Fr. Ted changed during his tenure;but there always are tensions at ND

Fr. Ted changed during his tenure;but there always are tensions at ND
by clementsfan (2006-02-22 12:59:45)

In reply to: Question about Fr. Hesburgh's treatment of the football program. posted by CMC Irish

The battle between academics and football at ND has existed throughout her history. Sperber quotes Frank Leahy as saying of Rock, "The priests were getting ready to come down hard on him when he died." Fr. O'Hara raised the academic standards for Layden's players, requiring an "80 average" to be eligible to play (Layden couldn't have played for himself). Fr. Hesburgh came in like a reformer (I think LEAHY's post below catches the conflict nicely) and went out like a fan, hiring Holtz so that Monk wouldn't have to take any heat for hiring a successful coach with a few nicks in his past. Malloy, of course, turned on Holtz and football, even after he'd enjoyed the benefits of a top-rated program, while Jenkins has reaffirmed Hesburgh's ultimate attitude that there's nothing wrong with excelling at both academics and football. BTW, we're the only school I can think of that constantly endures this vacillation between the extremes, and I'm not going to analyze it here.

The conflict is evident in our football history, which is a series of peaks and valleys, with dry spells in the '30s, '50s-early '60s, early '80s, and late '90s-early 2000s sandwiched between peaks that included our eleven national titles.

All I can say is enjoy things now, for we seem to be on the ascendancy again (I am as firm a Weis-supporter as you're going to find), although our history says that somewhere down the road, in who knows how many years, we'll have another dry spell as "the priests," as Frank Leahy so aptly put it, decide "to come down" on football again.

I tried to explain that vacillation to a friend of mine...

This guy thought I was nuts and just blaming the presidents. He felt that no way would a ND president jeopardize Football by purposely de-emphasizing it. I tried to explain the whole "trying to raise the academic standing at the expense of Football" thing, but he just dismissed it, saying "Why would a college president hurt something that brings in a lot of money?" (Of course, this guy is a very conservative businessman who doesn't have much contact with the people in academia).

Chris

Was Malloy the known successor when Holtz was hired?

Holtz was hired in the fall of '85. Malloy didn't take office until fall of '87. I don't think the hiring of Holtz had as much to do with protecting his successor as it was meant to rectify the HUGE mistake in hiring Faust. Holtz' was a great hire that still has effects.

Mickey

Fr. Ted SAID he hired a coach so that his successor wouldn't have to.

I have no reason not to believe him. Did he know it would be Monk? Don't know.

Unfortunately, you may be right. *