OT: Ara Parseghian - Died 94 years old


Legendary.

However, I am being 100% honest here....I thought he was already dead.
 

Legendary.

However, I am being 100% honest here....I thought he was already dead.

I was in the same boat when I had seen it in the Minneapolis Trib Online paper this morning.
 

Great coach. Another guy who was head coach at Miami (O), which has boasted some legends in the head job including Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler.
 

Also, his retiring at 51. Didn't realize he was so young when he got out. One more thing, just completely turned around that Notre Dame program in his first year there.
 



The 1966 game of the century, #1 Notre Dame v. #2 Michigan State in East Lansing, ends in a 10 all tie to a chorus of boos as Parseghian's Irish run out the clock.
 



The 1966 game of the century, #1 Notre Dame v. #2 Michigan State in East Lansing, ends in a 10 all tie to a chorus of boos as Parseghian's Irish run out the clock.

According to an article regarding the game, 31 players went on to the NFL.
 

I remember him being quoted after he retired as saying that he needed every bit of experience and seasoning he'd amassed by the time he was hired there in order to be able to do that job - a program of that magnitude and with those expectations. Intended or not, it was a commentary on Gerry Faust's difficulty in that position. I think of that quote a lot when I see a young, inexperienced person being hired to a high-profile football coaching job - and it applies universally to a lot of difficult and high-powered jobs. As much as I wanted Brewster to be successful, Ara's quote was ringing in my ears when he was hired.
 



My late father was a huge admirer of this man..... I usually enjoyed rooting against ND.
 

Growing up in Chicago the Northwestern Wildcats were awful till he took over, he was 36-35 in 8 years. Before Huarte to Snow, it was Meyers to Flately. It was at Northwestern that he caught the eye of the Irish. He was one of the best coaches of that decade. RIP Coach.
 

Growing up in Chicago the Northwestern Wildcats were awful till he took over, he was 36-35 in 8 years. Before Huarte to Snow, it was Meyers to Flately. It was at Northwestern that he caught the eye of the Irish. He was one of the best coaches of that decade. RIP Coach.

Teddy Greenstein had a great article in the Chicago Tribune this week about that:

Ara Parseghian said he never wanted to leave Northwestern. So why did he?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...tern-greenstein-spt-0803-20170802-column.html

Apparently NU's AD at the time, Stu Holcomb, wouldn't support the football program, even though Ara brought NU to #1 in the AP Poll in 1962. Parseghian and his assistants apparently had to buy paint for the locker room from their own pockets. When ND came calling, Ara went where he was much better appreciated. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"The coach who went 4-0 against Notre Dame and beat Hayes again in his final game left because of a conflict with his boss.

So he went to South Bend and woke up the echoes. He won two national championships and beat Northwestern nine times in nine tries.

"We kicked Notre Dame's ass four years in a row, and then they hired him," [former NU WR Paul] Flatley said. "They were no dummies."

At Notre Dame he didn't have to plead with the equipment staff to purchase lighter helmets and gear, as he did at Northwestern. The pieces were in place. And he won big.

And Northwestern lost big.

From 1964 to '94, the Wildcats had two winning seasons, both under former Parseghian assistant Alex Agase. The program became a wasteland in the late 1970s as faculty debated joining the Ivy League...."​

(As a Northwestern undergrad alum, that is so painful for me to think about.)

-Joe
 

I was thinking about what I had said indicating that I too thought Ara Parseghian had passed away some time ago. When thinking about it, he kept a low profile when he did get older. He retired at the age of 51 and did live to be 94 so we heard nothing about him for some time. Thats many moons between the date that he retired and when he passed away.

In reading the posts later he appeared to be very loyal and just wanted to do his job without having to grovel for paint etc.
 



One of his biggest victories, which helped him land the Notre Dame job a year and a half later, was a huge upset of the Gophers' great 1962 team by his Northwestern squad by the shocking score of 34-22 - the Gophers defense having blanked five teams that year and held two others to one TD (should have been three others, but for the infamous call against Bobby Bell in the Wisconsin game). Northwestern finished 7-2, Gophers 6-1-2.
 

I remember him being quoted after he retired as saying that he needed every bit of experience and seasoning he'd amassed by the time he was hired there in order to be able to do that job - a program of that magnitude and with those expectations. Intended or not, it was a commentary on Gerry Faust's difficulty in that position. I think of that quote a lot when I see a young, inexperienced person being hired to a high-profile football coaching job - and it applies universally to a lot of difficult and high-powered jobs. As much as I wanted Brewster to be successful, Ara's quote was ringing in my ears when he was hired.

Brewster was neither young nor inexperienced when the Gophers hired him.
 


Holcomb had been a mediocre HFC at Purdue before becoming Northwestern's AD.

He was jealous of Ara's popularity and held it against Parseghian that his son wasn't the starting QB.
 






I never said that he had.

You said "incorrect" to my earlier post about his lacking HC experience.

What did you mean then?

And please don't bring up a 15-8 record as head HS coach like that has anything to do with being a Big Ten header.
 

You said "incorrect" to my earlier post about his lacking HC experience.

What did you mean then?

And please don't bring up a 15-8 record as head HS coach like that has anything to do with being a Big Ten header.

Brewster has been a HC twice. Lafayette Central Catholic Jr/Sr High School and the U of Minnesota Gophers. Thats it.
 




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