It's also no accident that they ran off Holtz...

It's also no accident that they ran off Holtz...
by Bacchus (2011-09-14 10:37:11)

In reply to: This is really a terrible shame posted by ACross

...which was the original sin of the entire period of decline. Jealous and small men could not abide the prominence of the football program or its head coach. Monk's crowd thought that any guy in turf shoes and a blue windbreaker could keep the ND football machine going, and they set about to prove it by replacing Holtz with Davie. Worse, they were ashamed of having a championship football team, and hit pieces like Under the Tarnished Dome sent them scurrying under their beds. Major college football is d�class� and unaspirational (if I may coin a term). If the administration had to tolerate it as an opiate of the masses of alumni, then they were content to milk the brand. But the commitment to winning that would necessitate the hiring of a charismatic, driven, accomplished coach was not in new strategic plan. Not for this effete generation of clerics and academics. Such a figure would be sure to eclipse them, and that just wouldn't do. And what would the AAU think?

Jealous and small men indeed

In addition to his performance at a dinner at my house in Prague in 1997 (reported here several years ago), my enduring memory of Monk is of him leading a rag-tag group of war protestors at the ROTC commissioning ceremony that preceded our graduation. There he was, shambling around the field, his posse carrying home-made signs with the usual '60's era crap, ruining what should have been a proud day for the fledgling 2nd lieutenants and ensigns and their parents. A man with a decent heart and better manners might have offered a mass for these young men, some of whom would soon be sent to the field.

Sounds like a miquetoast version of a Berrigan bros. wannabe *