Paul Hornung: A Martyr For the Obvious :: all-encompassingly

Apr 2nd 2004

Paul Hornung: A Martyr For the Obvious

As many readers are probably already aware, a large brouhaha has resulted as a consequence of these remarks made by Notre Dame alumnus (and football star) Paul Hornung in reference to the current state his alma mater’s football program:

“You can’t play a schedule like that unless you have the black athlete today. You just can’t do it, and it’s very, very tough, still, to get into Notre Dame. They just don’t understand it, yet they want to win.”
[Source]

In other words, if Notre Dame wants the same pool of athletes as most other Division I school, particularly black athletes, they had better lower their academic standards. Of course, liberals and “sensitive” people everywhere are up in arms over this. What nonsense. The truth is the truth. Isn’t this why liberals support affirmative action? So that minorities with lower academic qualifications are “given a fair shot”?

Hornung’s statement is basically a regurgitation of the argument against having tough minimum eligibility requirements for NCAA players. Back in the day, there was much hubbub over the raising of minimum requirements for incoming freshman athletes. A vocal opponent of the standards, Georgetown basketball head coach John Thompson, felt that the higher standards would discriminate against minorities (racist!).

John Thompson, then-coach of the Georgetown University men’s basketball team, and others, argued that the policy did not accurately predict a student’s academic future, and discriminated against minority and low-income athletes.
[source]

This is a tough world we live in. If you’re against affirmative action then you are racist. Yet if you state out loud the logical basis for affirmative action (you need to lower academic standards to get more minorites in) then you’re also racist.

This is really the rich irony of the situation. Paul Hornung is advocating the lowering of standards to let more minorities into the football program…shouldn’t liberals be celebrating?

Posted by doug in politics |

2 Responses to “Paul Hornung: A Martyr For the Obvious”

April 2nd, 2004 at 5:41 pm

travis

the irony is hilarious. a spokesman for notre dame called hornungs’s remarks

“generally insensitive and specifically insulting to our past and current African-American student-athletes.”

…a perfect description of the concept of affirmative action.

[AP article]

April 3rd, 2004 at 2:21 am

Doug

I read somewhere that Hornung should have said something like this:

“I believe that Notre Dame needs to implement a more holistic approach to admissions in order to increase the diversity of the student athlete population.”

This, of course, would have led to a flood of praise for Hornung’s “visionary” and “timely” leadership on the issue of race, sports, and education.

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