Ken Bradford
The 1975 Controversy that Almost Killed The Observer
BY KEN BRADFORD // POSTED MARCH 18, 2025
Just a few of us know how close Notre Dame came to killing off the student newspaper 50 years ago. The Observer is an independently run student newspaper, launched in the fall of 1966 during the hot days of civil liberties. Its purpose, then and now, was to give students a way to chronicle, comment and complain about campus events.
Juan Marichal and a Minor League Stop in Michigan City
BY KEN BRADFORD // POSTED SEPTEMBER 14, 2024
There's a story about baseball Hall-of-Famer Juan Marichal that leads to a LaPorte County home builder named Al Shinn. For those of us who lived during the 1960s, Marichal's name is magic. He was a 10-time all-star pitcher for the San Francisco Giants from 1960 through 1973. During his heyday, he had six 20-win seasons and ranked near the top of the National League's best, along with Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson.
Dominick DaCosta: South Bend's Own George Santos
BY KEN BRADFORD // POSTED AUGUST 22, 2024
A good brain holds data in neat filing cabinets, alphabetized and ready for recall. Others, like mine, have stuff stored every which way, in shoe boxes and scribbled notes that can't be trusted. As a result, I often find myself saying, “I think I remember this.” And one such memory is of a person named Dominick DaCosta. His name slithered from my information heap when I started hearing about George Santos.