Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE A fter sitting through dozens of in- troductory press conferences over the years, the clear realization is that little of substance comes out of these orchestrated events. The notable exception came in July 2008 when Notre Dame welcomed Jack Swarbrick as its new athletics director to replace the outgoing Kevin White. Most of these meet and greets are noth- ing more than a verbal résumé, boring at best. But Swarbrick's was different that day because of the cryptic foresight he held for Notre Dame and all of college athletics. "I believe that I accept this job on the threshold of extraordinary change in intercollegiate athletics in America," Swarbrick explained. "I think it will be enormous. I think there's much about this industry you won't recognize in 10 years. We must be at the forefront of that. We must participate in leading that change. Notre Dame cannot have that dictated to it." We were all left scratching our heads. Jump ahead almost exactly six years from when Swarbrick was hired, and not only was his forecast on target for the future of the NCAA — with ongo- ing conference realignments, a football playoff and billion-dollar conference television contracts — but so is the way he has progressively guided Notre Dame through the turbulence. Like it or not, Notre Dame was blindly and arrogantly failing the evolving needs of its student-athletes. The entire athletics program — espe- cially the football team — was caged by its own traditions. Even the slightest change was met with skepticism and resistance. Through long overdue facility up- grades, aggressive nutrition initiatives and improved coaching salaries, Notre Dame eventually made its way to the party, but long after the competitive cake was already cut and served at other schools. Jack Swarbrick's Foresight Bringing Results Among other things, Swarbrick spearheaded the charge to buck tradition and change the playing surface at Notre Dame Stadium from natural grass to FieldTurf. Construction was ongoing during the summer and the project was scheduled to be com- pleted by mid-August. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND