Gone, Lost & Forgotten: Their Best = Notre Dame

If you do a quick search on why Fighting Irish wrestling came to an end after the 1991-1992 season you'll be given the simplistic answer of "Title IX."  That is the "official" reason athletic director Dick Rosenthal gave anyway.  Yet there is another story with a different explanation.

There was a multi-millionaire in the oil business by the name of Bucky O'Connor who had a son named Pat.  Pat was a wrestler, who wrestled at Notre Dame.  In the summer of 1973, Pat took a trip to Europe and was murdered during a robbery.  In Pat's honor Bucky put up 1.5 million dollars plus other funds to permanently endow Fighting Irish wrestling.  Per records that I have found, Notre Dame fought Title IX proportionality quotas as far back as the mid 1980's.  Yet wrestling held on through early 1990's.  Why?

Bucky O'Connor died in 91.

Now that could be pure coincidence, but I'll come out and say that I don't think it was.  I'll interject my opinion here.  I think that Rosenthal wanted Fighting Irish wrestling gone long before 1992.  I think that he knew as long as Bucky O'Connor was alive, Notre Dame was going to have a wrestling program.  After his death, his widow & Pat's mother was coaxed into allowing the endowment money to be used for "other reasons."  Notre Dame did get a new women's program but scholarship money for the football program suddenly increased around that time as well.

One has to ask themselves how Bucky himself would feel about what happened nearly thirty years ago. A member of the Fighting Irish football team himself back in the 1940's, one would have to think that he's happy to see the gold continue the South Bend tradition.  Yet he also set that endowment up with the understanding that in his son's honor the wrestling program would go on forever.  I'm not him, I can't speak for him.  I don't know for sure how he would feel.  I only know how I would feel if it were my son.  I think that if Bucky O'Connor were alive today, so to would be Notre Dame Fighting Irish wrestling.

To this day the Pat O'Connor endowment money is still being used for Notre Dame athletics.  A Pat O'Connor award is given out annually to a Notre Dame athlete.

Pat Boyd

Pat Boyd came to Notre Dame from Michigan where after finishing third as a freshman won three state titles for Grand Rapids West Catholic high school.  While competing for the Irish, he placed fifth in 1989 at the NCAA wrestling championships.  He garnered 100 wins during his career.

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Jerry Durso 

A three time NCAA qualifier for the Irish, Durso took eighth place honors at the 1989 NCAA tournament as a senior.

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Dick Arrington

Born in Kiln, Mississippi, had it not been for a move to Pennsylvania shortly before high school the world of wrestling may have never known Dick Arrington.  Competing for Erie East High School, Arrington earned scholarships in both football and wrestling to Notre Dame.  As a wrestler he took third at the NCAA championships in 1965.  Also an All American in football, he had a career in professional football playing for the Boston Patriots.  We sadly lost Arrington to a heart attack in 1993.

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Bob Golic 

Notre Dame's most famous wrestler was also their best.  Known for his superior talents on the gridiron, including helping the Irish to the 1977 NCAA championship, Golic was every bit as good on the mat.

Wrestling for St Joseph's High School he won a state title in 1975.  In the semi-finals he defeated future Ohio State Buckeye linebacker Tom Cousineau.  In the finals he defeated legendary Harold Smith who went on to have an All American career at Kentucky (another program we've lost) before having success in international wrestling.

As a wrestler for the Irish, Golic qualified for the NCAA championships on three occasions, placing fourth as a junior in 1977 and third as a senior in 1978.  Altogether he had a career record of 54-4.

Post college he played in the NFL for the Patriots, the Browns and the Raiders.

Beyond his career in the NFL he worked in various forms of entertainment including having a starring role on SAVED BY THE BELL: THE COLLEGE YEARS