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National champion head coach Lou Holtz reportedly entered hospice care at the age of 89.
Best known for serving on the bench at Arkansas and Notre Dame, Holtz coached college football for 33 years. He was the head coach of the Fighting Irish for 11 seasons from 1986 to 1996, where he finished with a 110-30-2 record.
ABC57 in Indiana was one of the first to report the news.
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Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In 1988, Notre Dame finished with a perfect 12-0 record and won the Fiesta Bowl, which remains its last national championship. He was 249-132-7 in his coaching career.
Holtz rose to even greater prominence during his time as a college football analyst at ESPN.
He played at Kent State before moving into coaching as an assistant in 1960, then got his first head coaching job in 1969 at William & Mary. Holtz later went to NC State and spent four seasons in Raleigh before giving the NFL a shot. That stint didn’t work out, however, as the Jets finished 3-10 and he resigned.
Lou Holtz of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish watches during an NCAA football game. (Focus on sport/Getty Images)
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In recent years, Holtz has been a strong supporter of President Donald Trump. In February 2024, Holtz posted on social media that the country “needs[ed] To coach America back to greatness!”
Holtz, who spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump in 2020, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the election.
“It is the highest honor or award you can receive and I receive it with mixed emotions. First of all, I am honored,” Holtz said. fox and friends after. “I can assure you that there are many more people much more valuable than me. No one is more grateful than me. So I’m excited to have this opportunity and, at the same time, I’m excited to receive it from President Trump. The president who I admire and respect. I think he did a tremendous job.”
President Donald Trump presents the Medal of Freedom to former college football coach Lou Holtz in the Oval Office of the White House on December 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)
At the time, Holtz also called Trump “one of the great presidents of my lifetime.”
