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Links Scholastic magazine |
Seen and Heard The first football game after the September 11 attacks, a home game against
Michigan State, featured a special pregame show. Father Malloy said a
prayer, and the stands were filled with people holding paper American
flags. Some in attendance wondered why the Irish weren't on the field;
Michigan State's players and coaches were. It turned out that the athletic
directors had agreed ahead of time to keep their teams off the field during
the ceremonies, but at the last minute Michigan State's coach decided
his players should witness the spectacle. . . .
Notre Dame sophomore Mickey Blum, a member of the men's lacrosse team,
lost his aunt and cousin when part of the plane carrying American Airlines
Flight 587 crashed through the roof of their home in Rockaway, New York,
last October. . . . First-year student Amy Peterson is a finalist
in a contest to design the commemorative quarter for her home state of
Alabama. The winning entry was expected to be picked around December.
. . . |
Chris Thomas photo: ND Sports Information |
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In
his first collegiate game, freshman point guard Chris Thomas recorded
the first triple double in Notre Dame basketball history. A triple double
is double-figure totals in three statistical categories. Thomas had 24
points, 11 assists and 11 steals in a 95-53 home win over New Hampshire.
. . . Brace yourself: Notre Dame men are
carrying purses. Actually, they're roomy bags with a single wide strap
that goes over the opposite shoulder. The bags have displaced the venerable
backpack among large percentage of students of either gender this year.
. . . The statue of Father William Corby, CSC, in front of Corby
Hall has a new plaque clarifying the priest's role at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Nicknamed "Fair Catch" Corby because of his outstretched arm, the statue
actually depicts Corby giving general absolution to Union troops before
the second day of the battle. (The original plaque implied that he'd done
this before the battle began.) Installed in 1911, the Corby statue is
a replica of one erected earlier on the actual rock at Gettysburg's Cemetery
Ridge where the priest performed the rite. Corby later served two terms
as president of Notre Dame. . . . Scholastic writer Jacklyn Kiefer
went searching for a "time capsule" she'd heard existed behind a medicine
cabinet in one of the residence halls -- and she found it. The items fished
out from behind the wall included a 1960s-vintage can of Dad's root beer
(unopened), a 1966 football program, two bras and a brick-size toy named
"Frederick the Sperm." All the items were replaced, and the location of
the stash was kept secret so future generations of residents can add to
the collection. . . . A potentially ugly confrontation was avoided in
October when a former Notre Dame football player banned from campus in
connection with an alleged sexual assault decided not to challenge the
ban when his new team came to play in Notre Dame Stadium. The student
was expelled after a fellow freshman accused him of sexually assaulting
her in 1997. He denied the charge and no criminal charges were ever filed,
but he agreed to abide by the findings of a campus disciplinary hearing.
He later enrolled at West Virginia and had been playing for the Mountaineers.
In the days leading up to October 13 West Virginia game, a controversy
erupted over whether the ban applied to his visiting as part of a team.
Two days before the game, the player announced his decision to stay home.
. . . For the final home game of the football season The Observer
devoted its entire pregame pullout, Irish Insider, to the
team's nonscholarship players or walk-ons. One of the most interesting
cases was senior Matt Sarb, part of the kickoff coverage unit. According
to Sarb, his great-great-great grandfather helped build the Main Building;
his great grandparents lived next door to Knute Rocke and sponsored the
coach's conversion to Catholicism; his great uncle and aunt bought Rockne's
home, and his great uncle still lives there. About 20 of Sarb's relatives
have attended the University, and his father, Pat, a cornerback, was one
of the players who gave up their jerseys so Dan Ruettiger '76 (Rudy)
and three other senior walk-ons could dress for the 1975 season finale.
. . . The Observer is organizing a 35th anniversary
reunion bash for staff alumni April 22. E-mail obsreunion@hotmail.com.
. . . Notre Dame's entire 1995 freshman class of football players earned
their degrees, and that accomplishment earned Notre Dame a share of the
2001 American Football Coaches Association's Academic Achievement Award.
The only other team to achieve a 100 percent graduation rate during the
period was Vanderbilt. The overall graduation rate for the 95 institutions
surveyed was 59 percent. Notre Dame won the award for the sixth time.
. . . Track and cross country coach Joe Piane,
Notre Dame's longest-tenured coach at 26 seasons, was named national cross
country coach of the year by the United States Track and Field
Coaches Association. Two Irish runners finished in the top 10 at the NCAA
cross country championship race last fall. Luke Watson was fifth and fellow
senior Ryan Shay was sixth. The Irish as a team finished sixth. . . .
The administration granted a change in parietals
asked for by the Campus Life Council last year. Guests of the opposite
sex are now allowed to be in dorm rooms as early as 9 a.m. instead of
10 (9 was already the rule on football weekends). . . . The Main Building
is one of 11 finalists in an online competition to identify America's
best public restroom. Among the other nominees are bathrooms in the Planet
Hollywood restaurant in Washington, D.C., and in the Space Quest Casino
in Las Vegas. The survey contest was sponsored by Sanis, a maker of specialty
products for restroom cleaning. (See links to learn where you can view
and vote for the Dome's decorous dumper.) . . . . Monica Gonzalez played
the entire season for the women's soccer team against the wishes of the
University. The Office of Residence Life and Housing placed Gonzalez on
disciplinary probation -- making her ineligible for participation in varsity
sports -- last September in connection with a report from a Mexican university
where she studied abroad last spring. The report said she had bought marijuana
for the brother of a teammate of hers on the Mexican National team. Gonzalez
is from Texas, but people of Mexican ancestry are eligible to play on
the team. Gonzalez said she only accompanied the brother on a trip to
the grocery store and had nothing to do with his buying the drug on the
way home. After Residence Life ruled against her, the fifth-year senior
obtained a preliminary injunction to allow her to keep playing for the
Irish. Notre Dame's attorneys challenged the injunction, but a judge affirmed
it, which essentially allowed her to play out the season. Gonzalez started
on defense all year and made first-team all-Big East. The Irish women
won the Big East but were upset at home in the second round of the NCAA
tournament. . . . Senior Andrew Nerlinger finished second but took home
some great memories and $2,500 in cash playing in the Jeopardy!
college tournament last fall. The show, taped in October at UCLA's Pauley
Pavilion, aired November 7. A philosophy and math double major from Wilmington,
Delaware, Nerlinger qualified through a tryout last summer in Baltimore.
The other contestants on the show were women from Stanford and Brown.
He lost to the Stanford student after missing the Final Jeopardy question,
about the inspiration for the Pied Piper legend. His vanquisher went on
to win the whole tournament. . . . The NBC game show Weakest Link
held tryouts in South Bend and at least two members of the campus community
were picked, senior Courtney Carson and Julie Flory, assistant director
of public relations. As this issue went to press, neither of their shows
had aired. They were sworn to secrecy about the results. . . . The day
before the Irish rock band U2 played the Joyce Center, senior Tim Collins
told a story in The Observer that's hard to believe, but he swears
it's true: He and his girlfriend went on a "double date" with the band's
lead singer, Bono, and his wife. In spring 2000, Collins said he and his
friend were studying abroad in London. One day during a break they went
to Dublin. They were hanging around outside the band's recording studio
in an industrial part of the city and planning on taking a picture of
the building when the singer appeared. Collins mustered the courage to
ask for an autograph. After hearing how far they'd come, Bono offered
them a ride back to the train station. During the drive the subject of
Notre Dame came up. Bono told them he had heard Notre Dame was
different from most colleges in America. He asked how. "Julie explained
that our school has a great sense of community and it is a really spiritual
place," Collins wrote. "Bono responded by saying, 'So, it's a place with
a lot of soul.' We said that we couldn't have agreed more. Notre Dame
has never been as cool to us as when Bono said that we have a lot of soul."