Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/542018
Lightning Damages Lou Holtz's Home Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz (1986-96), one of the top moti- vational speakers in the country, will have a new personal story to tell about withstanding huge setbacks. On June 21, the 78-year-old Holtz and his wife of 54 years, Beth, saw their $1.6 million home near Orlando, Fla., severely damaged after being struck by lightning. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Holtz and his wife came home late on June 20 and when he went up to his office, he was hit with hot air, which he thought was the air conditioning not working in that section of the house. After going to bed, he and his wife awoke around 2:30 a.m. to the smoke alarms going off, and they saw smoke in the hallway. Holtz tried to go upstairs to at least grab his wallet and cellphone, but couldn't because of the smoke, so he put on a shirt, shoes and some khakis before he and his wife rushed outside and called 911. Flames shot through the roof and the second floor collapsed. About half of his memorabilia was lost, including pho- tos of himself with U.S. Presidents, two popes, the torch he carried for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and a trophy he won at an Augusta National Golf Club member tournament … but he took it in stride. "Someone told me a long time ago that if what you lost can be replaced, then it's not really a loss," he told the Orlando Sentinel. "You can't replace a parent, a spouse, a child. "In athletics you are going to have ups and downs. Whenever we had a down, we did two things. We gave ourselves 'X' amount of time to feel bad for our- selves, and then we moved forward. With the fire, by Monday morning it was no more feeling bad for ourselves. We were looking forward. "We think of the people who have catastrophes that happen in their lives and how difficult it is for them to recover if they don't have the resources we are fortunate enough to have. … What I learned from all this is how lucky we are to have the friends and family that we have." Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz saw his Orlando home get severely damaged by light- ning, but he remained thankful to be alive. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND UNDER THE DOME