I am no longer the President of the University. I have seen 15 successors come and go, and one is still sitting in my chair. I know well the burdens these men have carried, since I carried them first. I oversaw many projects in my years as President; but I’m ambivalent on this one. Still, I understand how it came to pass. I speak neither of myself nor of any of my successors. I simply use the character of Father as an explanatory tool.

Father woke up one night in a sweat. Not because he was panicked, but because he lives in one of the old halls with a radiator that clangs like a trolley and kicks out heat like the boiler on a locomotive. But he also had something on his mind. He needed more seats in the Stadium. Being a philosophical sort, Father knew that the problem stemmed from Notre Dame Football’s evangelical nature. A man says to an Alum, “I love Notre Dame football,” the Alum says, “We shall go.” A man says to an Alum, “I hate Notre Dame football,” the Alum says, “I shall change your heart by taking you there.” An Alum owns a company and is told he should have a retreat with his top management; he says, “We shall go to a home game.” An Alum owns a huge company, and he says to himself, “I must keep my many corporate clients happy – I shall take them all to home games.” But these people and Alumni of a certain…ehem…age, are not really the sort you want near the field, because they don’t…what’s the word…care or cheer. Father has been told the answer: Luxury boxes.

Father has learned this from a wise man who brings him messages. We’ll call that man the Savvy One. The Savvy One has told Father that he can address the evangelical issue with luxury boxes, and he can satisfy another need: a real big movie screen. The coach is a demanding little redhead (though no worse than Rockne), and it is the Savvy One who keeps him happy. Coach wants a big screen, because it’s hard to convince a young man to play here when his grade school had more modern scoreboards. The problem is, at Notre Dame, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; if it does break, have the guy who donated it fix it for free; and if it’s too expensive to fix, leave it, and call it ‘Tradition.’ But even Father knows these scoreboards go beyond old-school, past retro-chic, and right into dumpy.

Father knows he can’t sell luxury and an enormous television. Oh, someone will pay for them; but there will be that whole ‘the money could go to something better’ whine from several different groups. Heck, Ted wouldn’t let Ned build the arena until he got his library first. If Father wants his Stadium additions, he’ll have to put them in pretext…er…context. Father asks himself, ‘What else do we need,’ or if he’s being honest, ‘How can I bury/hide this?’ Father knows that for a long time, there’s been a need for a new Student Center. The current one is a 19^th Century science hall (see discussion about ‘tradition’ above). There were plans to build a new hotel-spa-conference-center-megaplex and make the Morris Inn into a second student center. But the Alumni put their cumulative foot down, because when they return, they want to stay as close to the dorms as possible…even though when they lived in dorms they hated it and couldn’t wait to move out. Father also needs new exercise facilities, so his athletes can have the good ones all to themselves, and the rest of the students can have cheap new ones. But Father can’t build any more buildings on the parking lots, because as much as Joe Dillon Hall wants to look like an Adonis while he’s a student, once he turns into an alumnus, he’ll curse a blue streak if you make him walk 15 extra feet from his car to the Stadium. And then there are the green people. They’re not tree people, because you can plant a thousand trees, but if you occupy a couple hundred square feet of grass with a building, ‘Killing Fields’ doesn’t just apply to Pol Pot. So Father will put the luxury boxes into a student center that he will build onto the Stadium – no parking spaces or grass killed, and Alumni will fall all over themselves to pay for it, because it’s ever so close to the Holy Grail…having your name on the Stadium.

Father knows he’s only half way there. He’s got a lot more luxatoriums to hide, and if the professors don’t get a piece of the pie, the F-word will come out: Football Factory. “So who wants some shiny new classrooms,” asks Father. It’s been 25 years since the Arts and Letters money-pit was thrown a bone. The other half of the luxos will be buried in…first come, first served…sold! Anthropsychchurchmusic. None of these make any money so they can’t pay for their own buildings. But stick those buildings onto the Stadium and the things pay for themselves. Digital media? Not sure what that is, but take your floors. Exhibition, conference, entertainment space – we’ll make room. Hel Heck, thinks Father: I have to hide that swimming-pool-sized television somewhere.

Father looks at it and…sure it’s a little big, but so are wedding cakes, and people love wedding cakes…it actually accomplishes everything, and everyone gets something out of it.

Now, I say I’m ambivalent because of a few things:

– It’s a bit pricey. The Project costs more than it took to build and run the University for the first 50 years…combined. I understand – inflation, progress, we don’t make our own bricks anymore, “building safety codes,” and all that. Plus, I shoved sleeping quarters, dining facilities, classrooms, and offices into the Main Building all at once, and that beast cost a mint in its day.

– Why do we need a skyscraper student center? When students asked for an activities center when I was President, I told them to go play on the lawn or swim in the lake. You want to work out? Chop wood, lift heavy rocks. Why do student clubs need offices? Meet in an empty classroom (we will soon have five-times more empty classrooms at the end of each day). Although, having a club office is good life training, since students can go to the office, sit around, talk, eat, do anything but work – just like a regular office.

– Why do Arts and Letters subjects need fancy new ‘teaching spaces’? I could teach philosophy or Latin in a wooded glen…AND DID. You make do with what you have. Besides, this is Arts and Letters; all the fancy picture machines and gizmos we put in those classrooms are just another way to lull students to sleep during lecture.

– Finally, why does anyone feel the need to pretend that this is a thoughtful way to get more use out of the Stadium and bring the campus together at a …Crosspurpose …Crosswise …Criscross …StationoftheCross? It might be outsized, ostentatious, and expensive, but The Project meets a lot of needs. Enough said. We needed it – we built it. Call it whatever you want. If it doesn’t work out, Father will simply call it, “The House That Jack Built.”

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Padre’s book Father Sorin Says: The Founder Comments on Today’s Notre Dame is available from the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore and Amazon. If you read it and like it, tell a friend. If you read it and hate it, you must have gone to Michigan or USC.

The post Good Fridays w/Padre: Cross Your Heart appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Now, if these young alumni will graduate in 2029, that means they will enroll as freshmen in 2025. While I haven’t any doubt whatsoever that each of these fine, leprechaun-sized scholars will make it to Our Lady’s University, Notre Dame will necessarily be a different school nine years from now. In 1879 we had a pile of charred timbers and blackened bricks; in 1888 we had a Golden Dome. One walk across campus today, and you realize that, as Heraclitus said, you can’t step into the same quad twice.

Thus, let us consider what our beloved Notre Dame will look like when Ms. Allison Silva’s third-graders begin their four-year adventure under the dome in 2025.

*** The bronze statue of Brian Kelly is unveiled outside the southwest tower of StadiumCity. The fifteen storey structure, now renamed the Kelly Tower, appropriately houses the Department of Irish Language and Literature, as well as Westish Dining Hall, the 150-bed McCorquodale Residence Allotment for Men, and part of Grounds-and-Maintenance. Kelly Tower matches the southeast tower of StadiumCity, itself recently renamed Burj Hesburgh. Retired head coach Brian Kelly himself was on-hand for the unveiling ceremony, during which he reminisced about the 2017 Championship Season which, at 17 games, was the longest Notre Dame football season on record.

*** Head Footbal Coach Louis Leo “Skip” Holtz, Jr., praised his predecessor in his own remarks during the event, but reminded Kelly that he – Skip – already has a bronze statue of himself outside StadiumCity, as one of the players standing behind his father Lou. Considering that The Arbiters of Excellence (formerly known as college football playoff selection committee) now require independent football teams to go undefeated for two complete seasons before being granted a playoff berth, there are alumni rumblings that Skip Holtz may have to wait a while to see a statue of his own. Fortunately, proud father Lou Holtz is able to watch all of Skip’s home games from the St. Andre Tower of StadiumCity, which houses the Alumni and Honorary Alumni Retirement Village and Assisted Living Resort and Spa.

*** The statue unveiling and tower christening were presided over by Father George Rozum, C.S.C., now in his fifth year as President of the University of Notre Dame. Commenting on the amazing energy of the spry 86-year-old university leader, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Condoleezza Rice said, “Making Fr. George President was the only way we could get him out of Alumni Hall.” Rozum’s tenure as President of Notre Dame has seen continued growth of the University. The StadiumCity project was completed, making the home of the Fighting Irish the “Biggest, Tallest, Most Complicated” athletic, academic, residential, food-selling, pastoral care, self-sufficient “UniversiPlex” in the country.

*** Fr. Rozum has also tried to bring an end to the vicious cycle of ‘Musical Dorms,’ that began under his predecessor Archbishop John Jenkins, C.S.C.. This seemingly never-ending shuffling of student populations around the campus began with the opening of two new residence halls on Dragon Quad (so named because its remote location prompted campus map illustrators to write “Here be Dragons” to mark the site). The men’s dorm, Hesburgh Hall – affectionately called Teddy by residents who don’t want people to think they live in the library – sits next to New Pangborn Hall, which was filled with residents of the dorm previously named Pangborn in the original cultural experiment. The old Pangborn was renamed Pothole Hall, since anything would fill it. First Walsh and then Badin women were moved into the Pothole during major renovations; but the whole system broke down when the Morrissey men were scheduled to spend a year in the ‘Hole. When work began on the “Manor,” a construction worker removed a transom over a door and the whole structure nearly collapsed in a steaming heap. It has taken an international team of architects and engineers, a Novena-marathon in Sacred Heart, and roughly $14.5 million to save Morrissey, but Fr. Rozum hopes to reopen the hall next year. In the meantime, the Manor-Tent-Camp continues to occupy the remains of the Burke Golf Course, while the men of Zahm have moved into Pothole Hall (now without windows, because of the stench). When Fr. Rozum exempted Alumni Hall residents from having to move anywhere, Dillon seceded from the University and posted armed guards, prompting the administration to treat Dillon like Carroll and ignore it completely.

*** All of this barely controlled chaos is to be settled by the start of next year, in preparation for the visit of Pope Leo XIV, Class of 1981. The former Charles Cardinal Brown, previously the Nuncio to Ireland and Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, is a loyal son of Notre Dame, and also the first American Pope (though that is only of mild interest to the alumni). He will visit his Alma Mater in 2026, and will say Mass in StadiumCity, further consecrating the already hallowed ground. Much of this landmark event has been organized my University President-Emeritus Archbishop John Jenkins, now in charge of the Pontifical Council for Economic Expansion, also known as “Vati-Development.” Pope Leo will dedicate the new glass dome on the basketball arena with the help of Muffet McGraw and Mike Brey, two of the longest serving coaches in Notre Dame history. McGraw has vowed to coach until she wins her fourth National Championship; and though Brey has found his way to two Final-Fours and two Championships, he has stated repeatedly that he will not retire until he finds a fetching necktie.

*** As much as things have changed, much has stayed the same. The University remains a premier institution of higher education and a powerful force for good; the Dome still reflects both the sunlight and the hopes and dreams of millions; voices raised in prayer have never ceased to echo from the Grotto;  snow remains possible from October to April; parietals are still in force; and Notre Dame is always Our Mother.

That is just a guess at what Our Lady’s University will look like in 2025, when the young men and women of Ms. Silva’s class enroll. But don’t ask me what Notre Dame will look like by the time they graduate in 2029 – that’s four whole years later.

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Post-Script: The football game played on the weekend of the Kelly statue dedication saw the Irish defeat the Michigan Wolverines by the unusual score of 37-0, when Coach Holtz successfully went for three after the fifth touchdown.

Padre’s book Father Sorin Says: The Founder Comments on Today’s Notre Dame is available from the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore and Amazon. A gift for loyal students, alumni, and friends of the University – a punishment for fans of all other teams.

The post Good Fridays w/Padre: 2025 A.D. appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Tradition Is Dead

Alex Flannigan was able to make the biggest announcement regarding Notre Dame football since Jimmy Clausen visited the College Football Hall of Fame: Notre Dame Stadium will receive a face lift. Jack Swarbrick explains:

We had a strong predisposition to stay with a natural grass field, however…we have been unable to produce an acceptable playing surface. — Synthetic turf will assist our game preparation because our team will be able to play and practice on the same surface. We will also be able to utilize the Notre Dame Stadium field for practices on home football Fridays and other occasions, whereas that is currently unrealistic. Additionally, this change allows us to eliminate the risk to players posed by the asphalt perimeter that has to be maintained around our current field.

This means two things: message boards everywhere have officially exploded and imploded, creating a supernova with a black hole, and Notre Dame will continue to climb into the modern era of sports.

This is obviously the right move, no matter how much you like “tradition” or whatever word you use to justify a completely unnecessary obsession with the 1940s. Young athletes want it. Younger fans want it. The coaches want it. It’s just better. It’s easier and cheaper to maintain and it’s safer. There’s just no reason to keep the grass anymore. Sorry, Gramps.

Also, if you watched/attended the game, you know exactly how awful and trashed the field looked today. I’m sure this is no accident as it would be the perfect backdrop to Swarbrick’s sideline interview, but let’s not pretend like that wasn’t how it looked four months ago. Because it did. It was hideous.

Everett Golson Is Back…

…and rusty.

As I watched the first few plays that Golson participated in, I couldn’t help but bite my tongue as his touch was off and decisions were slow. After an entire first half, though, I just can’t keep forgiving it. He looked pressed. He was getting “sacked”. He was falling down on simple roll outs. He was missing targets (the Amir Carlisle incompletion into the end zone is just inexcusable).

I know he’s only been back for a month and needs to build chemistry with an essentially brand new offensive roster, but I need to see more from him as a starter. I need poise and 100% accuracy on easy outlet passes. I need to see better pocket presence. I need to see him teaching the younger guys around him instead of just walking off the field.

I’m not going to pretend like he was supposed to look like a Heisman candidate but…

…Malik Zaire Did

I’m going to go ahead and say that either we’re in for one hell of a quarterback controversy leading into the fall or Brian Kelly is pulling one hell of a troll job on Notre Dame fans, because Zaire looked goooooooood. He looked comfortable in the pocket and on roll outs. He put the ball where it is supposed to be for the receivers to make plays. He talked CJ Prosise through a route (then a few plays later throw a long touchdown to Prosise).

Now this was almost bound to happen. He’s playing mostly against the number two guys and under WAY less pressure. But there’s always that eye test, and Zaire most definitely out-scored Golson on that one.

Quarterback Predictions

It’s still going to be Everett Golson to lead this team. Golson had that “It” factor we all look for back in 2012 and I guarantee it’s not gone. The difference is, I believe Zaire will be constantly pushing Golson to stay on the top of his game which is very important at the college level. It could be the difference late in the season when other teams have improved and have plenty of film on the Irish.

I think we’ll also see more late-game substitutions with Zaire needing game play. It won’t just be scrub time late in the fourth quarter. Brian Kelly has said before he only wants one starter on the team…but I think that means we’ll still get those “packages” that he liked to use even back at Cincinnati.

Hole-y or Holy Defense?

New defensive coordinator Brain VanGorder surely has only installed a small portion of his entire playbook and even that portion isn’t going to go onto national television. This game was about two things: Golson and Zair. Kelly made no allusions otherwise. No blitzing, no stunts. It was designed to be straight up pocket practice for the quarterbacks.

That said, I loved the way linemen were still getting into the backfield. They were forcing the quarterbacks to move and forcing them into coverage sacks. Run defense for the most part looked good, until Greg Bryant took over a bit in the second half. The linebackers left a bit to be desired, but again they were playing a lot of vanilla football. What did impress me was the way the corners and safeties were hanging with faster and mostly bigger receivers. For the most part, the projected starters were putting themselves in good positions to make plays.

We likely won’t know much about this defense until the final depth chart comes out and the final whistle blows against Rice, but for a spring game focused on the quarterback play, I’m at the very least satiated by what I saw today.

Running Back Stable

I used stable on purpose as we’ve got some serious horses behind the quarterback. I think this is the deepest, most complete running back depth chart since Lou Holtz had several three-headed monster backfields. Cam McDaniel seemed to struggle against the top defense and never really had big holes through which to run.

The true highlights came from the younger guys. The first half seemed to belong to Tarean Folston. Kelly miraculously added in a screen package this offseason, which will be great to show off Folston’s hands and feet. Getting him into immediate open field situations will go a long way to spreading the field and forcing the defense to play back. Greg Bryant is back with a vengeance after falling into the doghouse last season. Showing both his power and his moves, Bryant even seems to have improved his receiving ability.

Long story short, there was noticeable improvement in the biggest backfield weakness last season: caught balls. We know the speed and power that all three backs possess, but a huge separation between top teams and Notre Dame last year came from passes behind the line of scrimmage. It is absolutely imperative that this gap be, at the very least, narrowed in order to reach the next level of national competition.

Other Notes

• Corey Robinson is big..and he learned how to play receiver. That’s dangerous for opposing teams.
• Jaylon Smith is still a bad, bad man.
• Receiving success will depend on tight ends and slot receivers. Amir Carlisle is a work in progress and we will definitely need to see improvement from Ben Koyack.
• Quarterback coach Matt LaFleur will be to ND female fans what VanGorder’s mustache is the males.
• Kyle Brindza is going to drive you insane all season.
• Chris Brown’s focus is the only thing holding him back from a huge season.
• Under Armour and Notre Dame are going to make boat loads of cash on people like you and me.

The post Notre Dame Football: Blue and Gold Game Thoughts and Reactions appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

The Problem

In the past year, various reports have been popping up that stadium ushers at both NFL and NBA games have issued “fan card” warnings to spectators who may be disturbing those around them, or in some cases, cheering for the visiting team.

First things first: crass fan behavior has no place in a public forum (or online, but that’s another discussion for another time).

But there’s quite a difference between the environment of watching a game from one’s couch, in a climate-controlled room, with several HD camera angles…and the sights — and yes, sounds — of  immersing oneself in a live sporting event.

Attempts for Improvement

But some teams (and fans) are doing it right, in my opinion. Much ink has been spilled about Super Bowl Champion Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks and their “12th Man” crowd influence, but the crowds in Kansas City  rivaled those anywhere else in the NFL. Last autumn on the collegiate level, Clemson took a shot at some historic decibel levels when FSU came calling, and there’s the legend of seismic events in Baton Rouge.

Notre Dame’s Position

So where does Notre Dame’s Stadium and fans fit into all of this? The answer, as with many things, is complicated.

On the one hand, there are both distant and recent examples of crowd noise (and crowds with phantom whistles?) that frustrate opponents. And different arms of the school itself have encouraged a more engaged fanbase — from the athletic director to quirky videos. We’d like to reward & encourage more of this behavior/atmosphere.

But there are swaths of fandom who still prefer a mausoleum of 80,000 — a seated and sanitized experience free from the inconveniences of standing or elevated decibel levels. What’s an enthusiastic fan to do?

Our Response

We here at HLS HQ have put together a fan card for folks who want to leave their opera glasses at home. Now you can proactively notify those near you of your plans. We’ve accounted for a wide range of opinions, states of mind, and sentiments. Print some of these out, check off the appropriate boxes, and cheer as Her Loyal Sons are marching onward to victory.

(Special thanks to @Dixie_Domer for the execution and Bureau of Communication for the creative direction)

The post Here’s Your HLS Fan Card appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

As part of an ongoing commitment to safety and security, the University of Notre Dame has adopted a new policy on bags and other items fans can bring into its football stadium on game days. 

Beginning with the 2013 season-opening game Aug. 31 (Saturday), fans will be prohibited from bringing large bags such as backpacks, duffel bags and totes into the stadium (see photo for examples). Smaller bags, such as purses, will be allowed but will be inspected by trained security personnel, as will blankets, coats, ponchos and other similar items.

“Our top priority is safety, and we believe that in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and other incidents through the years, this new policy is the prudent course of action,” said Michael Seamon, associate vice president for campus safety and director of game day operations. “We know our fans will adapt quickly to the policy, and we appreciate their cooperation in helping to make Notre Dame Stadium as safe as possible.”

Seamon said his hope is that fans would not bring bags of any kind into the stadium, and he added that the addition of specially trained inspectors will ensure that any delays at the gates will be kept to a minimum.

University officials benchmarked the bag policies of the National Football League and others in collegiate athletics before amending Notre Dame’s policy.

Thankfully, Notre Dame didn’t go as far as the NFL did in their enhanced security policies as they now ban purses under the umbrella of larger bags.

So, if you want to bring in some extra necessities, you will likely need a little bit of extra planning and channel your inner Jack Bauer to fit everything you’d ever need into smaller, purse-like bags.

Thanks a lot, Bin Laden.

The post Notre Dame Stadium Bag Policy Changed for 2013 Season appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

I know change doesn’t go down well here.  It never has.  But somewhere there seems to be written a list of things that can never change because of that equally elusive value called tradition.  I will now shatter a few ill-conceived, though perhaps cherished, notions about change and tradition with respect to things on this campus.  Shall we start at the beginning – yes, we shall.

My Log Cabin.  These days, that ramshackle old hovel where I sheltered from the blinding (literally) winter of 1842, is reverently called the Log Chapel.  Sure, we made it a chapel, after we built a suitable, modern building.  Believe me, there’s nothing that can’t be turned into a chapel, and no building is complete without one.  But the cabin was not my creation; it came with the property…and there was a reason Steve Badin was only too happy to be rid of all of it.  So every time you genuflect going by the cabin-chapel, remember that it’s an outbuilding I moved out of as soon as I could.  Oh, and it’s not real.  The original Log Cabin burned down, just like so many things here.  What you’re looking at is a replica.

My Old College.  That’s what it’s called now.  When I built it is was just The College, whole, entire, and complete.  It was basic, utilitarian, and constructed with absolutely no eye toward architectural beauty.  And it shows.  It probably should have been torn down at some point for the sake of reusing the bricks in something better.  But it’s built like a brick sh outhouse, so there was no sense in getting rid of a perfectly serviceable building.  Still, I’m sure the lads who live in it now would agree with the outhouse analogy on more levels than one.  Its floors slope at various angles in every direction; the doorways are low and trapezoidal; and it creaks and groans like a tramp steamer hung up on a rocky shoal.  Yes, our little carbuncle called Old College is what Notre Dame originally looked like.  How do you feel about change now?

My Sacred Heart.  Well, it’s Jesus’ Sacred Heart, but my church.  Again, not the original.  Check the cornerstone – it says 1871.  Did you think I had no church between 1842 and 1871?  And the Lady Chapel is an addition.  When The BVM says She wants a place of Her own, you build it, even if you have to add it onto the back.

My Main Building.  Everyone knows it’s not the original.  It’s actually the third.  Like it?  Most people do.  But it didn’t come with a Dome.  That wasn’t added until three years later.  And it wasn’t Golden until three years after that.  Again, when The BVM says She wants a giant gold footstool, you do it.  Remember, too, that the Main Building was offices, classrooms, dining hall, and dormitories all in one.  Change is a blessed thing when you can move a horde of raucous and pungent college lads out of your office.  Which brings me to…

My Hall.  The luxuries I gave my lads!  A standalone dormitory with private rooms!  I had already given them electric lights – first college in the country using that exciting modern science (really, I’d do anything to get away from open flames).  But My Hall, which now thinks it’s a college…fine…does not appear in its original form.  The wings are later additions so we could pack more bodies in there.  And the porch came even later than that.  The porch was built onto the front to prevent the lads from dumping buckets of water out the upper windows and onto unsuspecting victims entering through the main doors.  No joke.

The list could go on; but let’s focus on the thing at hand – the Stadium.  Built in a rush (as so many of our building have been) it was elegant in its own way.  But just ask my esteemed successor Ted Hesburgh and he’ll tell you the Stadium was unpopular just 30 years after its opening, by which time it was considered antiquated, undersized, and crude.  Ted considered demolition and reconstruction (a fire is much cheaper), but he had priorities: First a Library, and then Ned Joyce’s sports big-top.  So the Stadium survived until it was encased in a concrete shell that can never be called elegant in any way.

Onto the Stadium we now want to add offices, classrooms, dining facilities, and something called “luxury boxes” which is precisely what I called the private sleeping rooms in Sorin Hall when we built that.  So it will be just like the Main Building was originally.  We are returning to tradition!  But traditionalists aren’t happy because at Notre Dame there is a pervasive confusion between “custom” and “tradition.”

Custom is the way things are generally done, and have been done for a while.  Tradition is a collection of customs that have been handed on from generation to generation and age to age, so that they have become freighted with deep, symbolic meaning.  Customs change; traditions endure.  Anything that changes over time is, therefore, a custom.  Something that has never changed is a tradition.  And there are no such things as new or recent traditions – unless you’re talking about oxymorons.

Furthermore, we’re talking about THINGS here.  Buildings are things, and things cannot be traditions.  They can be old or beautiful or relatively unchanged for many years.  But they’re still just things, and we do not place inordinate value in things.  I was upset when my second Main Building burned – but I built a better one.  And then I installed electricity.  And recently, they entirely rebuilt the interior.  That sort of change is called progress.  This place started with someone else’s log cabin – but look at it now!  Since it’s summer, we’re going to build even more buildings that I never thought of.  So I suppose you could say it’s a custom at Notre Dame to preserve its older buildings; but one of our most cherished traditions is progress.

Do what you want to the Stadium.  It was already changed once.  And it’s just a thing.  Victory is a tradition.  We have preserved that tradition on Cartier Field and in Rockne’s original and into the current Stadium-within-a-stadium.  But the greater victory, the tradition of graduation, we have preserved even longer…on the Main Quadrangle, in Washington Hall, in the Fieldhouse now gone, in the Stadium, on the South Quadrangle, in the Joyce Center, and back in the Stadium again.  The location is just a custom; the graduation is a tradition – and a glorious achievement.  Congratulations, Seniors!  And be prepared: Notre Dame will have changed by the time you come back.  It always does.

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The post Good Fridays w/Padre: Loose Change appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

This Roundup will not re-hash those thoughts. Instead, I wanted to pass along some sage advice my pastor gave to myself and my future bride last weekend:

The only thing that I need to do this wedding are the two of you, myself, and a marriage license. Everything else is just extra. You’ll have other people give you all kinds of opinions on what they think your wedding should look like, but never forget, all of that is just the gravy added on.

And really a potential addition of a jumbotron**, an installation of field turf, new helmets, piped-in music, or the Halloween costumes that are the Shamrock Series uniforms is just that — it’s all gravy. The meat and potatoes of a football game is simply two teams facing off against each other with a ball, some coaches to lead the men into battle, and some officials to make sure it doesn’t turn into the Roman Coliseum.

Notre Dame Football, however, is far more special than that. There is a dessert that follows this football meal that we like to call “The Forty Year Decision”, a specialty that the majority of the top college football powerhouses simply don’t offer. Many thought that entire meal couldn’t be served at Notre Dame anymore. We felt as if Notre Dame Football turned into the “let them eat cake” of the college football world. That’s why 2012 was such a big deal and Kelly went as far to call it “Faith Restored”.

#1 in the BCS and #1 in GSR should have been one of the biggest stories in college football and should be a huge focal point in this offseason, but it wasn’t and still isn’t.

Why?

Because the focus is on the damned gravy.

Every time these arguments surface, it becomes much like arguments in wedding planning. Everyone has their idea, their vision, for the Notre Dame Football Experience®. If you can’t see eye-to-eye, then there just must be something wrong with you and your understanding of tradition, Rockne, technology, or Notre Dame itself. The arguments and anger over the ancillary rise to a fever pitch and the true heart of the entire event is lost in the fire.

“But, Tex” you say, “how are you so blind? Don’t you see that when Notre Dame tries new things they fall on their face? Just look at the first attempts at piped-in music and Shamrock Series Helmets. These things matter!”

Want to know why both of those occasions were such disasters? It wasn’t just horrid execution (make no mistake, both were terrible). It was because the surrounding games left a lot to be desired.

Against Southern Cal, we were beaten over the head by more than just “Crazy Train”. Notre Dame stumbled out of the gate, trailing 17-10 at the half, and just when it looked like the Irish had a chance to tie it up, Crist fumbled a snap and it went 80 yards in the other direction. Everyone was already in a sour mood because the game itself was ruined and a “Seven Nation Army” couldn’t hold back the anger of the end result.

To put it another way: no amount of gravy in the world is going to fix a crappy steak.

For the first two quarters we were pissed that our steak first came out raw, then as jerky. In the third, it we saw that perfectly cooked steak coming our way only to have the waiter trip over himself and dropping it, completely ruining that one as well. Finally, we get one more serving of charred mess and we’ve had it by that point. We try to wash it down with the gravy just so we can eat something, but even that is sour.

End result: we hate everything and everything sucks.

While the Maryland game was a decisive victory, the game itself was a bore. Toss in a sub-par opponent that we really didn’t care about, mix in scoring lulls against said sub-par team and you are left with plenty of time to focus on bad helmets and mismatched greens on the uniform.

Compare that to the Miami game which had uniforms sporting helmets that were far worse than anything Adidas could’ve dreamed of the year prior. The Irish defense dominated and the rushing game obliterated the Hurricanes in the second half.  Oh, and it helped that this happened against Miami, a team universally hated by Irish fans.

Sure, the gravy might have been mysteriously two-toned and ugly as sin, but the main course was so tasty that you could happily ignore it and move it to the side.

“Well, Tex,” the other side now says, “thanks for proving our point!” As Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast!” (No, not that other famous Corso quote).

Just as no amount of gravy will save a piss-poor entree, far too much of it can smother and ruin it. Not only that, if too much focus is given to the sauce, you can likely expect the quality of your main dish to suffer as well. In short, there needs to be some form of balance.

To circle this back around to the original wedding analogy, I could easily ruin my own wedding by focusing on all the ancillary junk that really doesn’t matter. I could also go the opposite direction, completely bare-bones removing all the “gravy” as my pastor put it, but that would be a rather boring wedding. Adding a reception, family and friends, an open bar, and some music will certainly make the night more enjoyable for all and won’t completely overshadow the entire event of actually being wed.

And that’s pretty much where I’m at with anything added to ND Stadium or any future enhancements of the gameday experience. I’m fine with adding things as long as it doesn’t completely overrun the heart of Notre Dame Football.

By all accounts, ND gets that. The piped-in music has been reeled in and better thought out, complemented by mics amplifying the band (P.S. stop playing “Rumor Has It” for the love of all that is holy). Crazy uniforms have been relegated to one game a season, a game which isn’t even played in front of Touchdown Jesus. “Crazy Train” has turned into a punchline/actual thing that makes fans cheer despite its initial overuse.

But through it all, the heart of Notre Dame Football still remains: the quest for and expectation of excellence on and off the field. Until I actually see that change…well…it’s all gravy.

*I may or may not have totally made this up to properly equate said outrage

**Which, I want to note, was mentioned a grand total of zero times in the ND News release and not even pictured in an artist’s rendition of potential changes, but, hey, SPECULATE AWAY!

The Roundup

And when I talk about smothering with gravy, I give you Wyoming. While certainly not the worst of the field turf design offenders (hey, it’s at least green), going with mountains on this design is just a bit much.

I hope all of these go on Iowa’s jumbotron. I had no idea who Damon Bullock was before this week, but I now know he’s is absolutely hilarious.

Big Game Bob takes aim at the SEC. Oh man, I wish I had listened to Finebaum after these comments. Related, what in the hell happened to Stoop’s face?

The College Football Hall of Fame finally rights a major wrong. Tommie Frazier is finally in. Now let’s fix that whole Rocket not being in because seriously.

Want a look at the all-time wins race? Texas’ SBN presence, Barking Carnival, gives a mostly Texas-centric look; however, Notre Dame fans will be please to know just how close we are to surpassing Texas in this race.

So we’re making a little bit of our own gravy. Ok, that sounded completely wrong; however, we are dipping our toes into the merch pool with some #HLSRecap themed offerings. Yes, you can customize these with your Twitter handle if you so choose. Check them out, let us know what you think.

The Beer

I have, admittedly been slacking on really finding some unique brews. I will remedy this soon; however, I think it’s fitting that this week I go in a different direction.

As I mentioned before, I have a wedding in my future and it will occur one year from now on this exact date. With that in mind, I remembered that the first drink I ever bought my future wife was, in fact, a beer:

Yeah, I pulled out all the stops on this one didn’t I? In my defense, this was what she wanted. DON’T JUDGE!

The post Friday Roundup: The “It’s All Gravy” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Image Credit: University of Notre Dame

The imagined tweaks to Notre Dame Stadium would literally and figuratively anchor it to the rest of campus. A new press box would connect to the Joyce Center to the east while a new student center would spring along the stadium’s west side. The idea, according to Vice President Affleck-Graves, is to augment the resources available to students, i.e. there is no thought of replacing LaFortune, while maintaining the campus’s “pedestrian” quality. With additional classrooms and event space part of the concept, classes of the future will spend a lot more than Saturdays in the Fall in and around the stadium.

First opened in 1930, “The House That Rockne Built” drew architectural inspiration from Michigan’s stadium and included a press box and “seats” for 59,075 fans. The same architects who designed Yankee Stadium, “old” Comiskey, and Fenway Park created a scaled-down Big House in which Coach Rockne roamed the sideline for but one season before his death in 1931. Renovations in 1997 gave the stadium its current look and added 21,000 seats by fitting a new exterior over the old, thereby preserving the old while decidedly dragging the place into the modern age of college stadiums. As we consider another change to Notre Dame stadium, consider what has been done to Michigan’s stadium.

In 2010, our neighbors to the north brought The Big House to its current gaudy capacity of 109,901 in a renovation that added, suites, seats and more suites. In 2011, Michigan added two video screens the size of which would likely cause a statistically significant percentage of NDNation to march on the Administration Building. Measuring forty-seven feet by eighty-five feet, each board has more than four thousand square feet of Light Emitting Diodes to tickle your rods and cones. Could that happen at Notre Dame Stadium?

There are clear and loud voices at Notre Dame who fall squarely in the “no” camp. A little less than one month ago, Professor Philip Bess, who is also the director of graduate studies at ND’s School of Architecture, penned Why a Jumbotron At Wrigley Field Is a Super-Sized Mistake on Chicagosidesport.com. Professor Bess writes “[w]hen a stadium has a Jumbotron, the game becomes secondary and fans in the park start watching the screen rather than the game—which is why large video boards are a dependable source of advertising revenue.” An interesting question is how closely Professor Bess is to the ear of The University’s Architect , Doug Marsh, the man who will be a key figure in what ultimately transpires.

Notre Dame’s Campus Master Plan, released in 2002 and updated in 2008, set forth a number of tenets, the fourth of which calls upon planners to “steward” the camps’s “Notre Dame-ness” by choosing from “the pre-established palette of building materials, colors, and textures. Exterior materials will be chosen for their climactic endurance and for their consistency with representational and traditional architectural styles existing on the campus.” This stewardship of the essence of campus would seem to preclude the solution for Wrigley Field postulated by Professor Bess: video screens on the outside of the stadium.

While Notre Dame has a clear plan for the architectural development of campus, a plan that would clearly govern any changes to the non-football elements of the football stadium, whether Jumbotrons and Field Turf would be included or excluded by the Master Plan are unknown. Nothing in the document speaks to either, so it remains to be seen whether Professor Bess’s vision of a Jumbotron-free future will ultimately be undone by Coach Kelly’s desires.

Personally, I fail to see the harm in state-of-the art video screens that provide replay and public service announcements. Embracing the avant garde is decidedly in keeping with the spirit of Coach Rockne and the University Fathers who funded, in part, the construction of his vision through the then cutting-edge sale of personal seat licenses. What’s more, I believe that we must acknowledge an indulgence and allow the athlete’s places of performance to reflect their unique needs on match day. If it takes Crazy Train and Jumbotrons and Field Turf to fire up a five-star recruit, so be it. He should have his coliseum as he wants it, free for the moments of contest from what “we” think he should have, or what he should be happy with. If he who would see his future cut short or shattered by a broken bone or severed nerve want us on our feet and whipping towels over our heads, we owe that to him in the same way that he owes “us” excellence in the class room and residence halls. If Notre Dame can so integrate athletics and academics to make them the opposite sides of the same fabric, I fail to see how Jumbotrons cannot be incorporated into the literal brick and mortar of “our” Saturday seances.

The post Hint of Change Sparks Panic and a Rethinking of Architecture as We Know It appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

My weekend started out on Thursday with a day of research in Notre Dame Archives sifting through decades of Notre Dame football photographs. It was a lovely walk down memory lane for me, along with some bitter sweet memories of those who are no longer with us, but I was able to get my work done with time to spare!

Notre Dame Archives

Notre Dame Archives

Then I made a side trip to the second floor of the library for a little editing work on the manuscript. Oh the hours that I’ve spent in this building! Look familiar Miss Quinn?

Second Floor – Hesburgh Library

Thursday night I caught up with friends, regrouped, and got ready for another hectic day. Friday got off to a busy start with a photo shoot on campus for the upcoming book.

(Photo Credit: Lynne Gilbert)

Then I got the chance to meet USA Network’s “The Moment” star Vince Moiso and his lovely family.

USA Network’s Vince Moiso from “The Moment”

And producer Charlie Ebersol …

USA Network producer, Charlie Ebersol

Followed by a delightful 45 minute conversation with Notre Dame head photographer, Matt Cashore.

My best pal Lynne and Matt Cashore!

Quick outfit change and off to the Alumni Football Dinner we go!

Football Alumni Dinner

At my table I got to sit with current football players Austin Collinsworth and Ben Councell. A pair of delightful young men that I am proud to call Notre Dame men.

Ben Councell and Austin Collinsworth, oh and me!

At the table next to me was my best pal and classmate, Irv Smith, sitting with Big Lou, Louis Nix III.

Louis Nix III and Irv Smith. (Photo Credit: Lynne Gilbert)

Dinner was awesome. The keynote speakers included TJ Jones, Bennett Jackson, Kyle Rudolph and head coach Brian Kelly. I am so very proud of these young men, especially TJ Jones. He has really stepped up, not only as a true Notre Dame man, but as the man of his house since the passing of his father, Andre. God bless you TJ!

TJ Jones

I had the chance to catch up with one of my Dad’s classmates, Heisman Trophy winner John Huarte. What a truly wonderful man.

Heisman Trophy winner, John Huarte

And I also had the chance to catch up with my classmate, Irv Smith. It seems like not a day has passed since we were in school!

Irv Smith

Following dinner I had the opportunity to go to a reception in the stadium which included a tour of the locker room and a chance to touch the “Play Like A Champion Today” sign. Yep, I could die right now a very happy girl!

The Notre Dame locker room!

Cindy and I in the locker room!

See, Notre Dame and St. Mary’s girls can get along!

The sign!!

Play Like a Champion Today

All this and I’m not even to the game yet! Saturday was another bright and early day! First stop, the TNNDN tailgate and some time with classmate Oscar McBride.

Oscar McBride

Then a quick stop to the monogram lunch to catch up with a few more friends …

Oscar McBride, Kapron Lewis Moore, Irv Smith

And …

Former teammates Irv Smith, Lee Becton and Oscar McBride

Game time and I had the honor of being down on the field with some of my pals. You could not have asked for better football weather … sunny, crisp air, blue sky … perfect.

2013 Notre Dame Blue-Gold Game

On the sideline with the boys …

Irv Smith and Oscar McBride

Tight End U …

Wide Receiver Bobby Brown and Tight Ends: Irv Smith, Kyle Rudolph, Oscar McBride

THE moment of the game? Manti Te’o coming over to hug my friend Lynne … Amazing. The Notre Dame family is truly just that … family.

This says it all … Notre Dame is family. (Photo Credit: Matt Cashore)

It was a truly amazing weekend. I love my Notre Dame family more than words can express, and I have absolutely no complaints when football is part of my weekend schedule. Now I am just more in need for football season to get here.

My Notre Dame ladies!

How many days until Temple?

Sigh.

Cheers!

The post Blue-Gold Game Photo Journal appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

How a good Spring Break is like a good Notre Dame Football Game

There will be beer, wine, and booze.  But you can’t get so carried away tailgating that you miss the big game.  The focus is always the game, not the parking lot binge.  Let the spirits put you in the spirit; but you don’t want to end up petting the asphalt or the hotel room carpet while your team is out winning the day.

There is no alcohol in the Stadium…officially.  This is just a practical measure to give you a reason to slow down on the drink so you can drink in the spectacle before you.  Like the student section, if you want to have a good time and be an asset to your team, you must be standing the whole time.  Go ahead and have a tipple if it arrives in small quantities and is hidden in a discrete plastic cup.  And that’s another thing – for both the Stadium and Spring Break, for your safety, make sure all cups and dishes are good Julius Nieuwland rubber or durable plastic.

Cheer.  Be loud.  Jump up and down.  But don’t start pile-ups or fights.  Small town police are like Stadium ushers: they inherently dislike students and they carry manhole-cover-sized chips on their shoulders.  They have a little too much authority and far too little restraint.  Just like the Stadium, these “resort” towns where you go to blow off steam don’t really accommodate 80,000 ginned-up college kids and other fanatics comfortably.  Don’t give the usher-cops a reason to throw you out.  Oh, and remember, unlike the ushers, small town police all pack heat.

If you’re going to be stripping off major pieces of clothing, paint your body.  Not necessarily with blue, gold, and green watercolors, but with that oil which saves you from baking like “chicken pieces” under the Dining Hall warming lamps.  As for your clothing, wear your Fighting Irish shirts, shorts, shoes, sunglasses, hats, headbands, visors, swimsuits, shower thongs, boxers, briefs, boxerbriefs (did I miss anything, Bookstore?) with pride for your school and our teams.  But please, don’t all wear the same shirt – that just reinforces that suspicion that Notre Dame is a cult not a college.

Throw decorum to the wind and dance.  In fact, be your own cheerleaders.  Get each other into the celebratory mood.  Give yourselves an exciting activity-goal each day, and exult when you achieve it.  Celebrate reef swimming like it’s converting a third down, parasailing like it’s a field goal, and cliff diving like it’s a touchdown.  You won’t have large men in skirts and bearded elves to dance with…and if you do, go home – you’re either hallucinating or you’re in a very bad place.

Take lots of photos of what going on around you.  Just like you capture the winning numbers on the scoreboard, or the scene on the field as the team runs out, collect memorable pictures of these vacation moments.  But if you’re going to be in snapshots, make sure you’re not doing anything…ahem…compromising.  You have your dignity, soon you will have an employer, and one day you will have children.  Don’t give any of the three photographic evidence for abandoning you.  And don’t take pictures of others doing anything…ahem…compromising.  You don’t want one photo to be the cause of losing a friendship or your front teeth.

In the fourth quarter of any day on Spring Break, if you hear a folksy, avuncular voice from above give you safety advice, take it (and hope it’s not from a State Trooper standing over you).

Don’t let losers bother you.  Just like the 2012 season, the losers all go to other schools, they only hang around for a couple of hours, and then they go away embarrassed.

Just like a good Notre Dame football game, this Spring Break will end with a spectacular Irish celebration – St. Patrick’s Day.  Show your Irish pride, even if it’s adoptive.  You are the only students in the country who can claim the title Irish; just like post-game celebrations, revel in your Irishness.  But get all the wild Irish partying out of your system, because unlike Football Saturdays, there is no Recovery Sunday.  You’re all due back in class on Monday.  Think of Spring Break like one long away-game in California, or Florida, or Hawaii; when it’s all over, we want you back home in Indiana.

And as for THAT subject which must be addressed in any discussion of Spring Break – fortunately the football analogy allows me to mention it without upsetting my delicate sensibilities. Well, here goes…there are no parietals in the Stadium, but we expect that you would not be breaking the Spirit of Parietals in the midst of a football game (though nothing surprises me anymore).  So too, there are no parietals on Spring Break, but the Spirit of Parietals should at least travel with you somewhere in the back of your mind.  Loyal daughters, let the Spirit of Parietals appear to you as that excellent Mr. Bob Diaco.  Let him coach you in always playing tough defense.  Even if it’s a four-down goal-line stand.  Just like Coach Diaco, shut the other guys down in the Red Zone.  And for you loyal sons, remember the Fighting Irish example of 2012 – low scoring affairs can be great victories.  Certainly don’t run-up the score; that is ungentlemanly both in the Stadium and on Spring Break.

Above all, never forget that just like every Notre Dame home football game, during Spring Break, Jesus is watching the whole time.

EFS CSC

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