Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Parseghian (1964-74) and Lou Holtz (1986-96), national title winners who also wore out from the demands of the job after 11 years. Terry Brennan, a Notre Dame foot- ball star during the dominant 1940s, was brought in by Father Hesburgh prior to the 1953 season to groom as Leahy's replacement in a couple of years. But he was hired as head coach ahead of his time and was only 26 in his first season (1954). After a stel- lar 17-3 start his first two sea- sons, Brennan was 2-8 in his third season be- cause of a com- bination of academic standards well beyond the norm in college football plus an extremely small senior class recruited late in Leahy's tenure. Still, after a top-10 finish in 1957 (highlighted by the 7-0 upset of Okla- homa, snapping the Sooners' NCAA- record 47-game winning streak), the 1958 team was deemed to possess na- tional title timber. Instead, the Irish faltered to 6-4 and Brennan was axed near Christmas time, leading to more vilification of Hesburgh as heartless. During the Joe Kuharich years (1959-62), talent was not the issue. By the time Ara Parseghian arrived in 1964, he privately marveled at how he wished they could have had this kind of personnel when he was working at Northwestern (where he was 4-0 ver- sus the Irish) prior to coming to Notre Dame. He nearly balked at taking the job, but a private audience with Hes- burgh helped convince him otherwise. To say that Hesburgh wanted foot- ball to falter would be misleading. Af- ter the controversial firing of Brennan in 1958, Hesburgh wrote "there is no academic virtue in playing mediocre football." In November 1969, the university ended its 45-year policy on bowl bans to enhance its rankings or national title contention. After a home game during the "down" 8-3 cam- paign in 1972, he privately asked Parseghian why there were so few black play- ers on the foot- ball team. Only five of the top 44 play- ers were black, and this bothered the civil rights champion. Parseghian told Hesburgh that he was more frustrated than anyone on that situation, and that as the school president he needed to talk with the people in the admissions office to help him out. Hesburgh promised he would. The ensuing spring, Notre Dame signed a school-record num- ber of black players in one recruiting season, led by Ross Browner, Luther Bradley, Willie Fry and Al Hunter, among others, who would help the Irish to the 1973 national title. Three national championships were won in the 12-year period from 1966- 77, and there were several other near misses before and after the term of his presidency. Through it all, Hesburgh remained consistent with his speech to Irish "WITH HIS LEADERSHIP, CHARISMA AND VISION, HE TURNED A RELATIVELY SMALL CATHOLIC COLLEGE KNOWN FOR FOOTBALL INTO ONE OF THE NATION'S GREAT INSTITUTIONS FOR HIGHER LEARNING." REV. JOHN I. JENKINS, C.S.C., ON HESBURGH