Under The Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayd Ideals For Football Glory

by Don Yaeger

Under the Tarnished Dome is the bestselling book that rocked the Notre Dame football program.

Don Yaeger and Douglas S. Looney investigate the contrast between the Notre Dame image—that of a place where wins on the field are no more important than the integrity off it—and the Notre Dame football program's reality, with trash talking, rampant steroid use, pregame fights, and academic misconduct.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Don Yaeger is an acclaimed American author, journalist, and keynote speaker based in Tallahassee, Florida. A graduate of Ball State University, he began his journalism career at The San Antonio Light and The Dallas Morning News before joining Sports Illustrated as Associate Editor. He has authored or co-authored 30 books, including 12 New York Times best-sellers. Yaeger collaborated with sports legends such as Walter Payton, John Wooden, Michael Oher, and Bubba Watson, as well as political figures like Brian Kilmeade on historical bestsellers. He hosts the Corporate Competitor Podcast.

Reviews

[ND Alum · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am one of the players "quoted" in this book.
The author contacted me by phone one night. He repeatedly asked me leading questions looking for scandal. More than once he asked me, "Don't you have any dirt for me?" My mother taught me well so even if I had some serious "dirt" I knew better than to tell it to a stranger who says he's working on a history of ND football. I hung up the phone that night knowing I had disappointed this person in his quest for dirt on Notre Dame.
That did not stop him from taking a quote of mine so completely and utterly out of context that he turned what was clearly a heart felt compliment of the school into a scathing criticism. When I heard about my quote in the book I was stunned. What he did for me is to shame me to my coaches and teammates, years after I had graduated. I was forced to apologize for things I never said and will have to live with not knowing what those people in the program really think about me. As you can tell it still affects me decades later.
This book is simply a hit piece written by someone who had no interest in telling the truth. I rate the accuracy of this book at about 10%. Please don't waste your money.

[Mei · Rating 3 out of 5]

do you want to read a book from 30 years ago about college football controversies from 40 years ago? then boy do i have a recommendation for you!

[Shin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a Notre Dame alumnus nor a Lou Holtz apologist, but it seemed like this book was pretty much just a Lou Holtz slam job. You cannot talk about Notre Dame football without talking about Lou Holtz, but why spend chapters on his past employment at Minnesota and Arkansas except to paint a picture on patterns of inappropriate behavior by Holtz? Seemed like only the last few chapters actually focused on Notre Dame's practices and policies. But it was an interesting read and definitely contained a lot of insight from players which tarnish the ND image.

[Richie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about what a lousy guy coach Holtz really was.

[John Foley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was in the book and they made fun of the fact I was a prop 48 guy.

In 2001 I sent both authors my W2 I made about 600k and said he is the dumb ass now. I am a Biotech Banker today.

They tried to get me to drink and lied about how they got my name said ND have it to them. Pure scum bags.

The guy James who just wrote about the book has no idea what he is talking about.

All the thugs he is talking about are very successful my bet he is not.. who writes about a book they did not read ? A loser that’s who...

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bestselling story of the University of Notre Dame football team and its years under Coach Lou Holtz. When released, this book was quite a blow to those who placed Notre Dame on a perch of "holier than thou" college football programs.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

eh.....this book is old news, I just really dislike Lou Holth so I read it. Who knows how much of it is true.

[Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice slamjob of a team and school that I just LOVE TO HATE. Though for some reason I don't hate Lou Holtz. He is the Bobby Knight of college football in my opinion, and I love Knight as well.

[Steve Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm no Lou Holtz or Notre Dame fan, but this was little more than a Chavo Guerrero off-the-top rope take-down of both the man and the university. From the outset, I got the impression the authors never had any intention of conducting an even-handed investigation. There was a narrative in place and they went about corroborating it. That isn't to say some of the criticism isn't fair. Holtz has always struck me as somewhat hypocritical and as far as the softening of principles at Notre Dame, it was fairly common at that time to relax academic standards and tolerate behavioral issues to field a competitive team. This philosophy can be argued, but Notre Dame was far from the only school that loosened standards at the time. All in all, still an interesting read and a deep dive into the world of major college football.