His Catholic Faith defined Coach Lou Holtz

 

Lou Holtz is carried off the field following a win in the Orange Bowl. Holtz won 100 games, including the 1988 National Championship, during his 11-year tenure in South Bend.

Lou Holtz’s Catholic faith is bigger than football

The former football head coach shined not only on the field, but also off the field through his religious values

By Henry Lytle

Legendary Notre Dame head football coach Lou Holtz might be remembered for his greatness on the field, but his enduring Catholic faith led him to be a positive and enduring force shaping Notre Dame football and its reputation for years to come.

Holtz died March 4 at age 89. The 1988 national championship winner began his tenure in 1986 for Notre Dame to help resurrect a struggling Irish team. In addition to giving ten years, 100 wins, five New Year’s Day bowl victories, an undefeated 12-0 season and a national championship, Holtz left his mark with his visible Catholic faith and commitment to cultivating virtuous men on the football field.

Holtz’s early life was formed by the Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School in East Liverpool, Ohio. Holtz once told the National Catholic Register that the nuns and early education “influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.”

Holtz told the Register that he prayed to God to be a great athlete, only to have been made a coach instead. Holtz’s weekly attendance and trust in the Church on religious principles helped “bring meaning and lasting happiness to life.”

Holtz took on his position at Notre Dame after various stops along the way, including William & Mary, NC State, Arkansas and Minnesota. The opportunity at Notre Dame was not only a larger one in the public eye, but inherently had faith tied into football on the field as a world-renowned Catholic university. Holtz immediately embraced the rich football and Catholic tradition, publicly sharing his faith, re-instating a mandatory Mass attendance prior to games and prioritizing moral messaging to players. His teams began to take the virtues of fortitude, prudence and temperance onto the football field and quickly translated to success for the Irish. Holtz leaned into the distinctiveness of Notre Dame as a truly Catholic and faithful university, which reflected and shared the faith on a national stage. He helped reassert that the football program wasn’t separate from the University’s religious mission — it was part of it.

Holtz posted the famous “Play Like a Champion Today” sign in 1986 hoping to inspire players as they entered the field. After spotting the sign in a college football book, he felt that it “was appropriate for Notre Dame” and brought it along with the team for road games to encourage players and remind them of the sacrifices it took to get to their position. These actions helped make a lasting impact and shape the modern landscape of Notre Dame football that fans across the world recognize today.

Holtz’s time at Notre Dame is certainly remembered for his undefeated national championship season in 1988. However, he is also remembered as a legend for his unforgettable pregame speeches and instillment of virtue in his players. He shared that he wanted “Good people who happen to be good football players” for Notre Dame football. His messaging for speeches was often focused on integrity in the players, respect, self-control and academic excellence, aligning directly with the pillars of Notre Dame. Holtz made Notre Dame’s Catholicism visible on a national stage and reinforced its intimate ties with football.

Lou Holtz retired from Notre Dame in 1996 for a few years before picking up his final job at South Carolina for six seasons. Holtz began to appear in commentary roles for ESPN and other televised programs, bringing his witty sense of humor and passion for the game to every broadcast. In 2020, Holtz earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump as the White House described him as “one of the greatest football coaches of all time” and a “philanthropist, author and true American patriot.”

Lou Holtz “is remembered for his enduring values of faith, family, service and unwavering belief in the potential of others,” his family said. They posted a statement sharing a Mass of Christian Burial at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame to be announced as details are finalized. As the University of Notre Dame and nation remembers Lou Holtz for his football excellence and transformation of collegiate programs, it is important not to forget the ways he impacted players and communities beyond the game through his Catholic faith.

And speaking of Lou Holtz

Trump to give Presidential Medal of Freedom to Notre Dame’s Lou Holtz

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Via The Washington Post: 

President Trump announced during a news briefing that former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, who was in the room, will receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Trump said that he received many recommendations from athletes, coaches and other politicians to honor Holtz, and that he looked at those and Holtz’s “life, career, what he’s done for charity,” and determined that he deserved the honor.

Holtz spoke at the Republican National Convention and made headlines for challenging Biden’s faith, calling him a “Catholic in name only.” He also called the Biden-Harris ticket “the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history.”

Notre Dame distanced the school from Holtz’s comments, saying that “we Catholics should remind ourselves that while we may judge the objective moral quality of another’s actions, we must never question the sincerity of another’s faith, which is due to the mysterious working of grace in that person’s heart. In this fractious time, let us remember that our highest calling is to love.”

This Catholic publication says Lou Holtz right, some Bishops wrong, when calling out Joe Biden's full throated support for killing babies

In this screenshot from the RNC’s livestream of the 2020 Republican National Convention, Former South Carolina Gamecocks football coach Lou Holtz addresses the virtual convention on August 26, 2020. (Photo Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images.)

Election 2020 |  Sep. 5, 2020

Judging by the Record

A NOTE FROM OUR PUBLISHER: It is one thing to judge someone’s heart or motivation. It is another thing entirely to take them at their word and judge their very public actions and positions.

Michael Warsaw

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz addressed the Republican National Convention, offering his support to President Donald Trump’s reelection. Holtz called the president a strong advocate for the unborn and said that the Biden-Harris ticket is “the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history.”
But it was Holtz’s discussion of faith that made headlines.
While addressing the glaring gap between Catholic Church teaching and Biden’s platform, Holtz said Biden’s position on abortion “abandons innocent lives” and called the former vice president “Catholic in name only.”
Holtz immediately faced criticism in some quarters from those who felt that the remark was a judgment of Biden’s heart and not his policies.
Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, distanced himself from Holtz in a statement, as did other Catholic leaders. At a recent Mass, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago also appeared to address the subject, saying: “There should never be a time and a moment in which we judge others and their faith journey, say that a person is not Christian enough or Catholic enough, or doesn’t measure up to what we think they should.”
Meanwhile, Bishops Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, and Richard Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, have recently taken positions more akin to Holtz’s.
It is one thing to judge someone’s heart or motivation. It is another thing entirely to take them at their word and judge their very public actions and positions.
Like Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, too, has shown himself unafraid to call out support for abortion as so objectively wrong that politicians supporting it should not receive Communion.

In the Aparecida document, whose text Pope Francis oversaw during his tenure as archbishop of Buenos Aires, we find this statement: “We must adhere to ‘Eucharistic coherence,’ that is, be conscious that they [legislators, heads of government and health professionals] cannot receive Holy Communion and at the same time act with words or deeds against the commandments, particularly when abortion, euthanasia and other crimes against life and family are encouraged.”

Whatever is in Biden’s heart notwithstanding, Holtz was right about Biden’s public actions and platform. Biden’s actions and positions on abortion are objectively not Catholic.

The former vice president is running the most radically pro-abortion campaign in U.S. history: Biden has offered his support to efforts to codify Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, even though he used to oppose this.

He has called for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment — reversing his previous support of the policy — which would allow for the use of taxpayer dollars to fund elective abortion procedures. He has also said that abortion should be protected as “an essential health-care service” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden even selected a running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who has proposed using preclearance at a federal level — requiring the Department of Justice to sign off on state-level abortion restrictions — to block efforts to pass new pro-life laws.

Politicians ask us to take them at their word and judge them by their records. If we do that in this case, we find a candidate promoting positions on abortion that are objectively antithetical to the faith while at the same time highlighting his Catholic roots.

It is a deep shame that this baptized Catholic presidential nominee has chosen abortion policies that are a better reflection of the extreme voices in his party than the teachings of his Church — or for that matter, the well-documented viewpoint of most Americans.

The misunderstanding of abortion extends also to some of Biden’s most prominent Catholic supporters. Sister Simone Campbell of the Sisters of Social Service, who offered a prayer at the Democratic National Convention, recently told Catholic News Agency that the question of legal abortion is “above my pay grade.”

This was in stark contrast to Sister Dede Byrne of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who delivered an address to the Republican National Convention in which she spoke of “the largest marginalized group in the world” — the unborn.

“As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life against the politically correct or fashionable of today,” Sister Dede said.

“We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb.”

I hope one day we will see that such a legislative agenda would never be supported by a candidate who calls himself Catholic. Let us pray for Joe Biden. Let us call him to conversion. But let us not give his public position on abortion a pass by saying we cannot judge him. 

God bless you!