|
Catching Up With . . .
Tony Rice, Notre Dame Quarterback
October 24, 1988
Posted: Tue October 13, 1998
| |
(Bill Smith)
|
After a
crushing 24-0 loss to Miami to end the 1987 regular season,
Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz handed out T-shirts that read
FROM THE ASHES NOTRE DAME WILL RISE AGAIN. The words were an epiphany for sophomore quarterback Tony
Rice, who had been thrust into the starter's role in the
fourth game of the season because of an injury to Terry
Andrysiak. "For me it clicked right there," says
Rice. "I said to myself, From
the ashes, Tony Rice will rise
again."
As the first Proposition 48 athlete admitted to Notre Dame,
Rice had many more downs than ups during his first two
seasons in South Bend. In his freshman year he saw what he
was up against when, at a pep rally, a Notre Dame fan
steered his son away from
a conversation with Rice, telling the youngster, "He's
Prop 48. He's stupid." Editorials
in the school paper that
year opined that Rice
didn't belong on campus. That attitude was almost as
difficult for Rice to handle as Notre Dame's rigorous
academic demands. "People thought I would fail and
just go home," he
says.
Rice, however, not only survived
but thrived at Notre
Dame. In 1988, running a punishing option, he led the Irish to a
12-0 record—including a highly charged 31-30 upset of
then top-ranked Miami in October—and their 11th
national title. He followed that up in 1989 with a 12-1
mark and a No. 2 ranking. Rice's
biggest victory, though, came in the spring of '90, when he
earned his bachelor's degree in
psychology.
(David Walberg)
| | Undrafted by the NFL, Rice eventually played one season for
the Saskatchewan Rough Riders of the CFL and two seasons
for the Barcelona Dragons in the World League of American
Football. Today Rice, 31, works as a salesman for ESC
Medical Systems, an
Israeli company that makes lasers, and is a partner in a real
estate brokerage. "In sales you can control how good
you can be," he says. "It's like in football,
where I always wanted my hands on the ball." He lives
in Mishawaka, Ind., just a short pitch from
South Bend, with his wife, Felicia, and their five
children, Alex, 8, Madeline, 6, Anthony, 4, Michael, 2, and
Jasmine, eight months. "I have a starting five,"
says Tony. "That's
enough."
Rice frequently gives talks to Pop Warner teams and is
active in the D.A.R.E. program, fighting to keep kids off
drugs. Though he lives and works so close to the scene of
his heroics, he
doesn't dwell on the glory days. "My time at Notre
Dame was
great," Rice says, "but I've got my hands full with
other things
now."
—John
O'Keefe
Issue date: October 19, 1998
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
|
