Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 SEPT. 25, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED B arry Alvarez will not only forever thank iconic Irish head coach Lou Holtz for being the most influential mentor he ever had, but he'll also forever recognize the three seasons he spent as a Notre Dame assistant from 1987-89 as the launch point to his 32-year career at Wisconsin where he became a Hall of Fame football coach and a renowned athletic administrator. With all of his career honors and successes, Alvarez always wanted to find a way to show his gratitude to Holtz for giving him a coaching shot four decades ago. And that chance finally came a few years back with an outta nowhere phone call from his former boss. Driving through Wisconsin for one of his many football func- tions — and perhaps running late — Holtz picked up a speeding ticket in Kenosha and picked up his cell phone for some helpful assistance from his former assistant. "I think he was going 90 in a 55," Al- varez said with his familiar belly laugh. Holtz wasn't worried about any mon- etary consequences, obviously, but he also wasn't interested in being docked license points. Alvarez obliged, of course, "I got it marked down to a parking ticket," he said. Favors for Notre Dame friends aside, Alvarez will proudly wear his Wiscon- sin allegiances Saturday when the Irish and Badgers meet in an important game between ranked powerhouse programs at Soldier Field in Chicago. "I think it's special for the athletes to get a chance for two programs to play that have a good history," Alvarez said of a highly anticipated matchup that was postponed last year because of the pandemic. Adding intrigue and irony to this Shamrock Series renewal is that de- pending on the outcome of Notre Dame's game Sept. 18 against Purdue, Irish head coach Brian Kelly plays Wis- consin trying to either tie or surpass Knute Rockne's record of 105 career wins at Notre Dame. "That record can wait," Alvarez joked. With his immediate success while coaching at Notre Dame — paired with a national championship in 1988 as a first-year defensive coordinator — make it hard to believe that Alvarez spent only three seasons on the Irish sideline. Nonetheless, those three seasons left a permanent mark on a defensive assistant who parlayed his time under Holtz into a legendary 16-year coach- ing career at Wisconsin, then 18 more years there as the university's athletics director. "That was one of the I reasons I went to Notre Dame," Alvarez recalled. "I wanted to be a head coach, and I felt working with [Holtz] and having the opportunity to be his coordinator would help me get there." Indeed, it did. Alvarez retired as the Badgers head coach in 2005, then retired as Wiscon- sin's athletics director in July of this year before taking a job as a special ad- visor with the Big Ten Conference — a role that provides Alvarez an influen- tial say when discussing league matters such as scheduling and television con- tracts and/or how to best navigate the turbulence of conference realignments. "As a coach, I can relate to the coaches, and as an administrator, I can relate to the administrators," Alvarez said of his new job. The long list of coaching super- latives for Alvarez is highlighted by winning the Bobby Dodd Na- tional Coach Award in 1993, twice claiming Big Ten Coach of the Year honors (1993, 1998), and three times leading the Badgers to Big Ten titles (1993, 1998, 1999). Alvarez (119-74-4) retired as the longest-tenured and winningest coach in Wisconsin program his- tory after taking over a team in 1990 that hadn't posted a winning record in its previous five seasons. When asked about his fond- est memories while coaching at Notre Dame, Alvarez expectedly referenced the 1988 national title season. Alvarez specifically mentioned three games from that title run: a 19-17 win over No. 9 Michigan in the season opener (the first career game for Alva- rez as a defensive coordinator), the epic 31-30 win over No. 1 Miami, and the regular-season finale at Los Angeles in a battle between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 USC, a 27-10 Irish victory that secured Notre Dame a chance to play, and ultimately beat, West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl to claim the national championship. During his two seasons as Notre Dame defensive coordinator in '88 and '89, Alvarez and his Irish played 11 games against ranked opponents — including nine against the top-10 — and still went 24-1 those two years, set the program record with 23 straight wins, and forever branded memories that remarkably date back 33 years now. "I had so much fun coaching at Notre Dame. I still laugh just thinking about it," Alvarez said, again with a heartfelt chuckle. "Those knuckleheads, nobody had more fun than those guys." ✦ Alvarez, who spent three seasons as a Notre Dame assistant under Lou Holtz from 1987-89, is the longest-tenured (16 years) and win- ningest coach (119-74-4) in Wisconsin history. He also served as the school's athletics director for 18 years. PHOTO COURTESY WISCONSIN ATHLETICS ND Launched Wisconsin Legend Barry Alvarez UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com