Parseghian, Ara R.
Football
b. May 21, 1923, Akron, OH
Parseghian entered Akron University in 1941 but joined the Navy after his freshman year. After he returned from the service, he enrolled at Miami, Ohio, University, where he starred in three sports. A halfback, he was elected football captain for 1948 but, because his original class had graduated, he was allowed to play with the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference that season.
His playing career was ended by a hip injury in 1949. Parseghian then became freshman football coach at Miami. He succeeded Woody Hayes as the school's head football coach in 1951 and compiled record of 39 wins, 6 losses, and 1 tie in five season. His 1955 team won all nine of its games, including a 6-0 upset of Indiana.
In 1956, Parseghian took over at Northwestern. Despite a lack of material compared to other Big Ten schools, he produced winning teams during the next eight years, and Northwestern beat Notre Dame four times in four tries over that period.
Notre Dame hired him away in 1964. Parseghian immediately turned a losing program into a winner. He was voted coach of the year after his first team won 9 of 10 games and was named collegiate champion by the National Football Foundation.
The 1966 team was a consensus national champion, despite a 10-10 tie against Michigan State in which neither team made much effort to win in the fourth quarter, for fear of making a mistake that would lose the game. Parseghian produced a third national champion in 1973, when Notre Dame beat Alabama 24-23 in a battle of unbeaten teams in the Sugar Bowl.
An emotional, hands-on type of coach who often personally demonstrated blocking and tackling techniques and pass patterns, Parseghian unexpectedly resigned after the 1974 season because of the emotional strains of the job. His over-all coaching record was 170 wins, 58 losses, and 6 ties, a .739 winning percentage. Parseghian did commentary on college football for ABC Sports from 1975 through 1981 and for CBS Sports from 1982 through 1988.
