Notre Dame Inspirations: The University's Most Successful Alumni Talk about Life, Spirituality, Football - And Everything Else Under the Dome Hardcover - 2006

Excerpt

“If you’re going to be the center of attention no matter what, don’t try to blend in--shine.”

Hannah Storm
Class of 1983

My dad was always a huge Notre Dame fan. He had the school flag flying in front of our house every football Saturday. Nonetheless, I was planning to go to Duke University until we went one night to a dinner for the Atlanta-Notre Dame alumni club. Basketball coach Digger Phelps happened to be the speaker. My dad sidled up to Digger and said, “Hannah’s thinking about going to Duke.” Digger set his sights on me as if I was some kind of blue-chip basketball recruit, and essentially gave me the full-on Digger Phelps pitch! After that, I literally went home that night and signed my letter of intent to go to Notre Dame. Digger always jokes that he is the reason I went to Notre Dame . . . even though I’d never played basketball outside of our driveway!

What my dad knew, and what I came to appreciate, is there’s so much great tradition at Notre Dame. The university has offered the same core values and inspiration to generations of grads: service to others, a strong sense of community, and something that really can’t be overstated–school spirit. When you say you went to the University of Notre Dame, you always get a reaction of some sort. It’s great to have a degree from a school that everyone has heard of. It’s part of your heritage. You say, “Well, I’m part English. I’m part German. I’m part Irish. And I’m a Domer.”

During my years at Notre Dame, I really took full advantage of all that the school had to offer. I worked at the campus radio station as a DJ. That was a total blast. I also had a sports talk show my sophomore year, which I think only my roommates actually listened to. I was in a musical–Pippin. And later I began my TV career as an intern and sometime sports feature reporter at WNDU-TV.

There were also challenges. In the early eighties, we were still at the beginning stages of women attending Notre Dame. So it could be socially awkward at times. I remember, when the girls would get ice cream in the cafeteria, some of the less enlightened young men would actually “moo” at us as if we were going to turn into cows! But I have to say the experience of being occasionally teased and tortured really toughened me up. When I graduated and went into the completely male-dominated field of sports, I was prepared!

As women, we were such anomalies at Notre Dame, and that taught me to just go with that feeling. I thought, “I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb no matter what, so I’m not going to even try to blend in.” So even though there were difficult moments, it was actually freeing in a way. If you’re going to be the center of attention no matter what, don’t try to blend in–shine.

Like so many others finding their way through those formative college years, I found a lot of comfort and solace in the spiritual aspect of Notre Dame. It was everywhere: in the dorm, in service activities, and at the Grotto. Spirituality was front and center in our lives. I’ll never forget a great conversation with Father Mark Poorman, who was rector of Dillon Hall, a couple of years after graduation. My younger brother had just graduated and was about to go off to work with war refugees in Asia. I was in radio at the time, spinning records and doing sportscasts. I said to Father Poorman–because being at Notre Dame makes you think about these really profound life questions–“Well, Father, I feel like my brother is off saving the world, but what about me? I feel good about using my talents and I’m pushing ahead even though nobody wanted to hire me in sports because I’m a woman. But am I really making a difference?” Father Poorman replied, “You know, Hannah, you’re going to have a great platform. People are going to watch you and they’re going to listen to you. You’re in the public eye and you can set a good example by the way you live. You can make a huge difference.” And you know what, he was right. (He’ll tell you he usually is!)

That short talk with Father Poorman has stayed with me for my whole career, as I have strived to do things the right way and to be a good example. I did end up being considered a trailblazer for young women, teaching them to not be afraid to go into careers that are male-dominated. I feel really proud of that, and in a subtle way perhaps that has had a positive impact on the world. Those kinds of conversations that take place at Notre Dame, conversations about life and its meaning, are a key part of what makes Notre Dame so special.

Hannah Storm is co-anchor of CBS News The Early Show. Previously, she was an anchor and reporter for NBC Sports for ten years. Storm became the first woman to serve as the solo anchor of a network’s major sports package when she hosted NBC’s coverage of the NBA, and Major League Baseball, including three World Series. Storm also served as studio host for four Olympic Games. She graduated from Notre Dame with a double major in International Government and Communications. During her junior year, she was stage manager for home game Notre Dame football broadcasts. Following an internship at WNDU, the local NBC affiliate, Storm filed sports reports on the weekend during her senior year, while acting as a Big Sister to a young girl in South Bend.

“Do not be in a great hurry to achieve success.”

Hubert J. Schlafly
Class of 1941

It was quite an honor to be accepted in the undergraduate program at Notre Dame. Nineteen thirty-seven was in the height of the Great Depression, so the $1,000 a year for tuition, room and board, laundry, lab fees, and athletics was quite a strain on the family budget.

I had always been interested in photography, and when I got out to Notre Dame I found out that an undergraduate was in charge of taking the motion pictures for the athletic association. I buddied up with him, and I was appointed an official motion picture photographer for the football team. He let me do the hard work of carrying the equipment up to the stadium. When he graduated, I took over his job. For two years, I shot every game at home and also on the road, so I got to travel with the team. My salary was the largest student paid job on the campus. It was $300 a year. But the thrill of traveling the country with the football varsity was the real reward. I would have done it for free.

I had a good education at Notre Dame. I had enrolled in electrical engineering courses. At that time electrical engineering was mostly power generation or transmissions or motors and things of that nature. My final year they started an electronics course, which was more to my liking. This excited me and became the start of my lifelong career, first with General Electric; then The Radiation Laboratory at MIT; then as director of television research at 20th Century Fox; then I was a founder, together with Irving Kahn and Fred Barton, of TelePrompTer Corporation . . . Other projects followed, and at the age of eighty-seven I’m still active.

Words of wisdom? Realize that you are privileged to be a member of this student body. Do not be in a great hurry to achieve success. Even as graduates, you have a lot to learn about your profession, business, and interaction with others. Welcome a variety of challenges. Each one, whether a success or failure, will contribute to your knowledge, growth, and ultimate success.

Hubert J. Schlafly, Notre Dame Alumni Man of the Year for Fairfield County, Connecticut, in 1992, is widely known as the inventor of the TelePrompTer.
During his Notre Dame days, he says, “ND was shorthand for ‘No Dames.’”


“Tear down walls of prejudice and misunderstanding.”

Rabbi Albert Plotkin
Class of 1942

I grew up in South Bend, and all my cousins went to Notre Dame. I had four cousins, and we made up the Jewish student body. I wasn’t sure if I should go there because it was so Catholic. And my father said, “What do you mean it’s so Catholic? The Lady on top of that dome is Jewish. Don’t forget it, because that’s our claim to glory.” Catholics and Jews are the two closest religions. We are spiritual brothers.

My best friend while I was at Notre Dame was Robert Pelton. He teaches at Notre Dame now. We roomed together because we were in the Glee Club. They put us together by names, Pelton and Plotkin. I was a secretary, who passed out the music, and they used to say of me, “Hail Mary, full of grace. Plotkin is still in first place.” When I would go to bed at night, I would read my Hebrew prayers and Bob would go with his rosary. I thought, “Boy, this is a combination that’s one of a kind.”

At the same time, it was hard. My heart was very heavy; the Holocaust was beginning. We began to realize that people were being sent to concentration camps. It was a terrible time. I found faith in prayer and devotion to God. I don’t think anything in history was worse than that period, especially in 1942.

While I was at Notre Dame, they didn’t make me feel, because I was a Jew, that I was an outsider, especially the Glee Club. The Glee Club boys were wonderful to me. In fact, the truth of the matter is I got to be a rabbi through Notre Dame because we went to Cincinnati, and I went to Hebrew Union College for the tour. The irony of it is that I bumped into a man who was a professor. He asked me where I was from and I said South Bend. He said, “Oh my God, I was a rabbi there about forty years ago and I’ve always wanted a South Bend boy to get here. Are you interested?” I said yes.

Then the professor said, “Where did you get your yeshiva, your Hebrew training?” I replied: “Notre Dame.” He said, “Well, you’ve got a problem.” I insisted, “I got a very philosophical foundation to my religion!” and he said, “You’ll be a great ecumenical boy.”

So when I got there, they said, “You better watch out for Plotkin. He’s a Notre Dame grad. I think he’s a Vatican spy. The Pope sent him out here. . . . You can’t trust this guy. He doesn’t seem so kosher!”

Later in my career, I was introduced to Pope John Paul II as a rabbi who is a Notre Dame graduate. The Pope looked at me and said with his Polish accent, “I don’t think there are too many like you.” I said, “Not too many. Just one.”

By the way, Father Pelton was ordained to the priesthood in ’49. We corresponded while we were both studying and he was moaning about all his Latin and I was moaning about all my Hebrew. We were moaning about having to learn all that stuff.

My whole life has been about building bridges. My challenge was to tear down walls of prejudice and misunderstanding. And if I can make an impact in the community in that way, then I feel like I’ve done a service to Jews and to Catholics.

I always felt there was a reason that I went to Notre Dame. That it would help me try to build a better world because of the tragedy of the Holocaust and the tragedy of anti-Semitism that had cursed the world. I was able to build these bridges, because I had material from both sides to cement together.

Rabbi Plotkin was the first Notre Dame graduate to become a rabbi. He graduated magna cum laude in 1942. He was the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Arizona from 1955 to 1991. Among his many prestigious accomplishments, he was a nominee for the Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award.