Ara Parseghian, who took over a foundering Notre Dame football program and restored it to glory with two national championships in 11 seasons, has died. He was 94.
University of Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins announced in a statement that Parseghian died at home at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Parseghian had recently returned to his home in Granger, Indiana, after spending more than a week in a nursing care facility in South Bend, Indiana. He was treated for an infection in his surgically repaired hip, and was still receiving round-the-clock care at home.
Many took to Twitter to commemorate Parseghian after news of his passing, especially his colleagues at the University of Notre Dame.
“Ara was a remarkable man ... His wit, his charm, his patience, his kindness, his foresight and his humility truly define him,” said Brian Kelly, the current head coach of Notre Dame Football.
“I and this university will forever be indebted to Ara Parseghian,” said Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick.
Of French and Armenian descent, Parseghian grew up in South Akron during the Depression and graduated from South High in 1941.
His father, Michael, spent 30 years as the manager of First National Bank’s travel bureau and lived in Akron for 54 years.
Parseghian briefly attended the University of Akron before World War II and played under Paul Brown at the Great Lakes Naval Station in 1945. After his Naval service, Parseghian became an All-American halfback at Miami University. In Oxford in 1947 he met his future wife, Katie Davis, an elementary education major from Greenfield.
“I don’t think Ara really ever thought about going into coaching back in those days,” Katie Parseghian said in 1972. “I don’t think he really wanted all that pressure. It was just something that evolved.”
But a twist of fate, in this case a dislocated hip, changed Parseghian’s direction. In 1948, his second year playing for Brown with the Cleveland Browns, Parseghian suffered a career-ending injury that was similar to the one that befell Bo Jackson years later.
“I remember the field still had baseball sod,” Parseghian said in 1999. “I took a handoff, slipped backward and literally ran out of my hip. Of course, then the joint came back in, doing even more damage.”
The injury, which would require five operations over a span of 50 years, came at the same time that Miami coach Woody Hayes was looking for a freshman coach. In 1950, Parseghian returned to his alma mater.
Parseghian coached five seasons at Miami, taking over after one year when Hayes left for Ohio State. Parseghian became the youngest head coach in Miami history at age 27.
He followed that with eight seasons at Northwestern, one very memorable and painful. His 1957 team went 0-9 under a coaching staff that also included Bo Schembechler, Alex Agase, Doc Urich, Dale Samuels, Bruce Beatty and Paul Shoults.
“I had had the good fortune of being associated with only winning teams until that time,” Parseghian said in 1976. “In my last year as a player at Miami we were undefeated. When I was with the Cleveland Browns, we went unbeaten in 1948 and lost only one game the next year.
“In my last year as coach at Miami, we were undefeated and our record the first season at Northwestern was 4-4-1, which was better than anticipated. So you can imagine the trauma during 1957.”
Schembechler, the future Michigan coach, still remembers the support he received from Parseghian that season.
“Every night we would work our tails off and Ara would reassure us that this [losing streak] wasn’t our fault,” Schembechler said years later. “As a young coach who wanted to do well, that was important to me.”
That year profoundly affected Parseghian. According to The Era of Ara, a book by his longtime assistant coach and Springfield High School graduate Tom Pagna, Parseghian found a quote for inspiration that he always kept with him: “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talent that under more prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” The following season the Wildcats improved to 5-4.
When Parseghian came to South Bend in 1964, the Irish hadn’t had a winning season in five years and had gone 2-7 the previous season. Notre Dame finished 9-1 in Parseghian’s first year. He went on to compile a 95-17-4 record at Notre Dame, his Irish win total second only to Knute Rockne’s 105.
It didn’t take long for Parseghian to feel pierced by the arrows fired at the bull’s-eye Notre Dame wore. He was strongly criticized in 1972 after saying Alabama coach Bear Bryant was chicken for ducking Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, facing Texas in the Cotton Bowl instead and leaving the Irish to take on Nebraska. One newspaper clipping read: “Who is Parseghian to talk after his famous ‘Tie One for the Gipper’ in 1966 with Michigan State?”
“The whole thing was taken out of context,” Parseghian told the Chicago Daily News. “I didn’t mean to be critical of Bear Bryant. What I was suggesting was what do you think the reaction would have been if Notre Dame tried the same thing?”
He was often chided for running up the score, most notably on his old friends. He heard it in 1970 after a 56-7 triumph over Navy, coached by Rick Forzano, a Garfield High graduate, and following a 50-7 beating of Northwestern and Agase in 1971 despite Northwestern’s penchant for throwing interceptions.
“It could have been much worse,” Forzano said afterward. “They could have put the ball in the air more. I have too much respect for Ara as a gentleman, as a football coach and a personal friend to let such criticism go unanswered.”
The love-hate relationship the Irish had with sports fans drew knocks about the Irish’s weak schedule.
Parseghian also fought a reputation for being too conservative, largely forged because of the 10-10 tie with Michigan State during a 9-0-1 national championship season in 1966. Twenty-nine players from that Irish team were drafted by the NFL, but were overshadowed by what became known as “The Game of the Century.”
Notre Dame was ranked No. 1, Michigan State No. 2. On the final series, Notre Dame took over at is 30 with 1:24 left. Parseghian tried two draw plays, three quarterback runs and one quarterback option without calling a timeout.
He had his reasons. Backup quarterback Coley O’Brien was in to replace the injured Terry Hanratty. O’Brien, a diabetic, was weak and wobbly, 0 for his last 7 and driving into a 12-mph wind. Notre Dame’s starting center and two halfbacks were also hurt. Michigan State was playing a prevent defense. Parseghian feared the range of MSU barefooted kicker Dick Kenney.
“I was frankly shocked by the reaction of the press,” Parseghian said 13 years later. “I was attempting to get into field-goal position.
“The play selection was rather conservative. But who says you have to throw the bomb? The national title was paramount. We couldn’t afford to lose.”
Jim Lynch, the Notre Dame captain, told the Associated Press in 1979: “It was the best of times and the worst of times. The season was something special, but the tie was so frustrating. We came back from a 10-0 deficit and I’m very proud of that. But when the dust settled, the game hadn’t proven anything.”
Parseghian escaped that conservative mantle on Jan. 1, 1974, with a 24-23 victory over No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl that gave the Irish the national championship. Notre Dame, ranked No. 3, was a touchdown underdog.
“This wasn’t just the national championship, this was one of the greatest games in college football,” Parseghian said after Alabama coach Bear Bryant died in 1983. “This was the first time Notre Dame had played Alabama. There was a multitude of peripheral items — religious implications, racial overtones.”
The key to the game was Parseghian’s call of a long pass with the Irish backed up near their goal line in the waning moments.
On third-and-8 from the Irish 3 with three minutes left, quarterback Tom Clements fired a 35-yard pass to tight end Robin Weber.
“There was some risk involved,” Parseghian said afterward. “Weber could slip and fall. Clements might not get the pass off. We might get caught back there for a safety which would win the game.
“At first I thought the pass was underthrown. Then I saw it spiraling down toward Weber’s arms and I whispered, ‘Please, don’t drop it.’”
After the game, Parseghian lobbied for college football to set up a playoff system built around the existing bowls.
But the next year, the pressure at Notre Dame became too much and Parseghian stepped down after 11 seasons. Parseghian, 51, said he needed a year off to rest and ponder his football future and described himself as “physically and emotionally drained.”
Pagna tried to explain his friend’s decision.
“I’ve seen so many coaches become blithering idiots, alcoholics, punching people out,” Pagna told the Beacon Journal in 1974. “Ara had the good sense to know the weight of things were becoming a jeopardy to his health and family and he got out.
“I think midway through the season I knew something was wrong. Ada was drained. He was on a treadmill. He had a drawn look on his face, he walked slower.”
In his 25th year in college coaching, Parseghian was bothered by high blood pressure and was taking two pills a day along with a tranquilizer and an occasional sleeping pill. Several players were accused in a rape case that ended with the charges dropped but six of them expelled. Injuries struck the defending national champion Irish before the season opener against Georgia Tech on national television.
Three of his close friends died. His daughter Karan was dealing with multiple sclerosis. His final season included a 55-24 regular-season loss to Southern Cal in a game Notre Dame led 24-0 in the second quarter.
“I knew what I was doing when I resigned,” he said in 1977. “It was the right decision.
“I was living at much too fast a pace. I was reaching the stage where every penalty call, every fumble, every dropped punt, everything was affecting my health.”
Winning at Notre Dame was not a cure-all, Parseghian said.
“At Notre Dame you would become a victim of your own success,” he said in 1975. “If you win 10, you want to win 11. If you win 11, you want to win 12. If you win a national championship, you want to repeat it. That places an unusual amount of pressure, self-inflicted pressure.”
In his final game, Notre Dame stunned previously unbeaten Alabama 13-11 in the Orange Bowl, perfect atonement for the disappointing setback against USC.
Before the game there were comparisons to the way coach Knute Rocke’s players had won one for George Gipp 50 years before.
“Can you imagine the Catholics going out to win one for a French-Armenian Presbyterian?” Parseghian joked.
But the day was extremely emotional for the Irish.
“We cried before the game, we cried at half and we cried after the game`the players and the coaches, too,” safety John Dubenetzky said afterward. “We were really keyed up.”
There was speculation that Parseghian would become an NFL coach, perhaps replacing the Browns’ Nick Skorich. Rumors flew that Parseghian was being courted by the Baltimore Colts, the New York Jets and Chicago Bears. In 1976 he was supposedly bound for Tampa Bay or Cincinnati. That talk began during his eighth season at Notre Dame with Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose reportedly wanting him.
“Sure I’ve had offers from the pros; they started coming when I was at Northwestern,” Parseghian said in 1972. “But I’ve always been content in college ball.”
Parseghian went on to found Ara Parseghian Enterprises, a South Bend-based company that allowed him to dabble in insurance, television, radio and a speakers’ bureau. He became a regular color commentator for ABC and CBS Sports and hosted a syndicated television show for young people, “Ara’s Sports World,” in the mid-1970s.
He never strayed far from the world of football, though, and could be spotted on Notre Dame’s field even after his resignation.
Akron native Frank Stams’ first experience with Parseghian was a whack on the helmet the first day of his football practice at Notre Dame in 1984.
When Stams turned around to see who hit him, Parseghian was standing there, cane in hand, quietly smiling.
‘He was saying, ‘I know who you are, and I’m keeping an eye out for you,’” said Stams, who went on to play on the 1988 National Championship team at Notre Dame and then several NFL teams, including the Cleveland Browns. “That’s the way he was. He didn’t have to say anything to make an impact on you. Just his presence alone was enough.”
Parseghian’s mission after coaching became driven by the serious health problems of his family. After Karan, his sister and brother-in-law were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he became a fundraiser for that society. When his grandson Michael and granddaughters Marcia and Christa were diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Type C, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, he began the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in late 1994.
Staff writer Theresa Cottom contributed to this story. Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.