Thank team for hard work
Letter to the Editor
Kathleen Hoag
I wonder if some alumni have forgotten the pride a Notre Dame student feels for those fellow students who wear our colors and choose to sacrifice and suffer in our Lady's Holy Name. I know that after today, as long as I live, I shall never forget the pride I felt watching our football team do battle against Nebraska. As much as anyone, I prayed for victory, but what I witnessed was a mountain of courage and fortitude, along with the incredible coaching of Bob Davie and his staff. If you love Notre Dame, the victory surely would have been ecstasy, but the pride and admiration for our team could have been no bigger.
As someone who knows the game and grew up around the game, I have witnessed first-hand the level of character necessary to overcome intense physical pain to play this game. In that regard, it is unlike any other. Today, I stood throughout, admiring my fellow students, every one of them, as they overcame the long odds and the insensitivity during the last year of those who would call themselves Notre Dame fans.
To coach this game you need a dynamic heart that is capable of deep empathy for your players, and the will to place no limits on the preparations necessary for success. If you know this game — I mean really know it — you recognize Bob Davie as one of its best, not for the fancy slogans and 50-0 wins over the bottom rung Division I teams, but as a football coach who always puts our University and his players first.
The heartbreak for our guys who played today is ten-fold what we feel, but rest assured my fellow Irish students, Battle, Boiman, Jones, Denman and the rest will be ready once again next Saturday against Purdue. I guess if I had one wish for us in the week ahead, it would be for each of us to take a moment when you see one our guys on the team and without any more than a touch on his shoulder, just say thanks. They earned it.
Kathleen Hoag
junior, Pangborn Hall
September 10, 2000
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, September 11, 2000
