April 18, 2008

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Over 100 former student-athletes, coaches, managers, chaplains, and staff will be in attendance with family members and friends at the Rolfs Aquatic Center on Saturday to take part in the Notre Dame swimming and diving program’s inaugural alumni meet.

The occasion will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of the men’s team and the 25th year of women’s swimming and diving at Notre Dame.

“What a great day this will be for Notre Dame swimming and diving,” said men’s head coach Tim Welsh, who is one of the two skippers of the men’s squad since the program started in 1958. “Many of the original members of the team when it was a club sport will be here, largely to pay tribute to Dennis Stark (the first head coach at Notre Dame).”

The programs will unveil a state-of-the-art video board that was made possible largely through the help of gracious contributions from a number of alumni, according to Welsh. The Colorado Time Systems board is mounted on the south wall of Rolfs and measures 11 feet tall and nearly 20 feet in width. It is a full matrix LED scoreboard with computer controller, channel-mounting hardware, galvanized steel channel and data fiber cables. Its display is capable of 1.07 billion shades of color with full matrix graphics and animation.

“We’re also going to have an alumni swim meet to see what kind of shape these guys are in,” Welsh added. “Overall, it will be a fun weekend and a great way to celebrate the sport here at Notre Dame.”

Invitation forms and a complete schedule of the weekend’s events can be found on the respective swimming sections at UND.com.

–ND–