 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, accompanied by Vice President-Elect Dan Quayle, Edward Molloy, and the Coach Lou Holtz. You can see that I'm there. Not you, fellas. It's damp. Well, I thank you and thank you all very much. Vice President-Elect Dan Quayle, Reverend Edward Molloy, Coach Lou Holtz. Members of Congress that are here and distinguished guests and players and coaches and the Irish at heart, welcome to the White House. My life has been full of rich and wonderful experiences, and standing near the top of the list is my long and honored association with the University of Notre Dame and his legendary hero, Canute Rockney. So I want you to know the INF Treaty and George Bush's election were important, but having the fighting Irish win the national championship is in a class by itself. And Lou, what you've achieved in only three years is inspiring. Maybe you could coach Congress on the deficit. With Notre Dame going undefeated this season, they might listen to you. You know, Coach Rockney believed there are no shortcuts to success. Practice and hard work combined with respect for your opponent is the path one must take. To achieve the greatest glory. And as Rockney himself once wrote, sportsmanship means fair play. It means having a little respect for the other fellow's point of view. It means a real application of the golden rule. Well, you young fellows here today are living proof of the truth of Rockney's ideas. All of you, coaches and players, have made sacrifices and bore many a burden. And you did it all for one goal, to be the very best. Well, as I mentioned, when I was on your campus last year, canute-like spirit in his ball players. Once when he was working with the four backfield stars who became known as the four horsemen, one of them, a fellow named Jim Crowley, just couldn't get it right. Now, you know, I never tell ethnic jokes unless they're about the Irish. But maybe today I can be permitted some leeway. Rockney, who by the way was Norwegian, was commonly called the swede. He finally got exasperated after Crowley muffed a play and hollered, what's dumber than a dumb Irishman? And without missing a beat, Crowley says, a smart swede. Well, at this year's Fiesta Bowl, you showed us what you were made of and reached the goal of being the very best. The West Virginia Mountaineers didn't look into playing you for the national championship. No, just like you, they fought hard all season and earned the right to play for the title of being number one. And just like the fighting Irish, they're a talented well-coached team and they deserve a salute. Their records should make them proud. And speaking of pride, I noticed that coach Holtz thought Rockney would be proud of this team and I'm sure he would be. Right now, I can't help but think that somewhere far away, there's a fellow with a big grin and a whole lot of pride in his school and he might be thinking to himself that maybe you want another one for the Gipper. Congratulations and God bless you all. Mr. President, we are extremely proud of this team and of its fine coaching staff headed by Lou Holtz. You have honored our campus twice during the term of office as president. One's as commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient, which obviously makes you an utter damer and more recently for the Newt Rockney Stamp Commemoration. We thought it would be fitting on this time in which you have honored the university and its winning football team to make a small presentation to you. Since I'm a little puny, I've asked two of our seniors and leaders this year to bring over a particular plaque that I'd like to read the inscription for. This is Frank Stams and Wes Pritchett. It reads, monogram sweater awarded to George Gip, half back of the Fighting Irish 1917-1920, presented to Ronald Reagan by the University of Notre Dame, January, 1989. I think that's a great sacrifice by the university, but believe me, no one could have it and treasure it more than I will. Oh, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. You want to take the sweater? Let's take the sweater. Those big guys, they can't go down. Oh, thank you. Just, I like, let's move, I'll say a few words a second. Right. Mr. President, it's indeed a thrill for us to be here as the number one football team in the country and we're exceptionally proud of that and we're also exceptionally proud of the fact that we've won an award for graduating 100% of our entire football team of five years ago. We also realize that to reach a position such as this, you have to be very lucky and very fortunate and we're also aware of the fact that many other teams could have been standing here rather than us had it not been for many good fortunate things that happened to us. It's a great thrill to be number one, but it's also a great thrill for any American it's a dream to be able to come to the White House to meet the president. I know I speak on behalf of our football team and we say we're deeply gratified and feel blessed to be here. It's been a great honor for us, but it's also a great honor to come here representing the University of Notre Dame family. We have just a small gift and we have three captains here, Mark Green, Andy Heck and Ned Boakar. And we know that you're gonna be packing up, Mr. President. We just brought you something you can pack in it says Notre Dame, it says Ronald Reagan and it said to Gipper, we brought you a sweater it said the national championship, but we brought you something that signifies a great accomplishment for us. But we consider the accomplishments that you've made since you've been a noble office this may seem very small, but we wanted to share our greatest accomplishment with you, Mr. President. Thank you. Right guard stick together. Roni, that's a great gift. Yeah. This is a great day. Well, I won't find anyone else to throw it to, I'll just hang on to it. Well, I thank you all very much. Congratulations to all of you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. The man who conceived the idea of guards in the line, instead of charging forward against the other linemen on many plays, backing out and coming out of the line and leading the interference. And I don't know whether I could have had a football career if he hadn't done that because our coach copied it. I weighed 175 and I remember one day when the player opposite me in the line would go on to play with the Chicago Bears and then later be eight years all pro tackle and he weighed 275 pounds to my 175. His name was George Musso. And I can't tell you how grateful I was to Rockney as I would back out of the line to run the interference. Made the job possible. Well, I've got to go to work. Thank you very much.