Notre Dame Why Notre Dame? Dad was turned off the Jesuits at Boston College from what he saw at Boston track meets, he thought they were obnoxious. Dad had a friend who went to Notre Dame and it sounded good. Dad didn't get into Holy Cross but he did get an athletic scholarship at Providence (though he didn't know of it until years later). He chose an academic scholarship at Notre Dame. Dad ran varsity track all three years that he could at Notre Dame (freshmen were not allowed). He once said that he didn't even like running until college, when at one important race he unexpectedly won and there was no going back from then on. It was a Michigan state race and his friend Bill Squires, who was also from Boston, was sick. "He still could've beat me, but it was the only time in 84 races that I beat him. But I did well and for whatever reason the coach put me in the 4x4OO relay, which I'd never run, and I did well and beat this big shot Australian." Dad studied hard and made Dean's list all four vears. He was a member of the Academv of Political Sciences, which complemented his major in political science. Dad would take the train from Boston to Notre Dame, and from Notre Dame home for holidays and at the end of the year. There were enough young men from Boston that the whole train car was full of them, and Dad remembers the sixteen to twenty hour ride home. Graduation must have been a big event for the whole Linehan family, this being the first college graduate for the Linehans and the Leggs (aside from Dad's uncle Robert), in addition to their pride in the fact that Dad had made Dean's list all four years and graduated Magna Cum Laude, and at this, the best catholic school in the country. Mary Legg, Grace, and John traveled with Michael, Estelle and Margaret to South Bend for graduation. Around the time of graduation, Dad competed in the Indiana olympic tryouts and placed third. Dad recalls, "the nice thing about that was that my father and Uncle John were there. I think it was the only time my father saw me run in college." Margaret, Mary Legg, Dad, Estelle, and Grace at Dad's commissioning Previous Table of Contents Next