Gimme a break http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1772368 Former Notre Dame great Paul Hornung may have landed in some hot water when discussing how the Irish can improve their football fortunes. 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." Hornung also added that Notre Dame, which in January signed a new five-year agreement with NBC to televise its home football games, probably will lose the contract -- worth about $9 million annually -- if the school doesn't start winning more games. Notre Dame's football team went 5-7 last season, its second under Tyrone Willingham, the first black head coach in any sport in school history. It was the third losing season in five years -- something that had never happened before in the storied history of the program. The losing season contributed to low ratings on NBC -- just a 2.4 rating per game, tied with 2001 for the lowest in the school's 13 years on the network. Hornung is the only Heisman Trophy winner to play for a losing team: His 1956 Notre Dame team went 2-8.
Basically saying you need African Americans to win at sports and that Notre Dame's academic entry requirements are to high for African American athletes to meet.
my first reaction was... do they not have enough black athletes? i mean... after Ron Powlus... jarious jackson, carlyle holiday, audry denson... those were the faces of the team and they were all black. i mean they have some white fullbacks and receivers but who doesn't?
All I ever hear about is that inner city schools are crappy and black kids from those schools are at a disadvantage...then somebody says that they should make it easier for those disadvantaged kids to get into college so they can play sports, and they are racist?
Well, he's right. You don't win National Championships with a bunch of slow white guys. Sure, LSU had a heady QB last year in Mauck, but the real playmakers were at TB in Vincent and Addai, and Michael Clayton and Devery Henderson at WR. Another case in point...Chance Mock vs. Vincent Young. The Texas offense and running game exploded after Vince took over the offense. I can go on...Roy Williams, Larry Fitzgerald, Mike Williams, Rashaun Woods, Lee Evans, Reggie Williams, et al are all black. Sure every now and then you get an Ed McCaffrey type, but you can't succeed without top athletes at the skill positions. Now let's look at running back. Cedric Benson, Ricky Williams, Earl Campbell, etc. Compare that to Travis Jervey...
Pay no mind to the old coot. My wife has firsthand experience that he is a misogynist of the tallest order, so that he's making a statement implying that blacks are substandard students isn't a total shock. My firsthand experience with him is that he is a real delight to deal with when he is drunk or hung over.
"Hey honky, how you like that?" ~ asked by a Texas Western player after dunking on UK's Pat Riley in the '66 NCAA title game forever changing America's perception of the athlete (not PC).
Woah. Hold on now. Are you implying that black athletes are better than white ethletes uniformally, perhaps even genetically?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the purpose of universities and colleges are for higher education. Why should any college lower it's requirements so they can get people who are on a lesser plane of intelligence? Sports should not be the primary reason people go to college. I disagree completely with sports scholarships. If you can't get in to an institute of higher learning because you are, for a lack of better words, a moron, then why should you go at all? Freeloaders....
If you can't get a C average and 820 on your SAT, you don't belong in college. And ND's standards can't be that much higher for their football players.
you missed his second quote, "If only Notre Dame could stop being Catholic and maybe became VooDoo instead, then the black athletes wouldn't be so repelled by our school."
Freeloaders? They're not just hanging around doing nothing, they are playing football. They provide football for the school, the school provides them with an education. Or, atleast that's how it's supposed to go. Now it's they provide football for the school and the school provides a place to prepare for the NFL. College Football brings money and prestige to universities. That money and recognition brings better profs and garners interest from more students.
That would be great if that's what he said. But you cleaned it up for him. I would agree with you, if that's what he said. But he didn't say kids coming from poor schools, he basically said all black kids.
two things i find really appalling in this article. nbc is going to show notre dame for another 5 ****ing years?!!! stop it already. hornung won the heisman on a 2-8 team? how un-friggin-believably biased to notre dame was the media back then? i don't care if he was the greatest player of all time, they were 2-8, that blows.
The majority of talented athletes currently are blacks. What is wrong with Hornung saying ND needs to recruit blacks?
ND recruits blacks. You know that isn't what he said. There in lies the true stupidity of his statement.
