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Ara: The Life and Legacy of a Notre Dame Legend
The authorized biography of Coach Ara Parseghian
Ara: The Life and Legacy of a Notre Dame Legend captures the personality, courage, and character of a great man who faced adversity on and off the field.
Through his unprecedented access to Ara Parseghian’s personal files, author Mark O. Hubbard explores the coach’s innovative philosophy, organization, strategy, tactics, and motivational techniques with details to satisfy even the most knowledgeable football aficionado.
Hubbard chronicles Ara’s childhood and Catholic upbringing, his success as a football player, and the development of his coaching credentials at Miami of Ohio and Northwestern before delving into his sensational career at the University of Notre Dame.
From the moment Ara arrived on campus, the student body and the players were electrified, and Ara’s first season concluded with a dramatic reversal of the Fighting Irish’s fortunes as they competed for the national title. The Hall of Famer remains one of the most successful football coaches in Notre Dame history, amassing a career record of 95-17-4 and leading the Fighting Irish to undisputed national championships in 1966 and 1973.
After retiring from coaching, Ara became a successful businessman and television commentator, but his finest hours were spent in humanitarian causes, raising millions of dollars for medical research after members of his family were stricken with multiple sclerosis and Niemann-Pick Type C.
Peppered with historical context and humor, this lively biography of a Notre Dame legend will delight all sports fans, providing a chance to revisit college football’s golden age.
Ara: The Life and Legacy of a Notre Dame Legend captures the personality, courage, and character of a great man who faced adversity on and off the field.
Through his unprecedented access to Ara Parseghian’s personal files, author Mark O. Hubbard explores the coach’s innovative philosophy, organization, strategy, tactics, and motivational techniques with details to satisfy even the most knowledgeable football aficionado.
Hubbard chronicles Ara’s childhood and Catholic upbringing, his success as a football player, and the development of his coaching credentials at Miami of Ohio and Northwestern before delving into his sensational career at the University of Notre Dame.
From the moment Ara arrived on campus, the student body and the players were electrified, and Ara’s first season concluded with a dramatic reversal of the Fighting Irish’s fortunes as they competed for the national title. The Hall of Famer remains one of the most successful football coaches in Notre Dame history, amassing a career record of 95-17-4 and leading the Fighting Irish to undisputed national championships in 1966 and 1973.
After retiring from coaching, Ara became a successful businessman and television commentator, but his finest hours were spent in humanitarian causes, raising millions of dollars for medical research after members of his family were stricken with multiple sclerosis and Niemann-Pick Type C.
Peppered with historical context and humor, this lively biography of a Notre Dame legend will delight all sports fans, providing a chance to revisit college football’s golden age.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 2, 2024
I was drawn to this book because of Ara's Armenian heritage. I’m not really a football person and know basically nothing about American football. I can see how this book would appeal to readers who follow college/university football. The majority of it is about how Ara coached, how he got introduced to coaching, the well-known games, the plays he came up with, and the team stats. I’m not a football fan so I lost interest in these sections and skimmed a lot of it. The parts about his family life and background were more interesting to me. It was nice to see the little snippets of Ara’s prankster side too.
The chapter about Ara’s dad’s story and his path to coming to America was what was most interesting to me as it reminded me of stories I’ve heard of my great-grandparents, how they (and some of their family) escaped the genocide, and the aftermath of the escape. The section about the Vietnam War was unexpected. Although I understand it was part of Ara’s life and his players, I found it jarring to go from reading about football to reading about a war.
Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for sending me a digital ARC of this book. Thank you to the author for choosing to write about coach Ara Parseghian, his life, and his accomplishments. And thank you to Publisher’s Weekly for hosting the grab-a-galley event.
The chapter about Ara’s dad’s story and his path to coming to America was what was most interesting to me as it reminded me of stories I’ve heard of my great-grandparents, how they (and some of their family) escaped the genocide, and the aftermath of the escape. The section about the Vietnam War was unexpected. Although I understand it was part of Ara’s life and his players, I found it jarring to go from reading about football to reading about a war.
Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for sending me a digital ARC of this book. Thank you to the author for choosing to write about coach Ara Parseghian, his life, and his accomplishments. And thank you to Publisher’s Weekly for hosting the grab-a-galley event.
October 16, 2024
Ara is a concise, authorized biography of Ara Parseghian, legendary Notre Dame football coach from 1964 to 1975. Biographer Mark Hubbard and former South Bend Tribune Sportswriter had full access to Parseghian’s personal and family archives and the archives at Notre Dame.
Worth reading for the story of Parseghian’s organized and disciplined approach to football turned around a program which was in decline for 10 years after the 1954 departure of coach Frank Leahy. Parseghian literally came out of the Ohio cradle of coaches having played pro football under Paul Brown and coaching under and taking over head coach responsibilities from Woody Hayes at Miami of Ohio.
Parseghian’s coaching strategy was influenced by Hayes with a run centered offense and strong defense that focused on maintaining possession of the ball and favorable position on the field while wearing down an opponent. Ara’s teams would frequently average 80 offensive plays per game. He also brought innovation to the game as one of the first coaches to use a play card on the sidelines with teams that were tightly drilled on play options. The NCAA banned coaches signaling in plays, Ara found a subtle way to signal in plays based on his body positioning and position of his hands on his Notre Dame pullover he always wore on the sideline.
It was a time of change in college football the Notre Dame team travelled by train in 1966 from South Bend to East Lansing for the 1966 “Game of the Century” against MSU that determined the National Championship. This is the last time ND travelled by train to a game. It was a period where ND did not play in season ending bowl games. A policy which ND reversed in 1970 under Parseghian, ND President Fr Ted Hesburgh and ND Business Manager Fr Edmund Joyce.
A good read, but I docked it a point for some errors that could have been caught in fact checking. Ara’s golf partner and former baseball player Hawk Harrelson was never an announcer for the Chicago Cubs. His announcing career was for the White Sox. When Amos Alonzo Stagg coached the original Monsters of the Midway at the University of Chicago he lived in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park not the west suburb of Oak Park.
Overall, Hubbard lays out an argument that Ara set the course for over 50 years of football excellence at Notre Dame, granted there have been some low spots since.
Worth reading for the story of Parseghian’s organized and disciplined approach to football turned around a program which was in decline for 10 years after the 1954 departure of coach Frank Leahy. Parseghian literally came out of the Ohio cradle of coaches having played pro football under Paul Brown and coaching under and taking over head coach responsibilities from Woody Hayes at Miami of Ohio.
Parseghian’s coaching strategy was influenced by Hayes with a run centered offense and strong defense that focused on maintaining possession of the ball and favorable position on the field while wearing down an opponent. Ara’s teams would frequently average 80 offensive plays per game. He also brought innovation to the game as one of the first coaches to use a play card on the sidelines with teams that were tightly drilled on play options. The NCAA banned coaches signaling in plays, Ara found a subtle way to signal in plays based on his body positioning and position of his hands on his Notre Dame pullover he always wore on the sideline.
It was a time of change in college football the Notre Dame team travelled by train in 1966 from South Bend to East Lansing for the 1966 “Game of the Century” against MSU that determined the National Championship. This is the last time ND travelled by train to a game. It was a period where ND did not play in season ending bowl games. A policy which ND reversed in 1970 under Parseghian, ND President Fr Ted Hesburgh and ND Business Manager Fr Edmund Joyce.
A good read, but I docked it a point for some errors that could have been caught in fact checking. Ara’s golf partner and former baseball player Hawk Harrelson was never an announcer for the Chicago Cubs. His announcing career was for the White Sox. When Amos Alonzo Stagg coached the original Monsters of the Midway at the University of Chicago he lived in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park not the west suburb of Oak Park.
Overall, Hubbard lays out an argument that Ara set the course for over 50 years of football excellence at Notre Dame, granted there have been some low spots since.
August 19, 2025
This book had its moments but lacked consistency. The author incorporated too many letters, documents, and other transcripts into their writing. If you're not a big fan of Notre Dame, pass on this one.
July 10, 2024
My review of this book will appear later this summer in Illinois Times.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews