Legendary former Notre Dame head football coach Lou Holtz dies at age 89
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Legendary former Notre Dame head football coach Lou Holtz has died at age 89. His death comes after a source close to the family told ABC57 he entered hospice care at his home in late January.
Holtz held the position of head coach for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 1986 to 1996 where he led the Irish to a perfect 12-0 season in 1988 with a National Championship and a Fiesta Bowl victory in 1989.
Lou's Life
Louis Leo Holtz was born in Follansbee, West Virginia, on January 6, 1937. His roots in the Catholic faith and Notre Dame football run deep.
"I was taught by the Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius grade school, and we prayed for the team every Friday. But then my uncles, my grandpa, all of them, followed Notre Dame, and so it just had a magical place, " said Holtz.
Lou attended Kent State University, becoming the first member of his family to enroll in college. He played football and studied history. He also served seven years as an officer in the United States Army Reserves.
Lou's coaching career began in Iowa as an assistant. From there, he coached at Connecticut, South Carolina and Ohio State. In 1969 he landed his first head coaching job at William and Mary, and went on to North Carolina State, Arkansas and Minnesota. He even spent a year coaching in the NFL with the New York Jets.
Then in 1986 Lou took the reins at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish were struggling, but Holtz was tough, known for his discipline.
He once said, "Only one way you get respect, and that's by looking somebody in the eye for 60 minutes."
To emphasize the importance of working as a team, Lou had the names taken off the backs of his players' jerseys. He also introduced the now iconic 'Play Like A Champion Today' sign hanging it outside the Irish locker room.
"When you hit that, you're going to take all the great players that came before you, the sacrifice they made, and the tradition is always under construction," Holtz said.
After some tough losses the first two years, Lou led Notre Dame to its first national title since 1977, winning the 1988 college football national championship after a perfect season. The Irish beat West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl and he received multiple Coach of the Year honors.
"You don't come to Notre Dame to learn to do something. You come to Notre Dame learn to be somebody," Holtz once said.
Often Holtz is remembered for his fiery yet inspirational speeches and quotes like, "If you want to do something, bad enough, you'll find a way. If you don't want to do it bad enough, you'll find the keys."
And other quotes like, "We're Notre Dame, and you ain't."
Lou left Notre Dame after the 1996 season. In his final game at Notre Dame Stadium, the Irish rolled to a 62 to nothing victory over Rutgers, giving the legendary coach his 100th win at Notre Dame.
"I will be with you. I can only say thank you. From the bottom of my heart," said Holtz.
Lou spent the next two seasons with CBS as a sports analyst, before coming out of retirement in 1999 to return to South Carolina. He stepped away from the football field for good in 2004, writing several books and working as an analyst for ESPN.
In 2008, coach Holtz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame that same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue of Lou outside Notre Dame Stadium, joining other Irish coaching legends.
"See a young man come in out of high school just has a lot of questions about himself, doesn't have an awful lot of confidence, and to watch them grow and develop and teach them how to make good choices," said Holtz, "See, I never really felt I coached football. I felt I coached life."
For Lou, life was about giving back through the Holtz's Family Foundation, helping fund scholarships, Christian ministries, and homeless centers, and the Holtz's Heroes Foundation, where athletes across the country work with food banks and help pay for the education and needs of underprivileged and legacy students.
"God didn't put us on this earth to be average. He put us on this earth to be the best we can," he said.
His work on and off the field... Lou received numerous honorary doctorate degrees and awards, including our nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in December of 2020. Holtz would ultimately step aside from the public eye in November of 2025.
"You don't go in life saying, I want to win this award. You just wake up one day, and it happens."
Despite all of the honors and accolades, what mattered most to Lou and his life were his wife, Beth and their family.
He said, "My family has always been the most important thing, and we stay in touch. We encourage one another."
His love for Notre Dame and his players often brought him back to campus in the fall for the 1988 championship reunions.
"Greatest thing when you go into that reunion, you won't be able to tell who was first team, who was 13. You can't tell who was the star, who was on the scout team. What you can tell there was a love and a feeling, and that's the one thing that all great teams have."
At the center of it all... his faith.
"Since I lost my wife of 59 years, you really take on a real perspective, and living alone is not easy, I promise you that. But God, God's with me, and I have a strong faith in God, and long as you have a faith in God, the rest ever have a way of working," said Holtz.