titanmac wrote:getting rid of football and demolishing that stadium was one of the most imbecilic actions taken by a largely incompetent administration that the university has ever experienced. this includes a large body of actions that might well be viewed as incompetent. i truly hope the legacy of those administrators has expired.
I disagree, Mac. Getting rid of football was the norm for smaller urban Catholic colleges in the 1960s. In the post-WWII boom state colleges had bottomless wallets and took over big-time sports. Big 10: one private school. ACC: until very recently, two private schools. Pac10: one private school. SEC: one private school. Sure, Notre Dame flourished, but with a legendary legacy, deep pockets, and in a small rural location with no competition. Other Catholic schools have rebounded, but in 1964 it was the wave.
Tearing down the stadium was the only option for the school. It was condemned as structurally deficient and UofD, with a $15 million budget that it could barely balance, would have had to spend millions and millions to repair it for a program with no sport that used a stadium. I think the only event my junior year was the Police vs. Fire Department football game. Maybe a high school game or two, but I don't recall any.
Earlier generations of administrators and alumni can be faulted for not building up an endowment, but UofD was a blue-collar college and no Rolodex of wealthy alumni who would step forward and build the school. Being in Detroit didn't help, either, but the school stuck to its mission and stayed in Detroit. Contrast this with Duke, which was a rinky-dink little college until James Duke offered a genuine fortune to relocate little Trinity College to Durham and rename it after Duke's father. And Duke's legacy gives the school many millions of dollars each and every year via the Duke Endowment. UofD never had a benefactor like that.