Former Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian, who led the Fighting Irish to two national championships (1966 and 1973) during his eleven-year tenure there (1964-1974), and who also coached at Miami (Ohio) and Northwestern, has died at age 94.
He compiled a record of 95-17-4 at Notre Dame (third on the school's all-time victory list behind Knute Rockne and Lou Holtz), and an overall record of 170-58-6, before retiring from coaching at age 51, and becoming a broadcaster of college football games for ABC and CBS. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980.
One time, a man who was going to be introducing Parseghian at a speaking engagement asked him about the correct pronunciation of his last name to make sure that he got it right. Parseghian told him that it was very simple: "par" as in golf, "Seag" as in Seagram's whiskey, and "yen" as in Japanese money.
When the man was introducing him, he good-humoredly said, "I still can't pronounce his name, but it sounds like a drunk Japanese golfer."
He was 100% class. Took defeats in stride, was low key in victory.
I went to both Cotton Bowls in his era when ND played TEXAS, when we were #1 both years. Ara P was well respected here.
Two things impressed me about ND in both of those games.
(1) ND players were freakin huge. We had o-linemen the size of their tight ends. Our D-linemen were smaller than their LB's. I don't know which team was fudging on the program weights, but the size difference was immense.
(2) Ara P carried himself very well. He was confident, not cocky. Respected his opponent, never trash talked. Darrell Royal said great things about Ara P from the get go, he was right.
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Notre Dame football had been more or less irrelevant in the 10 years before
Parsheigan arrived in 1964.I still remember the "Game of the Century" (one of about 10 of those) in 1966 vs. Michigan State where Parsheigan chose to run out the clock in a 10-10 tie with a minute to go rather than go the W. Sports Illustrated titled their article on the game "Tie One for the Gipper"
to a great coach who revived a great football program.
__________________ "But don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to. "
) in 1966 vs. Michigan State where Parsheigan chose to run out the clock in a 10-10 tie with a minute to go rather than go the W. Sports Illustrated titled their article on the game "Tie One for the Gipper"
to a great coach who revived a great football program.
