Father Ted Blesses Charlie Weis, Sort Of

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- There only are two things as "Notre Dame" as Father Theodore Hesburgh, and Charlie Weis isn't one of them.

Whether Weis ever will become such a thing is debatable, but this isn't: In addition to Hesburgh ranking as a primary contributor to the magic on this 167-year-old campus, there is Touchdown Jesus, the mural that stretches high and colorful against the front side of the university library named in Hesburgh's honor. Then there is the Golden Dome, with its statue of the Virgin Mary shinning a few yards away outside of the 13th-floor window of his office at the library.

Hesburgh is legendary for many reasons, ranging from his work on the Civil Rights Commission from the early 1950s through the early 1970s, to his distinction in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding more honorary degrees than anybody, to his 35 years as Notre Dame president.

There also is Hesburgh's legacy with Fighting Irish football. He forced coaching icon Frank Leahy to resign, but a decade later, he hired another coaching icon in Ara Parseghian. Overall, he ran the university during five of the Irish's 11 national championships in football. And, despite an emeritus status for the past 22 years, he still comes to work every day at 92 years young, and he still watches every home football game from his suite at Notre Dame Stadium.

So what better person to ask The Irish Nation Question to than the guy affectionately known around here as Father Ted? That question: Is Weis just a Michigan State loss away on Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium from becoming the fourth "former" Irish coach since coaching icon Lou Holtz resigned in 1996?

Weis isn't a coaching icon, by the way.

"There always are going to be fans, who, just because they are fans -- they're going to put pressure on the coach," said Hesburgh, puffing away at his cigar inside his memento-filled office that contains little sports paraphernalia. "But whoever the coach is of Notre Dame football, he gets no pressure from us, and as long as he is satisfied with his conditions here, and we're satisfied with him, it goes on."

Before Hesburgh continued, he wanted to make this clear: "I've had no personal dealings with these matters since I left as president in 1987. I haven't been in decision-making with athletics or anything else during that time. My thing is, when you're in charge here, you're in charge. But the day that your contract is over, you're back in the world, and you don't stick your nose into things."

That said, Hesburgh's fingerprints are all over the unofficial Notre Dame manual on how administrators should deal with successful, troubled, overbearing, underachieving or flat-out bad coaches in any sport. Hesburgh set the guidelines for that unofficial manual during the late 1940s, when he was the university's executive vice-president in charge of athletic department. He later perfected that unofficial manual as president.

Here's one thing from Hesburgh's unofficial manual: You shouldn't fire a Notre Dame coach, but you can get rid of one.

Let's go back to Leahy, who technically wasn't fired, but who definitely was forced to resign by Hesburgh. This was after Leahy finished with the last of his six undefeated seasons that helped produce four national championships. Even so, Hesburgh said he was fearful that the victory-obsessed Leahy would "kill himself on the job, and I didn't want to be responsible for it." As a result, Hesburgh convinced Leahy to leave with two years left on his contract by offering to give full academic scholarships to each of Leahy's six sons if they qualified for Notre Dame.

There also was Parseghian's sudden resignation after 1974 regular season despite winning 84 percent of his games in 11 seasons and two national championships.

Said Hesburgh, "When he told me, 'I'm really at the point where I have to take a pill to go to sleep at night and a pill to wake up in the morning, I said, 'Ara. That's the end of it, right here and right now.' And that was. I said, 'We love you, and we're not going to kill you.' And he was very good about it, because we had that conversation during the season, and he played the season out. Then he said that he had this advice from his doctor that it all was too much of a strain on him, and I agreed."

Here's another thing from Hesburgh's unofficial manual: Well, listen to Parseghian, who once told author Bob Kurz about his first meeting with Hesburgh before taking the Notre Dame job in 1964: "I remember Father Hesburgh saying, 'We don't have to have winning seasons, being representative and once in a while having a good season, but if you cheat to win, you're gone."

Hesburgh confirmed that conversation with Parseghian. And, to the best of anybody's knowledge, Weis hasn't violated any NCAA or Notre Dame rules while entering his fifth season coaching the Irish. He also is in the midst of a 10-year contract that runs through the end of the 2015 season. Which is why Hesburgh suggested that, despite Notre Dame's meltdown at Michigan to begin this season, and despite Weis' 11-16 record since his 19-6 start with the Irish, he likely isn't going anywhere soon.

Then again ...


"If a coach doesn't perform well, then he has to account to us as to why he isn't performing well, but that's not just true of coaches at Notre Dame, but of the guy who is guarding the front gate or members of the faculty or anybody else," Hesburgh said. "If I didn't perform well as president, the board of trustees would call me to task. So a coach advances or keeps his job on performance. But if you have a contract, it's honored. We recently have contracts from coaches who had two or three years left."

Hesburgh's references were to Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham, both dismissed before the end of their contracts. There also was George O'Leary, who was hired and then fired within days after he fudged several items on his resume.

Now Weis is at least in the vicinity of becoming Notre Dame's next Davie, Willingham and O'Leary. This is all after Holtz returned the glory days of Knute Rockne, Leahy and Parseghian to Notre Dame. Which makes you wonder if those glory days ever will come again for the Irish.

"I think we'll always try to perform well," Hesburgh said. "I wouldn't ask any more than that from coaches or from players. I would hope that we'd perform well at the highest level, because it's been traditional with ourselves and the Michigans and some of our other opponents through the years. We have always tried to have top competition. I have no doubt that every one around here wants to perform well."

After Hesburgh took a few more puffs from his cigar, he glanced toward the steeples from the church on campus that you can see from his window along with the Golden Dome, and then he said, "You have a Saturday afternoon, you go to the game, you enjoy it, and whether you win or lose, the next day goes on as normal. It's not something you worry about or have a heart attack over if you lose.

"I'll tell you a fact. When I came here as a student in 1934, I went to my first Notre Dame football game in the stadium over there, and there were less than 25,000 people. I went to the game two weeks ago, and there were 80,000 people, and I'm sure there will be 80,000 people for every game this season.

"I don't know how folks can say we need to get back to something when we're filling an 80,000-seat stadium week after week."

Well, that's one way to look at it.

Is it the right way?

Doubtful, but for the fear of having somebody Shake Down The Thunder on my head, I'm not telling Father Ted.