The Fighting Spirit: A Championship Season at Notre Dame

by Lou Holtz, John Heisler

Notre Dame's head football coach chronicles the events of a season, from recruitment, to the early practices, to the final dramatic games, detailing the intricacies of a successful football program

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction

380 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Louis Leo "Lou" Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is a retired American football coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the University of Arkansas (1977–1983), the University of Minnesota (1984–1985), the University of Notre Dame (1986–1996), and University of South Carolina (1999–2004), compiling a career record of 249–132–7. Holtz's 1988 Notre Dame team went 12–0 with a victory in the Fiesta Bowl and was the consensus national champion. Holtz is the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. Holtz also coached the New York Jets of the NFL during the 1976 season.

Over the years, the slender, bespectacled Holtz has become known for his quick wit and ability to inspire players. In 2005, Holtz joined ESPN as a college football analyst. On May 1, 2008, Holtz was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Holtz is a master motivational speaker and a former analyst for CBS Sports. Lou Holtz and his wife, Beth, are parents to four grown children.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

the book sounds like lou holtz talking into a tape recorder, not necessarily a good thing. This isn't prose that Holtz put down on the page, rather a reporter held up a mini-cassette recorder up to his lips. Repetitive, tedious, and definitely capturing the "voice" of Holtz. It was good to relive the good old days of Notre Dame though.

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

when i was twelve, lou holtz must have seemed a superhero to me. i can still recall the rapture with which i read this book those many years ago, staying up late, school night after school night, eagerly devouring every word i could.

go irish.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished reading this book back in 2007, but I still have a good memory of it. Pretty much this book was driven by former Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Lou Holtz's (1986-1996) recollections of his only National Championship team, his 1988 12-0 Irish squad.

As a teenager and as an adult (I finished the book twice), it was a trip for me to read the details of that 1988 Irish team and how just about every game they played in that year was a battle. Out of the twelve games that team played in '88, only two of the games were blowout victories (42-14 over Stanford and 54-11 over Rice).

Heisler edited the book and Holtz did the writing. They made a good team on this book as the book served as an analysis of a special year in Notre Dame football. But who would have thought that 1988 would be the last time Notre Dame would win a National Championship, seeing how easy it always has been for them to get four and five-star recruiting talent? That's one of college football enduring mysteries.

Read this book if you want to be educated on the last time the Irish won a National Championship, if you're an Irish football fan, or you love college football history.