One voice. One vision. One team.

The Docket Passer

Cardinal football, the UofL, and Louisville Law

The Docket Passer, September 6, 2007
Game 1 recap	Game 2 preview
ESPN video: Postgame interview:	Coach Steve Kragthorpe: CB Travis Norton: WR Scott Long:

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Welcome to week 2 and the September 6 installment of "The Docket Passer," your online source for observations about Cardinal football, the UofL, and Louisville Law.

It's been a good week in Louisville. The Cardinals thumped Murray State, 73-10. As the Michigan Wolverines discovered last weekend, you can't take any opponent for granted. Division I-AA teams can knock off teams ranked fifth in the AP poll. Thankfully, nothing resembling an upset took place here in The Ville. Our wide-open offense posted a touchdown every fourth play during the first half, and the defense regrouped after a tentative start to smother Murray's Racers.

Football, of course, is a team sport, and the Cardinals are just one among many players on the team we love most, the entire University of Louisville. As a community, we are athletics, academics, and the arts. We are all those things and more; we are far, far more than the sum of our parts. Fresh from staging its signature musical event of the year, the School of Music's annual Faculty Gala, the UofL now turns its attention to an artistic exhibition whose scope and ambition exceed anything our community has ever seen before.


The breathtaking exhibit, Frederick Hart: Giving Form to Spirit, brings to Louisville the largest collection of works by one of America's greatest sculptors. Giving Form to Spirit unites Hart's most celebrated public works -- particularly Ex Nihilo at the National Cathedral and Three Soldiers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- with intricate acrylic pieces that display Hart's artistry at its most intimate.

To be sure, Hart's work has encountered its share of controversy. Three Soldiers, in particular, lay at the center of an anguished public debate over the proper recognition of the sacrifice so many Americans made in Vietnam. Against the backdrop of post-Vietnam politics, Hart signaled a restoration of the representational tradition in visual arts. Yet even those who see through a postmodern lens must confess the striking nature of Hart's work -- its power and its beauty.

In art and academia as in athletics, strife can make us stronger. Games that count are more fun to watch than scrimmages, precisely because something hangs in the balance. Frederick Hart's presence on campus gives his fans something to debate, and perhaps to defend, alongside admirers of more abstractly rendered expressions of the beautiful. As for my own discipline, the very existence of disagreement is what gives rise to law itself. Lawyers, judges, and legislators resolve conflict in peaceable fashion. At our very best, those of us called to the legal profession dedicate our best efforts to prevent conflict in the first place.

The year 2007 has witnessed some of the finest moments in the history of the Cardinal Nation. Whether you spend this weekend cheering Louisville football against the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State, pondering how Frederick Hart captured grace and motion in bronze and acrylic, or mastering the mysteries of modern jurisprudence, the University of Louisville is the place to be. From our concert halls to our museums, playing fields, and lecture halls, we sing, we speak, we play, we learn together. One voice. One vision. One team.

Announcing the Dean's Athletic Circle
The University of Louisville School of Law hereby announces the Dean's Athletic Circle. The DAC will endeavor to stage events that unite the Law School and the rest of the Cardinal Nation behind our mutual love of sports in general and UofL athletics in particular.

In a very real sense, two exciting events will kick off the Dean's Athletic Circle this weekend:

1. Law School softball: Saturday, Sept. 8, 4 p.m. A team of wily "veterans" -- featuring upper-division students, the Dean, faculty, and staff -- will take on a "rookie" team of first-year law students at Churchill Park Softball Field. Spectators are welcome.


2. UofL Women's Soccer vs. Butler University: Sunday, Sept. 9, 1 p.m. This Sunday's match against Butler is the Law School's special day with the University of Louisville's women's soccer team. The match will take place at Cardinal Park. Dean Jim Chen will perform the ceremonial first kick. Students, graduates, and friends of the Law School are encouraged to support our Cardinals in force. Special thanks to Coach Karen Ferguson for this opportunity to unite the Law School community in support of UofL women's soccer.