ECHOES OF HOLTZ Faith, Football and a Life Well Coached
INTRODUCTION • 1
The Lineup BOOK EDITOR Gene Myers
SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE SPORTS E DITOR Austin Hough BEAT REPORTER Mike Berardino COLUMNIST Tom Noie EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ismail Turay Jr.
USA TO DAY DIRECTOR OF COMMERCE OPERATIONS Kate Ellsworth BOOKS EDITOR Andy Harper E-COMMERCE SPECIALIST Clarissa Shine
About the book “Echoes of Holtz” features the world’s best coverage of Lou Holtz’s legendary coaching career over the decades from the South Bend Tribune, NDInsider.com, USA TODAY Sports and the USA TODAY Network. For continuing coverage of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, go to southbendtribune.com and ndinsider.com. Order print and digital subscriptions by calling 800-220-7378 or by going to subscribe.southbendtribune.com/offers.
On the cover The Fighting Irish carried off Lou Holtz
after a 21-6 victory over top-ranked and unbeaten Colorado in the 1990 Orange Bowl. The next morning, Holtz was crushed when 12-1 Notre Dame finished behind 11-1 Miami (Florida) in the polls. IMAGN IMAGES PREVIOUS PAGE: Holtz coached Notre
Dame for 11 seasons — from 1986 to 1996 — compiling a 100-30-2 record, winning the 1988 national championship and finishing as the runner-up twice. R VR PHOTOS / IMAGN IMAGES OPPOSITE: Only Holtz, Knute Rockne and
Ara Parseghian had a statue at Notre Dame Stadium and an eternal resting place in the campus cemetery. MICHAEL CLUBB / SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
PROJECT COORDINATOR Gene Myers
SUPPORT TEAM DESIGNERS Joey Schaffer, Lee Benson PROOFREADERS Sherrill Amo, Heather Hewitt
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher. Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • www.pediment.com Printed in Canada. This book is an unofficial account of the life, career and legacy of Lou Holtz by the South Bend Tribune and USA TODAY and is not
SPECIAL THANKS Alicia Del Gallo, Chris Thomas, Chris Fenison, Kyle Robertson, Douglas McMurray
2 • ECHOES OF HOLTZ
endorsed by the Holtz family. Copyright © 2026 by the South Bend Tribune and USA TODAY Sports All Rights Reserved • ISBN: 978-1-63846-199-9
ECHOES OF HOLTZ Faith, Football and a Life Well Coached
20
78
94
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
THE COACH
THE SEASON
THE LEGEND
INTRODUCTION • 3
FOREWORD
Working alongside Holtz: Funny stories, crazy hours, lots of wins WHEN THE SOBERING NEWS CAME that Lou Holtz had passed away on March 4, 2026, dozens of memories began f looding back, most from the 11 years we spent working together at Notre Dame. The great moments, games and players from the Holtz era have been well-documented elsewhere. These off-the-field remembrances represent a different look at what Holtz was about.
was growing up in Ohio and told a story from Holtz’s senior year of high school. Lou was headed to Kent State, and one day in the grocery store, he accidentally overheard two women in the next aisle talking about what a waste of money it was for the Holtz family to send Lou to college because he was never going to amount to anything. We never talked about that, but I always had the sense his entire career was dedicated to proving those ladies wrong. Wonder what they think today?
The gossip at the grocery store When Lou was hired, there was enough interest that I would take visiting writers to the Morris Inn on campus for lunch with Lou and the chance to interview him in a group setting. Lots of great stories came from those sessions. One of the best was authored by Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star. Phil, a Notre Dame graduate, did his homework on the years Lou
The weekly blueprint for victory Lou was famous for making every opponent sound like the Green Bay Packers. I experienced that every week. On Sunday and Monday, Lou wasn’t sure we’d win another game. But that’s just because that week’s game plan hadn’t been installed and he hadn’t seen us practice it yet. I would see him after practice on Thursdays, and he would be a changed
JOHN HEISLER
man. By then, all the advance work was done, and he generally was supremely confident that his team was going to win the game. The life of a coach.
JOHN HEISLER, A NATIVE OF South Bend, Indiana, spent more than four decades at the University of Notre Dame in intercollegiate ath letics media relations and communications, including all 11 years Lou Holtz was the Fighting Irish football coach. Notre Dame played in 18 major bowls during Heisler’s tenure that spanned the seasons from 1978 through 2018. A member of the College Sports Communicators Hall of Fame, Heisler has written, cowritten or edited 11 books on Notre Dame football.
OPPOSITE: On Thursday afternoon before 1993’s Game of the Century against top-ranked Florida State, Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz
directed his troops in their last full-blown practice before the showdown. A few hours later, he hosted the sportswriters and sportscasters descending on South Bend for a night of barbecue and beers at his home. JOE RAYMOND / SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
4 • ECHOES OF HOLTZ
INTRODUCTION • 5
The 24/7 life of a college coach The printed play-by-play we produced in the press box at home games contained lots of notes and quotes. The coaches had long since gone home by the time we stapled the final versions. So, I made a habit of stopping by the Holtz home in Granger, Indiana, with copies of the final numbers. After most games, the cul-de-sac would be crowded with cars — and the Holtz house would be buzzing with people, usually celebrating a victory. But that wasn’t Lou. I’m sure he made an appearance, but by the time I would arrive to drop off the stats, he would be hiding away, already watching film. Again, the life of a coach. The gift of connecting with fans As talented as Lou was at X-and-O football, there also seemed to be ample evidence he had a degree in marketing. While Friday luncheons before home games and Friday night pep rallies happened routinely before Lou arrived, he took them to new levels. Luncheons in the Joyce Center’s north dome were routinely packed, including many visitors who maybe had little knowledge of football but were convinced that Lou would have at least one hilarious story that attendees would repeat to their friends all weekend. Tickets to pep rallies in the south dome of the Joyce Center were free, but demand was so great that the athletic department was forced to arrange a ticketing system to keep the crowd organized. It’s noteworthy that neither of those events happened that same way — if 6 • ECHOES OF HOLTZ
at all — now. Lou was so entertaining he spoiled it for his successors. Put a microphone in front of him and he was transformed. The big-game BBQ for the ages Lou made it clear early on that he would not be coming by everybody’s office on Monday mornings with a cup of coffee asking how your weekend went. His attitude: If I need you, I’ll come and
find you. If you need me, you come and find me. We both have jobs to do. So, Lou in those 11 years showed up in my office only a few times. One time he did was the Thursday before the 1993 game against top-ranked and unbeaten Florida State. He knew there had been tons of media in town all week, and he wanted to know what they were doing to entertain themselves in the evenings. Then he
proceeded to ask what I thought of inviting all the visiting media to his home that Thursday night for BBQ (and beers). My first thought was, does his wife, Beth, know about this? It was not what anyone might have expected, but it worked. Ever yone showed up, we hung out in the basement and watched the Thursday night ESPN game. Lou gave tours of the dozens of framed photos and other memorabilia
OPPOSITE: In one of the signature
games of his 33 seasons as a college head coach, Lou Holtz’s intensity went off the charts during Notre Dame’s 31-24 victory over No. 1 Florida State on Nov. 13, 1993. On the game’s final play at Notre Dame Stadium, Shawn Wooden knocked down a pass from the Seminoles’ Charlie Ward at the goal line. ED BALLOTTS / SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
LEFT: Katie Bell placed a drawing of flowers done by her 5-year-old daughter, Lucy Bell, on the statue of Holtz outside Notre Dame Stadium on March 4, 2026. After Holtz died that day at age 89, admirers set up a makeshift shrine at his statue and posed for photos with the bronze sculpture unveiled in 2008. Holtz won 100 games as coach of the Fighting Irish from 1986-96, including the 1988 national championship. MICHAEL CLUBB / SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
on the walls. Da n Shaug h nessy of t he Boston Globe wrote an entire column about the experience. I think everyone (including me) was astounded that Notre Dame’s coach would think to do this two nights before one of the biggest football games in his career. But, with an extra week to prepare, as they say, the hay was in the barn — and the final score Saturday proved that.
The coach who left ’em laughing The Notre Dame Club of Chicago annually held its Rockne Dinner of football awards in April at a downtown Chicago hotel ballroom. Normally the Notre Dame coach was the featured speaker. One year, sometime after Lou had left Notre Dame, the coach could not attend. So, the Chicago club invited Lou instead. Of all the stories and jokes he told that night, I’d probably heard at least half of
them. But the reaction from the crowd (with lots of kids in attendance) was over the top. What I quickly rea lized was that enough time had gone by since Lou had coached that events like that introduced his brand of humor to a whole new generation. He was one of a kind, and I missed him. So, too, did Notre Dame.
INTRODUCTION • 7
PREFACE
Covering the Holtz years: Behind the scenes with the sports editor BILL MOOR
TEN THINGS FOLKS MIGHT NOT have known about the late, great Lou Holtz, who won 100 games at Notre Dame and the 1988 national championship. NO. 1: OPENING QUIPS At his first news conference at Notre Dame, Holtz demonstrated his quick wit by saying that when watching the Irish on television, he was relieved to see that the fans “weren’t armed” but felt that the upcoming schedule “had to be a misprint.” NO. 2: BAD LUCK BUCKEYES During his first season, Holtz kept a bowl of buckeyes — supposedly lucky buckeyes — on his desk. They apparently didn’t work because he started that year 1-4. (The buckeyes were probably a carryover from his one year as an Ohio State assistant in 1968 — a season when the Buckeyes won the national title.)
Years later, the lucky buckeyes seemed to have vanished. NO. 3: THE MAD TACKLER During one practice, Holtz — all 150 pounds of him — chased down Tony Rice on a quarterback keeper and jumped on his back for going the wrong way on the play. NO. 4: A SOLITARY MAN As entertaining as he could be, Holtz was actually a bit of a loner. Most of his assistants left after a couple of years. And when former Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian played golf with Holtz, he used to laugh that after Holtz’s tee shot, he would drive off on his own and nobody would see him again until they were on the green. NO. 5: MORE THAN ONE NATTY Holtz won the one national championship in 1988, but he came very close to two more as the Notre Dame coach and he actually helped the Irish win another
one when his 1977 Arkansas team upset No. 2 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. With Notre Dame’s victory over No. 1 Texas and Oklahoma out of the way, the No. 5 Irish leapfrogged to No. 1. Of course, Holtz had other thoughts on that final poll. “I thought we were going to be national champs after we beat
BILL MOOR WAS THE SOUTH Bend Tribune sports editor during Lou Holtz’s Notre Dame coaching career from 1986 to 1996. For a half-century, Moor held a variety of roles at the Tribune and became a popular voice in South Bend. He star ted in 1973 and spent 24 years as a sportswriter and sports editor. After stints in the features department and as a police reporter, Moor became a columnist. He retired from fulltime duties in 2008 but continued writing weekly columns.
OPPOSITE: Four days after Lou Holtz announced he would resign at the end of his 11th season, he received the ride of a lifetime off the field
at Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish had routed Rutgers 62-0 for his 100th victory, five behind Knute Rockne’s school record. After Holtz thanked the fans in a brief address and answered the media’s questions, he left the interview tent in tears. E D BALLOTTS / SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
8 • ECHOES OF HOLTZ
INTRODUCTION • 9
“The maturity and work ethic that was first instilled by my family was hardened, matured and truly tested during my college years. ” DEFENSIVE BACK MARK MONAGHAN
industry, religion and entertainment. East Liverpool organizers agreed and so the Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame became a reality in 1998.
Oklahoma” and after he had suspended three of his star players. Oklahoma had been a two-touchdown favorite, but the sixth-ranked Razorbacks crushed them 31-6 for the same 11-1 record as the Irish. NO. 6: MEET THE PRESS Holtz always treated local journalists well. His motto: “You don’t want to get
in an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrel.”
NO. 8: THE SUITS WEREN’T FANS Although Holtz was loved by most Irish fans — with that later upgraded to “beloved” — the athletic director and Notre Dame administration were more than happy to see him go after the 1996 season. “Too big for his britches,” one Notre Dame insider privately said, although that was hard to envision because Holtz sometimes slimmed down close to 140 pounds near the end of a grueling season.
NO. 7: A HALL FOR ALL FIELDS When h is hometow n of East Liverpool, Ohio, wanted to set up a Lou Holtz museum after his Notre Dame years, he declined unless the town also honored other people from the area who excelled in such fields as medicine,
NO. 9: GALLOWS HUMOR Holtz was full of witticisms, but maybe his best was when he was at Wi l lia m & Ma r y for his f irst head coaching job. After one painful loss, he moaned, “Well, we played more like Mary than William today.”
Like most of us, he learned to be a little more politically correct as the years went by. NO. 10: A MOLDER OF MEN Holtz would readily admit that his greatest joy as a coach was seeing his former players thrive in their lives after football. A group of them formed the Lou’s Lads Foundation that raised money for charity work and scholarships for those in financial need. Said defensive back Mark Monaghan, an emergency room physician who helped start Lou’s Lads: “The older I get, the more I reflect on my formative years and think of what propelled me into the older version of myself. The more that happens, the more I appreciate everything Coach Holtz did for me — on and off the field. The maturity and work ethic that was first instilled by my family was hardened, matured and truly tested during my college years. “I owe who I am today to Coach Holtz.”
ABOVE: With cutouts of Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz in hand, former coach Ara Parseghian and Holtz shared a laugh before the Blue-Gold game in 1996. S OUTH BEND TRIBUNE OPPOSITE: Wearing a bulky neck brace less than six weeks after spinal cord surgery, Holtz stood tall in the locker room after No. 17 Notre Dame blew out No. 5 Southern Cal 38-10 on
Oct. 21, 1995, in South Bend. Marc Edwards rushed for 82 yards and three touchdowns, and Autry Denson rushed for 95 yards and one TD. RVR PHOTOS / IMAGN IMAGES
10 • ECHOES OF HOLTZ
INTRODUCTION • 11
INTRODUCTION
Remembering the Holtz legacy: For 11 years, he was one of one TOM NOIE
NOBODY CARRIED AS LARGE OF A presence on the Notre Dame campus as the little man with the pipe. He spoke with a lisp, but when he spoke, you listened. It was the Gospel According to Lou. During the 11 football seasons (1986-96) he coached at Notre Dame, it was the Golden Dome, Hesburgh Library and Louis Leo Holtz when it came to the biggest Notre Dame icons. Not always in that order. Certainly not in 1988. If you asked a campus visitor where they would like to go first, be it The Grotto, the Basilica or Holtz’s front parking spot out front of the old Joyce Center when Juniper Road ran through campus, the parking spot where he steered his Buick would be the first stop. That’s where Lou parks. There was something about the man and his presence that was pure magic. He put a spell
on all he touched at Notre Dame, and he touched it all. Lou Holtz was one of one. He owned a permanent place on the Mount Rushmore of Notre Dame football coaches. Rockne and Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz. No one else need apply. For now. There wasn’t anyone like Holtz before he arrived in a flurry of force and focus from Minnesota in November 1985 to provide Irish football with a sense of purpose and direction. He was the man with the plan and for 11 seasons, for 100 victories, for one national championship (1988). Holtz carried out that plan until the day he walked away from the only coaching job he ever wanted. Maybe the only one he ever loved. On March 4, 2026, at age 89 after a brief stay in hospice in Florida where he moved after his coaching days ended in 2004 following six seasons at South Carolina, Holtz died. Many knew this day was closing quickly. Still, in the end, it was a shock.
The Notre Dame campus that Holtz so loved felt a little more empty without him. Go to certain spots, take a minute and you still could see the man with the tan khakis, the blue ND windbreaker and ball cap, the black shoes and white athletic socks playing his part as head coach. Stalking the back practice fields, zipping out the blue-tarped gate in his golf cart, taking Notre Dame to places it had longed to again revisit, nobody on the
TOM NOIE HAS WORKED AT the South Bend Tribune since 1992, arriving midway through Lou Holtz’s tenure as Notre Dame football coach. Noie has been the men’s basketball beat writer since 1998 and a sports columnist since 2017. He covers anything and everything in Northern Indiana.
OPPOSITE: Twelve days after the death of Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz, a funeral procession trudged down North Notre Dame Avenue
to Cedar Grove Cemetery in a nasty mid-March mix of rain, sleet and snow. Services were held at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus, which were livestreamed online and shown at Washington Hall and Purcell Pavilion. M ICHAEL CLUBB / SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
12 • ECHOES OF HOLTZ
INTRODUCTION • 13