00:00okay uh let's uh talk Lou Holtz for a second uh the great Lou Holtz passed away uh yesterday
00:07at 89 years old he had been hospitalized and then in hospice care for at least a couple of months
00:14when you talk about a life well lived certainly Lou Holtz fits the bill to me Lou Holtz is so
00:21iconic for just the personality he had his dual career of both great coach at multiple stops by
00:29the way not a great coach with the Jets he was in the pros briefly did okay at South Carolina
00:34kind
00:35of lifted the program back into respectability didn't win big at South Carolina but still
00:39but at Notre Dame he became legend because he won a national championship in 1988 he then went on
00:46to have a long career in media and was mostly beloved uh some people kind of got tired of
00:52his shtick whatever the segments with Mark May and Reese Davis with Reese Davis playing the judge
00:58on college football game day final I think they called it that was the late show once
01:04all the games were over right I mean I don't know about you but that was a huge
01:10favorite spot of the week for me as contrived as that bit was with Lou Holtz saying I really think
01:18I can't do a Lou Holtz impression but you know he would say give his opinion on a certain team
01:23whether they should be ranked where they're at blah blah blah and then Mark May would go against
01:27him and it was Reese Davis deciding who had the better argument sure almost the precursor to uh
01:31round the horn in a way yeah um he became such a cartoon figure because this spindly kid from West
01:40Virginia had grown into a iconic college football coach with a lisp which he apparently attributed to
01:48his loss of hearing at a young age and he said it never bothered him because he was just too
01:54focused
01:54on doing what he loves and enjoying life so he never really was uh humbled or slowed down by the
02:00fact that he had that lisp it's just funny to me that a guy who looks like that could inspire
02:07and lead
02:08young strong men to play a brutal game like football and it goes to show that connecting with football
02:15players does not need a guy who looks like one themselves you know um when we watch like hard
02:22knocks and you see these coaches like Brian Schottenheimer this time when they did it with
02:27the NFC East and they're up there and they're speaking and they're rah-rah and you're just like
02:31dude did you just get this out of a book like I can tell this is just you're just spewing
02:36words that
02:36you know but Lou Holtz had a way about him I I got a book as a kid it was
02:40like the best quotes from like
02:43the history of sports and it broke it down into different categories and I didn't know who Lou
02:46Holtz was at that time he was all over the book and he you know you see clips of him
02:52he just had
02:52a way with words and it felt authentic I'm sure he'd said the same things 50 times I'm sure he
02:57practiced whatever but it felt like he was saying it in this moment like he just thought of it and
03:02I
03:02think that authenticity like you said offsets some of the other parts like wait this guy but you
03:09believe kind of what he was saying and what he was saying obviously was what would work yeah Van
03:14Pelt had a great interview with Reese Davis last night Reese of course knowing uh Lou Holtz very
03:19well and uh he said that one of the great anecdotes of Lou Holtz was he I think he was
03:26either a member
03:27at Augusta I think he might have been a member at Augusta but he obviously has played there before
03:31and he was able to get Reese Davis on and the word was that Lou Holtz in his advanced age
03:37couldn't get it over Ray's Creek on the short par 3 12th the iconic 12th hole golden bell as you
03:44know as you're a big golf nerd like me he couldn't hit it over the over the creek which is
03:50only 155
03:51yards give or take so Lou Holtz would lay up on 12 which is kind of unheard of for any
03:58golfer right
03:59and it would be also viewed as a bit of a cowardly play but he would he would lay up
04:04and then he would
04:04chip over and oftentimes make the putt for a par anyway and so Van Pelt asked him about that like
04:12did that really happen and he goes oh yeah that was his move and he made no apologies for it
04:18Reese Davis said the one time Holtz got Mark May down there at Augusta to play golf with him and
04:25they
04:25had a friendly match and Lou Holtz beat him and as Mark May was gonna pay him Holtz was like
04:31hold on
04:32I want to get a picture of you giving me the money because that's the way Lou Holtz was
04:38and not only did he say okay I want to get a picture of this he then said hold on
04:43hold on and
04:44he goes to his locker comes back with a fake neck brace so he could wear it while taking money
04:51from
04:52Mark Mark May to add insult to the photo op of I beat you in golf because it presented like
04:59I did it
05:00with a bad neck still amazing amazing yeah an all-time character I feel like that's something
05:06we just don't have in sports nearly as much anymore they're not making any more Lou Holtz's that's the
05:10thing everybody's just too polished I get it you know we're on tv right now everybody's polished for
05:15the moment that was not polished the last character guy that was so fun to watch sadly was taken from
05:22us
05:23way too soon and Mike Leach yeah Mike Leach was that type of guy where you're like damn this guy's
05:29funny as hell and he doesn't care he'll just say what he thinks so it's it's sad that you know
05:34obviously this the the whole coaching world has become very you know but you know marching in
05:40corporate whatnot but uh Lou Holtz was a one of a kind and you know he also gave tons and
05:46tons of
05:47speeches um he was sincere when he needed to be I know that Mike Greenberg said that when he first
05:53met Lou Holtz they were in the hallways at Bristol and uh Holtz was asking about him when he first
05:58met
05:59him you know who are you what do you do to do and Greenberg was excited because this was an
06:03idol of
06:04his growing up and he said well my wife and I are expecting our first child it's a you know
06:09it's a
06:09daughter and Lou Holtz stopped while they were walking got right in his face put his finger up
06:14to Greenberg and said the most important thing you do in life is to make sure that your daughter
06:22sees that you love her mom every single day and like was stone serious so Holtz was able to give
06:30those kind of bits of life life advice and he did it in a sincere way his record on the
06:36field Ben was
06:37incredible his record at Notre Dame was let me get it right here 134 because they still had ties
06:47back in the day and he had some great great teams I'm sorry 130 and 2 winning percentage at Notre
06:56Dame
06:56of 765 the Irish won five New Year's six bowl games including back-to-back cotton bowls in 92 and
07:0493
07:04and of course he knocked off top-ranked Miami 31 30 in the infamous Catholics versus convicts game
07:11that was in October of 88 there's plenty of documentaries out on it now it's an incredible
07:16piece of history and then won the school's first national title in 11 years on their way to 12
07:21no record the 34 21 win over West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl completed the quest five years later in
07:28the highly anticipated game of the century Notre Dame stunned number one Florida State 31 24 at the
07:35time and then lost to Boston College a heavy underdog the next week the the you know obviously
07:41I'm not old enough to have remembered you know peak peak Notre Dame back in the day when the lore
07:46truly began and when I started watching college football like the Jerry Faust era oh god you know
07:52low point I'm like really this is this is the program so I never was a Notre Dame guy I
07:58rooted
07:59for the teams that you just said that they they beat Florida State or Colorado at least or Miami at
08:03least in the in those games I wasn't a fan otherwise but Lou Holtz got that program back to the
08:08point
08:08where I could load them or people could be like oh yeah now I get it the hat screw Notre
08:12Dame or you
08:14know and it's kind of been that way for me since that that got my uh blood going and I
08:19could feel like
08:20okay I get why people don't like them yeah I I understand it rest in peace Lou Holtz a genuine
08:26American original a great football coach and a guy who lived a life beyond well lived but a legendary one
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