Ara Parseghian

Bio

Ara Parseghian's early football days were spent with quality people. He lettered at halfback for Miami of Ohio 1946-47. His coach was Sid Gillman; one of his teammates was Paul Dietzel. He also played in 1945 for Great Lakes and 1948-49 for the professional Cleveland Browns. His coach at both those places was Paul Brown. His first coaching job was as assistant to Woody Hayes at Miami, 1950. Parseghian was a head coach at Miami 1951-55 with a record of 39-6-1; at Northwestern 1956-63 with a record of 36-35-1; and at Notre Dame 1964-74 with a record of 95-17-4. His totals for 24 years: 170-58-6, a winning percentage of .739. His Notre Dame teams won the MacArthur Bowl in 1964, 1966 and 1973. When he arrived at Northwestern, the team had gone 0-8-1 the year before; he improved this to 4-4-1. At Notre Dame the record the year before Parseghian was 2-7; he moved this to 9-1. At Notre Dame a big victory was in the Cotton Bowl January 1, 1971, beating Texas 24-11 to end a 30-game Texas victory streak. Another big win came December 31, 1973, in the Sugar Bowl as Notre Dame beat Alabama 24-23 to wrap up another national championship.