May 1, 2008
National Football Foundation Press Conference Photo Gallery
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Former University of Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, who coached the 1988 Irish national championship team and won 100 games in 11 seasons as Irish head coach, today was named to the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame.
Holtz was one of 13 former college players and two coaches named to the `08 class for the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A), as announced in New York by Archie Manning, chairman of the National Football Foundation.
The 2008 College Football Hall of Fame class will be inducted at the 51st annual awards dinner in December, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. The players and coaches will be enshrined at the Hall of Fame in South Bend in July 2009.
Holtz becomes the sixth former Notre Dame coach (the Irish also have 42 former players) inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The 48 total inductees are the most of any NCAA institution, the most recent being Chris Zorich in 2007.
Holtz established himself as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time. He is the only coach in the history of college football to take five different teams to a bowl game (his `85 Minnesota team actually qualified as a sixth, except Holtz did not coach in the bowl game since he had accepted the Notre Dame job), win four bowl games with different teams — and have four different college teams ranked in the final top 20 poll. Holtz’s 249-132-7 career record for 33 seasons ranked him third in victories among active coaches at the time of his retirement and eighth in winning percentage. His 12 career postseason bowl victories rank him fourth on the all-time list.
He became the 27th head coach at Notre Dame following two seasons at Minnesota (1984-85), seven at Arkansas (1977-83), four at North Carolina State (1972-75) and three at William & Mary (1969-71). He later spent six seasons (1999-2004) as head coach at South Carolina. He served the 1976 season as head coach of the New York Jets of the National Football League. Twenty-three of the 33 collegiate teams under his direction earned post-season bowl invitations — and 18 finished in the final Associated Press top 25, eight in the top 10.
Holtz earned a sterling reputation for turning pretenders into contenders — for taking football programs and elevating them a level or two on their way to the top 20. But nowhere did he do that as impressively as at Notre Dame. He needed only two years to put the Fighting Irish back into a major post-season bowl game for the first time in seven seasons. Holtz proved he could take the Irish back to the ranks of college football’s elite and keep them there on a consistent basis.
He also developed a well-earned reputation as an expert when it came to knocking off highly-ranked opponents. That ability was particularly well displayed in bowl games, with his team recording wins on Jan. 1 in five of seven seasons (1988-94) against teams with a combined record of 74-4-1, all of them ranked seventh or higher in the AP poll.
In his 11 seasons at Notre Dame, Holtz chalked up more victories than the number accumulated by any Irish coach other than Rockne — including the consensus national championship in 1988, and a 23-game winning streak that ranks as the longest in Notre Dame history. With an overall 100-30-2 mark during those 11 years, his accomplishments included three wins against top-ranked opponents (Miami in `88, Colorado in the `90 Orange Bowl, Florida State in `93). When the Irish met Florida in the 1996 Orange Bowl, it was the ninth straight year Holtz had taken Notre Dame to the traditional January post-season bowls (Cotton Bowl following 1987, 1992 and 1993 campaigns, Fiesta in 1988 and 1994, Orange in 1989, 1990 and 1995, Sugar in 1991). That’s something no other coach in the country has matched.
After his departure from Notre Dame following the `96 season, he joined CBS Sports’ College Football Today for two seasons as an analyst and also worked with United States Filter (a global provider of water treatment) as a customer relations spokesman. From there he went on to be head coach at South Carolina for six seasons and led the Gamecocks to back-to-back Jan. 1 bowl games for the first time in the history of the school.
Currently, Holtz serves as a college football studio analyst on ESPN and also is an on-site analyst for college football games.
For years Holtz has been considered among the great speakers in America today. He speaks on overcoming seemingly impossible challenges by setting your own goals and working to achieve them.
Holtz has authored three New York Times best-selling books, including The Fighting Spirit that chronicled Notre Dame’s 1988 championship season and Winning Everyday: A Game Plan For Success (Aug. 1998), which has been published in several languages. His latest book (released Aug. 2006) is Wins, Losses and Lessons, an autobiography of his life and the lessons he has learned, and it is also a best seller. Additionally, he has produced four highly acclaimed motivational videos — Do Right, Do Right II, If Enough People Care, and Do Right 20 Years Later. The Lou Holtz Hall of Fame opened in East Liverpool, Ohio, in July 1998.
The Walter Camp Football Foundation presents an award annually to an individual who has attained a measure of success and been a leader in his chosen profession, and it named Lou Holtz its 1998 Man of the Year. In 1977, while in Arkansas, he was named national coach of the year by the Camp Foundation. In 2008 he received the Moose Krause Man of the Year Award from the Notre Dame Monogram Club for his off-the-field contributions.
Born Louis Leo Holtz on Jan. 6, 1937, Holtz grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio, just up the Ohio River from his Follansbee, W.Va., birthplace. He graduated from East Liverpool High School, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in history from Kent State in 1959 and a master’s degree from Iowa in arts and education in 1961. He played linebacker at Kent State for two seasons before an injury ended his career.
Married to Beth Barcus of East Liverpool on July 22, 1961, Holtz and his wife are the parents of four children and currently reside in Orlando, Fla.
Quotes from Lou Holtz at College Football Hall of Fame Announcement:
“Congratulations to the fellow inductees and thanks to Steve Hatchell and the Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. How in the world did this happen? How did I marry the wife (Beth) I married 48 years ago? We have moved 16 times in 48 years. She is a very strong woman and a Christian lady. I thank my uncle Lou and uncle Leo for their great positive inspiration and letting me play the game of football. Football teaches you about life: you persevere; you care about one another and help one another. Woody Hayes had such a positive impact on my life. I can never thank the people from the Ohio Valley for their influence. When you don’t show up, will people ask you why? This is pretty amazing for a guy with a lisp and who finished in the lower half of his high school class. I will write letters to that 70 people I worked for and worked with for so many years tomorrow to thank them for their influence and kindness. You miss the game; I had to tell my wife that I was coming back into coaching at South Carolina. She supported me throughout, and someday I want to be known as Skip Holtz’s dad. He’s the head coach at East Carolina… I have great memories of all the schools where I coached. It isn’t all about talent; it’s about what’s inside a person, too.”
All-Time Notre Dame College Football Hall of Fame Inductees:
COACHESYear Coach Record Years Coached1951 Knute Rockne 105-12-5 1918-301970 Frank Leahy 87-11-9 1941-43, 46-531971 Jesse Harper 34- 5-1 1913-171980 Ara Parseghian 95-17-4 1964-741985 Dan Devine 53-16-1 1975-802008 Lou Holtz 100-30-2 1986-96
PLAYERSYear Player Position Years Played1951 George Gipp HB 1917-201951 Elmer Layden FB 1922-241954 Frank Carideo QB 1928-301958 Harry Stuhldreher QB 1922-241960 John Lujack QB 1943, 46-471963 George Connor OT 1946-471965 Jack Cannon G 1927-291966 Edgar (Rip) Miller OT 1922-241966 Jim Crowley HB 1922-241968 Adam Walsh C 1922-241970 Don Miller HB 1922-241971 Louis (Red) Salmon FB 1900-031972 Angelo Bertelli QB 1941-431972 Ray Eichenlaub FB 1911-141973 Leon Hart TE 1946-491974 Marchy Schwartz HB 1929-311974 Heartley (Hunk) Anderson OG 1918-211975 John (Clipper) Smith OG 1925-271976 Creighton Miller HB 1941-431977 Zygmont (Ziggy) Czarobski OT 1942-43, 46-471978 Frank (Nordy) Hoffmann OG 1930-311979 John Lattner HB 1951-531982 Bert Metzger OG 1928-301983 Bill (Moose) Fischer OG 1945-481983 Bill Shakespeare HB 1933-351984 Emil (Red) Sitko HB 1946-491985 Paul Hornung QB 1954-561985 Fred Miller T 1926-281987 Tommy Yarr C 1929-311988 Bob Williams QB 1948-501990 Wayne Millner E 1933-351992 Jim Lynch LB 1964-661993 Alan Page DE 1964-661994 Jerry Groom C / LB 1948-501995 Jim Martin E/T 1946-491997 Ken MacAfee TE 1974-771999 Ross Browner DE 1973, 1975-772000 Bob Dove E 1940-422001 Ralph Guglielmi QB 1951-542004 Joe Theismann QB 1968-702005 John Huarte QB 1962-642007 Chris Zorich DT 1987-90
2008 College Football Hall of Fame Class
Players
Troy Aikman- QB, UCLA (1987- 88)
Billy Cannon – HB, LSU (1957- 59)
Jim Dombrowski- OT, Virginia (1982- 85)
Pat Fitzgerald- LB, Northwestern (1994- 96)
Wilber Marshall- LB, Florida (1980- 83)
Rueben Mayes- RB, Washington State (1982-85)
Randall McDaniel- OG, Arizona State (1984-87)
Don McPherson- QB, Syracuse (1984- 87)
Jay Novacek – TE, Wyoming (1982- 84)
Dave Parks- SE, Texas Tech (1961- 63)
Ron Simmons- NG, Florida State (1977- 80)
Thurman Thomas- RB, Oklahoma State (1984- 87)
Arnold Tucker- QB, Army (1944- 46)
Coaches
John Cooper- 192-84-6 (.691) — Tulsa (1977-84), Arizona State (1985-87), Ohio State (1988- 2000)
Lou Holtz- 249-132-7 (.651) — William & Mary (1969-71), North Carolina State (1972-75), Arkansas (1977-83), Minnesota (1984-85), Notre Dame (1986-96), South Carolina (1999-2004)
— ND —