My godfather was a dean at Notre Dame and a member of the University's athletic counsel for over 40 years. I have had the fun of hearing many behind the scenes stories of Notre Dame football etc.The most common themes were about Notre Dame "handshake" relationship with coaches and that Notre Dame athletes were students first. To that end Coach Weis has exceeded all former standards with the team cumulative average at 3.0.
We have not won as many games as we and Coach Weis would like but he is a Domer and true to his roots with the standards of excellence he has set for the young men he teaches every afternoon in the fall.
It seems tragic that we cannot refind the standards of excellence as a group of alumni and expect the University to honor its contract to Coach Weis. Not honoring this contract reflects very poorly on us and Notre Dame. It shows that we do not live by the standards we expect of the world in which we live.
Let us as the Notre Dame family honor our word and honor our contract to the coach. That contract and its extension was what we wanted. We got it. Let's be real Domers and keep our word.
Regardless of the final decision, I will honor and respect my Alma Mater, but believe we will all be weakened by Notre Dame not honoring the contract it wanted.
Steve Sturtz
alumnus
Class of 1977
Nov. 24
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
