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发帖数: 1210 | 1 By Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript
NORMAN — Notre Dame is a wonderful school, a fantastic institution and a
slice of American history that simply can’t be denied. Just ask Regis
Philbin.
But even taking Regis at his word, it is forever easier to be repulsed than
charmed by the Golden Domers, even for a Bishop McGuiness grad like me.
I mean, really, it’s Notre Dame.
It’s not personal (well, it’s not necessarily personal), but there are
many reasons to be sideways with the Fighting Irish. If you need any, here’
s a top-10 list.
10. Digger Phelps: Digger coached Irish basketball for 20 seasons, and if he
’d stopped there everything would have been fine, because who didn’t like
watching the Irish on WGN back in the day. I still think Rich Branning’s an
underrated college point guard. Lots of talent around him, but the guy
could play. Unfortunately, Digger can’t do analysis. I listen and listen to
the guy and when he’s done talking, I have no idea what he’s said. He’s
worse than Adam Schefter. And, he’s a big fan of Bob Knight.
9. The Irish women: As in women’s basketball. Twice the Irish have ended
coach Sherri Coale’s Sooner women’s season, two years ago in Dayton to
keep the Sooners out of the Elite Eight, and in overtime in 2008, to keep OU
out of the Sweet 16. And even if Skylar Diggins is an All-American (she
happens to be on my preseason list), why does she get to be the crossover
star of the women’s game. What’s wrong with Whitney Hand?
8. Coffee mugs: Admittedly, this one is personal. As a freshman at McGuinnes
(a long, long time ago) somebody was having a fundraiser and the product
being sold was coffee mugs. You could by an OU mug, an OSU mug … or a Notre
Dame mug. A Notre Dame mug? In the middle of Oklahoma City? It did not
compute. Still doesn’t. But it is what it is. Not that it’s alright.
7. The NBC contract: Since 1991, only Notre Dame has had its own singular
television football contract. Ever since, every Irish home game has been
broadcast on NBC. It’s not all bad of course, because for the last several
years, a national audience has been able to watch Notre Dame lose many games
. A personal favorite? Tulsa’s 28-27 victory two years ago. As long as the
Irish remain independent, it will be so. Good for them, yet they wonder why
people despise them.
6. Say what? Is it “Noter Dame” or “Notra Dame.” (And while we’re at it
, can we get Brett Favre explained?) Does it depend what I’m drinking? Wine
for “Notra” and beer for “Noter.” What if it’s Guinness? Just saying.
5. Streakbusters: Not the one you’re thinking about, but it was Notre Dame
— Digger Phelps strikes again — that ended John Wooden and UCLA’s 88-game
winning streak on Jan. 19, 1974. Can’t another institution get in on the
ending of fantastic collegiate winning streaks?
4. Lou Holtz: Bad enough, for Sooner fans, that Holtz somehow got his
Arkansas Razorbacks to beat heavily-favored Oklahoma at the 1978 Orange Bowl
(even convincingly, 31-6), robbing Barry Switzer and the Sooners of three
national championships in five seasons. Worse, Holtz’s 1988 national
championship at Notre Dame gave him mileage enough to reign on ESPN for what
seems like forever. He’s entertaining sure, but he has no idea what he’s
talking about.
3. Ridiculousness: Take your pick:
“Win one for the Gipper.”
“The Four Horsemen.”
“Rudy.”
We have no idea if George Gipp ever really said to Knute Rockne what Ronald
Reagan, playing Gipp, said to Pat O’Brien, playing Rockne, in “Knute
Rockne All American,” yet we’ve had to hear it our entire lives.
And while Grantland Rice may have invented sportswriting, his famous “Four
Horsemen” lead — “Outlined against a blue-gray sky, the Four Horseman
rode again” — from the 1924 Army-Notre Dame game is a bit of a farce. Rice
was in the press box looking down at the game.
Finally, could “Rudy” have happened anywhere else? Well, sure, but only at
Notre Dame is it worth a movie.
Somehow, the Fighting Irish have been to college football what Disney has
been to fantasy. You can love it, or you can want to throw up.
2. Being Notre Dame: Part of this is wrapped in No. 3, but how did a school
in South Bend, Ind., with no more than 12,000 undergraduates come to rule
the world?
It is a small Catholic university. They grow on trees in this country. But
Notre Dame is special. So horribly special.
1. Hello: the Irish ended Oklahoma’s 47-game-winning streak. Worse, they
were the only program to beat OU over a run of 71 games from 1951 to 1958
and they did it three times.
See you at the game.
Clay HorningFollow me @c******************[email protected]
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or our print edition. | s*******s
发帖数: 9489 | 2 打球打不过，不够别人帅，又不够别人有钱，只好羡慕嫉妒恨了。偶最bs这些sb文了。 |
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