dame is said to hold the second-most
important job in the church. Indeed, no true fan would blanch if they numbered
their coaches like popes, that is, Knute I, Frank II, Ara III, Lou IV, and so
on. At this writing, the university has just closed a secret conclave to find a
new head wizard. On New Years Day, a plume of white smoke went up from
the Dome to signal that Tyrone Willingham, Stanfords successful coach,
had just signed a contract at a reported $2 million per year, enough to pay
about 20 full professors. Willingham, the schools first African-American
head coach, is said to possess the balance of athletic wisdom and academic
achievement required at Notre Dame.
They played Navy and won. Poor Navy has been beaten by the Irish
in about 60 of their last 70 meetings. Yet, it was a good, clean game.
Annapolis did not have a single penalty. Although outweighed some 44 pounds per
man on the line, the midshipmen made the Irish sweat every yard. The
sportsmanship on both sides was exemplary. Notre Dames talented band
played Anchors Aweigh while the crowd joined in. Perhaps it was the
ripple effect of Sept.11, but the small contingent of Navy cadets drew
respectful cheers.
At games end, both teams jogged to the middle of the field
to offer handshakes. You just dont see that anymore. Such sportsmanlike
behavior could get one banned from a postseason bowl game. Most significant,
both teams had players capable of talking in complete sentences -- young men
who looked like college students, not Neanderthals majoring in snow removal. No
names on their backs, no stars on their helmets. No special dorms or towel
warmers.
My soul was warmed by the repeated announcement that Mass would be
celebrated in Sacred Heart Church 30 minutes after the final whistle. Both
upper and lower churches were jammed. Clearly, the famous library wall mosaic
of Touchdown Jesus is more than just a decoration.
Notre Dame has been playing football for 113 years. It wasnt
a name team until it began throwing the ball in 1913. In that year, early in
the season, by throwing unheard-of forward passes, it won three unnoticed
games, racking up 169 points against its opponents seven. Then, the
school wrote a polite letter to mighty West Point and scheduled a game at the
academy for Nov. 1. In that game Notre Dames Charley Dorais passed to
Knute Rockne, who would become the first of the canon of the saints. David beat
Goliath 35-13.
Now, 88 years later, the university sells, sadly, quantities of
sweatshirts with that idiot, hostile Irishman stenciled on the front -- an
image that lowers the universitys grade point average. With universities
all over the country banning negative images of Native Americans, it might be
time to bury the image of a sotted Irishman looking for a punch up.
College football likely dates to at least 1827 when Harvard
sophomores played freshmen. Heck, it could be said to date to 1389 when Richard
II tried to ban what had become the riotous Shrove Tuesday game because it
interfered with archery practice. By 1869, however, intramural football was
supplanted by interscholastic football when Rutgers played Princeton.
Today, sadly, higher education strives to have universities that
their football teams can be proud of. Sports has a lot to do with the values
that drive our American ethical system, I believe. When the head coach earns 10
times the salary of a full professor, there is something rotten in the locker
room.
Recently, Notre Dames president, Fr. Edward Molloy, accepted
a plaque that recognized that the universitys athletes had a very high
graduation rate, an achievement in a national educational system that serves as
little more than minor leagues for the pros. According to The Boston
Globe, only three of the teams who played in the 25 post-season bowl games
saw even half their players graduate, and, sadder still, the graduation
percentages for African-American athletes often run 25 points below that of
white athletes.
Sportscaster Pat Hayden had high praise for Notre Dame but added
that if the university held visions of a national championship, it could forget
about them. No school could boast a high graduation rate and a national
championship.
Research done at another quality university about 10 years ago
indicated that there were only about 350 athletes in the United States who can
meet first tier athletic requirements and sustain high academic standards.
Since its founding in 1842, Notre Dame has inched into that top tier. Truth is,
today the old Gipper, who partly inspired Ronald Reagans run for the gold
in 1980, would be drummed out of the admissions office. And, at nearly $30,000
annually for tuition, a bed and vittles, it attracts largely Catholics who have
fruit on their kitchen table even when no one is sick. Its 10,800 students are
among the best and brightest of the Catholic elite.
Arguably, it could drop interscholastic sports and still survive
at a very high level. Tiny but awfully smart Swarthmore has just dropped
sports, and the little Ivy League schools are cutting back.
Im not suggesting that Notre Dame drop it all and take up
croquet, only that they consider trimming. Perhaps sometime soon it could take
a second look at its schedule and sign only with schools of academic
excellence. They would still have the likes of Stanford, Boston College,
Northwestern, Duke and a few others that dont abuse young men who rarely
make the pros and end up blowing out glove compartments at a car wash.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day. Notre Dame has been an indelible
mark on my soul since I tugged on my mothers apron and begged her to
allow me to enter the seminary of the Holy Cross Fathers. She said no. I was
too young. But I married an alumna of its graduate program in fine arts, and we
still visit to view the excellent art.
Now, perhaps, it can use its immense influence to clean up the
mess that has watered the spark of higher learning and good sportsmanship.
Tim Unsworth writes from Chicago. Send him your thoughts at
unsworth@megsinet.net
National Catholic Reporter, February 15,
2002
|