Former Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian dead at 94

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Ara Parseghian, the charismatic Hall of Fame coach who woke up the echoes at Notre Dame, restoring the Fighting Irish to football glory in the 1960s and 1970s with two national championships and an innovative, psychologically astute approach to coaching, died Aug. 2 at his home in Granger, Ind. He was 94.

University of Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins issued a statement announcing the death. Mr. Parseghian had recently been treated for a hip infection.

Mr. Parseghian (pronounced par-SEEG-yun) took over the head coaching job of perhaps the country’s most storied college football team in 1964, after rebuilding the fortunes of perennial Big Ten doormat Northwestern University.

Notre Dame had been a gridiron powerhouse since the turn of the 20th century, building a nationwide following under coaches Knute Rockne, Elmer Layden and Frank Leahy. Since Leahy’s retirement in 1953, the Irish had descended into mediocrity, with an abysmal 2-7 record in 1963.

The intense, handsome Mr. Parseghian immediately brought a new sense of order, rebuilding the team’s reputation at the same time Notre Dame’s president, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, was transforming the Catholic university in South Bend into a preeminent academic institution.

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