NO COACH COMMANDED MORE BUZZ THAN HOLTZ, A CHARACTER AND A CHAMPION
It’s hard to believe I worked at a network that wanted his hide, though he was the last leader to win a national football title at Notre Dame — when Davie, Willingham, Weis, Kelly and Freeman did not
The program director wanted Lou Holtz to resign. His boss happened to be a former Notre Dame coach, Terry Brennan, and wasn’t the spin just a little spooky? I hosted a morning radio show and wrote a column in Chicago, and, yes, I listened to the spiel. No boss ever will tell me what to say or write — but was it time in 1996 for Holtz to leave Notre Dame, as players were finding off-the-field trouble a full eight years after he won a national championship?
He ultimately would say goodbye that year, explaining, “I was tired of maintaining. What I should have done was set dreams and goals and ambitions for this university and the football program that nobody thought was possible.”
Yet he also gnarled himself, as always: “There is one basic principle I’ve tried to follow most of my life, and that is: It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are an idiot than to open it and leave no doubt.”
Every journalism god knows how hideous I feel 30 years later. Holtz was the last coach to win glory at a place where Bob Davie and George O’Leary — who departed after falsifying his resume — and Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis and Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman have fallen short. Our network contributed to the ouster of Holtz, who should have remained in South Bend until he wanted to leave. He made us laugh as a standup comedian but grasped how to maximize talent under the gaze of Touchdown Jesus, including a Heisman Trophy winner named Tim Brown. He was merely 5 feet 10 and shouted recklessly across campus, and when he won it all in 1988 — burying Miami in the “Catholics vs. Convicts” showdown — there was no better leader in college football.
“You have an afternoon to play, a lifetime to remember,” Holtz told his team. “But do me one favor: Save Jimmy Johnson’s ass for me.”
Decades later, we’ve seen Nick Saban rule the sport and Curt Cignetti weave it into his Indiana whirlwind. But no coach commanded more attention than Holtz, who passed away Wednesday at 89. There were times when we laughed at him. There were times when we raved with him. He was 100-30-2 in non-NIL times when Notre Dame was part of Chicago’s Irish-stoked South Side. “Coaching,” he said, “is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired.” His comedy worked then. It probably wouldn’t now.
He wasn’t as interested in payouts and portals as he was in hard work. “You have to hold people accountable, and you have to believe it can be done. No one ever drowned in sweat,” he said. “The first thing I said at every practice was, ‘Boy, what a great day to work.’ It could be raining. It could be whatever. I’d be, ‘Boy, am I glad to be here. No place I’d rather be than here.’ I used to say to them, ‘I travel all over the world speaking to every major corporation and they’d pay me money. I speak to you for free and you don’t have to take notes.’ ’’
The honors were presented all day and night. Said the Rev. Robert A. Dowd, the Notre Dame president: “Among his many accomplishments, we will remember him above all as a teacher, leader and mentor who brought out the very best in his players, on and off the field, earning their respect and admiration for a lifetime. Whenever Notre Dame called to ask for his help, Lou answered with his characteristic generosity, and he will be sorely missed.”
Wrote his son, Skip: “He was successful, but more important. he was Significant.”
“I talked to Lou Holtz all the time,” Freeman said. “He says, ‘I’m gonna give you my advice, but not my opinion.’ Our relationship meant a lot to me as I admired the values he used to build the foundation of his coaching career: love, trust and commitment.”
Said SEC commissioner Greg Sankey: “Lou Holtz was a giant of college football whose influence on the game is matched only by the impact he had on people. Coach Holtz built championship programs, transformed young men into leaders, and brought passion and discipline to every sideline he paced. His on-field success is etched in the history of the sport, but it was his unmistakable voice and quick wit that connected him so deeply with football fans everywhere.”
We remember the wit as much as his championship. He was smart enough to say after he won only three games with the New York Jets, his one season in the NFL: “God did not put Lou Holtz on this earth to coach pro football.” After he left a commentary career at ESPN, he questioned the toughness of Ohio State coach Ryan Day.
Said Day: “I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now.”
Well, he was everywhere for decades. Coaching at William & Mary, he said, “The problem is we have too many Marys and not enough Williams.”
When he was pelted by oranges after clinching an Orange Bowl berth, he said, “Thank God we didn’t get invited to the Gator Bowl.”
And what happens on a road trip: “Your wife is not your best friend. Your dog is. Lock the two in the back of a trunk, come back hours later and see which one is happy to see you.”
Where Holtz was wrong was inside his book, “Wins, Losses and Lessons.” He wrote: “When I die and people realize that I will not be resurrected in three days, they will forget me. That is the way it should be.”
We will not forget him. What does he think of $270 million in coaching buyouts last year? Just to hear his answer, let’s order a seance.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.