What years were you on the ND team?

by PuppyBowl, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 12:26 (35 days ago) @ Grantland

Did you play for Jasinski or Thomas?

The turnaround for that program has been spurred by alumni involvement (Jimmy Dunne being a central figure). Been pretty remarkable how it's ascended after shedding Kubinski, but not completely surprising. The story behind that is pretty funny. Apparently one of the top recruits in the country was a diehard ND fan, came from an ND family, etc. All he wanted to do was go to ND despite all the reasons not to as a golfer (in addition to the weather situation, ND was pretty much a bottom feeder in the ACC at the time).

Jimmy was introduced and set the table for Kubinski, basically said "he's in the bag for ND, call him and pick up where I left off." Signing day came and the kid signed with Stanford (I believe). Jimmy called Kubinski and asked what happened. He replied that he never contacted him, wasn't worth the time since someone like that was never going to come to ND over one of the big golf powers. Jimmy called Swarbrick and said "time for him to go" and off he went.

He got much more involved with the program and that was when the ascent began.