Stanford band says sorry to Notre Dame for 'sophomoric' remarks

Two weeks after its marching band mocked the Irish potato famine and described the Irish as "stinking drunks" during a football game against the University of Notre Dame, Stanford University officials formally apologized to Notre Dame for what they said were "uncivil and improper" actions. The controversy began during the October 4 game's pre-game and half-time entertainment, when the Stanford marching band said the Irish's "sparse cultural heritage consisted only of fighting, then starving, enraging many Catholics. The show -- performed by the Leland Stanford Junior University Band -- "included a series of ethnic and religious slurs directed toward Catholics and people of Irish descent," Notre Dame officials said in a written statement October 11. In a letter to Notre Dame administrators, Stanford President Gerhard Casper expressed "regret and embarrassment about the actions of Stanford's student band at the October 4 football game." "Our students should know better than to insult others' religion and heritage. The band's purported satire was uncivil and improper. It goes without saying that you and the wider community have Stanford's apologies," he added in the letter. But although Notre Dame President Richard Malloy accepted Casper's apology, he blasted "the bigotry displayed by the Stanford University band." "As a community formed largely by Irish-American Catholics, we find the behavior of the Stanford band not merely sophomoric and boorish, but personally offensive," Malloy said in a written release. "Such bigotry? is absolutely unacceptable, especially from a student organization representing an institution that rightfully prides itself on diversity," he added. The Stanford band has been barred from performing on Notre Dame's South Bend, Ind., campus since 1991 following a similar incident, in which a drum major dressed in a nun's habit used a cross to conduct the band. And Stanford's band is not likely to be playing at Notre Dame "anytime in the next five years," according to Notre Dame spokesperson Dennis Brown. The band has also been banned from playing at Stanford Stadium for the schools' 1999 game. In a open letter posted on the band's Internet site, the Stanford band apologized "for the ambiguity in the script: the field show script should have been much clearer. Its misinterpretation as an assault on the Irish seems obvious in retrospect, but did not occur to any of our censors. We erred in judgment, and we apologize." Significantly, however, the band did not apologize for the act itself. Stanford band officials did not return repeated phone calls for comment. Penn's band was barred from performing its similarly satirical show at Lafayette in September, 1995. University officials approve all of the band's scripts before each game, however.