New York Memories

I lived in New York City for 15 years, at 17East 80th Street, on West 43rd around the corner from the United Nations headquarters and on West 44th Street a block from Broadway. I also lived in New Jersey in Princeton and Trenton and Westchester County in Larchmont for another 14 years. I think of the city often, particularly on the Memorial Holiday weekend.
Seventeen days before the September ll massacre I saw the Twin Towers for the last time. I was aboard a cruise ship, the Princess, the evening before the Kickoff Classic. It was a beautiful cool late summer evening. Special guests included the good people from Syracuse University and Georgia Tech, the Kickoff Classic opponents.
The New Jersey Sports Authority hosted this memorable evening. The lovely Rosemary Johnson was in charge. I was a member of the original National Football foundation group which teamed with the National Collegiate athletic Directors Association, the American Football Coaches Association and the New Jersey Sports Authority launching the Kickoff Classic. I lobbied coaches and athletic directors coast-to-coast and the game was approved.
I attended every one of the Kickoff Classics for over 20 years.
The Cruise on the historic Hudson River viewing the Statue of Liberty on a moonlit night was something to behold. Down below during dinner the music played, a talented group sang and people danced. The ship arrived near The Lady , the Statue of Liberty which I had seen for the first time in the autumn of 1944 as a Navy gunner aboard a Liberty Ship, a member of the Armed Guard, the equivalent of hired guns a century before in the Golden West. I went top side to pay my respects to the Lady and to view the magnificent New York skyline on a moonlit night, the world primarily at peace except for the constant skirmishes in the Mid-East.
In 1944 we were part of the one of the largest convoys in World War 11, bound for the European Theater of Operations where submarines and V-2 bombs were waiting our arrival.
On Memorial Day 2008 I thought of those days once again.
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The University of Notre Dame wanted to return to the East to satisfy its thousands of alumni and fans and discussed a four year contract with Rutgers, playing in Giants Stadium and its 75,000 capacity. Rutgers Athletic Director Bob Mulcahy, a former small town New Jersey May0r who worked for Governor Brendan Byrne, who later got him the job with the New Jersey Sports Authority, wanted to play its home games with Notre Dame in its expanded 55,000 seat stadium. Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White said No Thanks and scheduled the University of Connecticut instead.
U-Conn Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway realized how much it would have meant to his school if he could schedule Notre Dame, particularly with its marvelous national TV contract. Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano can not be very happy that Rutgers missed this opportunity for national exposure by playing Notre Dame for four years.
Mulcahy, who had named the New Jersey Arena in honor of his former boss Brendan Byrne later sold the naming rights and Brendan's name was erased from the structure. Mulcahy has some Eastern writers praising him for not agreeing to play Notre Dame in Giants Stadium.
The bottom line is that the seat difference is 20,000 seats and New Jersey has lost the series to Connecticut. Over 75,000 fans would have spent a lot of money in New Jersey if the game had been played in New Jersey. Mulcahy is so smart he out-smarted himself.
Notre Dame is reported to have wanted to play Ole Miss at a neutral city, New Orleans, in the Sugar Bowl Stadium. I was told that the SEC would not approve of such a move because of Television. I will check this out. The SEC Commissioner Michael Slive is a Lawyer. I believe that several of his predecessors, Mike Connor, Bernie Moore, and Tonto Coleman would have jumped at the chance of having one of its teams play Notre Dame in the huge Sugar Bowl Stadium.
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