Lou Holtz, Who Coached Unbeaten Notre Dame to a Title, Dies at 89
Source: New York Times
Lou Holtz, Who Coached Unbeaten Notre Dame to a Title, Dies at 89
Known for reviving football programs, he led six major colleges to bowl games, winning a national championship in 1989 after restoring the Irish to greatness.
Lou Holtz with Notre Dame players in about 1988. Unassuming in demeanor, he had a keen football mind and a disciplinarian’s resolve. Focus on Sport/Getty Images
By Richard Goldstein
March 4, 2026
Updated 5:56 p.m. ET
Lou Holtz, who coached six major colleges to bowl games and revived a floundering Notre Dame football program, taking the Irish to an unbeaten national championship season in 1988, has died in Orlando, Fla. He was 89. ... His death was announced on Wednesday by Notre Dame, which shared a statement from Holtz’s family. It did not say when he died or provide a cause. He was reported to have entered hospice care in January.
When Holtz, slender and bespectacled, arrived at Notre Dame in 1986, taking on college football’s most pressure-packed post, he hardly projected the image of a tough coach who might inspire his players to win one for a latter-day Gipper. ... “I’m not very smart and I’m not very impressive,” he remarked. “I’m 5-10, weigh 152 pounds, speak with a lisp, appear afflicted with a combination of scurvy and beriberi, and I ranked 234th in a high school class of 278.”
But Holtz had a keen football mind and a disciplinarian’s resolve, insisting that his players strive for perfection. He was also an astute motivator with a quick wit. ... Holtz’s teams compiled a 249-132-7 record in his 33 years as a collegiate head coach. In his 11 seasons at Notre Dame, his teams went 100-30-2, placing him second in career victories at South Bend to Knute Rockne’s 105. He took the Irish to nine consecutive major bowl games, winning five of them.
Holtz with his Notre Dame players in 1996. He left the university after that season, in which the Irish were 8-3. “It’s the right thing to do,” he said. Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press
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Holtz after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Trump in December 2020. A Trump supporter, he had spoken at the Republican National Convention that year Evan Vucci/Associated Press
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/sports/football/lou-holtz-dead.html
Hat tip, ABC News with David Muir
"Foundering," not "floundering." New York Times, really.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/richard-goldstein
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Should be written on his tombstone.