The Green Revolution by Ralph McInerny Read Free Book Online Page B

irrelevant.”
    â€œThat’s what I’m saying.”
    â€œHow about the student body?”
    â€œTalk to Admissions.”
    Well, as he said, if you want consistency, talk to a philosopher. Bartholomew switched topics and asked Rimini what he thought of the debacle of Notre Dame football.
    â€œWeis is the first Catholic coach since Holtz. I think Holtz was Catholic. There’s something for you to pursue. Catholicism and football. What difference does it make whether or not the coach is Catholic? You could make a case that we have done as well, even better, with non-Catholic coaches.”
    â€œInteresting.”
    â€œOr the football team. Is the administration concerned with the number of Catholics on the football team? Or Caucasians, for that matter? Don’t quote me on that,” he said hastily. He meant the remark about Caucasians. “For that matter, how many of the Fighting Irish are Irish?”
    Rimini was enjoying himself.
    â€œLook,” he said. “The administration is pleased with the high percentage of Catholics in the student body. At least among the undergraduates. So how about the percentage in the group of students who bring in real money?”
    â€œThe football team.”
    â€œExactly. It’s become a money cow. Millions. Millions! Look at what they’re paying Mr. Ineptitude.”
    â€œWhat do you think of Professor Lipschutz’s suggestion that the time has come to abandon football?”
    â€œHe’s crazy. But it’s an interesting idea.”
    â€œYou go to the games?”
    Rimini sat upright. “I played football. Under Ara. Way under. I got in as often as Rudy.”
    â€œYou don’t mind if I mention that?”
    â€œWhy should I? I didn’t play without a helmet, no matter what my enemies say.”
    â€œEnemies?”
    â€œLet’s not go into that.”
    *   *   *
    What fun Baxter would have with such an interview. But what Bartholomew took back with him to the editorial offices was Rimini’s suggestion that the administration’s concern about Catholic representation should be applied to football, too, to the coaching staff, to the players. Baxter was delighted with Bartholomew’s description of his interview with Rimini.
    â€œI think we should pursue that.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œHow many of the Fighting Irish are Catholics.”
    â€œOr Irish?”
    â€œThat, too.”
    And Bartholomew Hanlon went smiling off to Roger Knight’s class.

8
    Roger had read Mark Van Doren’s Liberal Education in a serviceman’s paperback edition during his abbreviated hitch in the navy. He was perhaps the only seaman with a Ph.D., not that he mentioned this to anyone. The boot camp at San Diego had been grueling, and Roger managed to keep off the weight that he had shed in order to pass the physical. The academic life seeming to be closed to him, he indulged his romantic fancies. He had enlisted on a whim, having just devoured the Hornblower novels, the lure of the sea having him in its grip. All he saw of the sea was San Diego Bay, which was full of gray naval vessels very unlike the one on which Hornblower had sailed. Roger had never been on shipboard either. After boot camp, he awaited assignment, in vain. Finally, his daily presence in the base library having been noticed, he was assigned as assistant to the librarian, a caustic lady, Miss Riggle, who might have inspired the phrase, common at the time, “She’d be safe in the navy.” Miss Riggle had regarded Roger as an intrusion on her domain, but when she saw that all he wanted to do was while away the day reading, she grudgingly accepted him. Among the many books he read during the months remaining to him in his country’s service was that of Van Doren.
    He went on to read others who had been involved in the revival of the liberal arts in the thirties and forties—Mortimer Adler, Stringfellow