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The Aging Process At Notre Dame

Brian Kelly turned 55 on Tuesday, making him the third-oldest head football coach ever at Notre Dame.
Brian Kelly turned 55 on Tuesday, making him the third-oldest head football coach ever at Notre Dame. (USA TODAY)

With his 55th birthday on Tuesday, seventh-year Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly is now the “bronze medalist” as the oldest head coach to patrol the sidelines at Notre Dame.

Only Lou Holtz (1986-96) and Dan Devine (1975-80) have been older, although next year — which athletics director Jack Swarbrick said there will be for Kelly — the current Irish boss also will eclipse Devine.

Holtz was 59 years old when he stepped down in November, 1996, two months shy of his 60th birthday. Kelly’s contract extension through the 2021 season could potentially make him the first head football coach ever at Notre Dame to reach the 60 mark. Devine was 55 when he announced in August 1980 that he would step down after the season, but he was 56 years and 10 days by the time he coached his final game on Jan. 1, 1981.

The 50s are considered the prime years of most coaches, although Alabama’s Nick Saban turns 65 on Halloween and is at his best ever.

Until December of 2001, no Notre Dame head coach older than 50 had been hired for the position. George O’Leary was hired that month at 55 — Kelly’s current age — but his tenure lasted only four days before the discovery of a false resume led to a parting of ways and the hiring of Tyrone Willingham, who turned 48 two days before his official hiring on Jan. 1, 2002.

Prior to O’Leary’s four-day stint, the oldest non-interim coach hired at Notre Dame was Devine — a few days short of his 50th birthday on Dec. 22, 1974.


What is particularly amazing is Knute Rockne (1918-30) was only 43 when he died in a plane crash in 1931, and probably had at least another decade worth of coaching in him. Frank Leahy (1941-43, 1946-53) with his four consensus national titles and two other unbeaten seasons in 11 seasons at Notre Dame was merely 45 — a neophyte by today’s standards — when he left Notre Dame after the 1953 season, never to coach again.

Finally, Ara Parseghian (1964-74) was a tender 51 when he coached his final game at Notre Dame on Jan. 1, 1975, and would never coach again (other than the College All-Star game versus the NFL in 1976, which would be called off at halftime because of torrential rain).

Think of the possibilities if Rockne could have coached from about 1918-1941 before retiring early, Leahy could have gone from about 1941-63 before stepping down at about 55, and Parseghian could have gone from 1964-85 (stepping down at 62) before Holtz took over.

Now 93, Parseghian remains the oldest living national title coach in college football. When I asked him several years ago prior to his 90th birthday about whether he had any regrets about retiring so early from coaching because of how many more national titles he might have added to his two consensus ones at Notre Dame (1966 and 1973) — plus a share of one in 1964 — he replied no, without hesitation, because “if I had stayed on in coaching at Notre Dame, I wouldn’t be here talking today.”

Other still living former Notre Dame coaches include 88-year-old Terry Brennan (1954-58), 81-year old Gerry Faust (1981-85), 79-year-old Holtz (who will turn 80 on Jan. 6), 62-year-old Bob Davie (1997-2001) — who has done a good job of resurrecting a moribund New Mexico football team with a bowl bid last year and a 4-3 start this season — 62-year-old Willingham (2002-04), and 60-year-old Charlie Weis (2005-09).

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