Lou Holtz, the legendary college football coach, has died at the age of 89, his family announced on March 4.
Notre Dame released a statement that said Holtz died in Orlando, Florida, surrounded by family. He had entered hospice care in late January, according to multiple reports.
Advertisement
Holtz coached the Irish for 11 seasons, including leading them to their last national championship in 1988.
Former Ohio State assistant coach Lou Holtz speaks to a group of OSU students at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on April 2, 2016.
It was early in his coaching career that he spent a year at Ohio State, helping the Buckeyes to win their last consensus national championship under four-time champion Woody Hayes in 1968 with a group known as the “super sophomores.”
Holtz, who was then a 31-year-old assistant serving as the Buckeyes’ defensive backs coach, took his first head-coaching job at William & Mary at the end of the year.
When Hayes was fired after throwing his infamous punch in the 1978 Gator Bowl, Holtz was a candidate to replace him, as he recounted decades later at an Ohio High School Athletic Association event. He also grew up in northeastern Ohio.
Advertisement
Holtz recalled in 2015 that Hugh Hindman, then the athletic director at Ohio State, said he was “by far the leading candidate,” but asked him to interview for the job along with four or five others.
According to The Dispatch, Holtz said he told Hindman, “If you offer me the job, chances are I would come back because I love Ohio State and I was raised in this state. But I’m not going to go through the interviewing process.
“He said, ‘Well, if you change your mind, call me.’ And I said, ‘I wouldn’t sit by the phone,’ and that was the end of the conversation.”
The Buckeyes in 1979 instead hired Earle Bruce, who had also been an assistant under Hayes.
Advertisement
Holtz had just led Arkansas to the Fiesta Bowl in his second season coaching the Razorbacks. He later coached Minnesota before Notre Dame and retired in 2004 after six seasons at the helm of South Carolina.
Following his retirement, he worked as a studio analyst for ESPN and was a frequent guest on radio shows and podcasts.
His commentary drew the attention of Ohio State coach Ryan Day as recently as 2023, when he questioned the Buckeyes’ toughness before their win at Notre Dame.
After the Buckeyes prevailed in the final minutes, Day called out Holtz by name during a postgame interview on the NBC broadcast that went viral.
Advertisement
“I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now,” Day said then on the air. “What he said about our team, what he said about our team, I cannot believe. This is a tough team right here.”
In the immediate aftermath, Day said he was upset and felt disrespected by Holtz’s comments.
Holtz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008, joining the same class as former Ohio State coach John Cooper, who succeeded Bruce in 1988 and became the Buckeyes’ second-winningest coach.
Trey Holtz, his grandson, was also on the Buckeyes’ staff from 2017-19, the last year as a graduate assistant under Day.
Advertisement
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com and follow him on @joeyrkaufman on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Lou Holtz, College Football Hall of Fame coach, dies at 89
