Gerry Faust obit

Farewell to Gerry Faust: Celebrating a Notre Dame Coach’s Passionate Legacy

Faust's hiring following Dan Devine's departure from Notre Dame was an all-time shocking move 

He was not on the list.

When Dan Devine left Notre Dame after the 1980 season, the University made a shocking hire as its next head football coach.

Gerry Faust, who had turned Cincinnati's Moeller High School into a national powerhouse, was chosen for the job.

Faust, who made it clear from a young age that his dream job was to one day coach at Notre Dame, died Monday at the age of 89.

Faust's time at Notre Dame certainly wasn't deemed a success in terms of wins and losses, but perhaps nobody who has ever called Notre Dame home has ever loved the place more.

The Faust family released the following statement on Monday night announcing the passing of Gerry.

Gerry Faust's Love for Notre Dame

Despite going just 30-26-1 in five years as Notre Dame's head coach, Gerry Faust remained loved in the Notre Dame community, as he loved it back perhaps even more.

“The first thing I do when I arrive, every time, is visit the Grotto,” said Faust in a 2015 piece on the Notre Dame website. “And the first thing I do there is thank the good Lord for having had the opportunity to coach at Notre Dame.”

The piece also notes that for years, Faust would attend four Notre Dame home games a year.

Gerry Faust Remembered on Social Media

Sep 1981, unknown location, USA; FILE PHOTO; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Gerry Faust on the sidelines during the 1981 season. / Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

Despite not having a legendary run as Notre Dame's head coach, Faust clearly made an impact on seemingly everyone around him. After news of his death came Monday night, several different people took to social media to remember the former Notre Dame head coach.

Notre Dame Legend Tim Brown Remembers Gerry Faust - As I get older, I know these things are going to happen, but it doesn't make it any easier. Today, we lost the man that had the nerve to offer a kid a scholarship who was on a team that won 4 games in 3 years in high school. When no one else saw anything in me, he offered me a Scholarship. Gerry Faust! RIP coach! And l THANKS!!

Recruiting Guru Tom Lemming Remembers Gerry Faust - Was just told the news of the passing of Gerry Faust. what an absolutely wonderful person. Met him back in 1978 at Cincinnati Moeller 2 yrs later he took the Notre Dame job. His personality never changed. No ego, stayed humble and always a friend you can count on. God bless Coach

Tim Bourret of Clemson Athletics Remembers Gerry Faust - Sad to hear of the passing of Gerry Faust.  Not the best coach in Notre Dame history,  but perhaps the best person to serve as the ND head coach.

Chuck Freeby Remembers Gerry Faust- Saddened to learn of the death of former

@NDFootball

 coach Gerry Faust.

We often didn’t agree when I was writing a column at The Observer, but he was unfailingly cordial.

His love for Our Lady and her university was genuine and immense. Eternal rest, grant him, O Lord…

Dos Leprechauns on Gerry Faust - We lost an absolute GEM this evenig. Coach Gerry Faust has passed away at the age of 89. Rest in Paradise, Coach.

John Lewandaowski on Gerry Faust - Saddened to learn about the passing of former

@NDFootball

 Coach Gerry Faust. I had the pleasure of getting to know Coach Faust while working as a student assistant in the ND Sports Information Department. His love for Notre Dame was unquestioned, and his energy infectious.

Gerry Faust: A Winner in Life

He served as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1981 to 1985 and at the University of Akron Zips from 1986 to 1994, compiling a career college football record of 73–79–4. From 1962 to 1980, Faust was the head football coach at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he tallied a mark of 178–23–2 and won four High School Football National Championships. Before coaching, Faust enjoyed a successful stint as a quarterback at the University of Dayton, where he played under former Notre Dame coach Hugh Devore. Faust was offered a partial scholarship to Notre Dame, but enrolled at Dayton, where he graduated in 1958.

Faust had a highly successful run at Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1962 to 1980, where he built the program from scratch. The Crusaders under Faust had a 178–23–2 record and included seven unbeaten seasons, four national prep titles, and five Ohio state titles in his last six seasons. One of Faust's linebackers at Moeller was John Boehner, who later became a United States Congressman and the 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Faust was inducted into the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame in 2004.

It was his amazing high school record, sound ethics and the quality football players from Moeller who later played at Notre Dame, that led Notre Dame officials to take a calculated gamble and hire him when Dan Devine stepped down after the 1980 season. For Faust, a devout Roman Catholic, it was a dream come true. He had coveted the head coaching job at Notre Dame for years and said all along that he would never leave Moeller for anything else. Faust inherited a solid squad that included nine of his former players from Moeller. He switched the team's home jerseys from green back to blue, although initially it was a lighter Madonna blue shade than the navy blue that had been previously worn (and returned to in 1984), and kept the players' names on the backs. A self-proclaimed eternal optimist brimming with enthusiasm, Faust had visions of winning more games and national championships and coaching at Notre Dame longer than anyone else. Then when he saw Notre Dame's schedule, he was quoted as saying, "I hope my lifelong dream doesn't end in a nightmare." It proved to be a prophetic statement and his era at Notre Dame, initially referred to as "The Bold Experiment", fell far short of expectations.

Faust's Notre Dame tenure started on a high note with a 27–9 victory over LSU in the 1981 season opener, one of the most widely anticipated games in school history. After top-ranked Michigan lost to Wisconsin on the same day, Notre Dame was voted No. 1 in the polls. The success was short-lived, however, as Michigan defeated Notre Dame the following week, 25–7. It was all downhill after that as the Irish finished 5–6 that year, their first losing season since 1963. Faust ended his stint at Notre Dame with a 30–26–1 record, never winning more than seven games in one season and never contending for a national title. This included four consecutive losses against Air Force, whom the Irish had never lost to prior to 1982. Despite his mediocre record and growing discontent among Irish fans, Faust was allowed to remain at Notre Dame for the entire duration of his five-year contract.

The highlights of Faust's tenure at Notre Dame included a 1983 Liberty Bowl victory over Boston College and an appearance in the 1984 Aloha Bowl. His 1982 squad defeated Michigan by a score of 23–17 and upset the then top-ranked, Dan Marino-led Pittsburgh Panthers, 31–16. In 1983, the Irish opened the season with a 52–6 win over Purdue while his 1984 team defeated Colorado by a score of 55–14 and posted a 44–7 rout over Penn State.

In exactly half of Notre Dame's losses under Faust, the opposition scored the winning points late in the game. The Fighting Irish lost their last three regular season games in 1982, 1983 and 1985 and their last two games in 1981. Only in 1984 did they finish strongly, winning their last four games after three consecutive home losses; the last time that had happened was in 1956.

Going into the 1985 season, hopes were high that things would turn around. With the team at 5–5 and the program rapidly unraveling after a 10–7 loss to LSU in the tenth game, Faust, who said he would never quit, announced his resignation effective at the end of the season and spared the university from having to fire him. His final game was against a Jimmy Johnson-coached Miami team, a humiliating 58–7 loss at the Orange Bowl. It was one of the worst defeats in school history and the second-highest point total ever given up in one game by the Irish; Army rang up 59 points in 1944 while Wisconsin matched Miami's 58 points in 1904. Faust was succeeded by University of Minnesota head coach Lou Holtz.

In 1986, Faust was hired by the University of Akron after the school fired head coach Jim Dennison. Dennison, who is the Akron career wins leader for football, was forced out by university president, William Muse and athletic director, Dave Adams. Adams and Muse felt that Faust was more prepared to lead the Zips as they transitioned into a I-A institution. Faust struggled to get acclimated to the small budget school, compiling a 25–23–2 in his first five seasons with the Zips. In nine seasons (1986–1994), he achieved a record of 43–53–3. As was the case at Notre Dame, his Zips teams never won more than seven games in one season. Following a 1–10 finish in 1994, he was relieved of his coaching duties and became a fundraiser for the university. Faust's 43 wins placed him 3rd in Akron career wins leaders.

Despite his unsuccessful coaching tenure at Notre Dame, Faust's love for the school never wavered and he regularly attended Irish home football games. He said, "I had only 26 miserable days at Notre Dame; that's when we lost. Other than that, I was the happiest guy in the world. I loved walking on the campus, loved being there, loved being a part of Notre Dame."

On April 4, 1964, Faust married the former Marlene Agruso. They were parents of three children and have six grandchildren. Their son, Steve, is a Notre Dame graduate. Faust lived in Fairlawn, Ohio, a suburb of Akron. He also worked as a motivational speaker.