Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? gram accomplished from 1971-91. "What's been amazing has been the feedback from former players or people around the country [and] here in South Bend all reflecting back," he said. "To me, it's more of a reflection of what went on in that time period, and it was the fans, the students, the cheerleaders, the leprechauns. "Yeah, it was the players, the coaches, the trainers, but it was all those moments that were created." Notre Dame won 393 games dur- ing those 20 years, appeared in the program's lone Final Four in 1978 and ended UCLA's NCAA-record 88-game winning streak in 1974 — 40 years to the day of the Ring of Honor cere- mony. "When it built up to that UCLA game in '74, that's the first time people have seen students rush the floor," Phelps said. "That turned the whole thing around because that game led to us getting that great [recruiting] class that were freshmen on the Final Four team. We got it going. "All I'm saying is, you're a part of this. This is not my ring. This ring is for everyone who was a part of that for 20 years: the priests that would say team Mass; Dottie [Van Paris] my secretary for 20 years; Ara Parseghian, who was my big brother when I got here. There isn't anyone who didn't make this thing happen." In 1965, Phelps wrote a letter to Par- seghian, then the head coach of the football program. Phelps coached high school basketball in Pennsylvania at the time, but stated in the letter that he someday wanted to accomplish in basketball at Notre Dame what Par- seghian had in football. On Dec. 31, 1973, Notre Dame beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to finish No. 1. Nineteen days later, the bas- ketball program defeated UCLA and reached No. 1 in the next poll for the first time. "That dream became a reality check because we became No. 1," Phelps said. Phelps credits University President Emeritus Fr. Theodore Hesburgh for inspiring him spiritually when he served as Notre Dame's coach, and the two have remained close during retirement. Phelps said Hesburgh was instrumental in helping him overcome two bouts of cancer in the past four years. "I went for a blessing before I went in for surgery," Phelps said. "He looks at me and says, 'Have the courage.' I've got it written in my wallet. That man's got a way with words to inspire you and get you to believe. That's why I think he's a living saint. "That's the spirituality of Notre Dame that keeps me here. There's so much on that campus that people don't know and understand." Phelps became the sixth member of the Ring of Honor, a distinction he learned he would receive in the sum- mer when he went to dinner with cur- rent head coach Mike Brey at South Bend's Café Navarre. "[Brey] said, 'We have something to talk about. … You're going in the Ring of Honor.' He caught me and I choked up a bit," Phelps said. "I said, 'Let's do it on the 19th. It's the 40th anniversary