There is an ongoing debate about whether my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, is a truly Catholic institution. I have always thought this was sheer craziness, because, for one thing, the place is not only overwhelmingly orthodox, but pro-life in every sense. The thing I love most about the university is that it encourages kids to become involved in service to the less fortunate; a whopping 85 percent do volunteer work while they're on campus, and if the ND grads I know are any indication, tend to remain committed for life.
But maybe I've been wrong all along. This week's firing of head football coach Tyrone Willingham certainly runs counter to everything the place is supposed to stand for. Shake down the thunder, indeed. Our Lady cannot possibly approve.
Willingham showed enormous personal integrity and brought about a vast improvement in the academic standing of his players, an accomplishment that school officials profess to value. He also had a perfectly respectable win-loss record of 21-15 in his three years at ND.
In firing Willingham, the school's first black coach, the university signaled without any ambiguity that winning big is all that really matters. "From Sunday to Friday our football program has exceeded all expectations in every way,'' athletic director Kevin White conceded after announcing the firing. "The academic performance is at fever pitch; it has never been better. Tyrone has done some wonderful things. But on Saturday we've struggled. The program is closer than when he arrived; we're making progress. But in the view of the university, we just didn't make enough progress. At the end of the day, the end game is we've got to do a good job on Saturday. We've got to get back to the elite.''
Elite? Please, the only class act on display this week was Willingham, who true to form cast no aspersions and instead took full responsibility for his ouster, saying he was disappointed in himself for falling short in his efforts to bring back the glory days of Notre Dame football, days that may be gone for good.
He praised those who had just fired him, refused to "get into what's fair and what's not fair'' and wished his as yet unnamed successor all the best. "My goals have always been to inspire people to be the best they could be, on and off the field. I believe I have been true to that in my time here at Notre Dame and appreciative of the opportunity and appreciative of what we have done and I am disappointed with what I didn't do more than anything else.''
Ouch. I guess this is what Paul was talking about in Rom. 12:20 when he said we should "bless our persecutors'' with kindness that actually stings more than if we were to "heap burning coals upon their heads.''