Only college campus I have ever been to (except aggy, but we have a thread on them dumb fucks) where the only talent was cheering, and they weren’t that great. Had it not been for the visitors bringing some in, that part of the trip is a total waste. And it made the bus ride in, which you will have to make unless you VIP. That much worse with some solid (and I mean fucking solid heifers) type of ladies around you that you will undoubtedly question if they couldn’t beat your defensive tackles running Oklahoma’s.
For all of its history it is a very sterile place. More so then the even the desert universities that can’t really do much because of water restrictions and awful heat. The architectecture is Pravda level bad (shit, sort of like aggy but with titles..dejavu). And the grounds look like they just don’t bother with aesthetics, or they simply said fuck it and gave up. Which is sort of fucked up since they basically sit next to a shit load of farmers that should know how to throw a little grass seed down, and plant a couple of fucking bushes.
We drove in from Chicago and we thought we were driving ourselves to the fucking Gulag. In fairness I spend most Saturday’s at southern campuses. Not necessarily large ones, but damn, even the little places like Coastal Carolina have some charm. Southbend has none of that.
Compared to almost any other university it pretty much sucks. And then there is the Holtz statue. I know he won the 88 title. But with all the shit that went down leading to his eventual dismissal. What possessed them to honor a living man with a fucking statue. Between the Jesse Helms fiasco while at NC State, and the mess at Arkansas. It left those in my group to surmise that it represented their lost hope to ever return to relevance, then it actually did to honor Holtz.
Now, the one thing that was actually cool. In one of the gymnasiums adjacent to the stadium is where all of the former graduates set up shop. Each table will be labeled with the graduation year of the group. I was humbled to sit down and talk to a 90 year old man who could share his conversations with Rockne. Not some journalists bullshit, an actual living former player. It was a neat thing to experience. He was a generous, patiant, and he spoke very soft. And he thanked me as I left for taking the time to talk.....got a little dusty in there.