Oct. 14, 2005
by John Heisler
Not so long ago, the Notre Dame football team spent its Mondays through Fridays in a locker room well hidden in the bowels of the Joyce Center.
From the time the building opened in 1969 until as recently as 1996, that was home for Notre Dame football players. As many as 28 consensus Irish All-Americans dressed there for every one of their practices back on Cartier Field — from Tom Gatewood to Tim Brown and Rocket Ismail.
It was a non-descript space, certainly adequate but hardly anything fancy. In fact, it was as generic as it could be.
No signage mentioning Irish football, no interlocking NDs – nothing that gave you any idea where you were.
How average was it? Notre Dame coaches never even bothered to bring recruits by to see it. There was no reason to do so – there was no attraction whatsoever.
Once the Irish moved into Notre Dame Stadium on a full-time basis with the expansion in 1997, the football facilities became even more splintered for the players.
Need to meet with the head coach or an assistant coach? Head for their Joyce Center offices.
Get taped for practice, or get treatment for an injury? Try the Notre Dame Stadium training room.
Pre-practice position meetings for watching video? No one had planned for that. Once the Irish began to dress in Notre Dame Stadium in ’97, they commandeered every available space in every nook and cranny of the Stadium to find room for meetings. A couple of position areas split space in the visitors’ locker room.
Time to lift weights? Head for the Haggar Fitness Center.
Off-season conditioning sessions in January and February? Look for the Loftus Center.
Players in full sweat after a workout? Sorry, they headed out into the cold and snow in their sweats. Why? No locker or shower facilities in Loftus.
In those days, Notre Dame’s football program recruited itself. It certainly wasn’t because of the day-to-day facilities.
But, that was then.
Now comes the Guglielmino Athletics Complex.
When Kevin White became Notre Dame’s athletics director in 2000, he quickly surveyed the Irish facilities. Having held that job at places from Loras to Maine to Tulane to Arizona State, he had a solid sense of what was in place around the country and what the Irish coaches were competing against from a recruiting standpoint.
The Irish gameday facilities? Not bad. The practice and locker room facilities? They were, in some cases, a little bit “tired,” according to White.
So, White quickly commissioned a group of athletic and University administrators to take a national tour. They spent a week, checking out facilities at Stanford, Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, Duke and others – many of the schools with whom the Irish go head to head in recruiting.
From that tour came a 10-year master plan for athletic facilities at Notre Dame. White’s idea is that all 26 sports would be touched in some way by this plan. No more would a parent or prospective student-athlete suggest there was a lack of commitment in South Bend based on facilities.
In White’s mind, prospective student-athletes are ardent consumers. They check out the Web, they make comparisons, they want to know how committed your institution is to supporting its athletic programs.
And so was hatched the plan for “The Gug” that is being dedicated this weekend. It’s the first facility from that master plan to come to fruition.
It may not be the best of its kind in the country, but, if not, it’s close. It now consolidates the pieces of the Irish football operation all in one place.
There are offices for the coaches and all those directly connected to the football program. There’s a video control area that looks like something out of “Star Wars.”
There’s a spacious locker room for the team to use all year around. Walk outside and you’re just steps away from the Cartier Field practice fields.
The strength and conditioning area has been doubled in size from what was previously available in Loftus – and it’s for use by all Irish athletes. There’s a sizeable training room, also available for all sports. There’s a 150-seat auditorium, home for Irish football team meetings and Charlie Weis press conferences – and it, too, can be used by other sports.
There are separate video meetings rooms for each football position area. There’s a lounge for players, plus a computer/study area.
And you can’t miss the fact it’s Notre Dame. Above the lockers are photo montages of previous Irish all-stars. There are hallway listings of Irish All-Americans, student managers, players in the pros, plus a second-floor recruiting lounge with great views of campus and with national championship banners hanging from the ceiling.
Hard to miss, just off the main lobby, is a two-story mural highlighting the history and tradition of Notre Dame football – from Gus Dorais, Knute Rockne and the Four Horsemen, to Ara Parseghian, Alan Page, Tim Brown and Justin Tuck.
While Charlie Weis and his staff go about putting Irish football in order on the playing field, Guglielmino family members gathered on campus this weekend can rest assured their generous contribution has enabled Notre Dame’s program to make an impressive statement off the field as well.