Taking One for the Team

Filed under: Notre Dame

Sure, Brian Ratigan was talented. But was he tough?

In August of 1989, Ratigan arrived on campus at Notre Dame as a freshman linebacker. Earlier that summer Ratigan, the Gatorade Player of the Year in Iowa, had undergone surgery for torn cartilage in his knee.

"I tried to practice right away and my knee really got swollen three or four days into training camp," Ratigan told writer Lou Somogyi in a story that recently appeared on und.com, Notre Dame's athletic site. "So they made me sit out, and it was embarrassing to sit out."

During one of those early practices, Ratigan pedaled a stationary bike. One day head coach Lou Holtz, who eight months earlier had led the Irish to a national championship, approached, fixed his eyes on the freshman, and stopped. "That's too bad, son," said Dr. Lou. "You could have been a good player here"

 

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