Lou Holtz Joins Notre Dame's Historic Revolutions Celebration!

SOUTH BEND — Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz , the last man to lead the Irish to the national championship, was laid to rest Monday on the same campus his teams once electrified with their sustained excellence. Holtz, who died March 4 at age 89, was buried next to his wife Beth, who died in June 2020, at Notre Dame ’s Cedar Grove Cemetery. Dozens of mourners lined both sides of Notre Dame Avenue for the burial procession in 25-degree afternoon temperatures.

A light sleet fell on those who gathered to pay their respects following Holtz’s 75-minute funeral at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The Notre Dame marching band played the “Alma Mater” to kick off the procession. Holtz, who led the Irish to 100 victories from 1986-96, including the 1988 national title, joined fellow national championship coaches Ara Parseghian and Knute Rockne as the only known Notre Dame football coaches granted a final resting place on campus.

“My intention today is not to paint a halo around Lou’s head, gloss over his faults,” Rev. John I. Jenkins, the former Notre Dame president, said in his homily.

“Those for whom Lou worked, those who worked for him, knew that he could be volatile, hard-headed. His players can tell you that he was often impossibly, maddingly demanding. “Lou could be hard to manage, hard to work for, hard to play for … Lou would be the first to admit these things.