Domers: 9a Year at Notre Dame

Coyne goes back to school, as it were, to delve behind the football-powerhouse reputation and provide a well-rounded portrait of this 150-year-old Midwestern Catholic university. Embarking on his journey with a somewhat skeptical air, Coyne tells of his year spent in research, attending classes, dances, parties, administration meetings, Mass and, of course, football games. Readers will soon sense that the author was won over but not blinded by what he experienced. Coyne divulges that life beneath the glow of the golden dome (hence ``domers'') is often a paradox in which students, faculty and administration struggle to balance the religious and spiritual traditions of the past with the social, academic and cultural movements of the present. For devotees, biographical information on campus luminaries such as the university's founder, Father Sorin; longtime university president Father Theodore Hesburgh; legendary football coach Knute Rockne and others abounds. For those who have attended Notre Dame, this volume is a walk down memory lane spiked with a few jolts of modern reality; for those who worship from afar, this is an up-close and personal examination of a myth. (Sept.)