![]() The preservation of that status had been built upon a premise recently articulated by Gene Corrigan, the former Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner who, as Notre Dame athletic director in 1985, became The Man Who Hired Lou Holtz. Most of the athletic teams had established their home in the Big East conference, but the national identity of football, which had given the University its unique place during the Rockne era, remained intact. The emotional link between the nature of a football program and the University had been settled, it seemed, for another generation. “Our answer to that question, in the final analysis, is no.” Given these realities, we have had to ask ourselves the fundamental question: Does this core identity of Notre Dame as Catholic, private and independent seem a match for an association of universities - even a splendid association of great universities - that are uniformly secular, predominantly state institutions and with a long heritage of conference affiliation? “Even in terms of size, we will not become appreciably larger. Malloy, CSC, the University president, said at a press conference. “Notre Dame always will be Catholic and always will be private,” Rev. This time, however, an identity traced to the 19th century was preserved. The issue had been compared to a pair of decisions that had altered the University’s identity: The establishment of a lay Board of Trustees in 1967, and the admission of women in 1972. Several hours earlier, at the end of a 90-minute discussion preceded by weeks of intense speculation and debate throughout the Notre Dame community and beyond, a voice vote determined whether the University would pursue membership in the Big Ten conference and its unique academic consortium, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. On a clear, crisp Friday afternoon in early February of 1999, 39 members of the Notre Dame Board of Trustees silently departed from a building off Trafalgar Square in London, having declared their independence. ![]() As a new season kicks off amid more tumult in the sport, the factors addressed in this Magazine Classic by Malcolm Moran, a longtime sports reporter who now directs the Sports Capital Journalism Program at IUPUI, have renewed relevance. Ten years ago, to commemorate the program’s 125th anniversary, we explored the historic roots of Fighting Irish independence - and whether it could be sustained in a changing college football landscape. ![]() ![]() Editor’s Note: Notre Dame football’s independent status has been a subject of internal discussion and external debate for decades. ![]()
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