Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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YEAR IN REVIEW Notre Dame had agreed to a deal with Under Armour to be the official ap‑ parel provider of Irish athletics begin‑ ning in July 2014 when the current partnership with adidas expired. Swarbrick would not provide fi‑ nancial terms of the 10‑year deal, but hinted that it exceeded Michigan's $80 million contract with adidas, which stood as the industry's most lucrative. "Notre Dame is rich in tradition. What we are not as rich in is an entre‑ preneurial culture," Swarbrick said. "For us to marry our tradition with one of the great entrepreneurial stories in recent time in this country is excit‑ ing for me. I think that we will impact our culture in direct ways." Fans were assured that no drastic changes would be seen in the Irish football uniforms and that no stadium advertising was part of the deal. CAMPUS CROSSROADS, FIELDTURF ANNOUNCED In late January, Notre Dame released details on the $400 million Campus Crossroads project it said will inte‑ grate the academic and athletic com‑ munities at Notre Dame Stadium. The university had announced in May 2013 that it would research stadium renovations. In what the university calls the "larg‑ est building project in its 172‑year his‑ tory," iconic Notre Dame Stadium will undergo a renovation that will include the construction of more than 750,000 square feet in three new buildings. The stadium will receive 3,000 to 4,000 additional seats, the existing west side press box will be renovated into luxury seating, while a new press box will be built on the opposite end. Although video boards have not yet been announced officially, the univer‑ sity promised that video will be intro‑ duced in some capacity. The basketball programs will ben‑ efit from a renovation to Rolfs Student Recreation Center that will transform it into a practice facility. During the April 12 Blue‑Gold Game, Swarbrick announced that ar‑ tificial turf would be installed prior to the 2014 season. Notre Dame had experienced difficulties maintaining a natural grass playing field for sev‑ eral seasons. For example, 2013 alone required the field to be replaced three times. DOOLEY BECOMES NOTRE DAME'S FIRST OPENLY GAY ATHLETE In early March — one month after former Missouri football standout Mi‑ chael Sam announced that he is gay — Irish tennis player Matt Dooley made public his homosexuality, becoming the first Notre Dame athlete to do so. In a letter published on OutSports. com, a website that covers lesbian and gay issues in sports, Dooley wrote about his struggles with his sexual orientation and that he at‑ tempted suicide as a sophomore at the university. More than 6,000 people shared Dool‑ ey's story on Facebook and Twitter in the first week after it was published. He said he received an "overwhelm‑ ing" number of positive emails, text