Some events in life — and death — are improbable in ways which defy description. This is incredible and eerie: On the same day that USC football legend John Robinson died at the age of 89, former Notre Dame football coach Gerry Faust also died at age 89. Can you believe it? Fighting Irish Wire has more on Faust:
Over his five seasons in South Bend, Faust accumulated a record of 30-26-1, good for a .535 winning percentage. Under his leadership, the Irish won the 1983 Liberty Bowl over Doug Flutie and Boston College. The following year, they lost the 1984 Aloha Bowl to SMU in its last game before it was handed the death penalty a few years later.
A disappointing 1985 season in which the Irish went 5-6 prompted Faust to announce that he would resign after the final game against a Miami team coached by Jimmy Johnson. The Irish lost that game, 58-7, and the university would go on to hire Lou Holtz as Faust’s successor.
Faust and John Robinson did coach against each other as part of the Notre Dame-USC football rivalry. They met in 1981 and 1982 before Robinson went to the NFL and the Los Angeles Rams in 1983. USC won 14-7 in South Bend in 1981 and then won 17-13 in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1982.
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