Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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24 APRIL/MAY 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED Always show people you genuinely care. Everybody has problems. Everybody has difficulties. Everybody needs a smile, a kind word, and encouragement. "As I said, great players come and go. Great teammates last a lifetime. And a great teammate is one that loves his teammates." BGI: How often do you get to talk to and what are your impressions of Mar- cus Freeman as a coach? Holtz: "I'm a big fan of [Marcus] Freeman. I think he's a great coach, but more importantly, he's a great per- son. He's coaching Notre Dame for the proper things. I think he's the first coach since I've been at Notre Dame that genuinely loves the school, loves its values, loves what it stands for and loves being associated with Notre Dame. "Too many people when they come to Notre Dame think that's the epitome of their life and that everything's about them. It's not. It's about Our Lady on the Dome. It's the history of the school. When you go to Notre Dame, you don't go to a football game. Yeah, you might end up go- ing there, but you go to the Grotto. You go to the Basilica. You go just on the beauty on the campus. It goes on and on. "He's an excellent coach. He's great with the players, and he's got a great philosophy. I don't talk to him very often. I only talk to him after he loses. When he lost last year to Northern Illi- nois — I was going to say Upper Illinois. But he lost to Northern Illinois. I told him then, it's part of life. "As a football coach, you understand you're going to have ups and downs, but you bounce back. You owe it to the players. But I can never say enough good things about Marcus Freeman, because my gratitude and my admiration for him is sincere and real." BGI: When you got to Notre Dame, did you sort of understand and realize how important that place would be to you? Holtz: "I didn't realize how impor- tant it would be once I got there, but I got to tell you this. I went to St. Aloysius Grade School. The first eight years I was taught by the nuns. We marched out ev- ery day at noon recess and dismissal to the Notre Dame Victory March. Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame. And then on Friday, we prayed for Notre Dame's suc- cess in football. "I just grew up loving Notre Dame. But you got to remember this. In 1946, 7, 8, and 9, Notre Dame never lost a game. I think we had three or four ties in there, but Notre Dame was just special. My grandparents, my uncles, they loved Notre Dame, and naturally I did also. We would listen to the radio on Saturday afternoon, the Notre Dame games. And then later, when Ara Parseghian went in there, they had the replays on Sunday. They'd say, and now we move to further action. It was just special. "But you go on that campus, you see the Lady on the Dome, the beauty of the campus, the friendliness of everybody. You can't help but feel there's just a spe- cial place. "They say, you don't come to Notre Dame to learn to do something. You come to Notre Dame to learn to be someone, be a leader of the commu- nity that helps other people. I could go on and on about the feelings I have for Notre Dame. Even though things didn't always go that way when I was there. "They didn't have much money, and I made $95,000 when I went there. After we signed the NBC contract, went to I think it was 10 bowls, donations were up. They raised my salary to $115,000. That's the most I ever made at Notre Dame. "To me, coaching at Notre Dame wasn't about money. It was about just trying to do the right thing." BGI: Do you think Notre Dame will win another national championship in foot- ball with Marcus Freeman as the coach? Holtz: "Yes, I definitely do. I think they will win another one. Matter of fact, I thought it would happen by now. And it might happen this year. Notre Dame is playing better than anybody in the country right now. Yeah, we lost one game by one point and another one by three points to teams that are both undefeated at the present time. Notre Dame has every legitimate justification for being in the playoff. "And once you get in the playoff, anything can happen. I think it's great the championship's determined on the field. Because I felt that we got screwed in '89 or at least in '93 because other people voted. Holtz — seen here with his wife of nearly 59 years, Beth — said, "You come to Notre Dame to learn to be someone, be a leader of the community that helps other people." PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS