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Hornung: No more Notre Dame broadcasts


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Hornung: No more Notre Dame broadcasts

Associated Press

June 13, 2004

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Hall of Famer Paul Hornung said he will not return to Notre Dame football game broadcasts this season because of a flap over his comment that the school should lower its academic standards to recruit black athletes.

 

"The reason I'm not going to be on the air for my last year is because Notre Dame does not want me there," Hornung, 68, told the South Bend Tribune for a story today.

 

Associate athletic director John Heisler said that though Notre Dame has some input into who represents the school on the air, the final decision was up to Westwood One Radio, which broadcasts the games.

 

"What the university's position is, is only a part of it," Heisler said. "We don't control the talent on broadcasting. Westwood One determines that."

 

Westwood One sports director Larry Michael declined comment.

 

Notre Dame officials were highly critical of the remarks Hornung made during a March radio interview, saying they were racially insensitive.

 

"We don't think what he said represents what Notre Dame is all about," Heisler said. "We have said that it is problematic. We've told Larry that. We've told Paul that. So this has not been a secret by any stretch."

 

Hornung, the 1956 Heisman Trophy winner at Notre Dame and Hall of Famer with the Green Bay Packers, has since apologized and said that he meant to say that Notre Dame should lower its academic standards to make it easier for athletes in general.

 

"I know I should not have said that. If they don't want to forgive me, then that's their problem. I've done as much as I can," Hornung told the Tribune. "They don't have to worry about me embarrassing them again. If they don't want me, they won't see me again."

 

The academic standards at Notre Dame have long been discussed as a reason why the Irish no longer win consistently. Discussion had been more widespread in recent years.

 

Notre Dame went 5-7 last season and has had three losing seasons in the last five years, the only time in school history that has happened. The Irish have gone 15 seasons without a national championship, the second longest drought in school history. The longest stretch was 1949-66.

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