DETROIT (REUTERS) — A legendary former star of the Green Bay Packers drew the wrath of his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, Wednesday for suggesting it lower its academic standards to recruit more black football players.

Notre Dame called Paul Hornung, who is white, “an illustrious alumnus” whose remarks were “insulting” to black student-athletes.

Hornung, 68, spoke of the Indiana university’s Fighting Irish football team and the need to ease admission standards to accommodate black athletes at a Michigan Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Detroit Tuesday.

“As far as Notre Dame is concerned, we’re going to have to ease it up a little bit,” he said.

“We can’t stay as strict as we are as far as the academic structure is concerned, because we’ve got to get the black athlete,” Hornung said. “We must get the black athlete if we’re going to compete.”

Hornung was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986. He was an All-American and Heisman Trophy winner at Notre Dame in the 1950s when it was known as a conservative Roman Catholic university.

He went on to a star-studded career under Packers coach Vince Lombardi that was tainted only by a yearlong suspension for gambling in 1963.

In its statement, Notre Dame said it had increased the diversity of its student body significantly in recent years and increased its percentage of black students.

Hornung’s comments “are generally insensitive and specifically insulting to our past and current African-American student-athletes,” the university said.

“Our records show that admission requirements for athletes have remained constant over those years in which we have had both great success and occasional disappointments with our football teams.”