I woke up to hear that Notre Dame was practicing outside in 50 mph winds, with a student filming the practice from a portable tower. The winds pushed the tower over and the student died of his injuries.
I like to see ND win, but that is #200 on my list of favorite things. I cannot imagine why winning is so important that practice had to held outdoors. They have an indoor practice area and used it earlier.
I went to some ND alumni board meetings in St. Louis. I could not believe how hyper people could get about winning. The pressure on the coach of the day is always enormous, but that should not trump safety concerns.
I would rather see schools rely on intramurals alone. That would end the college football business as a feeder system into the NFL. Some would grieve if that happened. But it would also put a clamp on cheating, drug abuse, and the win at any cost attitude.
Media reports here.
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American Life League
28 October 2010
Washington, DC – American Life League president Judie Brown issued the following statement on the news that contributions to the University of Notre Dame fell by over $120 million during the fiscal year in which [Alleged] President Barack Obama, a zealous abortion advocate, delivered a speech and was honored at commencement ceremonies.
As one of the first responders to the scandal, American Life League and its supporters insisted that the university had forfeited its right to be called Catholic and thus petitioned for the school’s removal from The Official Catholic Directory.
“It is heartening to hear that Notre Dame’s donors responded so overwhelmingly to American Life League’s call and that of so many other organizations and individuals that were genuinely scandalized and saddened by the mockery made of an institution also known as ‘Our Lady’s University.’
5 comments:
College football is big business for many universities, especially the Big Ten, or whatever it is called these days. You would think that with the high cost of college, they would not need any more revenue enhancement. Badger home games transform Madison into Mad City. The Madison Police Department had to add extra patrols on a Saturday night after a Badger victory over Ohio State. Many college football stadiums have more capacity than NFL stadiums. I have noticed that about some alumni also. It sort of reminds me of the attachment to the Sausage factory. Gladitorial diversions are still big in this nation, in spite of tough economic times.
Some schools got rid of some men's sports after the Supreme Court ruled that colleges must have the same ratio of women's teams as men's teams as are in the student body. So now with college campuses being 60% women, that means 60% of the teams would have to be women's teams. The colleges could excuse the expense of men's sports since they were revenue neutral or more than paid for themselves, but women's teams most often don't, meaning they are an absolute drain on school funds. Likewise, colleges have women's clinics and clubs but no men's clinics or clubs--a big no-no. If you are a male student nowadays, you're subsidizing women student careers.
The news said that the tower collapsed, but pictures show that it was a fully extended scissors crane on wheels, so a wind gust just blew it over. The guy had no business being up there on a windy day.
http://en.terra.com/latin-in-america/news/declan_sullivan_notre_dame_student_dies_after_tower_collapse/hof12296
'Gust of wind up to 60mph well today will be fun at work... I guess I've lived long enough :-/,' he posted on his Facebook via Twitter.
A second tweet was sent at 4:06 p.m. and the camera tower collapsed at about 4:50 p.m.
'Holy * holy * this is terrifying,' he wrote.
scissors crane picture:
http://www.blueprintmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/scissorcrane.jpg
Living in Notre Dame's back yard, this has been very heavily covered. The local news said that the scissors crane was placarded as being unusable in winds exceeding 28 mph. Being outside yesterday was like standing in a NASA wind tunnel. How tragic for this young man and his family. His sister is also a Notre Dame student. Any bets on the family's phone ringing off the wall from attorneys?
Here Northern IN, Notre Dame winning is everything, believe me. Too bad unborn babies don't rate as high when our pro-abortion President gets invited to speak at Notre Dame. The Ft. Wayne-South Bend Diocese protested, but to no avail. Like the big corporate Lutheran papacies, money and prestige trumps principles.
The Obama invitation sickened me too.
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