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The Moses Of Modern Notre Dame Athletics

Metaphorically, Gene Corrigan finally crossed his final River of Jordan on earth earlier this week.

The Notre Dame athletics director from 1981-87, who then became commissioner of the ACC and then president of the NCAA, died Friday at age 91 in Charlottesville, Va.

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Gene Corrigan, flanked by Notre Dame leaders Rev. Ned Joyce C.S.C. (left) and Rev. Theodore Hesburgh C.S.C. (right), directed Notre Dame athletics from 1981-87.
Gene Corrigan, flanked by Notre Dame leaders Rev. Ned Joyce C.S.C. (left) and Rev. Theodore Hesburgh C.S.C. (right), directed Notre Dame athletics from 1981-87. (UND.com)

To me, he was the Moses of Notre Dame’s athletic department that endured difficult transition and tumultuous times in the 1980s.

It was Moses who led the Israelites through the desert and into the Promised Land — but unfortunately was not permitted to cross there himself.

Likewise, Corrigan set the table for future Notre Dame athletics glory — but witnessed the feast from afar, albeit by his own choice.

It can be a thankless task when succeeding a legend such as Edward “Moose” Krause, who was Notre Dame’s athletics director from 1949-81. Yet the Baltimore native, Duke graduate and devout Catholic Corrigan accepted it — in spite of a significant pay cut while also raising seven children with his wife of 66 years, Lena.

It can be even more daunting when the nation’s top combination of football/men’s basketball athletic program — as Notre Dame was from 1968-81 — suddenly plummeted dramatically in his first academic year at the school.

Under first-year football head coach Gerry Faust, hired in November 1980, several months before Corrigan came aboard, Notre Dame finished 5-6. It was the program's first losing season in 18 years after an extraordinary 148-33-5 run from 1964-80 that included four consensus or shared national titles, and a few other near misses.

That same school year, the Notre Dame basketball team — a perennial Top 10 and even Top 5 power since 1968 — finished 10-17 while undergoing a massive rebuild with 10th-year head coach Digger Phelps.

It was almost as if Corrigan had become a jinx while replacing the beloved Krause.

During the 1960s and 1970s, however, most of Notre Dame’s athletics underwent immense cutbacks in scholarships, virtually rendering them into glorified club-status mode — a la hockey for the 1983-84 academic year (before returning to varsity status later in Corrigan's tenure).

Thus, Corrigan was entrusted to create an athletic endowment fund to broaden Notre Dame in that area of university life, hire full-time coaches and increase scholarship aid.

Meanwhile, overall facilities became greatly enhanced under his watch, including the construction of the Loftus Sports Center/Meyo Field (now expanded into the Guglielmino Athletics Complex), the Eck Tennis Pavilion, the Rolfs Aquatic Center …

Above all, look at his coaching hires:

• Football — Lou Holtz

After a 30-26-1 record in a five-year deal that was honored by school president Rev. Theodore Hesburgh C.S.C., Faust announced his resignation on a Tuesday before the 1985 season finale, a 58-7 loss to Miami for a 5-6 record.

Just over 24 hours after Faust stepped down, Corrigan secured Holtz, whom he grew to admire when he was the Virginia AD while Holtz led fellow ACC member North Carolina State to an amazing 33-12-3 run from 1972-75.

Corrigan was around to see only the 5-6 start in 1986 (his third 5-6 mark in six full football seasons at the school), but the Hall of Famer Holtz in 1988 directed a national title, and in 1989 the Fighting Irish won a school record 23 consecutive games.

• Women’s Basketball — Muffet McGraw

Speaking of Hall of Fame coaches and national titles…

Now in her 33rd season, she directed national titles in 2001 and 2018 and a half-dozen other Final Four placements from a program that arose from the ground floor.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity Gene gave me when he hired me and his support for women’s athletics,” said McGraw upon Corrigan’s passing. “I had such a great respect for him. He was so highly admired in all of sport and he always inspired people to be their best. He’s a great role model for coaches to look up to.”

Yves Auriol — Fencing

The first Notre Dame coach to direct a women’s team (the school didn’t become coed until 1972) to a national title when he did so in 1987. Notre Dame then won the combined NCAA title under Auriol in 1994 before he retired in 2002 with several more runner-up finishes and a combined 487-31 record.

Pat Murphy — Baseball

Corrigan was highly impressed by the extremely intense 29-year-old Division III coach from Claremont-Mudd Scripps when he hired him in 1987.

The program had been left for dead after a 15-29 record mainly against small-time competition prior to Murphy’s arrival. By year 2, Murphy had the Fighting Irish in the NCAA Regional, and the meteoric ascent featured numerous upsets of superpowers such as Miami and Texas.

Murphy finished 318-116-1 (.732) with three more NCAA Regionals before heading to Arizona State in 1994.

Bob Bayliss — Men’s Tennis

Like hockey and baseball and so many other “Olympic Sports,” tennis had become an afterthought.

Buoyed by a renewed commitment via the athletic endowment, Notre Dame suddenly excelled in the spring sports traditionally dominated by warm-weather schools.

Corrigan hired the 1985-87 head coach from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — and 26 years later Bayliss finished his career fifth on the all-time career wins list for Division I men’s tennis. He led the Irish to 22 NCAA Championship berths in his last 23 seasons, 10 Top-20 finishes, seven round-of-16 advancements and even a trip to the NCAA title match in 1992 while upsetting the No. 7, No. 3 and No. 1 teams.

Corrigan wasn’t at Notre Dame to see it all, but his legacy has spanned the decades in more ways than one.

The year after Corrigan took his new post with the ACC, son Kevin Corrigan took over as the men’s lacrosse (another former club sport) head coach for the Fighting Irish — a position he still holds while making the Irish a top-10 power, including three trips to the NCAA championship game.

Another son, Boo, is now the NC State athletic director — after originally beginning his administrative career at alma mater Notre Dame — and a third, Tim, is a senior coordinating producer for the NBA on ESPN. A fourth son, David, received his law degree from Notre Dame, and three of Corrigan’s grandchildren have played either men’s or women’s lacrosse for the Irish.

Among so many other accomplishments, Corrigan was also heavily involved in the hosting of the 1987 International Summer Special Olympic Games at Notre Dame.

“Now more than ever, college athletics needs leaders like Gene Corrigan,” summarized current Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick. “He will be greatly missed.”

A Moses-like figure in any athletic department is quite the blessing, and Corrigan played that role superbly at Notre Dame.

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