There are 95 days until Notre Dame opens the 2022 college football season at Ohio State and today we continue the countdown with a look back at [autotag]Ara Parseghian[/autotag] through the years as the legendary head coach won 95 games during his time with the Irish.
Notre Dame football was a shell of itself when it hired [autotag]Ara Parseghian[/autotag] following the 1963 season. That year the Irish went just 2-7 under Hugh Devore and were seemingly light years away from the perennial national championship contender they once were.
Hired that year was Northwestern head coach Ara Parseghian who went 36-35-1 with the Wildcats which may not seem all that impressive but by comparison the program was just 7-28-2 in the four seasons before his hiring. Parseghian also went 4-0 against Notre Dame in that time which certainly left an impact on the brass in South Bend.
1964 saw Parseghian lead an incredible turnaround as the Irish went 9-1 and were just minutes away from clinching a national championship before giving up a late touchdown at USC in the season’s final game. Quarterback John Huarte was still named the Heisman Trophy winner that year and only Tim Brown has won a Heisman at Notre Dame since.
Parseghian would get his first of two titles in 1966 after running out the clock at Michigan State in the famed 10-10 tie. Just how good was that ’66 team? They pitched six shutouts in 10 games, had just two games finish within a 23 point margin, and four of those 10 games came against teams ranked in the top 10.
1973 was the second of Parseghian’s national titles with the Irish, culminating in a 24-23 thriller over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, his first of two wins against Paul “Bear” Bryant and the Crimson Tide, the second being Ara’s final game as Notre Dame’s head coach, as the Irish beat Alabama to cap the 1974 season in the Orange Bowl.
Parseghian finished his Notre Dame career with 95 victories which trailed only [autotag]Knute Rockne[/autotag] at the time of his retirement, although [autotag]Lou Holtz[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] have both passed Ara since.
One of the best to ever do it at Notre Dame and the key in turning around a program that was on the brink of irrelevance, Parseghian was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980.
Take a look back at Parseghian through the years below: