Current:Home > ScamsGerry Faust, the former head football coach at Notre Dame, has died at 89-InfoLens
Gerry Faust, the former head football coach at Notre Dame, has died at 89
View Date:2024-12-23 10:24:42
The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season!
Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here.
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Gerry Faust, the gravel-voiced Cincinnati high school coach who lived a dream by becoming the coach at Notre Dame, has died. He was 89.
Notre Dame said in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that the family confirmed Faust’s death. No details were immediately provided.
Faust guided the Fighting Irish from 1981 through 1985, compiling a record of 30-26-1. He succeeded Dan Devine as coach of Notre Dame and preceded Lou Holtz.
“I have always loved Notre Dame and still do,” he said after he was fired following the 1985 season.
He spent the next nine seasons as the head coach at the University of Akron, bringing the program from Division II to major-college status. His record was 43-53-3 with the Zips.
He remained at Akron after his coaching days, working as a fundraiser and in the development office before retiring in 2001.
It was as a high school coach that Faust first stepped into the spotlight.
After graduating in 1958 from the University of Dayton with a degree in marketing and management, Faust accepted his first coaching position as an assistant at his high school alma mater, Dayton Chaminade. His father, Gerry Sr., had coached at Chaminade for 49 years.
Two seasons later, Faust accepted an offer to build a football program at a new high school, Archbishop Moeller, in suburban Cincinnati.
He spent three years constructing the foundation of what would become a legendary program in high school athletics.
In 1963, Moeller’s first varsity team surprised many with a 9-1 record.
In the next 17 years, Faust’s Moeller teams posted nine undefeated seasons, won 10 city championships, eight regional titles and five big-school state championships.
Four times Faust teams were awarded mythical national championships, each following unbeaten and untied seasons in 1976, ’77, ’79 and ’80.
The 1980 team completed a 13-0 season and capped Faust’s high school coaching record at a remarkable 174-17-2, a success rate of nearly 91%.
There was a public outcry when Faust was selected to take over at Notre Dame in the spring of 1981. The school’s administrators were admonished for elevating a high school coach to the most revered position in college coaching.
Faust’s first team in South Bend went 5-6 and he followed that with marks of 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 and 5-6.
His first Akron team in 1986 went 7-4, but his teams — playing a difficult Division I-AA schedule and, eventually, some of the top teams in I-A — never reached that level again.
___
Rusty Miller, a longtime Associated Press journalist, was the principal writer of this obituary.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
veryGood! (133)
Related
- Michael Grimm, former House member convicted of tax fraud, is paralyzed in fall from horse
- Millions still have no power days after Beryl struck Texas. Here’s how it happened
- Wimbledon 2024 bracket: Latest scores, results for tournament
- An Indiana man gets 14 months after guilty plea to threatening a Michigan election official in 2020
- Chiefs block last-second field goal to save unbeaten record, beat Broncos
- Brett Favre asks appeals court to to re-ignite lawsuit against Shannon Sharpe
- 'Gladiator II' trailer teases Paul Mescal fighting Pedro Pascal — and a rhinoceros
- Ariana Grande Claps Back at Haters Over Her Voice Change
- Why California takes weeks to count votes, while states like Florida are faster
- Election officials push back against draft federal rule for reporting potential cyberattacks
Ranking
- To Protect the Ozone Layer and Slow Global Warming, Fertilizers Must Be Deployed More Efficiently, UN Says
- Joe Hendry returns to NXT, teams with Trick Williams to get first WWE win
- Gypsy Rose Blanchard pregnant soon after release from prison for conspiring to kill abusive mother
- European Union adds porn site XXNX to list of online platforms facing strictest digital scrutiny
- How Alex Jones’ Infowars wound up in the hands of The Onion
- Chicago woman gets 58-year prison term for killing and dismembering her landlord
- Messi’s 109th goal leads defending champion Argentina over Canada 2-0 and into Copa America final
- Much at stake for Biden as NATO leaders gather in Washington
Recommendation
-
South Carolina does not set a date for the next execution after requests for a holiday pause
-
Church's Chicken employee killed after argument with drive-thru customer; no arrest made
-
Hurricane Beryl’s remnants carve a path toward the Northeast with heavy rain and damaging tornado
-
Though Biden says he's staying in presidential race, top Democrats express doubts
-
Bull doge! Dogecoin soars as Trump announces a government efficiency group nicknamed DOGE
-
What is THC? Answering the questions you were too embarrassed to ask.
-
People are paying thousands for 'dating boot camp' with sex experts. I signed up.
-
Nevada's Washoe County votes against certifying recount results of 2 local primaries