Obama Pokes Fun at Irish Football Woes at UND Grad Speech

President Barack Obama was invited to give a commencement speech for the graduating class at the University of Notre Dame this year. Both sitting and past presidents oftentimes give commencement speeches. However, this one was embroiled in controversy. Many social conservatives view President Barack Obama’s views on abortion to be in conflict with the traditional Catholic view on the controversial issue. There were protests. Websites were formed. The commencement was interrupted once by a heckler. But in the end Obama delivered his speech and took on abortion, calling for mutual understanding on both sides of the issue. However, this is mostly a sports blog, so what does this all have to do with sports?

Barack tired to lighten the mood of the speech by poking fun at the Notre Dame football team and by riffing on the Notre Dame outdoor basketball tournament. After the ceremony was interrupted by a shouting man, Obama went into this segment of the speech.

“Since this is Notre Dame I think we should talk not only about your accomplishments in the classroom, but also about your accomplishments in the competitive arena. Don’t worry. I’m not going to talk about … that. We all know about this University’s proud and storied football team, but I’ve also heard that Notre Dame holds the largest five on five outdoor basketball tournament in the world. Now this excites me. I want to congratulate the winners of this year’s tournament, a team by the name of Hallelujah Holla Back. Congratulations. Well done. Though I have to say I’m personally disappointed that the Barack O’Ballers didn’t pull it out this year. So next year if you need a 6-2 forward with a decent jumper, you know where I live.”

To get Notre Dame Fighting Irish tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Posted in General on May 20, 2009

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