And let's tip our hats to the founders of the institution...
by Kbyrnes (2020-03-22 15:37:27)
Edited on 2020-03-22 19:04:50

In reply to: moving on *  posted by olson

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...As Mary Beth Sterling put it in her dedication to Look Out for the Manhole Cover: A History of Notre Dame's Bookstore Basketball Tournament (Chicago, 1993--geez, how can this book be 27 years old already??):

This book is dedicated to the three people who had the greatest impact on Notre Dame's Bookstore Basketball Tournament:

Fritz Hoefer, who conceived the idea;
Vince Meconi, who gave birth to it; and
Tim Bourret, who made sure that it grew up properly


Vince was elected Morrissey Hall president in the spring of 1972, and lived on the third floor where his R.A. was senior Fritz Hoefer out of Wabash, Indiana. According to Vince, Fritz was "...the all-time Hoosier basketball freak"; and Vince had been the hall's athletic commissioner, coaching interhall football and baseball among many other activities. Fritz approached Vince one day and asked, "I want to have an An Tostal event that's some kind of basketball tournament. Can you run it?" And the rest was history.

In 1973-74, my sophomore year, I was on the first floor of Morrissey on the Howard side, right around the corner from Vince's single and down the hall from a group of freshmen including one Bone Bourret. Just to show who had gumption and who didn't, I became a lowly scorer/starter going from game site to game site, while Bone grew up to be Bookstore Commish (and more).