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The University of Notre Dame football program got its man on Monday.
No, it didn’t land a high-profile college coach with a winning pedigree, like former Utah and new Florida coach Urban Meyer.
And, no, it didn’t procure a pro coach with a Super Bowl ring, like Tampa Bay’s Jon Gruden.
But in New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, the university that, in essence, represents Catholic America, did secure a football coach who is an alum (Class of 1978), a Catholic and--okay, I’ll say it--a white man.
Sorry, but there’s just no delicate way of putting it.
How else do you explain the firing of former Fighting Irish football coach Tyrone Willingham, who was hired by the troubled University of Washington football program (they know a good man when they see him) after a scant two weeks on the unemployment line?
Three years ago, Willingham, an African-American, arrived in South Bend with the perfect resume— unlike the university’s first choice for the job (George O’Leary). He had coached at a university with high academic standards—Stanford—and done so well, posting a 44-36-1 record in seven seasons.
He was getting it done at Notre Dame, too—until he got the shaft.
In the early 1980s, the Irish gave Gerry Faust five years, despite a mediocre 30-26-1 record (18- 15-1 after three seasons). Willingham’s predecessor, Bob Davie, got five years, with a similarly pedestrian 35-25 mark (21-16 after three seasons), and a program marred by the off- the-field problems.
Willingham’s record in a paltry three seasons was 21-15. And he continued to graduate players, while, by all reports, making sure they behaved off the field.
Yet, he became the first Notre Dame coach fired before being allowed to fulfill his contract.
It’s almost unheard of to fire a college football coach before allowing him a full recruiting cycle (four to five years) to make or break a program with his own players.
Yet, that’s exactly what Notre Dame did.
So what did Faust and Davie have that Willingham didn’t?
A lighter skin pigment.
At least that's my opinion. Many will argue that Notre Dame boosters and administrators had banked on Meyer returning to South Bend when they made the decision to can Willingham, but I don’t buy it. Few were surprised when Meyer, a devout Catholic and former Fighting Irish assistant, chose the Florida job. He had worked for the school president, after all, and the Gators’ future schedule and incoming recruits look a heck of a lot more favorable than Notre Dame’s. Notre Dame had to have seen that, too.
It doesn’t help the perception here either that Notre Dame president Rev. Edward Malloy and athletic director Kevin White, the two men who, at most schools, would be solely responsible for the decision to dismiss the football coach, told The New York Times last week that they had been against the decision to terminate Willingham.
So why did it happen?
My guess is the university community was far more ready to accept a black man in the high-profile position of football coach than if not the majority a powerful minority of alumni and football fans. This “liberal-college-faculty- being-out-of-touch-with-conservative-American- values” thing is becoming an old story in the media these days.
Oh wait… This is Notre Dame. Doesn’t get much more conservative than the Catholic Church.
But there’s a disconnect somewhere. Over the years, I heard more than one supposed Irish supporter use the “N-word” in relation to Willingham, the first black head football coach at the school and the only black head coach there, in any sport, at the time of his dismissal.
This isn’t about Charlie Weis, who, to me, seems like a stand-up guy. But he’s not half the college coach Willingham is. Not yet anyway.
This was about racism. And, at least one Notre Dame administrator agrees with me. Rev. Malloy’s assistant, Chandra Johnson, an African-American. She shaved her head in protest of Willingham’s firing.
I’d say simply that Notre Dame’s loss is Washington’s gain, but Notre Dame lost a lot more than a good football coach as a result of the Willingham affair. It lost its standing as a pillar of decency and values, and that’s a lot harder to fix than a football team.
URL: http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/dec/article217.html
No, it didn’t land a high-profile college coach with a winning pedigree, like former Utah and new Florida coach Urban Meyer.
And, no, it didn’t procure a pro coach with a Super Bowl ring, like Tampa Bay’s Jon Gruden.
But in New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, the university that, in essence, represents Catholic America, did secure a football coach who is an alum (Class of 1978), a Catholic and--okay, I’ll say it--a white man.
Sorry, but there’s just no delicate way of putting it.
How else do you explain the firing of former Fighting Irish football coach Tyrone Willingham, who was hired by the troubled University of Washington football program (they know a good man when they see him) after a scant two weeks on the unemployment line?
Three years ago, Willingham, an African-American, arrived in South Bend with the perfect resume— unlike the university’s first choice for the job (George O’Leary). He had coached at a university with high academic standards—Stanford—and done so well, posting a 44-36-1 record in seven seasons.
He was getting it done at Notre Dame, too—until he got the shaft.
In the early 1980s, the Irish gave Gerry Faust five years, despite a mediocre 30-26-1 record (18- 15-1 after three seasons). Willingham’s predecessor, Bob Davie, got five years, with a similarly pedestrian 35-25 mark (21-16 after three seasons), and a program marred by the off- the-field problems.
Willingham’s record in a paltry three seasons was 21-15. And he continued to graduate players, while, by all reports, making sure they behaved off the field.
Yet, he became the first Notre Dame coach fired before being allowed to fulfill his contract.
It’s almost unheard of to fire a college football coach before allowing him a full recruiting cycle (four to five years) to make or break a program with his own players.
Yet, that’s exactly what Notre Dame did.
So what did Faust and Davie have that Willingham didn’t?
A lighter skin pigment.
At least that's my opinion. Many will argue that Notre Dame boosters and administrators had banked on Meyer returning to South Bend when they made the decision to can Willingham, but I don’t buy it. Few were surprised when Meyer, a devout Catholic and former Fighting Irish assistant, chose the Florida job. He had worked for the school president, after all, and the Gators’ future schedule and incoming recruits look a heck of a lot more favorable than Notre Dame’s. Notre Dame had to have seen that, too.
It doesn’t help the perception here either that Notre Dame president Rev. Edward Malloy and athletic director Kevin White, the two men who, at most schools, would be solely responsible for the decision to dismiss the football coach, told The New York Times last week that they had been against the decision to terminate Willingham.
So why did it happen?
My guess is the university community was far more ready to accept a black man in the high-profile position of football coach than if not the majority a powerful minority of alumni and football fans. This “liberal-college-faculty- being-out-of-touch-with-conservative-American- values” thing is becoming an old story in the media these days.
Oh wait… This is Notre Dame. Doesn’t get much more conservative than the Catholic Church.
But there’s a disconnect somewhere. Over the years, I heard more than one supposed Irish supporter use the “N-word” in relation to Willingham, the first black head football coach at the school and the only black head coach there, in any sport, at the time of his dismissal.
This isn’t about Charlie Weis, who, to me, seems like a stand-up guy. But he’s not half the college coach Willingham is. Not yet anyway.
This was about racism. And, at least one Notre Dame administrator agrees with me. Rev. Malloy’s assistant, Chandra Johnson, an African-American. She shaved her head in protest of Willingham’s firing.
I’d say simply that Notre Dame’s loss is Washington’s gain, but Notre Dame lost a lot more than a good football coach as a result of the Willingham affair. It lost its standing as a pillar of decency and values, and that’s a lot harder to fix than a football team.
URL: http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/dec/article217.html
