Oh8ch said:
Two of the biggest exploitations in the history of the sports were 1) Bill Veeck putting a midget into a baseball game and 2) Notre Dame using a Hunchback.
I'm fairly certain this is the first time I've ever seen Eddie Gaedel compared to Quasimodo.
Reasons to hate Notre Dame:
1. They have their own NBC contract.
2. They have 1 more Heisman than tOSU, due to media coverage back in the 40's, 50's, and early 60's that focused primarily on ND. Paul Hornung QB's a 2-8 team and wins a Heisman in 1956? Johnny Huarte wins in 1964? Please.
3. They cost us an NC in 1935, with a TD pass thrown by Bill Shakespeare. Here's a link if you don't know the story of that game.
http://www.nd.edu/~observer/09241999/Sports/1.html
4. "Touchdown Jesus".
5. They pray for victories, like God cares who wins a football game. Apparently, they haven't been praying enough since 1993, their last season that ended with a bowl victory.
6. "Play Like a Champion Today" sign above the stairs that the players hit on their way to the field.
7. Their Board of Directors, not the AD, fired Ty Willingham for not winning enough. And they pretend to act like they're different, like it's not all about winning and money.
8. "Win one for the Gipper" - Hollywood Bullshit that helped build the legend.
9. The Four Horsemen - Their Oct 18, 1924 trip to play Army in NYC initiated another Irish legend. Once the great sportswriter Grantland Rice penned the words "“Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again"; some slick ND student acting as a publicity aide had the 4 guys pose on top of horses. Another shitty legend was created.
10. The "Subway Alumni".
11. Paul Hornung's asinine comments about academic standards and the types of athletes they need to recruit.
12. As an independent with a large fan base, they get to pick and choose their bowl opponents. They won the NC in 1973, after we had the 10-10 tie in AA, and then smacked defending champion USC in the Rose Bowl; by defeating Bama by a point on a late field goal. In the first poll after the 10-10 tie, ND was 5th behind both tOSU and scUM.
13. Green uniforms. However, I was happy when they last wore them against BC in 2002.
14. The Golden Dome, and the helmets that resemble it.
15. The College Football Hall of Fame is now in South Bend, instead of Ohio, where it started and where it belongs.
16. Back in the 1930's, Catholic nuns would give children in the schools candy bars after Notre Dame victories. This was a manipulative way of creating young ND fans, similar to the way Ronald McDonald has been used. I got this story from relatives of mine who got those candy bars when they were kids.
