Another year, another racial brouhaha at my alma mater. On Tuesday, former Notre Dame player and Heisman winner Paul Hornung gave a radio interview in which he offered this analysis of our string of losing seasons: “We can’t stay as strict as we are as far as the academic structure is concerned because we’ve got to get the black athlete. We must get the black athlete if we’re going to compete.” What an ass. The university was understandably annoyed and commentators were offended. I especially liked this scathing response: “Never mind that about half of Notre Dame’s current roster is black. Never mind that Notre Dame football doesn’t lack black athletes, just great athletes. That’s irrelevant. Of significantly greater relevance is Hornung’s assumption that academic standards must be lowered to give the darkies, er … I mean the colored, er … I mean the black athletes a chance. After all, the white athletes clearly have no problem meeting these standards — the evidence being the brilliant sociological elucidation offered by Professor Hornung.” Right on. After initially defending his boneheaded remarks, Hornung today apologized.

He reminds me of the chubby kid on the tour my Mom and I took for prospective students back in 1994. Most of us wanted to hear about student life and classes, but that idiot only wanted to know if we’d get to go inside the stadium. Finally the tour guide snapped. “Look,” he said, “if all you’re interested in is football, don’t apply. Notre Dame is a tough school and there are only six home games a year. A Notre Dame degree is about more than being just a fan.” We nearly applauded.

ND wins, and more importantly, we actually managed to score some touchdowns! Whew.

HOLY CRAP. The first Bowl Championship Series rankings are out and Notre Dame is sitting at #3! Can you believe that? We’re one spot from playing for the national friggin’ championship! (I think the fact that the BCS dropped “margin of victory” from the calculations this year helped us out a lot.) So I guess I’ll definitely be pulling an all-nighter this weekend to hear the Florida State game. If any of y’all are at your computers during it, instant message me to keep me awake. 🙂

You would not believe the hoops I had to jump through in order to listen to the Notre Dame game over the Internet today. *sigh* They better win.

UPDATE: Victory! Now the question is, should I actually try to stay up til 3 a.m. next Sunday to hear the Florida State game? I’m thinking yes.

• Notre Dame defeated Stanford 31-7 for their fifth straight victory of the season. All my girls were at the game. Man, that would’ve been fun. Go Irish!
• The Sydney Roosters won the Rugby League Final over the New Zealand Warriors 30-8. I watched the second half and it was awesome. Good on ’em.
• I ran the 5K in 41:50, lopping a full four minutes off my previous time. I know that’s a horrendously slow pace for some of you runner types, but I’m just so happy that I was able to keep moving for that long without keeling over. In fact, I felt really, really great tonight. My lower back strain is getting better, and I didn’t have to stop and stretch it til I hit the two-mile mark. Then I stretched it once more before the final sprint. I won’t be running any marathons anytime soon, but I think I’ve gotten over my hatred of the sport. I can do this!

For any Aussies reading along, have a great Labour Day tomorrow. Unfortunately a day off work doesn’t mean much to us self-employed types. 🙂

Some greenies at my alma mater tried to set a world record for tree hugging. I kid you not.