Prop 48 Question

[Ultimate Penn St. Hater]

Does anyone know how many Prop 48 players ND has taken in its history. I thought it was only Tony Rice and Chris Zorich. Someone recently told me that Rocket Ismail was one and that there were others. Thanks for your help. Go Irish!

 

[BGIF]

Does anyone know how many Prop 48 players ND has taken in its history. I thought it was only Tony Rice and Chris Zorich. Someone recently told me that Rocket Ismail was one and that there were others. Thanks for your help. Go Irish!

Three and Zorich was NOT a Prop 48.

In 1986 ND admitted Tony Rice, John Foley, the USA Defensive Player of The Year, and Keith Robinson for basketball. They were the first an only Prop 48s at ND. There have been none since at ND. Under the terms of Prop 48 they could neither play NOR practice. They were fulltime students. And while they were forbidden to participate in sports during their freshman year it cost them a year of eligibility.

Rice played in '87, '88, and '89 and was out of eligibility.
Foley only played the '87 season. He had a career ending injury in the Cotton Bowl.
Robinson played 3 seasons for the Irish.

All 3 graduated. Despite the pain from his playing days injury Foley used his ND degree and drive to build a highly successful and lucrative business career.

 

[Ultimate Penn St. Hater]

Thanks BGIF. The info is much appreciated.

 

[BGIF]

One of the priincipal reason ND never went the Prop 48 route again was that those 3 students were isolated from the rest of the student body by their need to "catch up". They didn't share the same academic environment the ND believes is essential to developing the complete student. That was a major objection to admitting mid year freshman, the EEs (Early Entrance) for many years.

Keep in mind that Fr Hesburgh years earlier had started upgrading ND's academic reputation. Monk was on a mission to make ND the Princeton/Stanford of the midwest. ND was no longer the blue collar school of Gip, Krause, and Hornung. The ND student body was changing as a consequence.

This contributef to another problem/concern as the Prop 48s were treated as pariahs by some/many of their fellow students. The other athletes at ND while not necessarily scholars had still met minimum Admission Requirements like the other students. The Prop 48s didn't. The Prop 48s got a waiver that nobody else had.