Current:Home > ContactGerry Faust, the former head football coach at Notre Dame, has died at 89 -Wealth Navigators Hub
Gerry Faust, the former head football coach at Notre Dame, has died at 89
View
Date:2025-04-12 12:31:32
The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season!
Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here.
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Gerry Faust, the gravel-voiced Cincinnati high school coach who lived a dream by becoming the coach at Notre Dame, has died. He was 89.
Notre Dame said in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that the family confirmed Faust’s death. No details were immediately provided.
Faust guided the Fighting Irish from 1981 through 1985, compiling a record of 30-26-1. He succeeded Dan Devine as coach of Notre Dame and preceded Lou Holtz.
“I have always loved Notre Dame and still do,” he said after he was fired following the 1985 season.
He spent the next nine seasons as the head coach at the University of Akron, bringing the program from Division II to major-college status. His record was 43-53-3 with the Zips.
He remained at Akron after his coaching days, working as a fundraiser and in the development office before retiring in 2001.
It was as a high school coach that Faust first stepped into the spotlight.
After graduating in 1958 from the University of Dayton with a degree in marketing and management, Faust accepted his first coaching position as an assistant at his high school alma mater, Dayton Chaminade. His father, Gerry Sr., had coached at Chaminade for 49 years.
Two seasons later, Faust accepted an offer to build a football program at a new high school, Archbishop Moeller, in suburban Cincinnati.
He spent three years constructing the foundation of what would become a legendary program in high school athletics.
In 1963, Moeller’s first varsity team surprised many with a 9-1 record.
In the next 17 years, Faust’s Moeller teams posted nine undefeated seasons, won 10 city championships, eight regional titles and five big-school state championships.
Four times Faust teams were awarded mythical national championships, each following unbeaten and untied seasons in 1976, ’77, ’79 and ’80.
The 1980 team completed a 13-0 season and capped Faust’s high school coaching record at a remarkable 174-17-2, a success rate of nearly 91%.
There was a public outcry when Faust was selected to take over at Notre Dame in the spring of 1981. The school’s administrators were admonished for elevating a high school coach to the most revered position in college coaching.
Faust’s first team in South Bend went 5-6 and he followed that with marks of 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 and 5-6.
His first Akron team in 1986 went 7-4, but his teams — playing a difficult Division I-AA schedule and, eventually, some of the top teams in I-A — never reached that level again.
___
Rusty Miller, a longtime Associated Press journalist, was the principal writer of this obituary.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
veryGood! (87)
Related
- Residents worried after ceiling cracks appear following reroofing works at Jalan Tenaga HDB blocks
- Do you own chickens? Here's how to protect your flock from bird flu outbreaks
- Andy Cohen Shares Insight Into Why Vanderpump Rules Is Pausing Production
- Women's basketball is bouncing back with fans | The Excerpt
- Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
- Murder suspect accused of eating part of victim's face after homicide near Las Vegas Strip
- Student journalists are put to the test, and sometimes face danger, in covering protests on campus
- Sheryl Crow warns us about AI at Grammys on the Hill: Music 'does not exist in a computer'
- Why Sean "Diddy" Combs Is Being Given a Laptop in Jail Amid Witness Intimidation Fears
- Serbia prepares to mark school shooting anniversary. A mother says ‘everyone rushed to forget’
Ranking
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- Dan Schneider Sues Quiet on Set Producers for Allegedly Portraying Him as Child Sexual Abuser
- Police order dispersal of gathering at UCLA as protests continue nationwide | The Excerpt
- Georgia governor signs law requiring jailers to check immigration status of prisoners
- Who's hosting 'Saturday Night Live' tonight? Musical guest, how to watch Dec. 14 episode
- Captain faces 10 years in prison for fiery deaths of 34 people aboard California scuba dive boat
- House committee delays vote on bill to allow inmates to participate in parole hearings
- You Need to See Princess Charlotte’s Royally Cute 9th Birthday Portrait
Recommendation
EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
Exxon Criticized ICN Stories Publicly, But Privately, Didn’t Dispute The Findings
Duane Eddy, 'the first rock 'n' roll guitar god', dies at 86
Senators want limits on the government’s use of facial recognition technology for airport screening
The White House is cracking down on overdraft fees
Maria Georgas reveals she 'had to decline' becoming the next 'Bachelorette' lead
How to navigate the virtual hiring landscape and land a job: Ask HR
‘A unicorn of a dog’: Bella the shelter dog has 5 legs and a lot of heart