February 16, 2006
Hiben Leaves Team, Not School
by LOU SOMOGYI
A report in Thursday’s South Bend Tribune confirmed recent rumors that Notre Dame freshman tight end Joey Hiben has left the football team to concentrate on his architect major. Hiben will remain enrolled at the school, but he will no longer be on a football scholarship.
“What it really comes down to is architecture is more important than football to me,” Hiben told the Tribune’s Bob Wieneke.
During Hiben’s recruitment in 2004, he committed in October to Purdue over Stanford and Notre Dame. However, the Waconia, Minn., native switched to Notre Dame a month later because Purdue lacked an architecture program, something Hiben was unaware of when he gave his verbal to the Boilermakers.
Hiben appeared in 7 games last year
Architecture, a five-year field of study, is maybe the most demanding major at Notre Dame, and seldom does a varsity athlete enroll in it. Running back Ricky Watters did in 1987, but switched his major to design soon thereafter. McDonald’s All-American basketball recruit Barry Spencer also chose architecture as his major in 1980, but he was twice declared academically ineligible to compete with the team before earning his degree in the field in 1985. He currently is a project manager in Bloomfield Hills. Mich.
Starting quarterback Rusty Lisch and backup tight end Kevin Hart (son of 1949 Heisman Trophy winner Leon Hart) were two of the more prominent architect majors at Notre Dame in the late 1970s. In an interview with Blue & Gold Illustrated a couple of years ago, Lisch recounted the difficulty of balancing football with that major.
“I think when they saw these goofy athletes getting into the architecture program, there was a reaction of, ‘Well, they’re a novelty act,’ ” Lisch said. “But the more they tried to run me off, the more I just gritted my teeth and said, ‘No, I’m not leaving.’ It was almost like a bet that I couldn’t make it.
“I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t the most accomplished drawer or designer like Kevin and others, but I stuck with it, trudged through and made it.”
Hiben was the No. 4 tight end on last year’s roster, behind Anthony Fasano, John Carlson and Marcus Freeman. He appeared in seven games and saw 24:37 of action, several minutes short of the 30 minutes required to receive a monogram. His departure leaves only 14 freshman on the spring roster, and 12 sophomores.
With Fasano bypassing his fifth season to make himself eligible for the NFL Draft, Carlson is the heir apparent and has two years of eligibility remaining. It has not been confirmed by the football office whether Freeman will return for a fifth season in 2006.
Earlier this month, the Irish signed Konrad Reuland, considered in recruiting circles the nation’s No. 1 tight end prospect.
