Nick Eddy obit

Nick Eddy dies at 81: A tribute to the Notre Dame football great, and his greatness after football

 

He was not on the list.

The interview request I sent to former Notre Dame All-American Nick Eddy on Dec. 30 via email was volleyed back Sunday night with a warm but gut-wrenching reply from Eddy’s wife, Jean.

It is with regret to let you know that Nick passed away, from cardiac arrest, 12/31/25.  I read your email to him, and he was honored that you wanted to interview him.

Nick Eddy — born in Dunsmuir, Calif., and raised in Tracy, Calif. —  was 81.

Until Notre Dame junior and 2026 NFL Draft first-round projection Jeremiyah Love last month was named a unanimous All-American, Eddy was the most recent Irish running back to be so honored, in 1966. Like Love, Eddy finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting the year he was named a unanimous All-American.

My hope was to get Eddy’s thoughts on Love and catch up with a man I had last interviewed a little over 20 years ago.

One of the coolest things about covering Irish football is what the 4-for-forever promise that the Notre Dame coaches make to recruits turns into. As my tribute to Eddy, I’m sharing a peek into his life from a chapter of a book I wrote called: Notre Dame: Where Have You Gone?

This snapshot from roughly 20 years ago says a lot about the man Eddy was and his impact on the word beyond football:

From Notre Dame: Where Have You Gone?

The punches came at Nick Eddy in a flurry, but not once did the former Notre Dame All-America halfback think about swinging back or walking away.

That was five years ago during Eddy’s second week on the job as a special education teacher in Modesto, Calif. The challenges have only grown more plentiful and extreme since for the 60-year-old, who, among other things, received death threats from one of his students last year.

“You come to realize you have to pick your battles,” said Eddy, a standout on Notre Dame’s 1966 national championship team who currently teaches at Mark Twain Junior High School in Modesto. “And you also have to realize you’re not going to save every kid. My goal is to help them learn some life skills that will help them better survive in society.”

“Some of these kids have been dealt pretty tough hands — dads in prison, moms strung out on drugs, getting molested by mom’s boyfriend, homelessness. You think, ‘My God, life isn’t supposed to be that difficult when you’re 13, 14 years of age.’

“But then you break through with a kid. You give him confidence. You make him smile. You give him hope. That’s why I’m here.”

Colin Powell, according to Eddy, is also largely responsible for the Tracy, Calif. native’s current vocation. The former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was on a book signing/speaking tour in the late 1990s, when Eddy discovered Powell would be appearing a mere 15-minute drive away at a local college in Turlock, Calif.

Eddy and his wife, Jean, were actually able to arrange a private meeting with Powell. They chatted with him, got their picture taken with him and then decided to stick around and hear him speak. And the message that resonated so powerfully with Eddy, a long-time insurance salesman at the time, was how kids need mentors.

“My wife and I talked about it,” Eddy recalled. “We thought, ‘Gosh, our kids are grown and well on their way into adulthood. At this point, maybe teaching is something I could do.’ We started checking it out.”

Eddy had no idea what subject he wanted to teach or what age group he wanted to work with, but special education never entered his mind. He spent a year as a substitute teacher trying to find those answers. And he attended classes at night so he could start working toward certification.

“One day, a friend of mine, who is a junior high principal, needed some help with a class until he could get someone hired on a permanent basis,” Eddy said. “It was a Special Ed class. That was my first exposure to it.

“They were kids who were behind two grade levels at the very minimum. Most of them were very emotionally immature. I had raised four kids of my own and know the trials and tribulations that kids go through. These trials were just more extreme. I came to realize this is where I could do the most good.”

Since Eddy wasn’t certified until the spring of 2005, job security was always an issue in those early years on the new job. If a certified teacher even applied for his job, he got bumped. So, he bounced around until landing at Mark Twain Junior High in 2004.

“I still have another level of certification I’m just starting work on,” Eddy said. “And that means more night school, but I’m fine with that. I’m not a youngster by any means, but I’ve got a little extra bounce in my step and have lots of energy. I’m just really enjoying it at a time when many of my colleagues are burnt out, tired, and very bitter.”

Most of the students Eddy comes in contact with have no idea who he was before he came into their lives.

“I’ve never been one to wear my uniform around or my letterman’s jacket or toot my horn that much,” Eddy said. “That’s just how I am.”

The only clue to his past comes from the national championship ring he wears. That doesn’t mean the memories aren’t vivid and treasured.

“Timing is so much in life,” said Eddy, who was recruited by one of Notre Dame’s least successful coaches, Joe Kuharich. After Kuharich abruptly resigned weeks after the signing period, Eddy ended up spending his freshman season (1963) under interim coach Hugh Devore, though freshmen were ineligible to play varsity ball during that era.

He then spent three seasons under legendary coach Ara Parseghian, which included the 1966 title and a near miss at a national championship in 1964.

“To be there when Ara Parseghian came in and kind of lit the fire and put the glare back on the Dome was probably the biggest thrill of all during my time at Notre Dame,” Eddy said. “The fact that we did win the championship was probably icing on the cake.”

Eddy was the leading rusher for the Irish in both 1965 (582 yards) and 1966 (553). He was a unanimous All-America selection in ’66 and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting, behind Florida quarterback Steve Spurrier and Purdue signal-caller Bob Griese.

However, he didn’t get a chance to play in the biggest game of the Irish 1966 national title run — No. 1 Notre Dame’s 10-10 standoff with No. 2 Michigan State, perhaps the most famous game in sports in the last [60] years.

Eddy had suffered a shoulder injury a couple of weeks earlier in a 38-0 rout of Pittsburgh, and reinjured it the next week against Duke.

“It felt like an electric shock going down my neck, shoulder and arm,” Eddy recalled. “So they held me out of contact the next week in practice. Still somebody ran into me and aggravated it.”

Eddy took a shot of cortisone the night before the team left for East Lansing, Mich. His prospects for playing looked good until he went to get off the train. He slipped on a metal step, grabbed the rail and tore up the shoulder all over again.

“It was all muscular, so there was no danger of doing any permanent damage,” Eddy said. “But the area of damage was so large, and they had to shoot me up so much, my face went numb and I couldn’t move my arms in warmups. So, it was decided I couldn’t play.”

“That was one of the first games that was ever nationally televised. If I could have played in that game and had a decent game, I might have had a shot of winning the Heisman. Those are the types of things you look back on and ask, ‘What if?’ But it certainly didn’t take away from the Notre Dame experience.”

Nor did it dissuade the Detroit Lions of the NFL and the Denver Broncos of the AFL from making Eddy a second-round pick. He ended up playing five seasons for the Lions before moving into the business world in sales.

Eventually, he and his wife got tired of shoveling snow and moved with their four children from Michigan to California. That was in 1979, and Eddy moved out of selling class rings, plaques and awards and into the insurance business.

“You know what’s funny, I never go back to the Detroit Lions reunions,” he said. “But I do go back to Notre Dame’s. We seem to migrate together. We realize we had a unique experience that bonded us for life. As the years go by, you realize that bond—the fact that we care for each other, we’re all good friends—was the secret ingredient of why we were successful.”

Success requires a different formula for Eddy these days. Patience is the main ingredient.

Patience with the kids. Patience with himself. Patience with a system that has plenty of flaws.

“One of the most important things I’ve learned is that the system lets a lot of kids — I don’t want to say fall through the cracks — but I think a lot of kids were not steered into programs that were best suited for their needs at the time, in the lower grades,” Eddy said.

“There are also a number of kids who you think, ‘What is he doing in my class?’ I don’t want to use the term misdiagnose, because of the litigious society in which we live, but they have the abilities to move back to the conventional classrooms.

“But no matter why they’re here, my job is to help. The young man who took the swings at me wasn’t mad at me. He was mad at the world. And given his circumstances, how could he not be? But there’s something special about each one of these kids. Everyone has a chance. Everyone has hope. Everyone has worth. And it’s my job to help them see that.”

Career information

High school     Tracy (Tracy, California)

College            Notre Dame (1963-1966)

NFL draft        1966: 2nd round, 24th overall pick

AFL draft        1966: Red Shirt 1st round, 3rd overall pick

Career history

Detroit Lions (1966–1972)

Awards and highlights

2× National champion (1964, 1966)

Unanimous All-American (1966)