“Like the immigrants it served, the University of Notre Dame began as an outsider — poor, but filled with faith.” “We have Irish roots, but include Africans, Brazilians, and Japanese in a common pursuit of truth.” The “nickname, the ‘Fighting Irish, was first used by opposing fans in the 1920s to insult Knute Rockne’s football players, who were mostly Irish immigrants like the rest of the Notre Dame student body.”
These quotes are taken from the narrated tour of campus you can find at faith.nd.edu
“I don’t want to become you. I don’t want to speak your language, I don’t want to celebrate your holidays, I sure as hell don’t want to cheer for your soccer team!”
This quote is taken from Lou Holtz’s comments at the Republican National Coalition for Life event today. Maybe his swag bag last night gave him the liquid courage needed.
Lou Holtz seriously brought a bottle of Crown Royal into the Republican National Convention. Pro old man move. pic.twitter.com/bjL5vTPcOX
— Ross Bolen (@WRBolen) July 19, 2016
We here at HLS have been critical of Lou, of late. In February, we hit his appearance at Michigan’s National Signing Day. In May, we went after his endorsement of The Donald.
While I’m holding out hope that all of 2016 has been the work of a Lou Holtz impersonator and not the sincerely held beliefs of our collective grandfather, I’m officially over the guy.
I feel incredibly sad about this. The grandson of Ukrainian, German and Irish immigrants, Lou’s very name honors his son-of-immigrants-uncle, Lou Tychonievich. No word on whether he was forced to watch soccer. Which if you’ve ever watched Rangers, or England take penalties in a major tournament, can be very painful to watch, indeed.
(correction: the original text of this post has been corrected, changing “Russian” to “Ukrainian.”)
When you’ve made the money you have off of not just coaching THE IRISH but off of your reputation as the head coach of THE IRISH, you just can’t speak in such broad-brush strokes.
I guess WE ARE ND means something different to Lou.
Bayou Irish
Hating Hurricanes Since 1990.
Bayou Irish is a Jersey boy and Double Domer who fell under New Orleans' spell in 1995. He's been through Katrina and fourteen years in the Coast Guard, so we cut him some slack, mostly in the form of HLS-subsidized sazeracs. But, when he's not face down on the bar and communing with the ghosts of Faulkner and Capote at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone, he's our man in SEC-land, doing his best to convince everyone around him that Graduation Success Rate is a better indicator of success than the number of MNC's won in the last five years.
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I read the full text..essentially asking that immigrants assimilate..learn to speak English etc…just like previous legal immigrant. Descent? Cmon Bayou
Where did you get the full text from? Can you put a link in the comments? I checked the RNCforlife page and they’re not there and a google search didn’t uncover them. Meaning, they didn’t but me on the nose.
I’m confused as to whom he was addressing or speaking about regarding the quote being criticized.
The only thing I can think of is that he was speaking of the attitude of immigrants who come here and don’t attempt to assimilate. I don’t think he was saying that HE didn’t want to do the things he mentioned. If so, he is right. But what does any of that have to do with The Coalition for Life anyway? I would need more context to judge whether he was in fact embarrassing to himself or to Notre Dame’s reputation.
What is your goal of this article? Is it to join the dark side of the media? Is it to separate or unify? I could misconstrue your initial shared quote as being discriminatory because it doesn’t include other descents other than the ones listed. You chose to post an article with the purpose of tearing someone down without having all the facts. I would expect to hear something like this from larger “news” sources, but not from something “all things Notre Dame”. If he IS a racist bigot, that’s on him. Feel free to keep pointing it out though and breeding more hate. I’m hoping you’re already regretting writing or posting this. I think you may have just got caught up in the hunger for notoriety(which is media). You will find, just like Lou, having a voice in the public eye can be scary because you will be judged for everything you say. I’m not judging you, just these words. You may have made a mistake, one mistake. Just learn to be more discerning in the things you post, especially with “all things Notre Dame”. Dig a little deeper and then decide if you REALLY want to call someone out. We all have something in common that we are from the same race: “the human race”. The color of your skin or the language you speak(if only one) only represents your “origin of descent”. The history of our country is VERY complex, but that’s what also makes it so great. Would we do things differently, sure, but unfortunately we can’t change the past. We can only look at where it has gotten us. The US is the most diverse and welcoming country in the world by a long shot. That being said, things must be done correctly. If you want to be American, expect to accept the laws of the US government. There has to be some control or it gets out of hand. Look at how China has tried to control their overpopulated country. I would never expect to go to another country and say, “I’m American and we do things differently there so I expect you to change your government to be more like America”. History is important to know and learn from. It’s not taught in schools anymore and the result is a bunch of “millennials” running around playing pokemon go and wanting a socialistic government because “that would be fun”. I’m not going to get anymore political because even though your post is technically Notre Dame based, it’s still political and the most likely outcome is that it will divide ND fans and others alike. In addition to the bond we have as people, we have an even greater bond. We are all fans of the greatest university on the face of the earth. GO IRISH!
This is an excellent comment, agree 100%
This is a very poorly written article, first of all.
Yet another terrible piece of garbage released by this awful website.
Trash.
I agree with the article 100%. Where is the Constitution does it say that all immigrants or even anyone needs to speak English? Who said we all have to celebrate the same holidays (except Lou)? Endorsing a racist and making racists comments about immigration pull apart any community that is not basically white. Thanks for speaking out.