Notre Dame has been playing football for 135 years and along the way some momentous decisions were made to shape the history of this storied program now entering a daring new phase of college sports. This off-season, we look back at the 10 best decisions made for the Fighting Irish in the decades past.
#10
The Ascension of Hesburgh & Joyce
Your mileage may vary (some may consider this duo far higher on this list or others maybe not even in their top 10) with the importance of these 2 men in the history of Notre Dame. In some ways, the foundation and success of the Irish football program had already been established when Father Ted Hesburgh and Father Ned Joyce became president and vice president respectively in 1952.
Both of these men were just 35 years old when they were hired! They’d both serve together in their roles for the next 35 years before retiring together in 1987.
Their journey together is extraordinary, and Hesburgh specifically became perhaps the most beloved, respected, and prominent university president of his lengthy era in power–and maybe one of the most well-known presidents in the history of American education. That may be an extremely Notre Dame-centric point of view but I don’t think it’s hyperbolic at all to admit.
Things didn’t start off real well for them with the football program. Imagine taking the Alabama presidency today and Nick Saban retiring 2 years later, that would not be a fun transition for anyone. That’s what happened for Hesburgh and Joyce as the titan Frank Leahy retired somewhat abruptly after the 1953 season. For sure, the football program languished with more downs than ups for the next 10 seasons as the right set of coach’s were not picked to replace a legend.
A coach and a president make the cover of Time magazine.
It’s lasted 70 years, the accusations that Hesburgh and Joyce were part of the decision making process on campus to de-emphasize football coming off the stunning success of the1940’s. In their defense, both vehemently denied this.
However, take their time at Notre Dame in its entirety and their impact was massive. The budget for the school grew by hundreds of millions, they navigated making the school co-ed, brought the Irish into the post-season bowl scene, and were crucial in turning the university from a solid Catholic school into the more world renown institution it’s grown into today.
Plus, being around for the hirings of Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, and Lou Holtz were ultimate vindications for their decision making as university leaders vis-a-vis the football team.
Cool series! Excited to see the eventual #1, which I can only assume is brian Kelly’s play calling in the 2016 NCST game… 😬😬😬
Don’t be ridiculous.
It’ll be #3.
Freekbass has to be #2
Also insert my annual tin-foil-hat tirade on brian van gorder
#1: not signing with nike
only partially joking but after seeing them gleefully screw up MLB’s uniforms after the horror show they’ve done with the NBA I have never been more ok with the Irish not signing with them
They’ve been living off their 2013 hype for far far too long
This is heresy.
it is by far one of my hottest takes but i just can’t get it man
their college uniforms are ok? i guess? they’re not great for hoops/baseball and i really don’t think their gear is all that impressive and they’re too prone now to really unnecessary changes i dunno
What has happened in basketball and baseball? Did I miss something?
Oh in college it is purely an aesthetics thing but in the NBA they’ve really messed around with some team’s iconic looks and have oversaturated the alternate market with a weird obsession with having new alternates every season which means they ran out of good ideas pretty quickly
In the MLB this offseason they’ve shrunken the logos and wordmarks + #s and names on uniforms and it all looks pretty terrible! The Mets script is messed up and they butchered the Braves script pic related (along with a really bad change to the sleeves on the home white uniforms) which will go into effect this season
Personally I don’t know too much league wide about what they’ve done in the NFL but they just straight up had the wrong shade of blue for the Carolina Panthers for the last 7+ years and just refused to fix it until this past season
We need a hex investigation of the Panthers!
Everything Tigers said about the NBA, and MLB’s City Edition uniforms are also extremely stupid.
What, you don’t want a jersey that says WRIGLEYVILLE (which is neither a city nor a neighborhood within a city) and looks like it belongs to UNC?
The hats for that uniform have actually grown on me a bit, but the entire concept is a flimsy excuse to sell more gear and there haven’t been more than a couple of the uniforms that have a compelling reason to exist.
Going to have to bump Hesburgh out of the top 10 to get the commitment of All American kick returner Jayden Harrison in there.
He has three receptions for 38 yards at Notre Dame Stadium so far.
There’s an informative chapter – Chapter 5 – in Hesburgh’s autobiography God, Country and Notre Dame titled On The Playing Field which is now on Google Books.
Hesburgh was a co-founder of the Knight Commission.
Above is from TRIBUTE TO REV. THEODORE M. HESBURGH, C.S.C.
Perhaps later the Top Ten Best Decisions will cover the impact of his decision, which was controversial at the time to some, of bringing co-education to Notre Dame. That impact and subsequent development of women’s athletics at ND cannot be measured.
At the risk of overloading on a subject, a couple of books written on Notre Dame and coeducation.
Deborah Dell’s (Class of ’76) book Objects in the Rear View Mirror: A Social History of Coeducation at Notre Dame (Sample and preview of the Hardcover)
Thanking Father Ted: Thirty-Five Years of Notre Dame Coeducation
Also, Father John Jenkins was graduated in the Class of ’76 which saw the first women graduate from ND. That was seven years before he became a priest. Maybe some day he’ll write a book on his experiences with dating, women in the classroom, the changes he saw, etc. That initial class had a male to female ratio of 20 to 1. That must have been a unique dining hall experience.
As someone who was at ND when coeducation actually happened, I can say I thought it was an idea whose time was long overdue.
I was a freshman in 1970 and graduated in 1974. Another idea to which I can attest is that coeducation in 1972 was probably hastened by the fact that ND was worried that the quality of its incoming freshmen classes had dipped in recent years! 😉
#1 is the B1G acceding to Fielding Yost’s wishes?
Great idea for a series, and a very good start. Merci!!
But I need to push back a bit on:
“It’s lasted 70 years, the accusations that Hesburgh and Joyce were part of the decision making process on campus to de-emphasize football coming off the stunning success of the1940’s. In their defense, both vehemently denied this.”
That the young Hesburgh needed to and did get a handle on a coach and a program that threatened to be bigger than the school’s mission was uncontested in my household and family in South Bend — which included a grandfather who was Dean of a critically important department at ND where the Rock had actually taught. And a dad who was friends with Moose Krause.
Despite their denials, the Hesburgh-Joyce tandem definitely tapped the breaks on Coach Leahy — who despite all that rebounded with a ’53 team that should’ve won a Natty. But that tension between Our Lady’s educational mission and what Father Jenkins termed a sort of “muscular Christianity” started with the Rock and lasted a long time. And is still with us for what that’s worth.