Former Notre Dame head football coach Lou Holtz has the distinction of being the school’s second-winningest coach.
Inducted into the College-Football Hall of Fame in 2008, Holtz, 80, spent 11 seasons with the Fighting Irish, from 1986-96. While there, he guided them to an impressive 100-30-2 record, including a national championship in the 1988 season.
The Irish finished No. 2 in the Associated Press Poll in 1989 and 1993. In 1990, the Irish sunk down to No. 6 after being beaten by losing Colorado in the Orange Bowl on a controversial call.
Lou Holtz’s Fighting Irish hosted Miami in a hotly contested game that essentially determined the national title in 1988 (Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images)
To this day, Holtz ain’t happy! And he let ya know via his autograph of all things.
The Hall of Fame coach signed an authentic Notre Dame helmet sold by Steiner Sports. Below his name, Holtz wrote: “1988 National Champs, Screwed in 89,90+93. “I remember vividly signing that,” Lou Holtz told me on the Scoop B Radio podcast.
“It was for Steiner Sports. It just came to my mind, that is the way I think.”
So did he actually realize how funny that would be?
“People said: ‘would you write 88 championship?’ I thought I should be writing 89,90 93, also,” said Holtz.
“So I thought: ‘I’ll write champs 88 screwed 89,90 and 93.’ I just did it as a lark. I didn’t know they would be using that for profit or charity.”
For those keeping score at home, the helmet with the case sells via Steiner Sports for $729.98. Or, if you’re ballin’ on a tighter budget, you can buy the signed helmet without the case for $599.99.
Notre Dame has tons of success on the National Football League Level.
A Grand Canyon University study suggests that the Fighting Irish is responsible for a lot of NFL talent, past and peresent.
The top college football programs in terms of producing NFL talent is a who’s-who list of national blue bloods — but no team from the SEC ranks in the top eight.
There have been 25,453 players in NFL history, the study compiled. Who leads in the most players in the NFL? Notre Dame, with 495 players. According to the study, the Fighting Irish produced the most NFL players of any school in the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and again in the 1990s.
Rounding out the top eight are Southern California (479 players), Ohio State (426), Penn State (359), Nebraska and Michigan (346), Miami (341) and Oklahoma (328).
The Grand Canyon study shows the gradual migration of NFL talent from the perennial powers of the Midwest and West Coast to the Southeast. While Alabama produced the second-most players of any program during the 1940s and Ole Miss had the fourth-most in the 1960s, no other school from the Southeast would rank in the top five until Florida State during the 1990s.
Comments
Notre Dame Football: Legendary Coach Says Something Hilarous About Miami