Paul Hornung is right;
Notre Dame should lower their academic standards for athletes
By Kevin Carter, THG
Sports
Paul Hornung, former Heisman Trophy
winner and Green Bay Packers running back, got himself in hot water with the
University of Notre Dame this spring by saying on a radio interview that the
school should lower its academic standards to recruit black athletes.
Hornung later apologized and said he
meant that academic standards should be lowered for athletes in general.
Despite this apology, the Golden Boy’s comments got him fired from his job as
radio broadcaster for Notre Dame’s football games.
This looks like another incident of
some old guy shooting off his mouth without thinking, but if one can put aside
their racial hypersensitivity, they can find a lot of wisdom in Mr. Hornung’s
words.
Let’s face it: the only reason anyone
has even heard of the University of Notre Dame is because of their legendary
football program. Irish fans can rattle off the names of school’s celebrated
coaches (Rockne, Leahy, Parsegian, Holtz) without batting an eye.
How many professors do you think they
can name? If it wasn’t for the football team under Rockne transforming ND into
a household name, the university wouldn’t stand out from the other small,
private D-III schools in the state of Indiana.
If Notre Dame wants to keep their
prestige and draw some of the best minds the country has to offer, they must
continue to draw the best bodies—guys that can run, catch, block, and throw the
Irish to victory on the gridiron. They will only do this if they lower their
academic standards a bit to let in some of these guys who don’t have eight hours
a night to study because they are hitting the weights or are at practice.
It is time for the administrators at
Notre Dame to get off their high horses and realize what made the university
great—stud athletes who bring home national championships. If students want a
private school with a mediocre football team, they can attend Wake Forest—at
least the winters in North Carolina are a lot milder.
