Walz 1

Kevin Walz
Professor Jerome M. McKeever
English 1020
08 July 2014
Count 1404
Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz
Lou Holtz was a man I looked up to as a child. He led the Fighting Irish of The University
of Notre Dame football team from 1986 to 1996. These were my formative years when I was
finding out who I was. Lou Holtz did it all. In this paper I will try to show you the man that I
grew to admire and look up to. I hope to show the family man, not only the football coach. He
was a devoted Catholic and not just a television personality.
He was a father first, a top notch football coach, a motivational speaker, and lastly a
television personality. He was born in Follansbee, WV on January 6, 1937. He is seventy seven
years old. He grew up in Ohio in a small town of East Liverpool. He attended East Liverpool
high school. Lou is not an imposing man. In fact he is the opposite of anything you would
associate with football. Many people would call Holtz nerdy. Holtz is five foot nine inches tall
he is a scant one hundred and fifty two pounds. Yet, he played linebacker at Kent State
University, which touches at the heart of the kind of man that Lou Holtz is. A strong fiery man
who uses his intellect to not only get the most out of himself and his football teams but out of
all the people who have seen him speak or read his books. He is a very smart man.
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Lou Holtz resides in Orlando, Florida with his wife Beth Barcus. They were married on
July 22, 1961. Holtz is a huge family man. At Notre Dame, they built a statue to me, he said.
They probably needed a place for the pigeons to land...I dont know. If you go there, look at
the pedestal. There are three words: trust, commitment, love. I believe thats what life is all
about.(AAOS) He has had tough times in his life as when his wife had cancer. He learned two
things from this. One is that his wife was his hero: My wife Beth of 48 years. Great mother of 4
children, great grandmother of 9. Had stage 4 cancer, 13 hours of surgery, 83 radiation
treatments and never complains. Just helps other people. And the second was what love is:
We didnt love her more because she had cancer, he said. We just showed it more. And I
thought to myselfhow ridiculous. She has to have cancer before she knows how much we love
her and appreciate her? We have a tendency to take loved ones for granted.(AAOS) This man
is very deep, very loving, and very smart.
Lou has four children: Skip, Kevin, Luanne, and Liz. Most notably his son Skip has
followed in his footsteps having a successful yet up and down coaching career at several
different schools. He worked for his father at Notre Dame and South Carolina and is currently
the coach at Louisiana Tech. One thing Lou is very proud of is that three of his four children
graduated from Notre Dame. He has nine grandchildren that he dotes on.
Two things stand out to Holtz from his young life in East Liverpool. He recalls a story in
which his high school coach changed his life. Lou's high school coach visited his parents and
urged them to send him to college to earn a degree so that he could become a football coach.
The coach explained to them that Lou had a special gift for learning and teaching football and
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that he would excel in that profession. It came as a shock to Lou's parents. Lou was a weak
student. His parents were not sure that college was going to work for him. They were not well
off. They had been struggling to make ends meet for years. How could they send Lou off to
school with little hope of earning a degree in the classroom and little hope of paying for said
degree? The next incident was when he was in the grocery store and heard a few of his parents
friends talking about what a waste of money it was for them to be sending Lou to Kent State.
Lou credits his coaches confidence in him and his parents friends derision that burned an
inner fire inside of Lou. He was now a driven man and succeed he did. He maintained a 3.0
GPA all while working as a janitor, playing football, and coaching football. The ability to take on
many challenges in life would help him in his future endeavors.
Lou is a very dedicated Catholic. He has a strong belief in God. He credits Gods role in
his life. He believes in Notre Dame not just because of its football team but because of the
strong faith-based community. Its always been part of the pre-game ritual. We always said
the Our Father before the game and said a prayer after. Usually I had a teammate lead it,
sometimes I did. But when I went to the University of Notre Dame, you could express your
faith, and that was one of the great things about it. You could practice your faith. You could talk
to your players about their spiritual life, about the direction theyre going without having the
ACLU call the press and complain and that youre trying to promote a religion. I believe that
having a spiritual life is so important in everybodys life. I think it was St. Francis of Assisi who
made the comment; You ought to preach the gospel 24 hours a day, and when absolutely
necessary, resort to using words. I think theres a lot of truth in that. (Wins, Losses, and
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Lessons) Lou uses faith as a base in his life that has been at best fast moving and at worst filled
with trouble and stress.
He loves to golf. It is a passion for Lou but he always knew where it stood in the line of
importance. One thing he is famous for saying is that he would never hire anyone with golf
clubs in their car. His favorite magazine is Golf Digest. He has used his celebrity to play at all
the best courses and with all the big name players. At one point in time his favorite athlete was
Tiger Woods, but my guess is that has changes since Lous strong beliefs in family would make
Tigers actions abhorrent to him. He has written articles published in Golf Digest as well.
He can be a very funny man. If anyone has seen him on his ESPN show College Football
Live knows his witty banter with friend but arch enemy on the show Mark May. His skits as Dr.
Lou often give out doses of wisdom and humor. He has a famous quote from the infamous
Catholics Vs Convicts game. The game pitted Notre Dame vs the hated Miami Hurricanes and
their coach Jimmy my hair never moves Johnson. Before the start of the game there was a fight
in the tunnel leading from the locker rooms to the field. Holtz, not a man who liked fighting,
said this before the game. "You have an afternoon to play, a lifetime to remember," Holtz said.
"But I want you to do one thing: You save Jimmy Johnson's ass for me!"(Holtz) He always
seemed to masterfully find a way to not only motivate but keep the teams mind in the right
place.
As a coach Lou was incredibly successful. His lifetime record of 2491327 with a
National Championship in 1988 at Notre Dame speaks to a career well spent. But Holtz is so
much more than a football coach. He has entertained millions on TV and in his books. His
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biggest impact though is on peoples lives. Not only on the lives of the thousands of football
players he has worked with but on the people he has spoken to. His players loved him his
family is devoted to him. Throngs of Notre Dame fans treat him like a god. In my own life I was
lucky enough to meet the man on two occasions. I was at that Miami game in 1988 as well as
the National Title game that same year. His wisdom and faith helped guide me as a young man.
His diminutive size motivated me to achieve things bigger than I was. Some hate him for his lisp
or love of Notre Dame. What makes Notre Dame fans different from most fans from around
the country is we love Lou Holtz because of his faith, knowledge, and drive, not because he was
our coach.










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Works Cited
1. Holtz, Lou. Wins, Losses, and Lessons: An Autobiography. New York: Wm. Morrow,
2006. Print.
2. "Lou Holtz: Trust, Commitment, and Love." Lou Holtz: Trust, Commitment, and Love.
AAOS, n.d. Web. 15 July 2014.