There are a couple of points that the year books make evident to me: first, the students who were responsible for the compiling, writing, and organization of the year books had to work full time throughout the year to accomplish the task. And second, ND operated as an advanced high school with it's approach to academics, campus life and the provision of the "college experience". Father Hesburgh ran the show his way, pretty much as a disciplinarian.
In looking at the baseball pictures, I had forgotten that several football players also played on our baseball team. As I have mentioned here previously, Joe Theismann, the quarterback on the football team, played 3rd base for us on our Spring trip to Florida my junior year. I always thought he did that to skip Spring football for a month or so, because he went back to football shortly after Florida in order to be ready for the Spring game. (He played well at third, and was a good stick with quick hands. He was a hit with the Gator Girls as well!)
Joe wouldn't remember me these days, but we bumped into one another on a regular basis our last two years. He would come to The Rock and play pick-up basketball in his off-season, as did many of the football (and basketball) players. (We Rock Rats enjoyed having the scholarship players show up and find that the competition gave them no quarter. We often won against guys who came in thinking that their athleticism would keep them on-court in the Winner-Keeps-Playing games.) I remember sitting with Joe on the back steps of Washington Hall at one point in graduation week when we were both trying to get our cap-and-gown get-ups issued to us.
Jim Wright was a catcher for us, and a starting linebacker. We had Nick Furlong, a pitcher and a back-up running back. As a sophomore, we had a forward from the basketball team, Bob Arnzen, as one of our pitchers. I'm sure that these connections then produced other contacts, as I was able to recall more football acquaintances as I looked through these year books.
So in a final reference to the Yahoo article about the weaving of the ND athlete into the general student population, I guess my experience would support the thesis.
Some other thoughts occurred to me as I scanned the year books. Mostly, I didn't participate in all that much stuff beyond baseball, class and a modest amount of social things. ND had many notable guest speakers and entertainment opportunities. Other than 3-4 concerts (The Fifth Dimension, Dionne Warwick, and maybe The Four Tops), I would have been a no-show. Those speakers, senior year alone, included the likes of Saul Alinsky, Jane Fonda, Alex Haley, George McGovern and Dorothy Day. (Leftists all, but I wasn't that political back then, so my dander was not ruffled.)
I have no recollection of any outbursts at ND following the Kent State riots in May of 1970, but the year book devotes a lot of pages to the protests that occurred on campus. The Summer of 1970 would have been the year that I did my ROTC boot camp training at the air base in Charleston, South Carolina. I certainly never had any bad incidents as an ROTC cadet on the ND campus.
ND's campus is fairly compact, and was even more so in my time. Everybody who lived on campus (which was a heavy majority of the students), walked to class, practice and other activities. Few places were more than a 10-12 minute walk from your dorm. There may have been a few bikes, but not many. No motor scooters. Anyone with a car had it parked in a lot beyond the football stadium. Even today, there are few actual streets on campus.
There was an army of maids who cleaned the dorms on a daily basis. Lots of Polish/German ladies who were no-nonsense types tasked with the goal of keeping the hundreds of dorm rooms respectable. Kinda like my current-day RCL. Laundry was done on-campus, by a service, but you were in charge of getting your own stuff either to the laundry or maybe to your dorm's drop-off cart. Each piece of clothing had to have your own laundry number sewn or indelibly stamped to the item. After the prescribed number of days, you could go to the laundry and pick up your pack, paying with the chits that were distributed as part of your tuition (I think. A little fuzzy on that process.)
Standard meals were served at two dining halls, North and South. I don't think that we had a "plan" like most schools use today. You either had a card or you didn't. And since the options were so otherwise limited, all the guys I knew had a card. And the athletes ate at the same dining halls. I do think that they may have held the lines open longer for the footballers when the team's practice schedule fell outside of normal dining hours.
The one pay-like-normal sandwich shop on campus was a place called The Huddle, located on the first floor of the student union. It had your typical greasy-spoon menu of burgers, fries, donuts, and various candies, chips and the like. It was located not far from Cavanaugh Hall, and I would get a soda there every once in a while when we would play pool in the union. Due to its central location, The Huddle was a frequent gathering spot to meet-up with friends from other dorms for a trip off campus or to a game. From a Google-search, it looks like The Huddle has become a modern day Food Court.
I went to daily Mass quite a bit, often at 10PM. All of the residence halls had chapels, and at that time, each dorm had a priest in residence. Dillon Hall was mentioned in the article, and that was one of my favorite late-nite Mass locations. The chapel there had had all of the pews removed, and the usual celebrant was a priest well up the food-chain in the Administration whom Mary Neimeyer introduced me to junior year. His Masses were always participatory, as were his sermon/discussions.
Mary also got me connected with the Holy Cross seminary on campus where we often went for Sunday Mass. The seminarians led a very up-beat, energized service with all sorts of music that was one of the most well-attended Masses on campus. (Our cousin Terry from Washington DC was enrolled at the seminary while I was at ND, but I don't think that he was ever ordained.)
The Crypt below the main church was another of my Mass locations, particularly as a junior and senior. I think that it was actually run as a parish apart from the main church. Obviously, it was a very intimate location, dark with no natural light, low ceiling and not probably for the claustrophobic. (Interestingly, I never attended many Masses in the main church.)
Continuing on past The Grotto was (I'm sure still is!) the road to St. Mary's of Notre Dame, the unconnected girls school associated with Notre Dame. (There was always talk of a merger, but it never happened. Once ND went coed, the merger idea went away.) I suppose that Mary Neimeyer was the primary reason that St. Mary's became a memorable aspect of my Notre Dame experience. Through her, I met many St. Mary's students, dated a few, and had much more female contact than most of my classmates. As a matter of fact, I'd have to say that "dating" was not part of the social life of most ND guys back then.
I mentioned to 4 in a text last night that my ND experience was a year too long. It was not a case of pure "senioritis", but the fourth year just didn't add much to my personal development. Classes were generally boring, baseball was a huge drag (bad team, lousy relationship with the coach, sore arm, etc.), and my post-graduation program was already locked-in with the USAF. I was passing time.
Busy, busy week in my future. Make yours a good one.
BCOT
No comments:
Post a Comment