Throughout his career as head Coach of Georgetown University's basketball team, John Thompson went out of his way to bring underprivileged African American students to the Hilltop as part of the basketball program.
He always left room for one white guy at the end of the bench...in fact his career may have ended when the white guy at the end of the bench turned out to be the son of a casino owner with whom Thompson invested in airport slot machines.
On the left coast, some people act surprised when I tell them I attended Georgetown, a Jesuit institution. They always figured it, like Howard, was "one of those black schools," judging by the baskettball team.
Following Thompson's departure, his successor made the team look more like the campus, recruiting Caucasians like Matt Causey and Sead Dizdarevic. The team took a downward spiral and Coach Escherick has been fired.
At the nation's second-leading catholic University, the football program has taken the same trajectory as Georgetown basketball: downward. One famous alum blames it on the fact that there aren't enough Negroes at Notre Dame:
Former Notre Dame great Paul Hornung...told Detroit's AM-1270 The Sports Station (an ESPN radio affiliate) on Tuesday that Notre Dame must ease up on its academic restrictions because "We gotta get the black athlete," he said. "We must get the black athlete if we're going to compete."Hornung said that Notre Dame's schedule factors into his opinion.
"You can't play that type of schedule," Hornung said. "We're playing eight bowl teams next year ... and it's always year in and year out ... one of the toughest schedules.
"You can't play a schedule like that unless you have the black athlete today. You just can't do it, and it's very, very tough, still, to get into Notre Dame. They just don't understand it, yet they want to win."
This is wrong on so many levels...first, there's the "Jimmy the Greek" factor, implying that blacks are more athletic genetically, then there's the assumption Hornung makes that blacks need lower academic standards in order to be admitted...implying that "the black athlete" is genetically more stupider. I guess that demonstrates the value of a Notre Dame education.
Permalink | Send To A Friend | Linking Blogs | Digg this!
Filed under:
College Football
