Interview with Ken McAfee

I want to hear your insight to this incoming class and the new coach coming in.
You analysis is always great and I can't wait to hear it.
And once again thank you for this site.

The video message you sent to my USC friend was awesome, and the video for my engagement is something that both of us love to show off to our families and friends. Thank you again for being part of our special day!

I wish everyone of you a Merry Christmas. And to all of the Irish Catholics on this blog, including myself, a heartfelt time spent at Mass. I would be remiss not to include all of my many non Irish friends in this time of year when we might consider our many blessings and spend some time thanking the Almighty for all that we have, and that includes the Notre Dame wins that were far too few, but which make us appreciate what winning means to us, and what may be coming our way next season.

To Aaron, thank you for being you and creating this incredible forum by which we can say what needs to be said, and push positive criticism concerning where our team is heading in the future.

Now what I think is that after watching Skip Holtz's team beat its rival this past week, should Charlie falter on his upcoming season, should not a consideration come his way?

I'm just throwing it out there. The Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

terrific,gooo IRISH

Aaron,
I have never heard such an inspiring, informative, and positive speech ever given at any banquet in my life. You are an excellent and eloquent speaker with tremendous insight.
It was a thrill to meet you before the game at the Rose Bowl. I was the guy that missed your comments on ESPN and admired your reat suits.
God bless. We need more Aaron Taylors.

Mike Haywood is on the short list for the Northern Ill. head coaching position. If he is selected, will that open the door for Bill Callahan to come to ND as off. coordinator or will CW go local and promote Charlie Jr. to call the plays and hold the bucket of Baby Ruth bars.

Do not be suprised to see KW gone by the end of next year and the names of Stoops and Kelly surface to replace Big Whiskey at the helm. ND cannot sit pat for another two years of this crap. Too much money involved and many influential alumnus are disgusted including yours truly.Economy is heading south and ND must put together a good product to draw the faithful to the dreary midwest.

My short list includes the above mentioned along with Jimmy Johnson(bringing the boat up the St. Joe River) and Sylvestor Crooms(does a lot with zero talent).Hopefully they can coach both sports because I would ship Brey out on the first bus leaving the bus depot. The crowds at the b-ball games are awful and he is the reason.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Uninspired,unathletic guys who are not taught the fundamentals. Brey is possibly worse than Weis because he will not adapt. Charlie will at least admit his faults.

The sports programs are headed in the toilet and no one cares. What a disgrace. Hope Purcell is happy donating 12 million to the Joyce to polish a turd.If ND was located in Saudi Arabia, one of these guys would have been lashed to a pole for detriment of duty. Thank God for women's soccer.

The Abyss

Yipee... A ND player hit somebody! Bruton just punished a receiver.

Duke- This would be a total disaster to lose to these guys. Would never live it down.

San Diego State- If Charlie lasts to the opening game next year, a loss to these guys would be a killer. He has run out of excuses.

FWIW- There are storm clouds brewing in South Bend and the team is in disarray. Not hard to figure out but things are bad and getting worse. Jimmy Clausen getting drilled out of bounds and the subsequent reaction by the team says it all.

ND needs to rebuild the program and it starts at the top. Go way above Weis and clean house. Not saying they ever will but look at where this team is playing and look ahead with the lousy scheduling and other mistakes by the administration.

If you were in any business and the performance by the brass was as bad as it has been for ten years. would you be able to hold your job. How these guys represent excellence at Notre Dame is a mystery to me.

Blow it up and rebuild

GO IRISH!!!!

Bellaire High School head football coach Jeff Walker in Texas is working on the biography of one of the greatest legends of whom most people have never heard - Jack Chevigny. Walker is looking for a publisher.

Jack Chevigny was a halfback on the Knute Rockne team of 1928. As Chevigny and his mates sat beaten in the locker room during the Army-ND game at half time, coach Knute Rockne delivered the most famous pep talk in sports history, urging his players to “go out there and give it all they’ve got, and win just one for the Gipper” – for George Gipp, the Notre Dame star who died of pneumonia in 1920.

Chevigny did his part to honor the memory of Gipp, scoring the winning touchdown in what turned into a surprising 12-6 come-from-behind victory over a powerful Army team. “That’s one for the Gipper,” said Chevigny as he crossed the goal line, at least according to Irish lore.

Chevigny coached briefly at Notre Dame in 1931 until Rockne died in a plane crash. Jack Chevigny did not play in the NFL but by 1932 – before he had even turned 30 – he was given the NFL head coaching job of the then-Chicago Cardinals.

But he ended up with a much more prestigious job at a time when college football ruled the land. Chevigny became the head coach at the University of Texas. He had another moment of glory in his second game as coach, beating his alma mater, 7-6, in 1934. At the end of his promising first season, which ended with a 7-2-1 record, Chevigny was presented with an inscribed pen in honor of the achievement: “To a Notre Dame boy who beat Notre Dame.”

Later during World War II Jack Chevigny joined the marines and coached football at the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina. In February 1945 at the age of 38, Chevigny found himself among the first waves of U.S. Marines to storm the beaches at Iwo Jima. He stood up for "his boys" and refused to let them go to war without him.

Within 24 hours, he was dead. Some reports say he was shot by a sniper. The 1946 NFL record book, meanwhile, says he was killed by a direct shell hit as he took cover in a bomb crater.

In early September 1945, six months after the Chevigny was killed, American and Japanese officials boarded the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Harbor to sign the peace treaty that would bring World War II to a formal end.

According to Notre Dame sources, a Japanese envoy was about to sign the surrender documents when Americans noticed he had a pen that bore an English-language inscription. 
 
That's right. The pen read: “To a Notre Dame boy who beat Notre Dame.”
 
Chevigny apparently carried the pen with him into battle on Iwo Jima. Somehow it ended up in the hands of the enemy and made its way off the island and up the chain of command and onto the ship on which World War II officially came to an end.
 
The pen was brought back to the United States and, legend has it, the inscription was changed to read: “To Jack Chevigny, a Notre Dame boy who gave his life for his country in the spirit of old Notre Dame.”

http://www.fundforteachers.org/press2007/iwo_jima_grant.html

www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Article.php?Page=826

Aaron-

I just listened to the Shane Walton interview and watched your interview with Coach Holtz. This should be mandatory study for the players on the team today.

This site is terrific. And you make it seem effortless. You are truly a special person who could do anything in life. Thank you.

With men who care like you, Coach Holtz and Coach Weis, ND will get this program turned around.

The Cronin's were at the 1977 USAF Academy vs ND on the Thanksgiving weekend, the last game not sold out..Yes the IRISH had low expectations back then since they lost against Mississippi ST (?) ahh? the first game ? One of the things I remember was they were passing around a big bottle of Christain Brothers above us, but I was with my parents. My dad was on Rockne's team & suited up at least one time, but never made it onto the field, Edward J. Cronin '30, from Ludington, Mich, "The little city on the lake, the little city wide awake"