Hats off to the Middies...

[IrishAZ]

I usually try to not post too much ND-specific stuff here (one, this is a Husker board fer chrissakes, and two, the Irish evoke either very positive or negative feelings and I don't like to start flames).

 

That being said, I just had to make a comment about the ND-Navy game today: thank God for these kids in the military academies. I was proud, both of the way Navy played (it's cliche, but true - the service academies *do not* quit) and proud of the the great amount of respect ND showed them.

 

After the game, the ND team stood behind the Middies while the Navy band played their alma mater (and a few ND players mouthed the words even) and then the ND Band played both the ND Fight Song and Anchor's Away. All the ND players in post-game interviews gave Navy tons of respect both for the game they played and for their committment to country.

 

For those of you that don't know this, ND plays Navy every year at *Navy's* request. Sometimes the Irish are bashed for playing the USNA because their team isn't very strong usually, but there's far more to that story than an easy win...

 

During WWII, with ND being an all-male institution at the time and with a very small enrollment anyway, almost 95% of the ND enrollment was enlisted in the Armed Services (as well as a large number of the staff and faculty). The lack of enrollment was almost sufficient to close ND's doors...then the Navy stepped in.

 

The USN contracted Notre Dame to be a training facility under their V-12 program and from 1941 to 1946 over 12,000 Navy officers were enrolled at ND (compared to only 350 or so civilian students!). To this day, ND is second behind the USNA in the number of Naval Officers each school has produced.

 

The ND president at the time, Hugh O'Donnell, promised to continue the series as long as the USNA wished to continue in gratitude to their saving the school (the story goes that the USNA Commandant was a former USNA football player and had a great deal of respect for ND and the rivalry which helped "grease the wheel", so to speak, for the contract). That promise is still being honored over 60 years later (and was recently renewed for another 10 years, complete with an off-shore game scheduled in Dublin, Ireland, for 2012).

 

It's hard to remember, sometimes, that the kids playing for the service academies are more than just football players. Once they're done on the football field, they'll don uniforms of a different sort and many will willingly put their lives on the line for our country.

 

God bless these kids and everything they stand for.