Notre Dame

Everybody has a down year. Or do they? Babe Ruth knew that he was getting paid more than President Herbert Hoover when he famously stated, "I had a better year than him." Most historians would agree with the Bambino that most of Hoover's time in the White House was a disaster. Babe's Yankees would go on to win over twenty-five world championships over the years. But even the Bronx Bombers would have long stretches of ineptitude in the late sixties and early seventies and again from the late eighties through the mid nineties. The Dallas Cowboys, the Montreal Canadians, and the fabled Boston Celtics have all seen recent years of frustration. Tom Hanks has had his "DaVinci Code", Sylvester Stallone went under in "Over The Top", Kirsten Dunst met an ill fate in "Marie Antoinette", and superstar Tom Cruise should have had his eyes opened before appearing in "Eyes Wide Shut". So as the college football season reaches towards the falling leaves of October it comes as a complete shock that one program, the incredibly successful Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, has finally reached rock bottom. In 119 years of football, the blessed team has compiled twelve losing seasons. Yet their overall victory total is over 800 and they boast of a .743 won-lost percentage. But now reality has sunk in. It took all these years and well over a thousand games before Notre Dame started a season with four consecutive losses. Through a combination of prayer, loads of donors' money, and the hard sweat and toil of generations of tough minded athletes, the school has avoided the ignominy that has befallen on every other type of sports, artistic, and common place institution and person. Instead of admitting defeat and giving up the ghost, the administrators, coaches, and players should be thankful for this sudden rush to humility. For out of the ashes of defeat can spring the seeds of success and the miraculous. With "touchdown Jesus" watching, victory can not be that far off and perhaps a touch of gratitude will touch all those who play and follow the Irish.