Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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"The Shirt" for a new football season, Char- lie Weis was featured with his image next to Rockne, Parseghian and Lou Holtz — with Leahy a conspicuous omission. • Rockne was in- ducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame in its inau- gural year (1951). • Parseghian and Dan Devine (1975-80) were both inducted within six years of coaching their final games. • Holtz was inducted 17 years before Leahy re- ceived the same honor. Why is he repeatedly slighted? The first thought is he juries in the 1953 Iowa game tainted Leahy' reputation? Maybe. But Wooden was No. 1 even though booster Sam Gil- bert often is noted with illegally aiding UCLA's basketball dynasty from 1964-75. Some voters may had a lot of material with everyone coming back from the war." Could using fake in- four years after his final game. It took an unbelievable have thought wi th Rockne and Parseghian on the list, it wouldn't be politically correct to have three Notre Dame coaches in the group. Yet the New York Yankees featured three managers (Casey Sten- gel, Joe McCarthy and Joe Torre). Leahy is somewhat like the NBA's Phil Jackson in that people perceived that Leahy always had all the talent — yet Jack- son is No. 4 on the list. Plus, according to Cook, "almost all college teams coached only 13 years. Yet, Lombardi coached merely nine years at Green Bay (plus one with the Washington Redskins before dying from cancer), and he's No. 2 on this list. The next opinion is reasons why Leahy is probably so overlooked. One is the way he ex- There are two main THE MIDDLE MAN ited. Whereas Rockne's Notre Dame attempted to elevate its academic reputation under new president Rev. Theo- dore Hesburgh. Second reason could be called the "middle- child syndrome." Rockne was the first great Notre Dame coach, while Parseghian and Holtz revived the pro- gram after extremely lean cycles. Meanwhile, Leahy was still not yet a decade removed from Rockne's tragic death, and predecessor Elmer Layden won 77 percent of his games at Notre Dame. He was neither the "first" like Rockne or the "saviors" such as Parseghian and Holtz. The "middle man" often gets lost — sort of like unheralded 1993 quarterback Kevin Mc- Dougal was in between Golden Boy recruits Rick Mirer and Ron Powlus. Rockne was the origi- legend was elevated because of the way he tragically perished in a plane crash at age 43, Leahy left unceremoni- ously on Jan. 31, 1954. He was basically forced out with two years left on his contract and was no longer wanted while nal, while Parseghian and Holtz were the lat- est and greatest whose prosperity occurred in the age of television. That's still no reason for Leahy to be consis- tently ignored on "great- est ever" coaching lists. There were few, if any, who were ever better. ✦